Australia August 2014

We arrived in Melbourne at 9am in cold and grey skies with a biting wind - think November in the UK - which was a bit of a shock after the equatorial tropics of Borneo. Staying with relatives we were picked and driven to Berwick, which is a suburb in the South East of the city.

Australian birds are in a different category of greatness with lots of endemic families. Generally big, bold, colourful and noisy, easier to see than their Asian forest cousins and with names to match, with Rainbow.. or Splendid .. or Superb..... Compare this with the UK where you will meet enthusiastic birders trying very hard to say if you look really closely at a Dunnock how colourful the shades of brown and grey are ! It's surprising then that there are proportionately less birders in Australia than in the UK.

Friday 8th August - Melbourne

With the next 2 days planned out with family events I went to Wilson Botanical park in Berwick, a small local park but worth a couple of hours, when it opened in the morning, armed with jumpers and raincoat. It's winter here, but the place was still quite birdy as many of the trees were in flower and it was a pretty satisfying re-introduction to Australian birds as I have only visited the country before in December or January.

The first small pond held Pacific Black Ducks and a White faced Heron, the second larger lake had Hardheads and Purple Swamphens and an Australian Grebe. In the bushes, Striated Thornbills, Eastern Spinebills and New Holland Honeyeaters were busy, with large flocks of raucous Red Wattlebirds and Crimson Rosellas. A Common Bronzewing and a Laughing Kookabura were close to the well laid out path. The surprise of the morning was a fine Scarlet Robin which was obviously here for Winter. I also saw White plumed Honeyeater, Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, Grey Fantail and Little Wattlebird.

Latter in the morning we drove out to a winery near Mornington for lunch and to visit more family, again picking up a few birds en-route which included Cape Barren Goose, Galah, Australian Pelican, Maned Duck, Austalian White Ibis, Straw necked Ibis and Noisy Miner.

Pacific Black Duck

Scarlet Robin

Crimson Rosellas

White plumed Honeyeater

Eastern Spinebill

Laughing Kookabura

Saturday 10th August - Melbourne

Today we visited Pete and his wife Val, and they took us to Healesville which is North East of Melbourne in the Yarra Valley. We needed two cars for the trip and we had borrowed Norma's car with the proviso 'Whatever you do don't shut the boot with the keys in' - so our last hours of daylight were spent waiting for the RAC man to come and break into the car !!

Healesville has a sanctuary (zoo) with all indigenous Australian mammals, reptiles (and some birds). The girls enjoyed the day and particularly the Wombats, Koala's and even the Tasmanian Devil.

We had a great time catching up with Pete and even though the majority of birds were feral there was one natural woodland area with Superb Fairy Wren and White-throated Treecreeper that were added to the trip list.

Wombat

Tasmanian Devil

Koala with baby

Sunday 11th August - Melbourne to Alice Springs

I booked to fly to Alice Springs two days earlier than the girls so I could go birding around the Alice area, otherwise we would be just passing through and it seemed a shame to miss out on a few birds in another new territory.

Jenny dropped me back at Tulamarine airport for a mid-morning Quantaslink flight to Alice. With a country the size of Australia, a flight which only goes half way across the middle takes around 3 hours which is as far from the UK to Greece !.

The scenery in the last 45 minutes of the flight was spectacular as vast areas of desert were interspersed with salt pans and the Macdonald Ranges which stretched right up to Alice.

There actually wasn't much in the town itself which was perhaps on the small side of what I expected, I stayed at the Hilton which on the map is right opposite the Todd River, which runs through the centre of town. 'Runs' is actually a mis-noma as on average there is only flowing water one day per year - and it wasn't today. I was a bit confused as there were boat posters at the airport and around town advertising the Todd Regatta next weekend, calling it Henley-on-Todd. As it turns out the boats are hoisted up by the competitors who literally run the boats in a race along the dry riverbed - hilarious !

I had booked tomorrow as a guided birding day with local guide, Mark Carter, and was due to meet him later today to discuss what we would be doing in the morning, so I had a couple of hours before then, so went for a walk from the hotel - along the Todd River !

Not surprisingly for a desert, everywhere was dry. The local birds had a new flavour to them. The Yellow-throated Miner seemed to be the dominant species along with Australian Ringneck Parrot and Crested Pigeon.
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After about 15 minutes I reached the Botanical Gardens - it was very small but well laid out with all local species of tree and shrub, many of which being in the Accacia family including Wattles and Bottlebrushes. The first birds I saw were new, with Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters and a Western Bowerbird, even showing it's pink nape patch. Brown Honeyeaters and the ubiquitous White-plumed Honeyeaters were in flowering trees . A climb up a hill to a view over the town and a 1,000 year old fig were where a pair of Black-faced Cuckooshrikes were being noisy and walking out I saw some Weebills and a family party of Grey-crowned Babblers.

I met up with Mark on cue and it was clear we were going to have a packed day tomorrow, originally from Scotland but being in Australia for several years with his family meant an unusual accent !

Monday 11th August - Alice Springs

We left the hotel just before 7am and headed out of town, the sealed road soon disappearing as we headed towards more barren scrub areas.

We stopped the car on seeing some bird activity at the side of the road .The first bird we saw was a distant Spotted Harrier, then several very smart Crimson Chats along with several Zebra Finches. An early surprise was finding a Banded Whiteface which are often one of the more difficult species.

We stopped several times on this dusty road and found good birds, a Mulga Parrot, Pallid Cuckoo Brown Songlark, Rufous Songlark and Australian Pipit and several groups of Cockatiel and Budgerigar all flying to and from Water holes.

We then entered an area of Spinifex. Spinifex is a grass that grows in low rounded clumps. It looks fairly innocent - a bit like the marram grass that grows in sand dunes, but it's only when you walk through these vast areas of Spinifex you understand it's like walking through a field of Porcupines, your legs get a bit of a battering and even with decent trousers and shoes you're still left wearing a lot  of spines. There are a number of birds that like this habitat (for safety !) and can stay well hidden. But mark knew his sites well and before long we had found our main target species the Dusky Grasswren, which crept around the low scrub but after some patience gave good views.

We saw both Grey-headed and Pied Honeyeaters and were surprised when we saw a couple of Dingos in the distance. We only managed to catch the call of a Spinifex Bird but did see the Rufous crowned Emu-Wren with it's mouse-like behaviour dashing between the Spinifex clumps. We walked a reasonable way across this astonishing landscape, also seeing the White-winged Fairy Wren, Red-capped Robin, White-backed Swallow, Black faced Woodswallow and Masked Woodswallow.

We headed back towards the town and had a raptor stop picking up Black-breasted Buzzard, Little Eagle, Brown Falcon and Nankeen Kestrel before picking up some lunch in the town then heading to the Sewage Ponds (for which I'd had to complete an induction and get a certificate a week before just to get a permit) but it was worth it.

Mark actually said that the birds had not been at their most prolific at the ponds as other parts of the country had experienced a good wet season but I picked up several new birds here so was pretty pleased.
The sewage ponds had a series of water filled settling beds (and the aroma to match expectations) .Large numbers Black Kites and Whistling Kites were near the site with Grey Teal and Australian Grebes  and a single Hoary Headed Grebe, on most ponds with Black-winged (White-headed) Stilts and Red-necked Avocets being the most popular waders. A Rainbow Bee-eater was on the fence line and both Tree Martin and Fairy Martin hawked overhead Black-tailed Native Hens ran on the Causeway with Red-capped Plover, Red Kneed Dotterel and Black-fronted Dotterel. The scrubby grass which edged the pools held Little Grassbird, Variagated Fairy Wren, and Australian Reed Warbler. One of the pools held a far greater number of wildfowl which  along with a proper Black Swan, Grey Teal, Pacific Black Ducks and Maned Duck included several Pink-Eared Ducks with their shoveler-like beaks. A marshy area at the back of the site which Mark said is often good for crakes was a little too dry and we only saw a Brown Goshawk flyover here.

We drove from here to a site on the edge of town which used to be a Telegrpah station but held a number of trails through bush that we wandered along. Our main target here was Redthroat and we had a pair perform fairly well. The male Splendid Fairywren has an astonishing vibrant blue and as well as the numerous females a restless male gave brief views but wouldn't sit still for the camera !, Chestnut rumped Thornbill, Inland Thornbill and  Western Gerygone were also seen here.

We then travelled out of town for about an hour and a half and turned off into some arid countryside, a short walk and the only bush around us had a pair of  Banded Whiteface looking like they were nest building. We were searching the area for the endemic Grey Honeyeater but had no luck, but did see Crested Bellbird and Grey Fantail. We then went to a small farm dam with late afternoon approaching we were about to sit and wait for any birds arriving to drink. A Hooded Robin appeared immediately and then we saw our target the Bourkes Parrot without enduring any wait until later . We walked away from the dam and saw a few White-browed Babbler then in the distance what Mark thought was a Major Mitchells Cockatoo. It must have been the other side of the road so we decided to drive in that direction and through another gate, we parked the car and started walking then heard the call not to far away before finding the Major Mitchells Cockatoo in  a flowering tree, A little like a Sulphur Crested but with a Pink flush and a Pink crest , it only stayed for a minute but that was an unexpected end to a great days birding.

Outback in the 'Red Centre'

More scrubby scenes

Dusky Grasswren

Dusky Grasswren a real skulker

Crimson Chat with moth

Grey headed Honeyeater

Black breasted Buzzard

Waders and Ducks at the Sewage Ponds

A proper wild Black Swan

Variagated Fairy Wren

Red necked Avocet

Female Splendid Fairy Wren

Redthroat

Banded Whiteface

Red capped Robin

Bourkes Parrot

One of the many settling beds at the Sewage ponds

Home of the Banded Whiteface !

The end of the Macdonald Ranges in the background

Tuesday 12th August - Wednesday 13th  - Alice Springs to Ayers Rock

I went back to the airport this morning at Alice Springs to meet with  the girls who arrived late morning and then we waited for our connecting flight to Ayers Rock arriving there mid-afternoon and being transferred to the resort . Unless you have driven yourself from Alice springs (about 500kms) the main place you can stay is the Ayers Rock resort where there are about 4 or 5 hotels and a campground and all the tours to Ulhuru typically go from there.

The single reason we came here was to see  'the rock' and so we did - twice - one early morning sunrise viewing (including cultural centre) and one sunset tour ( including barbecue and star viewing !!).

It's all a bit touristy and doing it this way means you can't really veer away from the tourist parties so not normally what I'd specialise in, there are significant restrictions anyway in where you're allowed to walk as much of the land is owned by the Indigenous people, but the site is well worth seeing and all in all we had a great time. I didn't add any birds to the list but there were plenty of Honeyeaters around the resort with Kites and Crested Pigeons.

just before sunrise

Just after Sunrise

Before Sunset

Just about Sunset

Thursday 14th August - Friday 15th August -Ulhuru to  Alice Springs and Ghan to Darwin via Katherine

For the next part of our trip we were travelling up to Darwin, but had decided to try a different form of transport with the Train. The 'Ghan' is one of Australia's famous train journeys and actually runs from Adelaide to Darwin. It was so named after the Afghanistan mine workers who lived in Darwin and presumably were one of the reasons the train line came into existence.

We flew back to Alice Springs and had a few hours before the train departure - The train is about 30 carriages long, most of which are taken up by posh sleeper carriages with posh dining cars - and only one (Red class) being the economy type seating car with it's own dining tent !. We opted for seats in the Red class - partly because we thought we could survive 24 hours and secondly that even these seats were at least as much as an internal flight to Darwin from Alice.

The train left Alice Springs at 6pm, so just as it got dark, and went through to Katherine arriving their at 9am - we then had 4 hours in Katherine and joined one of the organised tours to Katherine Gorge
before re-joining the train and arriving in Darwin at 6.30pm. It was all rather good fun and we were happy with our recliner Red seats (far more comfortable than airline equivalents). It was after 8
pm by the time we settled into our apartment on the Darwin waterfront.

I also managed to see a few birds when we went to Katherine Gorge. Plenty of Black Kites and Whistling Kites wre around the town and a Wedge-tailed Eagle was on the  route to the Gorge , with a few groups of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos. We did a walk at the gorge up to a viewpoint (It was hot !) and saw Blue-winged Kookaburra, Rainbow Bee-eater, Blue-faced Honeyeater, White-gaped Honeyeater, Black-chinned Honeyeater, White-bellied Cuckooshrike and plenty of Great Bowerbirds

At the front of the train

The 30+  carriages stretched into the distance

Add caption

Blue winged Kookaburra

Really !! - After you

Adie next to the Queen Adeliade diner sign on the Ghan

This was the posh diner we weren't allowed in.

This was our diner - ok it was clean !!

View at Katherine Gorge

Sunset from the train as we approached Darwin

Saturday 16th August - Darwin

Today was spent relaxing around the waterfront in Darwin. It was hot here - into the 30's by midday although the wind was quite strong . The wave pool was obviously going to keep the girls entertained
for the day.

This was city dwelling so not really for the birds although an Orange-footed Scrubfowl on the path outside the hotel looked a little out of place, and plenty of masked Lapwings and Silver Gulls by the water.

Our waterfront apartment

Part of  Darwin harbour

.....and wavepool !

Sunday 17th August - Darwin to Kakadu

I was picked up from the apartment at 6am by Mike Jarvis for 3 days of birding out to Kakadu and back, whilst the girls were content with sleep-ins and lazy days around the waterfront in Darwin. When I booked with Mike he asked me whether I had a target list of birds and I had told him there were 3 in particular I wanted to see  - Rainbow Pitta, Gouldian Finch and Hooded Parrot and everything else I would consider a bonus.

Our first stop just when the sun was rising was next to the Adelaide River where a strip of Mangrove vegetation next to the river held several species. A Rufous-banded Honeyeater was the first bird seen followed by a Varied Triller and a Lemon-bellied Flycatcher.  A flock of Plumed Whistling Ducks flew over then Broad billed Flycatcher and Arafura Fantail were seen together before we found our target bird for the site a Mangrove Golden Whistler. So a good first stop . We journeyed on to an area of small billabongs where we stopped to set up for bird-filled breakfast overlooking the water, the small area was superb for water birds.

There were flocks of Straw-necked Ibis and Australian Ibis, Wandering Whistling Ducks, Rajah Shelduck, Green Pygmy Goose, Great, Intermediate and Little Egret, Pied Heron, Darters, Little Black  and Pied Cormorants, Comb-crested Jacanas on the water vegetation and in the surrounding scrub Whistling Kites, White-winged Triller, Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, Little Correllas  and Pied imperial Pigeons, Forest Kingfishers, Red-winged Parrots and Rainbow Bee-eaters.

Breakfast Billabong

Mike had a fantastic setup in the trailer - all meals ready to go !

Whistling Kite

Forest Kingfisher

We continued towards Kakadu and journeyed over some very flat open grasslands and another stop by a river had us checking bushes picking up Canary White-eye, Paperbark Flycatcher, Golden headed Cisticola and Green Oriole then an Australian Hobby was hawking insects. We drove away and just as we were about to cross the river I saw a raptor which initially I thought was a Kite but there was something different about it's movement as it disappeared behind the river bank. We turned the car around and got the scope out to see a Spotted Harrier hunt along the line of the river bank , occasionally dropping into grass - great stuff.

Paperbark Flycatcher

We continued our journey towards Kakadu, eventually entering the national park boundary and continued via Jabiru towards the Ubir region and the sandstone escarpment landscape There were a few potential escarpment specialist birds although we only really had a couple of hours in the afternoon allocated to look for them.

About to enter Kakadu

We managed several more sites during the afternoon, firstly the Mamakula bird hide, a small reserve with a hide overlooking a large Billabong. More Wandering Whislting Ducks, Green Pygmy Geese and the first Magpie Geese were here plus Australian Pelican and Gull-billed Terns over the water and in the scrub, Little Bronze Cuckoo and Double-barred Finch.

We continued to Ubir and the Obiri Rock with it's famous Rock art and views from the escarpment over the East Alligator River flood plain, famous for it's scenes from Crocodile Dundee. The place was interesting, but in the heat of the day (It was well into the mid-30's C)  the bird life was less co-operative, although we did add Red-Collared Lorikeet, Leaden Flycatcher and Brush Cuckoo as well as a Rock Wallaby.

We then went to the area around Nourlangie Rock again searching for the escarpment specialist birds and we'd pretty much given up when we saw 2 Chestnut-Quilled Rock Pigeons.

Our final stop was to look for Rainbow Pitta  near Cahills Crossing on the East Alligator River, where there was a circular walk alongside the river through some Monsoon Forest. The river was full of Estuarine Crocodiles ! We saw a displaying Pheasant Coucal but there was no sign of the Pitta.

So after a full day we headed to Cooida and the campsite for our overnight stay.

Scrub around the Mamakula bird hide

Rock Art at Obiri

"That's where the Croc got me" ... quote from Mick Dundee from this same spot overlooking the East Alligator River flood plain

Escarpment view at Obiri



Red collared Lorikeet 

Rock Wallaby

Pheasant Coucal

Monday 18th August - Kakadu - Pine Creek

We woke at 5.30am, packed up the tent and headed down to the boat ramp at the Yellow Waters cruise place. We had booked for the early morning cruise which is a 2 hour pontoon-type cruise around the Yellow Waters Lagoon. There are probably 50 people on the seated pontoon, but Mike and I had 2 seats at the front, so pretty good viewing. The boat departed in time to  see sunrise and the bird activity started with Egrets, Ibis and Ducks flying from their roosts. We soon had close views of Nankeen Night Heron, Azure Kingfisher and Shining Flycatcher with hundreds of Magpie Geese, Wandering Whistling Ducks, Rajah Shelduck and Plumed Whistling Ducks. The flooded fields held Australian, Straw-necked and Glossy Ibis with Pied Heron, Royal Spoonbill, Brolga's and a single Black-necked Stork. White-bellied Eagles held territories in more than one place along the river and again plenty of Crocodiles were seen.

Yellow Water Sunrise

Cattle Egrets

Nankeen Night Heron

Azure Kingfisher

White bellied Eagle

Black necked Stork or Jabiru

Brolga

Magpie Geese

Little Pied Cormorant

White bellied Eagle

Comb crested Jacana

Yellow Water Lagoon

Estuarine Crocodile

Lotus flower

Following our cruise and breakfast back at the campsite, we headed back to an area of escarpment and walked along a trail alongside the rocks, we came across Silver-crowned Friarbird, Blue-faced Honeyeater, the local race of Helmeted Friarbird, Dusky Honeyeater and Green backed Gerygone, the day was already scorching hot but there was no sign of either Sandstone Shrike-thrush or Banded Fruit Dove.

We stopped at a dry creek which was by chance rather than planning and saw a Brown Goshawk, White-throated Honeyeater, female Red-backed Fairywren and best of all a Banded Honeyeater. This was followed by a lunch stop at a picnic table under some Eucalypts where a Silver-backed Butcherbird decide to drop in and investigate the quality of our sandwiches.

Our afternoon quest was to drive the other side of Pine Creek towards Edith falls at 30kms short of Edith Falls we stopped in a dry area of bush with a small water hole that was a potential site for Gouldian Finches. These were one of the 3 birds on my target list for the area. Not only endemic to Northern Australia and very colourful, but they've appeared as iconic birds on nearly every world bird book I've seen since I was at nursery school. So they have a special attraction to finding one in the wild.

As soon as we got our of the car we saw a small flock of finches with several  Crimson Finch and Double-Barred Finch, we extracted our camp chairs from Mike's trailer and sat in the shade under a small bush for what we anticipated may be a long wait. Little Woodswallows were using the area feed a Little Friarbird dropped in and occasionally a calling Cockatiel would appear rather nervously looking to drink from the waterhole but mostly deciding it was too risky and flew straight through. Then before long another group of finches appeared. Mike called that he heard a Gouldian Finch call and quickly we found a group of 4 Gouldian Finches in a tree along with the Double-barred finches but also Long-tailed Finches. At list one of the Gouldian's was a fully plumaged male with a black head (Black headed males are the commonest, followed by Red-headed males , then the almost mythical Yellow headed male).
The birds then flew off before going down to drink, but over the next hour we saw up to 25 Gouldian Finches including one Red-headed male - which was fantastic. In addition another finch species the Masked Finch, so this proved to be a great spot. After a couple of hours in the heat we left the finches to themselves and drove towards Pine Creek, were we checked in to the camp site, where a Great Bowerbird had is bower next to the toilet block and shouted at you every time you passed by. and then headed out to look for Parrots in the town. An area by the Cricket pitch held plenty of Rosellas and a few Red-winged Parrots and we had several small flocks of Varied Lorikeets fly over. We drove to a couple of other places in town but eventually a small patch of grass had the bird we were looking for  - the Hooded Parrot. A pair of these birds were feeding on a fine grass seed and were then joined by 4 more. Another very localised endemic bird and a very attractive one at that. We finished the day at the small group of ponds where several honeyeaters were present including a Bar-breasted Honeyeater which was new. This had been a really great day - we had a decent meal and a beer at the local eatery before hitting the canvas fairly early.

Gouldian Finch

Male Gouldian Finch

Long tailed Finch

Great Bowerbird at his bower at the campsite.

Red winged Parrot

Hooded Parrot

Hooded Parrot

Tuesday 19th August - Kakadu - Darwin

Phone signal had been largely non-existent since we left Darwin but I had a signal in Pine Creek and found out that Adie had been suffering with a tummy bug and she would be seeing the Doctor this morning, so I agreed with Mike that we should head back towards Darwin after our first stop rather than visit the Lichfield National Park. The main target for today would be Rainbow Pitta and Mike was confident that sites nearer to Darwin would be a better option to try.

Before dawn we drove to another nearly dry creek and after so breakfast set up to watch the small patch of water for birds to come to drink. We saw some distant Gouldian Finches but they remained fairly distant. Double-barred Finches , some Long-tailed Finches and a single Masked Finch were also seen. Northern Rosella and lots of Little Friarbirds and a Spotted Pardalote were also by the Waterhole. A walk along the dry riverbed which was interspersed with patches of water added Grey Shrike-thrush, Rufous-throated Honeyeater and Olive-backed Oriole along with a distant Sacred Kingfisher and several more flocks of fly-past Varied Parakeets and a few Cockatiels.

We then headed back towards Darwin on a fairly long drive - I received intermittent texts that started with Adie being referred to the hospital with suspected Apendicitis to having blood tests and been given the all clear with just de-hydration being the culprit, so our plans on-route changed several times before reverting back to plan A where we headed to Howard Springs park just outside Darwin.

The park has a small lake, some deciduous forest and a Mangrove forest, which was the trail we entered. being the middle of the day it was fairly quiet on the bird front (although the Fruit Bats were very noisy and smelly) just a Grey Whistler and Orange-footed Scrubfowl were seen, but then on top part of the trail a rustle in the undergrowth and a Rainbow Pitta popped out - excellent - As pitta's go it was fairly unbothered by our presence although hopped away after preening itself for a couple of minutes. So we'd successfully seen all the main target birds.

Mike thought it would be a good idea to finish off around the sewage works in the Palmeston suburb of Darwin, where there is also more mangrove scrub that borders the settling beds which can only be viewed through a chainlink fence, perhaps with the exception of the Pitta some of the Mangrove specialist birds are all shades of grey in colour, which is unlike most of Australian birds. We parked some distance away and had to bash our way through some very high and dense dry scrub before we reached the concrete-bordered sewage works.

The first settling bed had a large number of Whiskered Terns hawking over the water and several Common Sandpipers around the edge. We walked down to the first corner where the mangrove vegetation started and quickly found at least 3 Mangrove Robins and a Mangrove Grey Fantail.
We walked along the length of the sewage works passing 6 Settling beds each with different bird species depending on the water levels but we picked up  Pacific Golden Plover, 3 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, 2 Red-necked Stints, 4 Black-fronted Dotterel and  Red-capped Plover along with a lot of Masked Lapwing. A pair of Brahminy Kite were in the far corner and  the scrub at the far end of the site held a fine ,male Red-headed Honeyeater and a Mangrove Gerygone. As we got back to the car an Australian Figbird was seen  along with a large flock of Crimson Finches. This proved to be a very good last stop  on what was a great 3 days. It was great to see Sal and the girls again , especially the recovering Adie, and we had a great meal that night on the wharf at a restaurant with views into the sea, which included a Shark swimming next to the wharf !.

Morning creek

Northern Rosella

Cockatiels at the waterhole

Rainbow Pitta

Only seen in Mangrove forests of the Northern Territories

Never seen under a hedge in Sussex

Mangrove Robin

Red headed Honryeater

Wednesday 20th August Darwin - Bamarru Plains

Today was another adventure - we left our apartment and went to the General Aviation terminal at Darwin airport and boarded our 6-seater plane for a 50 minute flight to Bamarru Plains, with spectacular scenery on the route we landed easily on the dirt landing strip. Bamarru is the indigenous word for Magpie Goose and the small luxury camp where we were staying was on the largest Buffalo ranch in the area - 300 square kms  with 5,500 head of Buffalo but also on the Mary River flood plain. We had a 30 minute drive in the Landcruiser from the Airstrip to our accommodation which was spectacular. There were 9 cabins, of which we had 2 all with views over the floodplain. filled with Buffalo, Wallabies and Correllas as well as a plethora of Waterbirds.

This for me was not about the birds as I'd just had 3 days good birding in similar areas, but more about the experience shared with the girls and we had a great time.

Our activity for the afternoon we arrived was effectively a booze cruise with Crocodiles !!! - We drove down to a boat ramped - loaded ourselves and the drink onto a pontoon-type craft and cruised up and down the Mary River until Sunset. Luckily for me we saw a couple of birds - most excitingly an Australian Bustard on the way down to the boat, then a Brown Falcon, Striated Heron, Black Kite and Glossy Ibis, Great Egret and a Pacific Baza with Pied Heron, White-faced Heron and Australian Pelican.

Unfortunately I couldn't get an isle seat.

Flying over the outback to Bamarru

Transport on arrival

Our Cabin

View out from inside the room

View from our cabin

Sunset over the floodplain.

Australian Bustard

Thursday 21st August - Bamarru Plains.

A day of general relaxation and enjoying our surroundings. With Adie still recovering from her De-hydration episode I stayed with her in the morning while Sal and Adie and  went out in the afternoon on a drive around the area , with more now familiar birds on view, lots of Magpie Geese, Glossy Ibis, all 3 white Egrets, Pied Herons, White-faced Herons, Masked Lapwing, Australian Pelican a Marsh Sandpiper, Greenshank. Hardhead, Green Pygmy Goose, Australian Grebes. With the raucous flocks of Little Correllas joining the Wallabies and Buffalo on the flood plain in front of the cabins, this was a truly sensational place.

The Dining Room with part of the swimming pool

Perhaps this Buffalo died on its feet

Little Correllas

Hannah and I wearing a bit of dust

View over the floodplain

Friday 22nd August - Bamarru - Darwin - Cairns

This morning I ventured out on the airboat, a noisy experience that you'd hardly call wildlife friendly, but we did see some spectacular scenery and plenty of Magpie Geese - in the '000s - Along with Comb-Crested Jacana, Black-necked Stork, Blue-winged Kookaburra, Rainbow Bee-eater, Forest Kingfisher White-bellied Eagle and plenty of Whistling Kites.

We relaxed for the rest of the day until reconnecting with our tiny plane in the afternoon back to Darwin and then back to the main terminal for our flight to Cairns which arrived after 11pm. We picked up our hire car and drove North to Newell Beach which is near Mossman which took 75 minutes arriving at our house we'd rented for the week around 12.30pm.

Blue winged Kookaburra

Magpie Geese

More Magpie Geese

Black necked Stork or Jabiru

WWhistling Kite

Cattle Egret with Buffalo

Some people can be grumpy in the morning

And more Magpie Geese

Saturday 22nd August - Newell Beach, Queensland.

A day to vegetate further after our travels . So we did very little other than a brief explore of the local  Mossman area. Norma was staying with us for the week. We were in a delightful house with the beach across the road and the whole area had a lovely atmosphere
so it felt like this was going to be a great place to spend our last week.
.

Newell Beach beach

inside the house - with a pool deck !

Sunday 23rd August - Birding the Port Douglas area

It would be amiss of me not to be able to get a full day out birding around here. We were in this part of Australia 8 years ago, although we stayed much nearer to Cairns and I spent 2 days out birding then, seeing many of the Wet Tropic endemics, although notably there were 3 in particular that I didn't see which were Chowchilla, Golden Bowerbird and the Southern Cassowary.  Cassowary sightings are partly (or mostly) about luck and it wasn't even on the to-try-for list for my day out today with Doug Herrington a local birder.

Doug collected me from the house just as the light was showing. We started the day's list at the end of the road just where the river enters the sea noting a pair of Beach Stone Curlew, a Pied Oystercatcher and 2 Whimbrel along with a fly past Rajah Shelduck and a Bar-tailed Godwit and both Sacred and Collared Kingfishers. Driving out of Newell Beach we picked up an Australian Hobby on the wires and further down the road a Brahminy Kite and a tree full of Metallic Starlings. We went to Port Douglas, where a small urban pond had Purple Swamphen , Helmeted Friarbird, Figbird , Olive backed Sunbird and Dusky Moorhen. We then stopped at another small pond just out of town that had a surprising number of species with a Hardhead , Pacific Black Duck, Magpie Goose, White-faced Heron, Black-Fronted Dotterel and White-headed Stilt, and a Horsfields Bronze Cuckoo was a surprise find on a fence near the entrance. We drove down a small road into an arable area where Golden-headed Cisticolas, Tree Martins and Fairy Martins , Chestnut-breasted Mannakins. were moving about through the long grass. We then drove to Doug's house which is just in the hills , another small pond on the way held a Black necked Stork , Royal Spoonbill and Wood Duck. The reason for visiting his house was he had some Topknot Pigeons feasting in the trees at the back of his plot and we saw 2 that were still there along with his resident pair of Bush Stone Curlew and also a brief view of a  Bridled Honeyeater. We carried on and had a Coffee stop at another Great Bowerbirds bower where we also saw Yellow honeyeater, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, and Red-browed Finch.

We then journeyed over the hilltops and onto the escarpment, turning off a couple of side roads into grassland which was supposed to be good habitat for Australian Bustard. Initially we couldn't see any even thought the place looked perfect only a Nankeen Kestrel and Brown Falcon were added. Then on another road we stopped to view down a grass airstrip and found an Australian Pratincole and further down the road we caught up with the Australian Bustards where we counted 17 in total.

Our next and final stop before lunch was at a campsite and as soon as we got out of the car a pair of  Tawny Frogmouths were found roosting in a tree above the path. Also in the vicinity were lots of Galahs, Pied Butcherbird, Pied Currawong, Little Friarbird and Pale headed Rosellas. We continued walking around the site until eventually we came across a party of  Apostlebirds (there were probably 12 as their name implies).

Our last birds on the list before lunch were Grey-crowned Babbler and Squatter Pigeon, we stopped for a burger at the local pub and couldn't believe we had managed 90 species in the morning which had been great.

The focus after lunch would be to try for some of the wet tropic endemics up on Mount Lewis but firstly visiting a friend's house where there were plenty of honeyeaters. En-route we saw a Grey Goshawk then stopped for a large tree snake crossing the road but picked up a gorgeous male Red-backed Fairywren.

Doug's friends house was surrounded with nectar filled flowering shrubs and also plenty of sugar syrup feeders along with this a big list of Honeyeaters - White faced, Yellow Spotted, MaCleays, White-cheeked, Brown-backed, Scarlet and Lewins Honeyeaters

We left the Honeyeaters to feed and drove up  Mount Lewis to the trail at the top . Shortly into the trail we found - Athertons Scrubwren, Large-billed Scrubwren, Yellow-throated Scrubwren, and Mountain Thornbill, and then shortly afterwards the first of what would turn out to be many Chowchillas. An odd looking bird of the dark understory normally heard rustling and very active in small groups but can be difficult to even though the size of a large thrush, and a bird I missed here last time. Our quest now became the main prize of the Golden Bowerbird. We continued to see good birds with Grey-headed Robin, Fernwren, Golden Whistler and Grey Fantail

We walked to a small dam and then decided we had enough time to walk the trail  to the telegraph mast. A couple of times we went off trail to check inside the forest and on one of these occasions Doug found a Golden Bowerbirds Bower , we waited for a short while and then heard the astonishing call of the male bird (like an electrical current), but despite the wait it didn't show so we continued on the main trail. As we got to the furthest point we heard another bird and eventually managed a sighting of the Golden Bowerbird, although it remained fairly high in the canopy and disappeared fairly quickly. We decided to walk back to our first Bower, on the way we also saw a Bowyers Shrike-Thrush. We positioned ourself behind some trees with a view of the bower and before long heard the amazing call again, this time the bird came down to perch just over the bower and good views were had before moving deeper into the forest.

On our descent plenty of Spotted Catbirds were heard but remained hidden but we did see 3 Tooth-billed Bowerbirds feeding in the open.

This had been a very full but fantastic days birding .

Beach Stone Curlew

Australian Hobby

Golden headed Cisticola

Australian Bustard

Tawny Frogmouth

Pied Currawong

Pied Currawong

Apostlebird

Galahs

A Galah

Red backed Fairywren

White throated Honeyeater

Grey Fantail

Golden Whistler

Pale headed Rosella

The bower of the Golden Bowerbird

And the male Golden Bowerbird

Chowchilla

Tooth billed Bowerbird

Scarlet Honeyeater

Monday 24 August - Mossman Gorge

A trip out today to the nearby Mossman Gorge rainforest centre, a wonderfully laid out visitor centre and easy trails through the gorge were a worthwhile experience. Understandably there were a number of visitors here but the forest was interesting and a few additional birds with Brush Turkey, Pale Yellow Robin, Spectacled Monarch, Rufous Fantail.

In Mossman Gorge

in the rainforest

Australian Brush Turkey

Tuesday 25 August - The Barrier Reef

Well it wouldn't be right to come to Queensland and not see the Barrier Reef . Out of all the available tours we opted for a trip to the Low Isles, not least because the craft used was significantly smaller than the vast double-hulled cruisers they take out to the main reef (and therefore less people - ).

The boat left from Port Douglas and the journey out was a couple of hours, we didn't see much until we neared the island when  I resisted my urge to yell out "there's a Brown Booby" as one flew past, as being the only one on the boat with binoculars  I was worried the other passengers might just decide I should be taken into custody. The options when we moored up were to go on the glass bottomed boat tour around the reef, go to the island and walk or snorkel . So we all did a bit of the options . Turtles were the main amphibian action and Reef Sharks were probably the fishy highlight.

Several of the localised Varied Honeyeaters were around the island which also had nesting Ospreys and Collared Kingfishers. As the tide went out a few waders appeared on the mud with Sooty Oystercatchers and Grey-tailed Tattlers and several Pacific Reef Egrets.

On the boat keeping quiet about Brown Boobys

Approaching the Low Isles

Turtle through the glass bottom

The lighthouse on the island

At low tide - the exposed mud

Our boat

Thursday 27th - Cape Tribulation

The day trip today was to drive through the Daintree National Park as far as Cape Tribulation (which is as far as you can travel on sealed roads (and as far as the hire car company permits you to take the car).

The first landmark we reached was the Daintree River crossing. A car ferry operated by a chain pulley system, but you have to cross the river here to continue North.

We entered the Daintree National Park and first went to the Rainforest Discovery Centre . we turned off the main track and drove down the track leading to a place to park and as soon as we got there a Southern Cassowary was at the side of the road !! - It spent a little time foraging before crossing the road and disappearing off into the forest. This was an unexpected bonus as they can be really tricky birds to catch up with and this was another lifer.

We spent a couple of hours walking the very informative boardwalks around the forest and also saw a perched Wompoo Fruit Dove, we then headed for some lunch at a beachside café and a walk along the beach seeing Red-capped Plover before heading to Cape Tribulation. The beaches here are vast and despite the hot sunny weather are largely devoid of bathers (due to stingers and the estuarine crocs).

Cape Tribulation was another stunning beach and we thoroughly enjoyed the scenery in this part of Tropical North Queensland. We slowly headed back via the local Ice Cream factory

Southern Cassowary

 

Queensland Beech

Friday 29th and Saturday 30th August

A day of relaxing before the long and uneventful journey back to the UK ! - We'd had a great time in Aus and the birds and scenery had been fantastic.