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Although we were now headed for the Queensland
coast, we took a 4 day detour to Darwin where, again with the assistance of
Sheryl , I got my first (Australian) Yellow Wagtail at Leanyer
sewerage works.We saw 4 birds in all and wondered about the races simillina
and taivana as one had a very white eyebrow whilst another
had a pale yellow eyebrow.I revisited a number of likely spots but despite a
number of attempts I never did get Zitting Cisticola.Little Curlew
and White-winged Black Tern were other good finds at
Leanyer,as was White-browed Crake at Palmerston .We heard our
first Common Koel of the trip at a now completely dry lagoon at
Fiddlers Lane.Snipe Lagoon had contracted and now held over 200 Brolga
and 1,000+ Magpie Geese, as well as
Black-tailed Godwit, Marsh, Common and Wood
Sandpiper,Australian Pratincole. Over a dozen Dollarbirds
hawked for insects over the fringing reeds as dusk fell, something I
had not seen before.
On leaving Darwin we again called in at Mataranka
and found the Red Goshawk still on her nest, but this time with
two chicks, fluffy white with emerging dark brown speckles.She was as attentive
as ever and constantly shifted position to shade her offspring from the
scorching sun.We managed some passable shots of the nest and occupants through
the 'scope.A long and uneventful drive out of the NT apart from the excitement
of finding a Galliango Snipe on the edge of a settling
pond behind the Barkley Homestead.I enlisted the assistance of fellow Birds Qld
member Stuart Pell who was camped next door and in fast fading light we scoped
the bird and later poured over our combined field guides hoping for
inspiration.None showed any of the galliango snipe to be "in range" and we
finally concluded Latham's Snipe,though most field guides
warned of the difficulty in separating Latham's from Swinhoe's without the bird
in the hand. Whichever snipe it was, a check of the recent BA Atlas shows it was
a very long way away from previously recorded snipe in the NT.The return trip
through the NT had resulted in an additional tick (Yellow
Wagtail) and 10 other species for a total of 226 NT
species.
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