The wet season is also the best time for birding in the Top End.
Birdwatchers come here at this time of year in part because it's cooler
and drier, butare often disappointed. Birds are still dispersed
especially if we've had a very heavy wet season and there is still a lot
of water lying around. Also few are breeding.
Come around October-January. OK it is hot and sticky and like N Qld an
occasional cyclone might loom. But there are migratory waders including
Swinhoe's Snipe (and sometimes Little Ringed Plover) and Yellow Wagtail
and Garganey. Rainbow Pitta and many other passerines are breeding and
relatively easy to see.
And for any afficianado of wild tropical thunderstorms this is the only
time to come. Our storms are spectacular with great purple anvil-topped
cumulo-nimbus rolling across the sky and haemorrhagic sunsets over cobalt
sea. If a storm comes late at night we always get up to watch the
lightning show - we have one of the highest rates of lightning strike in
the world. And afterwards everything is cool and fresh.
Most people do fine as long as they have an air-conditioned vehicle and
accommodation (I've camped under such conditions and I would really
recommend it). I've gone out with elderly Canadians straight from 30
degrees below and they've coped beautifully under such conditions.
Denise Goodfellow
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