Nallan Station and Bourke’s Parrot!

It was a real financial risk renting a vehicle for several days to drive to Nallan Station to search for Bourke’s Parrot.  I was to drive several hundred kilometers without even knowing for sure I would see this terrific little parrot.  Once I settled in at Nallan I was assured by a relative of the station owners that he had not only seen but filmed Bourkies as well!  Paranoid I would sleep in, I was up at 3:30AM the next morning and went roaring off down the dirt track.  

I couldn’t believe how early the Bourke’s arrived for water.  The sun wasn’t even on the horizon and other species like singing honeyeater were sleepily giving their first songs of the day.  Meanwhile the Bourkies were skittering around on the ground in the dim light near the trough.   Fortunately they stayed around long enough for the light to improve enough for filming.    Their colors were so subtle beneath but extremely well camouflaged above. I was so overjoyed to spend time with the Bourke’s after missing them everywhere else.  What a beautiful little parrot!  

En-route to Nallan I came across this family of Emus.  Its a good thing that this male has a lot of chicks to mentor as sadly some of them don’t make it while crossing the highways.  

I understand how station owners might not exactly be thrilled with the big birds as I came across areas of barbed wire that had been rammed into so hard that there were big clumps of feathers left blowing in the wind.