Dear Birders,
I have just returned from a 16 Day camping trip the Kimberley with George Swann
of Kimberley Birdwatching. It was an absolutely fabulous trip, magnificent
countryside, great birding, wonderful food, very comfortable camping in
secluded campsites (often known only to George!) great botanical knowledge and
great art sites. We swam every day in crystal clear rivers and pools and gazed
up at the stars from our tents each evening.
We were a party of 4 of whom I was the only obsessed birder but one other
member of the party is a somewhat obsessed botanist. Our respective wives are
really quite normal! I had a small number of target species and sub-species -
Black Grass-wren, Chestnut Backed Button-quail, Spotted Nightjar ( a bogey bird
that had transmuted itself into a Notted Spightjar in my mind), Northern race
of Shrike Tit, yellow faced race of Partridge Pigeon, and the rogersi race of
Variegated Fairy-wren. All were seen as described below. I also tried for the
Eurasian Curlew that had been seen in Broome but without luck.
Our route took us from Broome to the Mitchell Plateau and return via the AWC
property Mornington. I saw exactly 200 species with another 2 heard but not
seen.
Black Grass-wren
We first saw BGW at the usual spot at the end of the rocky shelf on the true
right bank of Little Merton Falls on the Mitchell Plateau. I was thrilled to
have a 5 minute of a party of 1 male and 2 females as they moved from left to
right about 3 m below where we were sitting on a large rock. Shortly after that
sighting we had a very brief view of a single male bird which I suspect is more
typical of sightings of this bird. Later that afternoon after we had walked to
the base of Mitchell Falls to view the wonderful display of art there we had
our most stunning views of BGW. We had returned to the top of the falls and
were doing a bit of bush bashing when my wife noticed a party of 3 BGW bouncing
along a ridge line. We followed them and our botanist friend rushed ahead which
I thought would scare the birds off completely. In his blundering he did us a
god service as he passed the birds while they fossicked around a large rock
outcrop on the ridge. We motioned for him to stay on the far side of the
outcrop which seemed to have the effect of stopping the birds continuing along
the ridge away from us. We sat down and watched the birds feeding around the
rock outcrop continuously for 25 minutes. The male made repeated jumps towards
the roof of a low overhang apparently to catch insects clinging to the roof.
The females moved around using their stiff tails for balance among the rocks.
Eventually the male bird flew off followed some minutes later by a mature
females leaving a juvenile female still fossicking around he outcrop.
Eventually it sauntered off in the direction the male had taken and this
stunning experience was over.
Chestnut-backed Button-quail
George and I walked around a large burnt patch on the Mitchell Plateau in the
hope of finding some CBBQ. Eventually we flushed a covey of about 10 birds that
provided good flight views. Unfortunately they flushed from an un-burnt patch
so there was no hope of deck views. We subsequently saw another single bird in
flight at close quarters.
Spotted Nightjar
George was very responsive to my desire to see SN and we went out spotlighting
on a number of occasions without success. On our second last night we were
staying at Mornington and were returning from seeing the setting sun on the
cliffs of Sir John Gorge.A SN was seen at some distance in flight sufficiently
well to be tickable without any great satisfaction. A couple of minutes later
another SN flew over the car quite low giving better views. Around the next
corner there was a SN sitting on the road which allowed us to drive to within a
few meters of it providing magnificent and very satisfying views.
Shrike Tit
George was able to produce the northern race of ST so often along the Gibb
River Road early in the trip that at one stage I was accusing him (unfairly) of
being "a one trick pony". Our first view was of a male bird breaking into the
pupal case of a case moth. For about 5 minutes it chewed away at the small
twigs covering the pupal case until eventually it had a hole sufficiently large
enough to allow it to get hold of the insect inside and gently extract it from
the case. It then moved slightly and proceeded to devour its catch. Subsequent
viewings included male, female and juvenile birds.
Partridge Pigeon
The yellow faced race of PP were plentiful in the camp ground at Mitchell
Plateau.
Variegated Fairy-wren (race rogersi)
A brief view of a male bird was obtained at Surveyor's Pool on Mitchell
Plateau. Otherwise the bird proved surprisingly difficult to pick up until our
last day at Bell Gorge. We went into the Gorge for a swim and on George's
advice I spent some time looking for the bird on the track into the Gorge
without success. While the others continued their swimming I climbed up the
cliffs beside the track and eventually got onto a large family group for some
great views. There were 2 mature males at least 1 immature male and about 10 or
the beautifully powder blue females with chestnut lores.
Of course there were some other fantastic birding experiences along the way. A
Peregrine Falcon chasing a flock of duck at a pool along the Derby road was but
one. I would like to thank George for a most wonderful trip, great company and
a true ornithological experience. George is a real birders guide, there are
constant challenges to ones observational; skills and birding knowledge (which
I regularly failed but learnt from). There is no spoon feeding which makes for
a richer, deeper experience. This was Georges first trip away after the sad
death of his wife Lindsey and we are all extremely grateful that he was able to
make it such a memorable trip for us despite his own grief. Thank you George.
Regards
Peter Marsh
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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