| Birding
On My Own - Australia and New Zealand 2002 Emmalee Tarry |
Comments | Table of Contents |
Kakadu National Park |
4 / 4 |
I arrived in Darwin in the afternoon on August 21 and checked in Shady Grove Campground. It is much too hot to bird in the afternoon. I have decided that mornings are for birding and afternoons for sitting by the pool or even better in it. Willy is hitting 10,000KM and is due for an oil change. I made arrangements to get it done the next day. On Thursday evenings the campground sponsors a sausage sizzle. For AU$2 you get a sausage with grilled onions on white bread and a glass a wine. This is the last week of the tourist season in Darwin and the last sausage sizzle. It is too hot and humid from now until after the next wet season.
I left early the next morning for the East Point Reserve. This is a park with several beach areas. The beaches are beautiful, but signs warn against swimming here because of the very poisonous box jellyfish. I can't believe people actually live here.
At the first beach stop I had Common Sandpiper two Sacred Kingfishers, Ruddy Turnstones, Lapwings. At the Equestrian Club gate: Imperial Pigeon, Bar-shouldered Dove, Peaceful Dove, Rainbow Bee-eater.
 |
I thought I had gotten really lucky when I found this stone-curlew standing in the grassy park area. Closer examination convinced me that this is actually a Bush Stone-curlew. The more elusive Beach Stone-curlew is only found on the beach. I only saw one too far away to photograph. This is a nice shot of the Bush however. |
| The park abounds in Orange-footed Junglefowl. This is one of
the three Megapods or mound builders and along with the Bush Turkey is not
endangered. I wandered around in this park until I found my way to Pee Wee's restaurant. There is a track into a remnant of the rainforest which follows a power line. I walked this track and another which branched off and found: Varied Triller, Large-billed Gerrygone, White-gaped Honeyeater. A Gerrygone is a warbler type bird and the name is not pronounced Garry gone. Put the accent on the second syllable ger rig' gon ne. Most Europeans are familiar with the bird so calling it Garry gone will label you as a North American birder. |
 |
 |
Agile Wallabys are at home and protected in this park.
Notice the white strip along the cheek. I was wandering through the park looking for the Mangrove boardwalk. Just after Lake Larribee turn right into a parking lot. Once in the parking lot you will see a sign for the boardwalk. By the time I finally located the boardwalk it was 10 AM and far too hot. Also the tide was very low. This area was a big disappointment and I had only Leaden Flycatcher and White-gaped Honeyeater .. |
| Behind the 50m outdoor swimming pool at Nightcliff. I found
this group of White-breasted Woodswallows all lined up on a wire. How
curious that these birds even in the heat of the day sit so close
together. This parking lot also had: Restless Flycatcher, Sacred Kingfishers, Red-colared Lorikeet, Little Friarbird. |
 |
Follow Casuarina Street to a parking lot with a big banyan tree. There is a bridge to a mangrove covered island here. I was too hot and tired to take it on, but I think this may be a good place to come to in the morning. Unfortunately it is popular with dog walkers. How does anyone live in this heat and humidity and walk their dog at noon.
It was just too hot for me so I went to the grocery and took the car to be serviced. Back in the campground I immersed myself in the pool until the sun went down. I did see Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike , Rufous-banded Honeyeater, White-gaped Honeyeater from the pool.
I was eating a sandwich when I heard something large scratching in the dirt beside the camper. In the leaves was a Pheasant Coucal, a large bird with a long tail. When I shined a flash light on it, it took off running across the parking lot. I had a hard time identifying it because it was not in breeding plumage. This was where the Michael Morcombe field guide came in handy as it had an illustration of the non-breeding plumage. It is always good to have more than one field guide.
Charles Darwin National Park
My last morning in Darwin I went early to the National Park. The city of Darwin was named in honor of Charles Darwin as is this National Park. From the picnic grounds you have a nice view of the high rise buildings in downtown Darwin. The park was built to preserve the mangroves. Unfortunately the more accessible mangroves closer to the city have all been built up into condominiums and houses.
The park area was an army camp during World War II and you can see some large concrete bunkers from the war days. Darwin was the target of 65 Japanese bombing raids during the war. It is hard to imagine how anything was left after 65 raids, but I guess bombs didn't do so much damage then.
In the picnic area I had a flock of Brown Quail and Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike. I walked a track in the very dry woods around the picnic area with little success. The mangroves are about a 3 km walk from the parking lot and that was too far for me in the heat. This morning it got hot quickly. Darwin National Park is full of biting insects too. Not really my kind of place.
| Driving out of the park I passed this large lizard on the gravel road. I believe this to be a Frilled Lizard or Frill-necked Lizard. It was very lethargic and allowed me to approach. According to the lonely planet book Watching Wildlife Australia, it is not easy to see except in the wet season. If it is disturbed it raises its frill. I would have loved to see the frill, but I do not purposely disturb wildlife and left it in peace. It certainly made my trip to the park worthwhile. |  |
My next stop was at the Darwin Botanical Garden where I toured the Children's Evolution Garden. It is good to see that here at least people are not afraid of Darwin's Theory of Evolution. I took a walk up through the tropical rainforest to the information center and picnic ground. There were Orange-footed Junglefowl, Brown Honeyeater, Varied Triller, Mistletoe Bird, Double-banded Finch, Magpie Goose, Black Kite, and Sacred Kingfisher.I had my first flock of Fig Birds.
I the hot afternoon I toured the Museum of the Northern Territory which contains Aboriginal Art, Western Art, and an exhibit about hurricanes. This is a good place to learn more about the aboriginal rock art of the Northern Territory.
Unfortunately Darwin is getting me down. It is too hot to bird much past 10 AM in the morning. Last night some kind of flea or biting blood sucking insect got in the camper and really did a number on my legs and arms leaving hard little bites that itch. This morning there is a big fire near town and the smoke hangs over the hot humid city like a pall. My lungs are wheezing like they did the week I spent teaching in Mexico City. Instead of stopping at the lagoons and Howard Spring on the way out of town, I put the petal to the metal and headed south on the Stuart Highway. I thus missed my chance to see the Rainbow Pitta. I left some good birds unseen and some good birding behind. It was a mistake to wait this late in August to come to Darwin and this year the hot muggy weather of September is starting early. Last summer the wet season did not produce as much rain as usual. The drought seems to be spreading north.
I got to the Homestead Resort in Matarenka in early afternoon. I needed a good rest and a night at the campground next to the Elsie Hot Springs National Park was timely. From the campground I walked 500 yards down a path to a spring that bubbles water at 34 degrees Centigrade into a rock pool built by the soldiers during World War II. It is a restful spot surrounded by palm trees. I spent 2 hours just floating in the pool. That night I ate dinner at the restaurant having the fish Barramundi and vegetables. I met two birders there who had stopped at Howard Spring and had seen the Rainbow Pitta
| One of the most common sites in the Northern Territory are the termite mounds along the road. Most are much larger than these. Just as you leave Kakadu National Park there is a roadside park that explain termite mounds. |  |
| Kakadu National Park | Next Chapter | Back Page 3 | Table of Contents |