Thursday, 9 July 2015

NT Road Trip 2015: Part 25: Through the Tanami Desert

Lajamanu to Newhaven

The road from Lajamanu heads south into the Tanami Desert for 200 km where it meets the Tanami Road which runs from Alice Springs to Halls Creek. The Tanami Desert is very floral. There is plenty of vegetation with lots of grevilleas and eucs in flower.



The road is pretty good really. The only thing that stops traffic is rain. It is straight.

Lajamanu - Tanami Mine Road

Tanami Road junction

The only notable bird that I managed to photograph was this lovely light morph Brown Falcon. We did see quite a few of them plus Little Eagle [not Black-breasted Buzzard - thank you JH for the improved ID], Whistling Kites and, at the junction of the two roads, a Spotted Harrier. I also thought I had spotted a Letter-winged Kite [it is their favourite part of Australia] but subsequent examination of the images showed it to be a Black-shouldered Kite at 150 metres. Ah well. A reason to go back.

Brown Falcon Falco berigora light morph.
not Black-breasted Buzzard Hamirostra melanosternon as I first thought but
Little Eagle Hieraaetus morphnoides. This looks like a first year bird.
BBB would have mostly dark underwings with prominent white "bull's eyes".
Images coming soon.
Spotted Harrier Circus assimilis
So obviously NOT a Letter-winged Kite. I don't know what I was thinking.
Black-shouldered Kite Elanus axillaris
Our camp for the night was at Renahan's Bore about 150 km north of Yuendumu. We did about 450 kms for the day.

Camp at Renahan's Bore
Tea -- bush coconut
Spectacular sunset

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