Emu crossing the Pinnacles Desert. I'm not sure how these birds manage to survive out here but they do and often in much harsher conditions than this. Emus are all across Australia, only really absent from heavily forested regions.
This looks like a young bird to me.
Nobody seems quite sure how the pinnacles formed.
I'm not quite sure how to describe this, it's certainly not a pinnacle because they are made from limestone. This appears to be a sandy outcrop in the middle of a desert. The sand underfoot is very fine and loose, where as this and others like it across the site are almost solid blocks of sand. Not quite solid though because you can see the holes in the side.
In fact the holes are the nest holes of white-backed swallows. I guess it shows how few other sites there are for this species that this bird chooses to nest about 1.5m off the ground in the middle of one of the busiest tourist destinations in Western Australia.
A couple of fly pasts to check us out and then the bird just flies past us into it's hole.
Clearly feeding young because apart from regular returns to the hole, when the birds left they were often carrying fecal sacs from the nest.
Galah, one of the commonest birds over large parts of Australia.
Perentie lizard. We also saw a bobtail skink, also known as sleepy lizard.
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