The extreme heat brought a lot of birds in to the water troughs. It also killed some budgies that simply fell out of the tree dead, so I set up an extra water bath in our yard for the smaller birds, on the ground in the shade under the tree.
I was rewarded by seeing loads of birds come in to have a bath and drink, including Pied Butcher Birds, beautiful Blue Breasted Fairy-wrens (or Variegated Fairy-wrens, not sure), budgies, honeyeaters, Magpie Larks, and I even saw the local Brown Goshawk just standing in the middle of the bath!
The outside tall water trough was constantly in use by the regulars - tall Emus, Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, Mulga Parrots, Ringnecks, Galahs, Crested Pigeons, honeyeaters, goshawks, Zebra Finches and Black-faced Cuckoo Shrikes.
During our stay we took the opportunity to drive up to Hamelin Reserve to have lunch with Reserve Managers Ken and Michelle Judd. It was great to catch up with them, hear all their news and plans, and see all the fantastic work they continue to do on reserve.