Heading west from Kakadu Thompson
springs(McCrie and Watson) was an excellent birding spot. The new bird was
yellow rumped mannikin(later to see hundreds at Kununnurra golf course) but many
red backed wrens and golden headed cisticola. At Victoria River crossing I
eventually got purple crowned fairy wren male on the bridge-good views on my
last and third try. Also a new bird was White Quilled Rock pigeon.
Probably the easiest place to see this bird is Purnululu(Bungle Bungles)
Picaninny Gorge walk or even on Cathedral walk. A highlight of Purnululu,
was on the drive back from Picanniny Gorge saw Grey Falcon catching very large
grasshoppers which were in plague proportions. Good views grey falcon
circling overhead eating grasshopper from its claws. Also spinifex bird at
Picanninny Gorge carpark at the beginning of the walk. Camped overnight in
Picanninny Gorge and the sound of sandstone shrike thrush in the gorge was
extremely beautiful-a great echo chamber.
In Gregory National Park on the
Bullita Rd, I eventually saw yellow tinted honeyeater-a bird I should have seen
easily by this time-from here on I saw it frequently. Also on this road
there were Gouldian finches red face and black face. Timber Creek airfield
was very overgrown along the fence so there were none of the hoped for finches
but I did flush a prize-King Quail. Tiny Quail, saw chestnut under males
tail.
At Kununnurra, my first sighting of
white browed crake was on the golf course walking on water in reed lined
ponds. They were very distant, However at the boat ramp on Lake Kona as
described in Frank O'Connor's webpage, there was white browed crake withina few
metres walking on the tiniest bit of floating vegetation near the shore.
Wyndham yielded Mangrove Heron a bird seen more at Broome and Karratha.
Another bird seen at Karratha was Beach Stone Curlew. I also saw Beach
Stone Curlew at Eighty Mile Beach, but we had walked over 10 kms south along the
beach from caravan park.
The big search at Mitchell
Falls/Plateau was obviously going to be Black throated grasswren and hoping for
Red Goshawk. I suspect I saw the latter near Big Mertens falls but as I
was photographing rock art at the time and it just sailed overhead I didn't get
a good enough look to claim it. However I am very familiar with square
tailed kite, so if you are going that way keep your eyes peeled. I got the
Black throated grasswren at littel mertens falls on the north or right hand side
going out from campground by being there early in the morning and waiting until
I heard some wren like calls. Unlike white throated birds could be
carefully followed for good views.
Broome provided many new birds and
although we were there in August there was still plenty of waders about-I didn't
realise that so many overwinter. Lesser Frigatebird was an unexpected
bonus on the beach where the fossilised dinosaur footprint is. As we were a
bit early the only new wader for me was common redshank. Broome was really
good for mangrove birds. I went to Crab Creek on three occassions and on
my last occassion there I saw all of the mangrove birds except mangrove golden
whistler. Those I saw were mangrove heron, (well out in the open at low
tide in Roebuck bay near Crab Creek), broad billed flycatcher, white breasted
whistler, dusky gerygone,mangrove fantail, mangrove robin, red headed
honeyeater, mangrove kingfisher and yellow white eye. But the real
highlight of Broome was the yellow chat. Apparently the birds are there all of
the time, you just need to ask at the Broome Bird observatory and if it is late
in the dry season like when we were there, be prepared to walk a long way out
through the samphire. But we were rewarded with good views of a pair of
yellow chats.
Coral Bay provided one of those bits
of pure luck that can make your day. We had just cleaned our snorkelling
gear on piece of cement near fish cleaning tables and were sitting nearbly
eating our lunch.. I looked up and five yards away was a buff banded rail coming
out from large coastal saltbush to see if any pickings had been left
behind. This was a new bird for me and lucky enough to have extended
views.
In terms of the rest of the trip as
far as birding goes the important thing was to get the west australian endemics
that I didn't have. I had been to WA but not south west corner adn teh
previous trip had been largely a wildflower expedition, so there were quite a
few to get. Long Billed black cockatoo(near Benger swamp), red eared
firetail and redwinged fairy wren(Wugong gorge), Western Corella ( near town of
Rocky Gully), Western thornbill(Walpole) and that leaves the big three-western
bristlebird, noisy scrubird and western whipbird. Cheynes beach caravan
park was certainly the place to be. Hosts gave directions to find western
bristlebird and I had very good views, with birds calling happily in front and
behind me. I found birds could be stalked. Western whipbird was in
the same area as teh western bristlebird but I found it much harder to track
down. I spent two hours hearing it frequently but even though it was in
very low heath, finding it impossible to see. As I had given up and I was
walking back, it flew from a bush and I was able to follow it, and get some good
views of it in another bush.
Noisy Scrubird proved the most
difficult. I went to Waychinicup, a beautiful place(carpet python,
southern brown bandicoot,ringtailed possum, antechinus, not to mention the
wildflowers). Spent a good deal of time at Frank O'Connors best site and
had ear splitting calls but no sign of bird as grass is very thick and it is a
complete wast of time trying to stalk the bird. I also went to Two Peoples
Bay and sat on the recommended track for two hours and saw nothing.
I did however see the bird near our campsite, campsite three at
Waychinicup. Early in the morning, I heard it calling and followed the
call down to the inlet. The vegetation is more open there and I was abel
to get good views of the bird on the ground-it reminded me in some ways of a
small, brown whipbird.
It was a great trip-there were other
foci besides birding, but the birding was excellent and I added 78 new species
to my life list. Cape York hear I come in a few years time
Gary Wright
