Check my birding map for specific location.
Santa Teresa Road runs past the airport south-east of Alice Springs. The seal runs out and the track becomes a little rough but passable. It is a nondescript place that even the local residents don't really visit unless they are travelling to the settlement of Santa Teresa itself about 75km from Alice Springs itself.
For a birder though, the place is fantastic. Flat grasslands (with red sand underneath as seen in the Google Earth image above) run to the horizon with occasional slopes and lots and lots of rocks. The first thing you notice is large flocks of Budgerigars. The biggest I saw was around 500 birds. Something very special about that.
I stopped in places where I saw bird activity and parked my van up to explore. It was very cold on the morning I was there so I wasn't surprised to not see anyone else around. The birds were still quite skittish and it was challenging to get close to them. There were also birds I didn't recognise and birds I had never seen before at all. Worth braving the cold for.
The first bird I saw was a Chiming Wedgebill. It disappeared as soon as I got out the van although I did hear the fabulous call for a while. Then Mulga Parrots landed next to me and were feeding on the ground. I sat, watched and shot. Difficult conditions in the cold and gloomy light but I didn't care too much.
Female and Male Mulga Parrot (Psephotus varius)
I could hear the Crested Bellbird from behind me and when the parrots left, I looked for it. These birds should be photogenic but always seem to look a little grubby. There were several birds calling to each other and it was great to film one. Their call is just wonderful.
Crested Bellbird (Oreoica gurruralis)
As I drove along the road I saw small birds with a flash on their tails flying along and across the roads. It took me sometime to figure out they were Crimson Chats and Southern Whiteface. It took even longer for me to get close enough to photograph them and then I only got a good shot of the chat.
Crimson Chat (Epithianura tricolor)
As I sat in the van having a cup of tea I could hear a call I didn't know which is always exciting. It was a sort of double electronic buzz and I raced out to find the owner. Turned out to be a Red-capped Robin. I found several females and while the male is more attractive, I thought these girls were super cute.
Female Red-capped Robin (Petroica goodenovii)
The birds that made the most noise were the varied Sittella. I have seen grey morphs before but these black and white birds were stunning. They were very shy and I only managed to get shots of them when they flew in to a tree close to me rather than me approaching them.
Varied Sittella (Daphoenositta chrysoptera)
It really was the morning for small bush birds as I heard thornbills and fairywrens calling close by. I saw the White-winged Fairywren but wasn't able to photograph them. Not too shabby to settle for this Splendid Fairywren.
Splendid Fairywren (Malurus spendens)
The other bird flitting about was the Inland Thornbill. They may look like rather dull, grey birds but I think if you can get close to them and look really carefully they are beautiful and interesting.
Inland Thornbill (Acanthiza apicalis)
I returned to Santa Teresa Road a few days later with the lovely Tanya who had escorted me to the Treatment Plant earlier in my stay here at Alice Springs. She had and idea where we might find Banded Whiteface and so we set off to look for a semi-circular track off the main road. We were both unsure we would spot it but we did and immediately on pulling in, we saw small birds on the ground. 1, 2, 3 were Zebra Finch but there as well was a single Banded Whiteface. It looked marked different to the Southern Whiteface but I am still unsure as to exactly why. Not to worry, it was another lifer and a very attractive bird.
Banded Whiteface (Aphelocephala nigricincta)
Further down the road we stopped at the famous Tyre in the Pole area and wandered in amongst the grasses. We heard a quiet but distinctive double beep and immediately started searching for the Spinifexbird. We played the song on my phone and it popped straight up, posing beautifully for us. As we got close it moved off and we tried once more with the app and got it again, legs splayed between grasses. Not prone to torturing birds with recorded songs, we let it go about its business.
Spinifexbird (Poodytes carteri)
On the way back to the car, Tanya spotted a Central Netted Dragon. We stopped and watched it for a while as it tried to decide how dangerous we were. It was right in front of its burrow which made for some great photos and very kindly it climbed some grass for us instead of diving into it.
Central Netted Dragon (Ctenophorus nuchalis)
After a fruitless search for Rufous-crowned Emu-wren, we drove back and along the way passed numerous (we estimate between 10 and 15) Bearded Dragons. Usually, as we screeched to halt, reversed or turned around, they would disappear but a couple of times we were able to get closer. The dragon below was in a small, dead tree and caught my eye as it was bright orange. We managed to get out of the car before it scarpered and started to approach it. Before our very eyes it changed colour. First to a brown and then darker to almost black. All in less than a minute. It was remarkable. I have never seen anything like it. We got to within touching distance of it, but of course we didn't. We continued to see more dragons in the road, the verge and on rocks soaking up the sun. It is definitely getting warmer in Alice Springs.
Central Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps)
This is the same animal, photographs taken less than 1 minute apart.
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