Just got back from 8 days in Darwin (with a days drive between Mildura
and Adelaide at either end) which ended up being a fantastic trip. I had been
to Darwin before but only in the dry and wanted to see what the wet was like.
Weather was warm and very humid with some rain (as expected) but it wasn’t too
bad and it didn’t stop me getting out and about (in between family duties). The
worst thing about the recent rain was access to many sites was impossible
(virtually everywhere in Kakadu), if you could get there many tracks had water
over them (Howard Springs and Darwin Hospital in particular) and the mossies
were rampant. To be honest I probably wouldn’t go to Kakadu again in the wet
(Yellow Waters was interesting but there was hardly any birds present) and I
probably would have visited to Litchfield and that part of the world (I haven’t
been there) even though I have seen little information on birding in that area.
I used McCrie and Watson’s Finding Birds in the Top End which proved
invaluable for finding many species. We stayed in a unit at Nightcliff which
allowed walks most days on the waterfront, allowing viewing at very different
tide levels. Virtually every time I visited there I added another species to
the trip list and so I would definitely stay there again (the unit was also
great). We stayed at the Crocodile Holiday Inn in Jabiru (got a reasonable
price) but eating options in Jabiru were fairly restricted. Itinerary was as
follows:
7/1 – Drove Mildura to Adelaide (via Murray Bridge)
8/1 – Flew Adelaide to Darwin, settled in at Nightcliff
9/1 – Met up with locals Clive and (later) Marc and visited a number of
sites – Buffalo Creek, Leanyer Ponds, Knuckey Lagoon, Botanic Gardens, Leanyer
(again), Buffalo Creek wader roost and later in the evening Anzac Road (for
Owls) and a brief spotlight at Fogg Dam.
10/1 – Met up with Clive again and birded the Palmerston Area
(Elizabeth Creek, Wickham Point Road, Channel Island, STP) in the morning.
Stokes Hill Wharf in the evening.
11/1 – Buffalo Creek, Lee Point, Darwin Hospital and then drove to
Jabiru via Fogg Dam
12/1 – Yellow Waters Cruise in the morning and tried birding around
Jabiru (with limited access)
13/1 – Nourlangie Rock and then returned to Darwin
14/1 – Howard Springs and Holmes Jungle
15/1 – East Point with a trip into Darwin (including Stokes Hill Wharf)
in the evening
16/1 – Nightcliff and then flew back to Adelaide
17/1 - Drove Adelaide to Mildura
(via Riverland)
I had a number of target species (a few were not realistic) plus about
10 subspecies of which the following I tracked down:
Species
Chestnut Rail – great views on both visits to Buffalo Creek (one bird
distant on the far bank, and two on the near side upstream).
Little Ringed Plover – About three at Leanyer on the morning visit
(afternoon visit briefer but not located)
Swinhoe’s Snipe – One in flight at Knuckey Lagoon
Looked for Red-backed Button-quail and Yellow-rumped Mannikin with no
luck (unfortunately Oriental Pratincoles had all gone further south).
Subspecies
Australian Pipit – Leanyer and Wickham Point Road
Black Butcherbird – Nightcliff and then common around Elizabeth River
Helmeted Friarbird – First seen on Wickham Point Road and then again at
Nightcliff, East Point and the Esplanade in Darwin (also saw the Sandstone race
at Nourlangie)
Mangrove Robin – Elizabeth River
Horsfield’s Bushlark – Anzac Drive
Little Kingfisher - Flight views
at Yellow Waters and (much better) at Howard Springs.
The subspecies I missed were Sooty Oystercatcher, Emerald Dove and
Zitting Cisticola (Masked owl and King Quail were unlikely).
Other good Top End species included Brown Booby (Nightcliff), Yellow
Wagtail (Leanyer), Partridge Pigeon (near Cooinda), Northern Rosella
(Nourlangie Rock), Oriental Cuckoo (Bird Billabong) and Silver-backed
Butcherbird (Palmerston).
Extra special thanks to Marc and particularly Clive who guided me
around and shared their extensive local knowledge. Thanks to everyone else who
responded to my request about access to Leanyer – the number of responses I got
shows that despite recent complaints about some Birding-Ausers, the birding
community is generally a very friendly and helpful one.
Cheers,
Peter
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