Dusty dry whets some appetites

Teasing overnight showers lately hint at end of drought, but not all creatures dislike life amid dust and sere grasses. Dozens of  Horsfield's Bushlark (Mirafra javanica, above) compete with scores of Pipits for small prey at Mungalla Station these days.

Less common, and about two metres up the pasture gradient from the hymenachne bottoms, Brown Songlark (Cincloramphus cruralis) brings its metallic scissory trilling to tussocks and scrawny weeds.

Even Crimson Finch (Neochmia phaeton) hunts for seedy titbits lying in the sand.

End of the seepage for eastern fork of Palm Creek: cattle in far distance are standing on vehicle track above culvert (dry for many weeks). When the rains come (maybe mid-January) the waters should over the left foreground and in all about 500ha of mostly hymenachne low ground (stretching eastsoutheast, behind camera point-of-view).