Hi to all those who are interested in the area.
Have just finished a 47 day tour through the Kimberleys - did all the main
tourist places - thought I'd give you some info from the trip. We were really
targeting only a few of the endemics for this area.
Kununurra - at the beginning of the trip (>47days ago)- water still lying
around in many places - found lots (30+) of Yellow-rumped Mannikins out on the
east side - took dump turnoff - excellent close views over a couple of days.
Visited there today, no Mannikins seen but many mixed flocks of mainly
juveniles.
Wyndham - about 10 coloured Gouldians - black & red headed - at various pools
about 5-7 km along King R. Rd
Derby - 4 Mangrove Golden Whistlers - all males (could not find a female
anywhere). Same at Broome - 2 males, 0 females.
Gibb R. Rd - Mt Hart Station - a flock of approx 150 imm. Gouldians about 12 km
from the homestead on the road in. Only a couple of mature black-headed with
them. At Matthew Gorge there, saw our 1st Variegated Fairy-Wrens, r: rogersi -
what a beautiful female; male very brightly coloured.
Mornington Wilderness Sanctuary - very disappointing - a few Purple-crowned
Fairy-Wrens with all males in eclipse. No Red Goshawks anywhere and no
Gouldians seen until 3rd morning as we left - about 10km north - tracked down a
couple of Red-headed adults with a approx 15 imm. in mixed company with
Long-tails.
Bell Gorge & Silent Grove - saw glimpses of what we believe were White-Lined
(Kimberley) Honeyeaters - not good enough to tick off - stupid me, we should
have kept looking around there, but I felt we'd see them elsewhere - not the
case - searched hard - we dipped out.
Mitchell R. Falls area - the elusive Black Grasswren not seen - tried all the
places mentioned on Birding-aus website - we had their call on MP3 - tried that
as well but only after 2 full days of searching. Found every r: rogersi in the
area, climbed 100s of rocks, waded thru heaps of spinifex, sat & waited at dawn
3 mornings - not a squeak. I asked the Rangers - no one has reported any so far
this year. The area near the campground has been burnt out - closer to the
Little Merton Falls was OK, but I suspect that area no longer viable. We will
be very interested to hear if anyone finds them this year. On a more positive
note, talking to some anthropologists doing a 'dig' nearby (approx. 6km away &
only by helicopter), a young WA Uni. student who was with them (studying botany
out at the dig) told us of seeing 5 or 6 "Rock Wrens" hopping along the rocks
near the dig. When I asked him to describe colour, etc., he described BGWs
accurately. So, they are around - just not where I wanted them to be. Of
course, the Partridge Pigeons, r:blaauwi were all over the campground, even
around our feet and nearly inside the tent, so that was a good tick.
On a general note, we found White-quilled Rock-Pigeons everywhere - on
nearly every property. Yesterday, we also found our 1st White-browed Crake here
on the lake near town - yet 7 weeks ago, we searched every day and none seen.
Road Conditions: Gibb R. Rd - a city person might say a bit rough, a
country person like me would call it a hwy - at least the western half. After
the turnoff N. to Drysdale, the Gibb begins a lot of bends, floodways, dips &
gullies, etc. which lowers the speed so the eastern half is like any typical
Aussie gravel country road - slower but still very good to me.
However, from the turn N. to Drysdale, there's full road-width corrugations at
least 6 inches deep in places and long stretches of bone-shaking lesser
corrugations - that 60 km will take over one & half hours. The 100 km north to
the Mitchell turnoff takes about 2 hours with about half being excellent smooth
travel and half being severe corrugations. The 7 km in to King Edward R. is
very slow and extremely rough. Past there, the 40 km climb up on to the
Mitchell Plateau is continuous corrugations - so bad, in fact, that both my
front shock absorbers died and I had to limp back to Drysdale for new ones.
Anyway , up again, passed another car broken down on the same section (he had
help already). Once up on top, the road improved somewhat - it still took
approx 4 hours of constant battering to do the whole 87 km. The last 14 km down
to the campground had the full 4WD range - stretches of deep fluid mud, many
water crossings, lots of washouts - slow and slower were the orders. We heard
that "they" might grade the main track up to Kalumburu "later" and that "they"
might even get on to the Mitchell Track. The country grapevine was full of
gossip but no one seemed definite about anything.
Good luck to anyone going there this year.
Brian & Meg
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