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Louise and I have just returned from a very
enjoyable and successful two week birding trip to the northern NT and Kimberley
regions. Our good friends Arthur and Sheryl Keates moved from Brisbane to Darwin
last year and it was a great opportunity to have a thorough search around the
area with skilled birders with local knowledge! The focus of the trip was to try and locate the last four birds missing
from my Australian list in that region, these being Chestnut-backed
Button-Quail, Black Grasswren, White-throated Grasswren and Banded Fruit-Dove.
We successfully accomplished this mission and saw lots more great birds besides.
Our itinerary started in Darwin and then Katherine
(and a bit south and east), Victoria Highway west to Kununurra with deviations
at various locations along that route, Wyndham, an overnight trip by aircraft
into the Mitchell Plateau, back east along the Victoria Highway, Pine Creek,
Gunlom Falls, Cooinda and back to Darwin. We recorded a total of 211 species
with many highlights including Gouldian Finches at several locations, all the
other regional finches in good numbers (except for Pictorella Mannikins of which
we saw only two), twenty raptor species including three Red Goshawks and lots
more. The wet season finished very late this year (it actually rained during the
first four days of our trip) and the country looked spectaularly green and
lush.
I am preparing a more detailed report of the trip
and, if anyone would like a copy (on MSWord) please contact me
directly.
Cheers
Roger McGovern
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