Hi Birders,
Anne and I recently spent 12 days at Darwin and the Top End, primarily to
attend a family wedding and family get together but we also took the
opportunity to do a spot of birding. For part of the time our son Tim
accompanied us on our birding activities. It would appear that now is the
time for southerners to visit, and our visit fast followed on that of Rod
McGovern and Allan Benson who both made reports to Birding-aus. Like both of
them we travelled with our trusty companion "Finding Birds in Darwin,
Kakadu and the Top End" by Niven McCrie and James Watson. We highly
recommend the book to any visitor who goes up there. During our stay, we
managed to see 154 species and this did not include any visits to Kakadu and
similar places as we have been there on a number of occasions. Following the
wedding we made our only long trip (4 days) out to Victoria River Crossing
to do a bit of Finch and Fairy-wren hunting! Our highlightds for the trip
uses the birding sites listed by McCrie & Watson, and for the benifit of
future visitors I have given the reference numbers for the sites as used in
their book.
We stayed in a cabin at the Lee Point Caravan Park when in Darwin , a great
birding spot where we identified 28 species inside the grounds. Top birds
were 3 Bush Stone-curlews who roosted by day near our cabin, Barking Owl,
Singing Bushlark, Long-tailed Finch, Grey-crowned Babbler, Varied Lorikeet,
Red-tailed Black Cockatoo and Yellow Oriole. From here we could walk to Lee
Point (1.08) where we saw Large Sand Plover, Lesser Crested Tern, 3 Brown
Boobies, Gull-billed tern, Yellow Silvereye, Red-backed Fairy-wren, Hobby
and Green-backed & Large-billed Gerygones. We could also walk across to the
northern end of Casuariana Beach (1.07)and in the littoral rainforest the
grassy dunes there were Red-headed Honeyeaters, Zitting and Golden-headed
Cisticola, Jungle Fowl, Northern Fantail etc. Our walking also took us to
Buffalo Creek (1.09) but our visits there did not co-incide with the right
tides to see the Chestunt Rail but we have seen them there on previous
visits. Other birds seen here included Forest Kingfisher, Blue-winged
Kookaburra, Yellow Silvereye, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and Shining
Flycatcher. Australian Pratincoles were common in the grassland near the CP.
Birding around the Botanical Gardens (1.04) turned up the pair of Rufous
Owls with their large, white downy chick and near the Cornucopia Cafe near
the Museum, where the wedding reception was held, there were Jungle Fowl,
Drongos, Dusky Honeyater, Varied Triller, Osprey and Black Butcherbird.
East Point (1.05) was visited a number times for both family get togethers
and birding, and Beach Stone-curlew, Grey-tailed Tattlers, Reef Heron,
Whimbrel, more Bush Stone-curlews, Rufous banded Honeyeaters, great views of
a Rose Crowned Fruit-Dove, Brahminy Kite, Mangrove Fantail & Gerygone etc
were some of the hughlights. The Mangrove Board Walk is very worthwhile!
Knuckey's Lagoon (1.13) is always worth a visit, full of Wandering
Whistle-Ducks and Green Pygmy Goose but also Jacanas, Rajah Shelduck,
Pratincoles around the edges, Great, Intermediate & Cattle Egrets,
White-necked Herons, Bush Stone-curlews hiding under the mango trees on the
way in, there was one Glossy Ibis there on 26/6. A visit was made to McMinns
Lagoon but the waterbirds were not as varied as for Knuckeys Lagoon, I
missed the Collared Kingfisher there but it was seen by others.
Holmes Jungle (1.12 was full of mossies) but there were White-throated
Honeyeaters here feeding young, many Crimson Finch, Broad-billed Flycatcher,
Little Shrike-thrush, Little Bronze-Cuckoo and Dusky Honeyeaters. Howard
Springs is a great place (1.16) and here we had good views of the Rainbow
Pitta, plenty of Yellow-bellied & Shining Flyactchers , Brush Cuckoo, Grey
Whistler and many Red-winged Parrots.
I made my first visit to the Palmerston STW (1.14), Whiskered Terns were
patrolling the ponds, Kites and Sea-eagles fought over something in the
water, Crimson and Double-barred Finches in the undergrowth and plenty of
Red-backed Fairy-wrens.
On a vist to my nephews bush block at Humpty Doo Varied Lorikeets were
feeding in the flowering gums and here we saw the only Tawny Frogmouth on
the trip and his resident Bush Stone-curlews.
During our 4 day trip to Katherine and Victoria River Crossing, we made a
stop at Pine Creek STW & Cemetary (4.01) looking for the Chestnut-backed
Button-quail where it was seen by Allan benson two week before, alas a fire
had gone trhough that spot but the STW yielded a pair of Rajah Shelduck with
12 ducklings, Black-fronted Plovers and Stilts amongt the waterbirds.
Red-backed Kingfishers on power poles here.
We checked out Copperfield Dam (4.02) also for Chestnut-backed Button-quail
near the pipeline (site 6) without success but managed to see 2 adult and 2
juvenile Gouldian Finches ( finally!) in a mixed flock of Masked and
Long-tailed Finches, along wirth Black-tailed Treecreeper and Sitellas. The
Masked Finches were feeding young. We also stopped off at a location 42 km
W of Katherine on the Victoria Highway where the northern form of the
Shrike-tiot had recently been seen but without success but managed to see
Red-backed Fairy-wrens and Black-chinned Honeyeaters. Pairs of
Black-breasted Buzzards were seen near Pine Creek and also at the Willaroo
HSD turn-off on the Buntine Highway.
At Victoria River Crossing Bridge (5.03) Messrs McCrie and Watson say "...
Purple-crowned Fairy-wrens.. have been seen at all corners of the bridge..".
I stood at all four corners over the two days and managed to see the PCFW at
each of the four points not to mention elsewhere along the river banks! An
early morning hike along the escapment walk yielded the Sandstone
Shrike-thrush while Azure Kingfisher, Pacific Bazas and many Blue-winged
Kookaburras were seen on the River Cruise, Star Finches were seen on the
River acces road, and at a point 14 km east of the Victoria River Crossing,
there was a mixed flock of 60+ Long-tailed, 10 Masked and 40 Gouldian
Finches, about one in 5 of the latter were adults. A visit to Campbells
Springs (5.02) was hardly wothwhile, the sign is missing, the track hard to
find and overgrown and there were few birds to see, actually Sullivans Camp,
Gregory River NP a few kms east of Victoria River was much better for birds!
A visit was made to sites along the Edith falls Road (4.04) where I have
much success in the past, but nothing special was seen there this time. A
return to Coppefield Dam found no Gouldians or Button-quail and our last
birdwatching was at Fogg Dam. Spectacular ! and the only place where we saw
Magpie Geese and Brolga on this visit.
Dipped on two target birds, Yellow-rumped Mannikin and Chestnut-backed
Button-quail, but that gives me something to see there next time.
I am happy to provide a full list to any one interested.
Alan Morris
--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
