Dear Birders,
I spent last week driving around Kakadu with a long diversion to the Barkley
Tableland and back - about 3500Km in all. I found that a BackPacker Breezer
campervan represented the most economical form of transport/accommodation. It
was cheaper than even the smallest sedan car which surprised me. It was quite
basic but totally adequate for my needs.
My two target birds were White-throated Grasswren and Flock Bronzewing. My
birding was rather focussed on those two until I had them both nicely seen and
then I was able to relax into a wonderful birding experience just enjoying what
I saw and not worrying too much about seeking particular birds out.
I picked up the van on the afternoon of 25 August and, after purchasing
supplies for the week, headed off south. The van was quite thirsty when driven
at speed with the a/c on and found myself getting low on petrol as I approached
the Mary River Roadhouse only to find it closed for fuel sales until the
morning. I parked by the road and spent the night happily there waiting for
petrol to be available in the morning. This delay meant I did not get to Gunlom
until about 8:30 on the 26th. I had picked up a couple of GPS locations (very
close together as it happened) for recent sightings from the 'net and
immediately set off in that direction. Right at the top of the waterfall track
there is a very faint path to the right. I followed this and found it soon
petered out. I continued to head along the escarpment and climbed up to the
very top of the ridge. I found that it was possible to find a route that
allowed me to walk up reasonably gently sloping rock ramps and I was not
required to do any actual climbing. The ridge is somewhat dissected and from
time to time I would come to the end of a prominent ridge and drop down into a
shallow valley before ascending again onto the next section of ridge. By about
11:00 I was in the vicinity of the previous sightings and started working my
way around the sides of the ridge I was on. At around 11:15 I heard a Grasswren
like call and saw 2, or possibly 3, Grasswrens disappearing like mice into the
rocks and Triodia. I played the call very briefly and a male bird came out onto
a rock nearby and called loudly providing wonderful, though brief, views. This
was at S13 26.362 E 132 25.800. I got back to the swimming hole at the top of
the falls by around 1:30 for lunch and a very welcome swim. On returning to the
base of the falls I called in on the kiosk to make enquiries as to other
sightings. It seems that this is a good season for WTGW. There have been a
number of sightings at places other than the one at which I saw the birds. For
anyone looking for the bird it would be well worth while looking through the
notes held by the lady at the kiosk to check on the latest sightings.
Focussed as I was on my target birds I took off that afternoon for the Barkley.
A couple of months previously Anne and Jon King reported 3000 or so Flock
Bronzewings near to Kennedy Creek on the Tablelands Highway which runs from
Cape Crawford to the Barkley Homestead. I arrived at Kennedy Creek after dark
on the evening of the 27th. Looking for somewhere to pull off the road I saw a
track and headed down it. As I got out of the car I heard a diesel engine
running indicating that I had, by pure chance, pulled off right beside a bore.
In the morning I was up before dawn to be ready for the hoped for arrival of a
few (thousand) Flockies. The bore (marked A6) was surrounded by trees and had a
plethora of birds including a pair of Black Honeyeater and a Black Falcon which
kept returning to the top of the defunct windmill beside the bore. There was no
sign of any FBs until about 8:30 when a small flock of 6 birds flew into view
and circled the bore a few times before settling on the ground some distance
away. I waited for some time sitting as unobtrusively as possible but the birds
were seemingly not interested in coming to drink while I was there. Smaller
flocks flew over and a party of 3 landed near the bore and provided good static
views. I then retreated leaving the bore to the birds. GPS for the A6 bore is S
19 06.282 E 136 04.460.
Then I was able to relax and luxuriate in the birding! Some highlights were
a.. The Red Goshawks at Mataranka have nested again this year but are in a
tree across the road from the camping area that they had their nest in previous
years. Wonderfull prolonged views of one bird alternately sitting on the nest
and then standing and preening.
b.. I took a folding chair and a couple of cold beers down to a creek on the
Edith Falls road mentioned in Niven McCrie's book "Finding Birds in the Top
End".I arrived around 3:00 on a hot afternoon and sat in the shade and started
pulling on one of the beers. Almost immediately a flock of finches arrived in a
bush overhanging one of the pools in the creek bed and started flitting down to
drink - a bunch of Gouldians, mostly juveniles but including 1 superb red
headed male; Masked Finch; Crimson Finch; Long-tailed Finch; and Double-barred
Finch. A bunch of other birds came through and drank or splashed before I
dragged myself away around 5:00.
c.. Headed into Pine Creek early one morning and looked for Hooded Parrots in
the Water Garden without success. I headed up to the water tanks on a hill
overlooking the town, as suggested by McCrie, and was rewarded with a good
flock of HPs.
d.. Pulled into the Muirella Park campground within Kakadu just after dark
and heard the loud and insistent 'chof, chof, chof' call of the Large-tailed
Nightjar. I played the tape and within seconds had a bird flying around my
head. It settled on the road some 20 m away and allowed close inspection before
fluttering off into the night.
e.. Rufous Owl have been reported regularly from the Darwin Botanic Garden
recently. I went to the rainforest area but the birds were not in either of the
places in which they had been recently reported. A bit of searching found one
bird on a low branch overhanging a water pump enclosure at the bottom end of
the rainforest area. A nice experience of this enigmatic bird. The Barking Owl
was in its usual tree by the lower pond.
f.. Not a birding note but I occupied myself on the flights to and from
Darwin reading Sean Dooley's latest book "Cooking with Baz". It is a very
insightful, honest and compassionate story of Sean's family , particularly
through the death of both of his parents from cancer in the space of a couple
of years. Well worth reading. It provideds a very good insight into the drivers
that took Sean on his "Big Year" in 2002.
Good birding
Peter Marsh
==============================www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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