contd...
Katherine district: A short walk at Katherine Gorge produced the only
BAR-BREASTED HONEEYATERS for the trip, along with BANDED HONEYEATERS, and nice
views of a group of Grey-crowned Babblers as the track passed the camping
grounds. Edith Falls Rd (at the small creek crossing) produced a selection of
finches including large numbers of LONG-TAILED & MASKED FINCH feeding on
grasses, along with fewer Double-barred Finches and some Crimson Finches down
by the creek. A couple of tantalisingly brief fly past views ( and badly
backlit) of a finch with pale (yellowish) belly and dark throat may have been
Gouldian Finch but was inconclusive. great views of a pair of Collared
Sparrowhawks at this site. Visited Chinaman Creek twice, once in late afternoon
and once early morning. No birds of any sort drinking along the creek (may
have been generally too much water so brids were drinking elsewhere?). The
beauty of the site was marred by lots of rubbish. On the first (pm) visit I
saw 5 HOODED PARROTS in a very recently burnt area near where I had parked the
car. On the second visit, I trakced these down to where they were calling,
near the current highway bridge, but again ended up following them back to the
burnt area (again near the car!) where I saw 20 of these beautiful parrots,
mostly feeding on the ground. Saw the RED GOSHAWK at Bitter Springs - the nest
is on the other side of the road from the caravan park, where the power lines
corss and about 3 trees in, but I had missed seeing this on the dirve in in the
urge for food and a dip in the pool, so thanks to the staff at the caravan park
for pointing this out. The bird was actually in a tree another 100m or so down
the road toward the caravan park. A group of Apostlebirds wree hanging around
the car park at the hot springs at Mataranka (I preferred Bitter Springs). Did
a cruise down the Katherine River at night (downstream from town) and saw a
pair of BARKING OWLS and quite a few Johnson's (Freshwater) Crocodile.
Katherine town area held quite a few good birds - had even better views of
BARKING OWLS in plams in the car park of the motel, and Great Bowerbirds were
hopping down the footpath in the main street at one point. Dipped on
Chestnut-backed Buttonquail at Chainman Ck after walking through the grass for
40min or so, and in fact saw almost nothing here but was probably too early in
the day.
Victoria River Crossing: On a second visit (first was too hot), I found a
group of PURPLE-CROWNED FAIRY-WRENS in cane grass at the river access area, at
the bottom of the first dip in the track - excellent veiws. Much easier than
trying to spot these at the bridge beacsue there is a new bridge under
construction adjacent to the current one. You more or less can't access the
northern side of the existing bridge, and although I could stand on the bridge
on the southern side, the contsant noise of trucks reversing and driving, earth
moving equipment and general construction made it difficult to hear anything
there. Managed to see 1 WHITE-QUILLED ROCK PIGEON on each of two trips up the
Escarpment Walk, even though each was a brief fly-past.
Timber Creek: Policeman's Point (aka Victoria River Access) was a good spot but
I am sure it would have been better without the constant wind. Morning and
afternoonproduced no Gouldians or Yellow-rumepd Manikins let alone Pictorella,
but I did see a flock of c. 100 STAR FINCHES on each visit, and saw Spinifex
Pigeon here also, along with dozens of YELLOW-TINTED HONEYEATERS and the
beautiful golden-backed race of the Black-chinned Honeyeater. Plenty of MASKED
and some LONG-TAILED Finches here also. Timber Creek airstrip was low on
finch numbers and diversity (only a few MASKED FINCHES) but both White-browed
and Masked Woodswallows were here along with the more commonand widespread
Black-faced Woodswallows. Drove down Bullita Rd for around 7km, looking for
finch activity but could find none. One return, ultimately found lots of
finches only another 100m or so back from the creek crossing so could have just
stayed here. LONG-TAILED, MASKED & Double-barred all here in good numbers, and
just as I was leaving finally saw GOULDIAN FINCH - 1 adult male red-faced
morph, 1 adult female black-faced and 2 younger birds. Walked along creek
hoping to see Red-browed pardalote but vey ahrd to ehar anytnign above noise of
wind - ultimatley heard in distance but disappeared before I could track it
down.
Burrell Creek & Litchfield NP: Visited a colleague's private property on
Burrell Ck, south of Adelaide River. Nice spot, and a good selection of birds
including my best views of NORTHERN ROSELLA for the trip. After dipping on
Partirdge Pigeon I had my hopes built up when I heard that these were resident,
even nestign on the other side of the creek, but maybe becasue they are shy at
this time or just out of plain luck, I missed these here as i did the resident
Red Goshawks which were apparently on a couple of hundred meters away from our
building one morning (all good reasons to go back). Visited Litchfield
National Park on our last day of driving back to Darwin. Florence Falls and
Wangui Falls were both very nice, but didn't see any enw birsd (or indeed many
at all) here, possibly becasue it was already too hot and too windy.
Cheers,
Frank
(Mr.) Frank Hemmings
Curator
John T. Waterhouse Herbarium
School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of New South Wales
UNSW SYDNEY 2052
AUSTRALIA
Tel +61 2 9385 3274
Fax +61 2 9385 1558
CRICOS Provider Code:00098G
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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