Black Kites, Brown Falcons, Australian Hobbies, a Southern Boobook and a Black- breasted Buzzard. 'What are they?' you might be thinking.

Well, these are just some of the amazing animals I get to work with on a daily basis here in our Nature Theatre at the Alice Springs Desert Park, Alice Springs, Australia.

The town of Alice Springs is located smack bang in the middle of Australia, and the country surrounding Alice, from the ancient gorges of the MacDonnell Ranges to the wind blown sprawling deserts in between, is like no other.

Rugged steep canyon walls tower above ghost gums and dry river beds all of which are homes to animals such as the elusive Rock Wallaby, the Ring-tailed Dragon and Nankeen Kestrel. Between gaps and gorges red sands stretch like oceans supporting spiky Spinifex grass and host the highest diversity of the best adapted desert animals in the world — the reptiles.

And here in this sprawling, arid country live animals that can be found nowhere else in the world; animals that I had never heard of before I arrived here; animals that I am fortunate enough to work with every day. Rock wallabies watching the sunset at Redbank Gorge, I arrived in Alice Springs in November of 2006.

In Bermuda I had had the pleasure of working as a dolphin trainer, and as an elementary school teacher, but after discovering that the Alice Springs Desert Park was looking for an animal trainer/ presenter, I jumped at the unique opportunity. Before I knew it I was on a plane heading far away from my little island home, back to the town of Alice Springs, a place I had backpacked through six years earlier!

Alice Springs, a town of 27,000 was established by explorer John Stewart in 1888 and is Australia's best-known outback town. The town is located on the Todd River. Now the odd thing about the Todd River is that there is normally no water in it, as in it is normally dry. They say if you see the Todd River flow three times, you're a local. Well I definitely arrived in Alice at the right time because in 2007 I saw the Todd flow no less than six times and one of those flows was the greatest seen in 25 years.

What normally marks the Todd River is a wide stretch of sand dotted and bordered by eucalypt trees. When I arrived in Alice, I would walk along the long stretches of sand wondering how on earth enough rain could fall, ever, to fill a river bed such as this. The dusty, parched sand stretched for miles with no indication that water had ever touched it.

But then in January of 2007 the rains came and a frothing fury of water plunged down the Todd, so that it overflowed its banks and carried down it cars and cans and anything else that stood in its way.

That day, hundreds gathered by its banks and sat and watched and wondered. Over a year has passed already since the river last flowed and it has once again returned to its dry and dusty state.

The Alice Springs Desert Park, lying a few kilometres from the Todd River, is a bio park, displaying the huge diversity of fauna and flora that is native or endemic to the Alice Springs area. If I were to name some of the 130-plus species of animals that can be found at the Desert Park, you would think you're reading a foreign language. Animals like Knob-tailed Geckoes, Spectacle Hare-wallabies, Echidnas, Red-tailed Phoscogales, Curlews and Golden-backed Honeyeaters. These are just some of the reptile, bird and mammal species you can discover as you wander through the winding park paths.

But I don't work with reptiles and mammals. I work with birds of prey, the hunters of the sky. Birds of prey and a brush tail possum, two crazy magpies, two dingoes, three goofy galahs and a Perentie (Australia's largest monitor), who gets larger, it seems, every day.

At Nature Theatre I am part of a team of four who train animals for free flight presentations before an audience of up to 260 people. There are many places around the world that free fly birds of prey, but what we do is unique. Guests of the Nature Theatre will not be able to tell which birds of prey are wild, and have decided to swing by for the show, and which are part of our collection.

This is because our birds do not fly with jesses or any kind of tracking device. As the birds of prey soar, stoop and feed, we educate the guests about their behaviour and hopefully guests leave with the skills to help them to identify and observe some of the bird of prey species they may be fortunate enough to encounter their travels.

I love doing the shows and presenting the animals to the public, but it's the animals themselves and their crazy ways that make my job so much fun. For example, in our collection we've got a young Southern Boobook owl. The Southern Boobook is Australia's smallest owl.

This little fellow came to us from Wildcare a year ago. He had fledged too early and would have been unable to survive in the wild, and so the once nervous little owlet has now become a much loved fixture here at Nature Theatre. He has his own well furnished aviary but basically has the run of the place and tends to spend most of his time with us in our office, often landing on our coffee cups or prancing back and forth across our chair while we work at the computer. At only 220 grams he would be an easy meal for our Southern Boobook owl and his neighbours, the birds of prey, but he seems to think he's the boss of Nature Theatre.

It's impossible to not be in the It is impossible not to be in the best of spirits with the Boobook in the house!

Then there's Heydon, the brown falcon, who also came to us from Wildcare. He had been found starving on the side of the road so unfortunately has a bit of a reputation for being 'useless.' Brown falcons, like all birds of prey, are formidable predators. All birds of prey have features and adaptations to help them hunt successfully. While some falcons such as the peregrine falcon and Australian hobby are bird hunters, brown falcons are reptile hunters and a better reptile hunter you won't find.

Brown falcons will spend hours sitting up in a tree watching the ground for movement and when they see movement, they will fly on down and hopefully snatch themselves a meal. As you can see from the photo, they have great long legs that allow them to run after reptiles should they miss on the first pounce. Long legs and short toes so that they can stick their talons into the sides of slender reptiles such as western brown snakes or rock skinks.

I've had the pleasure of working with many species of animals, but Heydon is one of favourites. When he was brought into Nature Theatre in December 2006 I had only been working with birds of prey for two months. When I first laid eyes on this completely wild and aggressive brown falcon he made it pretty clear that he didn't want to have anything much to do with any one. I couldn't believe that it would be possible to build relationship with such a wild animal. But six months later, after spending hours and hours in his company, a bond was built and the once wild brown falcon now flies freely, returning to my glove on a whistle.

I mentioned the term "jesses" earlier. Traditional falconry uses equipment that dates back 4,000 years. When birds of prey are to be handled, anklets — soft leather straps are put around their legs. Jesses are then leather straps that can then be attached to the anklets. When a bird of prey is getting used to a new handler, the handler can then hold onto these jesses to keep the bird from flying off the glove and damaging himself. As you can see from the photograph, Heydon wears neither anklets nor jesses. Our relationship is such that he remains on the glove until told to do so.

Another animal in our collection is a Black-breasted Buzzard. Black-breasted Buzzards are nest robbers but are also one of the few birds in this world capable of tool use.

Why would a bird of prey need a tool? To break into one of the largest bird eggs in the world: the egg of the Emu. When a Black-breasted Buzzard discovers a nest of Emu eggs, he will search for the nearest rock, carry it in his beak over to an egg, and repeatedly toss the rock onto the egg until the egg breaks. The use of tools amongst birds is rare indeed and aside from the Black-breasted Buzzard, the only other bird of prey in the entire world to do this behaviour is Africa's Egyptian Vulture.

Our Black-breasted Buzzard shown on the previous page is not yet three years of age. By the time he is five years of age he will have his adult colouring and will have a pitch black chest and black crown on the top of his head.

During the cooler months, when I am not working (or spending time at the park photographing reptiles and birds on my days off), I spend my time exploring the gaps and canyons around Alice Springs. During the summer months, which seem to stretch on and on, one spends as little time outside as possible. With day-time temperatures breaking 40 degrees day after day, much needed energy seems to evaporate in the dryness of the desert air and days are spent, more often than not, indoors. But come May, day-time temperatures will only touch the 20s, perfect weather for hiking and exploring. And so days are spent wondering through trails marked in an ancient land.

I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to work at the Alice Springs Desert Park here in the heart of Australia. In fact, when I think about it, at this point in my life, there is no place I'd rather be.