Trip Report-Top End and Kununurra

[scouler <>]

John Duranti, Bob Way, Bruce Cox and I  had a birding trip to the
Top End of the Northern Territory and the Kununurra-Wyndham region of Western
Australia  in the third week of August,2000. It was even more successful
in birding terms than our trip to Central Australia last year and hugely
enjoyable. We flew into Darwin on 11 August, birded in and around Darwin
until 13 August,drove to Kakadu and camped at Jabiru and Gunlom, then drove
to Western Australia on the Victoria Highway camping at Timber Creek on
the way and spending two nights at Kununurra before returning to Darwin.
John and Bob flew home on 20 August while Bruce and I stayed on in Darwin
another two days We hired a 2WD vehicle in Darwin and did most of our travelling
(a total of about 3250 km) on sealed roads.

Our joint birding total as a foursome was 190 species, and Bruce and I added 4 more after the others left. We each got a swag of lifers, far more than we expected.

Highlights and Comments

Our good fortune began in Darwin on the secound morning. We were on the sand spit on the western side of the mouth of Buffalo Creek when Bob spotted a Little Kingfisher ( a new bird for him) in the mangroves on the other side of the creek. Bruce was using a scope to follow a Shining Flycatcher which was flitting about near the Kingfisher, and couldn't believe his luck when a Chestnut Rail walked into the field of view picking its way amongst the mangrove roots.

The undoubted highlights for me were superlative views of a group of 6 or 7 White-throated Grasswrens on the top of the rocky escarpment at Gunlom - an unforgettable sight.

Almost as good were views of Purple-crowned Fairywrens along the road to the boat ramp about 1 km west of the Victoria River Roadhouse.

We got distant views (from at least 300 m) of Yellow Chats on the southern shore of Lake Argyle while on a Lake Argyle Cruise. I cannot recommend the Lake Argyle Cruise highly enough. The operator, Steve Sharpe, is thoroughly professional and the cruise is an exhilarating experience for birders and non-birders alike. He went to a good deal of trouble to make sure we saw the YCs. From time to time Steve runs special birdwatchers' cruises, during which the passengers disembark and can get much closer views of birds like the chats.

Our "purple patch" occurred on the walk around the base of Nourlangie Rock in Kakadu. In the course of about an hour, we had excellent views of Banded Fruit-dove, White-lined Honeyeater, Sandstone Shrike-thrush and Black-tailed Tree-creeper.

We found about 25 Hooded Parrots feeding on the lower slopes of the hill leading up to the lookout in the township of Pine Creek (Special thanks to Stephen Mugford for the tip off as to this location.) We also had good views of a small flock of HPs coming in to drink at the Thomas and Thomas site on Chinaman's Creek near Katherine.

A pleasant surprise was the amount of success we had with mangrove birds. We thought that we would probably struggle with some if not all of them. In fact, we had good sightings of the male Mangrove Golden Whistler at the Adelaide River Crossing on the Arnhem Highway. and the male White-breasted Whistler and Mangrove Grey Fantail in the mangroves behind the wharf at Wyndham. The only one we missed was the Mangrove Robin

Conversely, finches turned out to be harder to find than expected. We were told that the last wet season had been unusually prolonged, which meant that the finches had far more watering points to choose from. We did see reasonable numbers of finches, including Yellow-rumped Mannikins, in the irrigation area at Kununurra. But the Pictorella Mannikin eluded us entirely, and as for Gouldians coming in to drink from sprinklers - not this year, it seems.

Thanks to all the birders who gave us help, both before the trip and along the way.

A complete bird list will be available shortly  for anyone interested.

Regards,
Colin Scouler
 .
 
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