A NIGHT AT LITTLE DESERT

After learning that birders had previously seen barn owls in the Little Desert area, my family and I decided to travel there for a night.
We arrived at Little Desert Nature Lodge at around 6 pm. On inquiry, we found out that some of the staff had also seen the owls. We decided to look for them on the way to get dinner, not really thinking that we'd be lucky enough to find anything. About 6 kilometres from the lodge, I spotted the characteristic ghostly white form of a barn owl hunting over a paddock. Over the rest of the night we viewed many of the birds close up from our car, as well as spotting 2 tawny frogmouths and a swift Australian owlet-nightjar crossing the road.

Despite the many barn owls we encountered, I was still only able to get this photo

This tawny frogmouth stood still and allowed us to take plenty of pictures

The next morning we walked the Nature Trail of the Little Desert Lodge. The bush was alive with birds. Commoner species such as New Holland honeyeaters, red wattlebirds, laughing kookaburras and yellow-rumped thornbills were seen, along with white-throated treecreepers, scarlet robins and 2 lifers: weebills and yellow-plumed honeyeaters. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a good picture of the weebills, though I managed a distant shot of a honeyeater. Many Western grey kangaroos were present as well. Finally, we got a look at the lodge's resident emu, George.

This yellow-plumed honeyeater stood still just long enough for me to photograph it

In contrast, the multitude of yellow-rumped thornbills allowed far better photography

George the emu's booming call could be heard throughout our walk

Western grey kangaroos are, to my knowledge, the only kangaroos in Little Desert

It was a great trip and I hope to visit Little Desert again.