Itinerary
Monday Oct 19
Arrival of group in Darwin, then to Knuckey’s Lagoon 1400-1500 and baking, Botanic Gardens 1530-1700 and Buffalo Creek 1715-1815 on a falling tide.
Tuesday Oct 20 (350 km)
Knuckey’s Lagoon 0615-0700, Berry Springs 0800-1000, Middle Arm Road 1030-1045, Adelaide River Crossing 1200-1400 and then 200 km to Jabiru Anbinik Resort with a lakeside walk late pm.
Wednesday Oct 21 (150 km)
Nourlangie Rock 0700-0900; Mardugal Campground area (baking hot) 0930-1130; Ubirr 1615-1815. Anbinik Resort, Jabiru.
Thursday October 22 (220 km)
Jabiru area then to Nourlangie Rock area 0700-0930; Nowarlandja 0945-1000; Bukbukluk lookout lunch then Pine Creek Water Garden1400-1500 and 1730-1815. Pine Creek SP 1600-1630. Overnight Pine Creek Hotel.
Friday October 23 (400 km)
Fergusson River 0715-0800, then Katherine and Victoria River Crossing 1100-1200; Nimilmikmik Walk 1.7 km (90 min) 1400-1530, then to Timber Creek 1700 on. Overnight Timber Creek Hotel
Saturday October 24 (400 km)
Bradshaw Bridge Victoria River crossing point, Gregory Tree, Baines River unnamed crossing, Kununurra/ Wyndham (106 km), then Ivanhoe Road early and late pm. Overnight Kununurra Hotel.
Sunday October 25 (200km)
Depart 0330 for Lake Argyle Boat Cruise to Chat Island 0500-1100; Kununurra area and then Ivanhoe Road. Overnight Kununurra Hotel.
Monday October 26 (500km)
Kununurra to Fine Spring Crossing near Lake Argyle, then Victoria River Crossing and birding around km 42 and at Chinaman Creek near Katherine, overnight Katherine Pine Tree Motel.
Tuesday October 27 (300km)
Katherine/Fergusson River 0730-0800. Pine Creek Water Garden & Mayse’s Café 0830-0930/ Palmerston SP area and Marlow Lagoon 1200-1330/ Botanic Gardens 1500-1630. Group overnight Darwin, PG back to Cairns.
This was an unusually focussed trip set up for the specific wants list of Ed Hagen and the Kellmans, (but taking in other great sightings as much as possible!) and with laid back Dan Strickland taking it all as it came and enjoying the many fine photographic opportunities. As expected for the pre-rains build up, it was very hot and fairly humid with most days around 38°C and up to 43°C at Victoria River, but very little rain, just a sudden heavy squally shower in Wyndham when we arrived and one shower on the way back.
No rain had fallen in the centre and south of Kakadu and everything was pretty dry, though pleasingly not like the awful burned blackened mess of Far North Queensland where inappropriate late dry-season fires are causing such havoc each year, the fire regimes here seem better thought out and controlled with the possible exception of the spinifex in Arnhemland. We did very well with our targets, dipping the ones I had forewarned would be impossible to unlikely such as Red Goshawk (breeding over), White-breasted Whistler (rare here and one possible site now inaccessible) and the now sadly impossible White-throated Grasswren, but it was notable that we again dipped entirely on Partridge Pigeon despite checking many good sites.
This was a trip notable for the very long days, some long drives and hot conditions, but highlights were plentiful, not least of which was the food. This began with “Taste of the Himalayas” Nepalese restaurant in Darwin, found by Phil by chance when he came in the day before the trip to set up food and the vehicle, and given a second visit when the group arrived as it was so good. Then Jabiru Sports and Social Club had some great dishes, despite some entry hassles when photo i.d.’s were deemed essential by the none too bright jobsworth, and I took Kate back to the lodge to get hers! Pine Creek Hotel was simple but fine too, and Timber Creek did well also, whilst the Kununurra Hotel restaurant was really good on both nights and even the disappointing Pine Tree Motel with its hot rooms did a quite reasonable meal- all these TV cookery shows are having a knock-on effect it seems!
Ed was probably surprised to find he’d got me as leader, but our scheduled tour leader had to bow out and I was the default option. I think we made it work surprisingly well, with only some minor hyper stress when Star Finch and Yellow-rumped Mannikin were being elusive and I wanted to work in a bower photograph for Dan as there was plenty of time. Happily both came good and in general we successfully kept a reasonable balance between zealous listing, birding and photographing, with some nice bonus birds as well. I am glad we used the 12-seater bus and not a much more cramped 4WD, the hot conditions would have made that hard and the bus ran beautifully with good air-con and no punctures, though I had much angst on arrival day trying to locate the jack, which was actually hidden in a tiny recess hole in the stair well! Roads are really good in the NT and the lack of traffic made driving quite enjoyable, plus the sensible speed limits (which permit a comfortable 110 km/h and allow up to 130 km/h) really helped on the long drives, if only Queensland would get with the program…….upgrade the roads and adjust the speed limits accordingly.
I hope the group enjoyed the tour and got most of what they were after, it was nice for me to be back in the NT too, one of my favourite areas.
Paperbark Flycatcher opened the listing at Knuckey’s Lagoon Oct 19, but we dipped utterly on Zitting Cisticola on both afternoon and early morning visits, though flyby Varied Lorikeet was some compensation on the latter on Oct 20, as was an Australian Hobby. The Botanic Garden was mercifully cool and shady but had no Rufous Owl and a huge of what is apparently a model of a python in big raintree by the water garden. Buffalo Creek came good on a falling tide in the late afternoon Oct 19, with a wonderful view of a Chestnut Rail out on the big sandbank and only occasionally remembering it was a rail and scuttling back into cover with tail flicking before emerging again. Two others were calling and I missed a great tape opportunity by being unprepared here.
Oct 20 Rainbow Pitta was a star at Berry Springs despite not being on the target list, giving great photo ops, plus Rose-crowned Fruit Dove and the soon to be split parvula race of Little Shrike-thrush. Silver-backed Butcherbird did not however show, but I was able to salvage 3 along a track along the Middle Arm Road Mangrove Golden Whistler showed well at Adelaide River Crossing, as did Arafura Fantail, Green-backed Gerygone, Australian Yellow White-eye and both Paperbark and Broad-billed Flycatcher.
The lake at Jabiru got us a bonus Bar-breasted Honeyeater plus a bizarre performance from a photographer crawling over the ground on the far side to the lake. Nourlangie next day Oct 21 gave White-lined Honeyeater and terrific Banded Fruit Dove, the big want here, and also a brief glimpse of 2 of the elusive Northern Rosella. A horrible hot thrash near Mardugal for Chestnut-backed Buttonquail was useless, though Black-tailed Treecreeper was some compensation and a Spotted Nightjar flushed up at a site along Old Darwin Road turnoff. An afternoon visit to the lovely rock art site at Ubirr gave us fantastic Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeons by the car park, a Black-breasted Buzzard soaring over and a great look at Wilkins’s Rock Wallaby, a very recent split that looks pretty different to the Short-eared Rock Wallaby.
Oct 22 saw us revisit Nourlangie and hear a non-responsive Sandstone Shrike-thrush, but my strategy of walking us in line through what looked like reasonable Buttonquail habitat paid off on the second such attempt, when Ray flushed a Chestnut-backed Buttonquail and Ed was the unlucky one who did not see it. We then went to Pine Creek and checked the Water Garden where I had seen Hooded Parrot in the heat of the day before, and sure enough Kate located some and we had great looks at males and females, I even got tape of one right by the car on the power lines. The big surprise here though was Gouldian Finch, found when I was trying to get people onto a Masked Finch- we saw a subadult with a lilac chest and yellow belly but only a pale face, and 3 juveniles. We dipped on them at Fergusson River twice, saw none at Timber Creek and failed at Fine Springs Creek when we checked there on the way back to Katherine, but I did not have time to go to Parry Farm Lagoons where we would surely have found them had we needed them. Banded Honeyeater were feeding with noisy Red-collared Lorikeets at Pine Creek Water Gardens late pm.
The saddest sight of the trip was an Aboriginal youth with a small petrol can sniffing the fuel at the Mine Lookout and scuttling off when we arrived, I am surprised they don’t have the non-toxic Opal fuel here like they do in central Australia. Almost as sad was the abusive drunk at Timber Creek who was trying to assault a woman and who got hauled off bellowing swear words by the cops who made a timely arrival.
Dawn and dusk here at Pine Creek saw huge fly-pasts of thousands of flying-foxes, both Black and Little Red, a great sight to see. The drive to Victoria River Crossing on Oct 23 was uneventful; a stop at Fergusson River gave us Masked, Long-tailed and Crimson Finch but no Gouldians. Once at Victoria River Crossing we scored the Purple-crowned Fairywren right away, with a nice responsive group at the site I saw them in 2013. Varied Lorikeet and Banded Honeyeater also showed well here despite the heat, and we drove 10 minutes west to Nimilmikmik picnic site at Joe Creek for lunch. I heard Sandstone Shrike-thrush from the picnic site, and the walk was just 1.7 km and much of it in shade, so worth a try despite the hot conditions unsuited to long walks in sandstone country- note the longer walks at Nourlangie are shut due to the heat. We got great looks at the Sandstone Shrike-thrush, plus the local Grey-fronted Honeyeater, and lucked into the restricted range boothi race of White-quilled Rock-Pigeon sat on a shady ledge and spotted by Kate- this one has no wing patch at all!
Arrival at Timber Creek coincided with a swear-fest from the local Aboriginals, but our check of the lawn sprinklers for finches led to us being at the creek at 5 pm and in time for what seems to be the regular feeding of the Freshwater Crocodiles- there were 6 large adults over 2 m long, launching out of the water to grab meat on a string with a very loud clack of the jaws, all quite unnerving.
Oct 24 was the drive to Kunununurra and then a foray to Wyndham in the afternoon. We made a stop at the Bradshaw Bridge across Victoria River some 10 km west of Timber Creek and here we unexpectedly got two groups of Purple-crowned fairywrens in the mercifully unburnt riverside grass, perfect habitat, plus a bonus of the elusive Black-chinned Honeyeater. A stop at the Gregory Tree gave Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo, then another stop at an unnamed triple bridge crossing of what I think is an arm of the Baines River gave great looks at 3 Buff-sided robins. Ivanhoe Road at Kununurra gave all (except Ed) Star Finch but no sign of any mannikins at all, then driving over to Wyndham around the 60 km mark out we got into a big finch flock of 80 plus Zebra, 30 Long-tailed and a dozen Masked Finch, and about 10 Spinifex Pigeons, a lucky pick-up. Wyndham mangroves proved hard due to high winds and an impending squall, and as usual I dipped utterly on White-breasted Whistler and the aptly named tormenti form of Lemon-bellied Flycatcher, which is meant to be here, but we did eventually get good views of the desired Mangrove Fantail. Two adult Spotted harriers flushed off the road on the way back, then returning to Ivanhoe Road late pm nothing was doing.
Oct 25 was the 0330 departure for the Lake Argyle Boat Cruise, and this was as ever excellent with Greg on fine form with the group of 8 people. The breakfast Bay area gave at least 5 White-browed Crakes parading about, and a more elusive Baillon’s Crake as well as an instant response from Pallid Cuckoo. Yellow Chat performed really well and we saw a juvenile begging plus a total of at least 15 birds, a Brown Songlark was a surprise, Horsfield’s Bronze Cuckoo was feeding on the ground, a flock of 60 Oriental Plover were a nice pick up (though I do wish our additional photographer hadn’t felt the need to flush everything), and 2 Long-toed Stint were a very good Aus year tick. I have posted the Chat Island trip details on ebird. Going back from the island we got a very fine group of 6 White-quilled Rock Pigeons of the nominate race, and more views of Sandstone Shrike-thrush plus tame Short-eared Rock Wallaby and a tiny 25 cm long Freshwater Croc. The Ord River Dam picnic site gave Varied Lorikeet and Silver-crowned Friarbird, and we detoured briefly so Dan could photograph a bower of Great Bowerbird. Back then to Kununurra and a quest for mannikins, which proved tough but did give good albeit skulking Star Finch and a flyover Lonchura group. There was no sign anywhere else in the area despite checking the race-course, golf course, lakeside and Weaber Plains Road etc so I eventually went back to Ivanhoe Road around 1600 and this time we got about 15 Star Finch, 5 Yellow-rumped Mannikin and a few Chestnut-breasted, scope views. I wonder where the big mannikin flocks have got to though?
Oct 26 was the 500 km drive back to Katherine, checking at Fine Springs Creek for Gouldian without success, and failing on Northern Shrike-tit and Chestnut-backed Buttonquail at a couple of stops along the highway near Katherine.
Oct 27 saw us head back to Darwin, stopping again at Fergusson River and Pine Creek Water Garden, both pretty quiet today though coffee at Mayse’s Café was welcome. I tried to access Palmerston SP for the mangroves site there, but our masters have sold it off to their buddies and there is now a huge new fence preventing access, a real shame. Marlow Lagoon for lunch did give us a very nice Silver-backed Butcherbird whose photographs are now on the IBC, then a final look at Darwin Botanic Gardens saw the huge python still in the same spot and a nice bonus Barking Owl. Back then to the airport for Phil and a late night return home, whilst the group had the Zitting Cisticola quest lined up for next day before heading off to Brisbane.
Many of the photos are on the Internet Bird Collection (IBC), a free access site via Lynx Edicions (publishers of the classic Handbook of Birds of World). It is a superb collection of videos, photos and sound cuts and I usually post pictures and sound cuts from the tours here. I also recommend the xenocanto website which has cuts of almost all the world's bird species, I contribute cuts from most tours.
Folks were also asking about the IOC World Checklist of Birds, a free access downloadable Excel file that gets updated every 4 months, version 4.5 has just been published. Go to worldbirdnames.org or google IOC and ignore the Olympics stuff!
You will find sound cuts from this tour on the IBC and xenocanto sites- Varied Lorikeet, Red-winged Parrot, Hooded Parrot, Red-collared Lorikeet, Purple-crowned Fairywren amongst others, plus pix of Silver-backed Butcherbird and Yellow Chat on the IBC site. I will post the photos on our Facebook site and send you the link in due course. My thanks for the chance to do the tour, I hope you enjoyed it and found it worthwhile; we certainly had some great sightings.
Phil Gregory, Kuranda Oct 2015
www. sicklebillsafaris com