Attack Creek Rest Stop

Visited: late dry season

Recommendation: Rest areas often provide great birding, especially those with water tanks on site. Attack Creek was surrounded by grass and low scrub, which gave cover to a myriad of species. While you can't really predict what might be present at different times of the year, it is always worth checking out this rest area.

If you're travelling along the Stuart Highway and want to stretch your legs then Attack Creek is a good place to stop. The site is a wayside stop that pays homage to explorer John McDouall Stuart. Attack Creek commemorates where Stuart turned back from his 1860 expedition to cross Australia after a hostile encounter with Warumungu Aboriginal people.

While it looks like a rather dull and uninteresting rest area, I found it to be a great place to see birds, and the sunset wasn't bad either!

First sightings were of raptors circling in the late afternoon sky. I couldn't identify them all but Black Kite and Black-shouldered Kite were present. Both were diving in search of food. I did see a couple of small and medium sized lizards scurrying around.

Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris)

I always love listening to the delicious call of bee-eaters and there were numerous birds swooping and soaring inbetween chattering to each other. They were also landing on the ground around my campervan to tenderize their food on the rocks. This also helps remove any venom or stingers from the insects. Their plumage looked stunning as they sat in small groups in the sunshine.

While it may seem counterintuitive, their bright colors can actually help them blend in with the dappled light and shadows of their preferred habitats, such as open woodlands and grasslands. This was certainly the case here. When the birds were on the ground in the shade, they became hard to see and when they were perched in the bushes, they looked vivid one moment and blended in the next!

Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus)

The presence of the bee-eaters and several Diamond Doves meant that there must be water close by but I never saw any. These lovely doves are one of the smallest species in the world, barely larger than a finch. Males have a bluish-grey head, neck, and breast, while females are generally browner.

Diamond Dove (Geopelia cuneata)

The low level bare branches of the small trees and largish shrubs also played host to woodswallow and triller. In the late afternoon and early morning, everybody was out looking for food. Woodswallows swooped and trillers trilled. I was just sitting in the doorway of my campervan, watching it all unfold.

White-breasted Woodswallow (Artamus leucorynchus)

White-winged Triller (Lalage tricolor)

Not immediately visible were the fairywren that I could hear in the bushes. Probably hiding from the raptors, these lovely little birds were still chattering away. Glimpses of them bouncing around led to a young male moulting into his adult colours sitting up for a moment.

Purple-backed Fairywren (Malurus assimilis)