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Darwin and Northern Territory (06/22/2019 – 07/06/2019) – Birding Report

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Darwin and Northern Territory (06/22/2019 – 07/06/2019) – Birding Report Participants: Corey Callaghan and Diane Callaghan Email: [email protected] Overview: At an Australasian Ornithological Conference in Geelong, November 2017, they announced that the next conference would be in Darwin in 2019. I immediately booked it in the calendar that that is when I would do the typical Darwin birding trip. Diane was on board, and so we decided to do a solid birding trip before the conference in early July. There are some tricky ‘must-get’ birds here, and overall we did pretty well. We ended with 198 species for the trip, and got pretty much all the critical top end birds. Didn’t get any of the mangrove specialties (e.g., whistlers, and fantail), but I was still pleased with how we did. Highlights included all the finches that we saw, and the great spread of waterbirds. Chestnut Rail was also a highlight. When I went to the conference, I dropped Diane off to go hiking at Litchfield National Park, but before that we did a 10 day trip, driving out to Timber Creek and then back. Read below for day- by-day highlights, some photos, and various birding locations. Any hyperlinks should take you to the associated location and/or eBird checklists, which would provide precise coordinates and sometimes more detailed location notes. *Note: I follow the eBird/clements taxonomy, which differs in bird names from IOC. Blue-faced Honeyeater Day 1 (June 22nd, 2019): Flight from Sydney to Darwin We had an early flight from Sydney and got into Darwin at about 2:00 PM. After collecting our hire car at the airport we immediately headed off to Fogg Dam, filled with excitement, as this area is often highly regarded as one of the best birding spots in the Top End. We quickly found various honeyeaters that were new, such as Rufous-banded Honeyeater, Bar-breasted Honeyeater, and Dusky Myzomela. I was also particularly fond of the ubiquitous Pied Herons and Long-tailed Finches. We birded here till dusk when some Barking Owls started calling. We ended up with 63 species on our first birding outing of the trip – a good start. We then drove to Mary River Wilderness retreat where we had booked a campsite for the night, and to put us closer to Kakadu for the next day. First we saw a flock of 139 Red-tailed Black- Cockatoo, which was neat! The drive was mostly in the dark with plenty of wallabies along the road. Day 2 (June 23rd, 2019): Mary River Wilderness Retreat to Merl Campground, Kakadu We woke up at dawn and just birded around the wilderness retreat, familiarizing myself with some of the common birds at the top end, and sorting Rufous-throated Honeyeater out the differences among the friarbirds. A Red- backed Kingfisher was a nice addition to the trip, and wasn’t seen again. The White-gaped Honeyeaters were abundant, and a Rufous- throated Honeyeater put on a good show. A highlight here was a Banded Honeyeater that Diane spotted at the top of the tree right above our tent. We ended up with 40 species here on a small walk around the campground area. We then went to the Bird Billabong in Mary River National Park, which was probably one of my favorite walks of the entire trip. We ended up with 58 species as we circum-navigated the billabong. Comb-crested Jacanas were abundant, and both Plumed Whistling-Duck and Wandering Whistling-Duck were being spooked by a Little Eagle and dozens of Whistling Kites. A Black-necked Stork was also seen in the corner of the billabong – an iconic top end bird. We stopped at Mamukala Billabong once we got into Kakadu and bought our park passes. It was pretty hot by then, so the birding was kind of slow and we managed just over 20 species. But there were a number of butterflies out as we walked out to the bird hide. Despite the slow birding, we saw our first Crimson Finches, and Masked Finches, as well as an Arafura Fantail. After lunch at the picnic tables in the shade, we headed to Jabiru where there were recent reports of Spinifex Pigeons (more on that later). A walk around the area yielded 20 species, but mostly common birds. We checked into our campground – Merl Campground – for the Chestnut-quilled Rock-Pigeon night before heading out to Ubirr to look at the Rock Art and explore a bit. Birding was slow, but Little Woodswallow was a highlight among 29 species. The highlight here was probably the Short-eared Rock Wallaby. We went to the border store and the rainforest walk here, but it was very slow, with the only highlight being a Northern Fantail. We ended our evening at the Bardedjilidji Sandstone Walk where we saw 21 species, with the standout being the striking Chestnut-quilled Rock-Pigeon. Day 3 (June 24th, 2019): Merl Campground to Burdulba Campground, Kakadu NP A Southern Boobook greeted us pre-dawn somewhere near our tent. We then went to the Bardedjilidji Sandstone Walk again at dawn and watched the sun hit the sandstone early in the morning. We were hoping for Sandstone Shrikethrush, but no luck. Nevertheless, a very pleasant walk which yielded 29 species. We were booked on for a Cultural Cruise that morning, leaving from Cahills Crossing Boat Ramp (where of course I did a quick eBird list while waiting for the boatmen to arrive). We though the Cultural Cruise (booked through here) was a bit cheesy, but was still an enjoyable ride up the river. Birding was semi-slow, but the highlight was our only Great-billed Heron of the trip. A bird I had previously missed in Cairns, so was relieved to finally see! We still saw 27 species on the boat trip. A quick list at Merl Campground while packing up didn’t yield anything surprising. Another look and drive around Jabiru didn’t yield any Spinifex Pigeons, but a Caspian Tern flying over the lake was the only one for our trip. We checked the wastewater treatment plant, but few birds were around, aside from a few ducks that were new for the trip. We got to Burdulba Campground about 2:30 and there was some good bird activity in the trees surrounding the camping area. There were also boatloads of mosquitoes. From here, we drove to Nourlangie Rock and walked around the beaten path here. We ended up hearing and eventually seeing White-lined Honeyeater here without much trouble. Some terrible photos are in the eBird list. We went back to Berdulba to camp, and lit a nice campfire to keep the mosquitoes away as much as possible. A heard-only Australian Owlet-nightjar was new for the trip here. Great-billed Heron Day 4 (June 25th, 2019): Berdulba Campground to Pine Creek We started the morning fairly early at Gubara, headed out to the pocket of rainforest at the end to try for Banded Fruit-Dove and other specialties that are sometimes there. Unfortunately, the birding was fairly slow at the pools, and we didn’t get any of the goodies, but White-lined Honeyeater were frequently heard calling and some seen in the distance along the sandstone. A flock of honeyeaters foraging was nice, where Banded Honeyeater put on a nice show, along with Dusky Myzomela, and various Friarbird species. On the way back to the car we ended up seeing a Sandstone Shrikethrush in the distance along the top of the sandstone cliffs. Flew off quickly and didn’t allow any photos though, with its undulating flight. We had a total of 32 species on the walk to and from the falls. The 7 km return walk to the Gubara pools took a big chunk of time in the morning, and we certainly enjoyed the air conditioning by the time we got back to the car. We then drove to Gunlom Falls but didn’t get there till the heat of the day at about 1:30 PM. We decided to go swimming, and as soon as I got in, and turned around, a Black-banded Fruit-Dove went flying past! An amazing bird, but unfortunately couldn’t relocate it in the trees. We decided not to walk up to the top of the escarpment mainly because we were under the impression that the grasswren was no longer possible up there. [Shortly after we were there, people re-found the grasswrens up here, so I am kicking myself for that decision!!]. We only had 16 species here, but the dove was undoubtedly worth the trip into the falls. Hooded Parrot We then headed to Pine Creek for the night, where we decided to just pitch our tent at the Lazy Lizard Campground (which was rather unpleasant for tent-camping). After setting up our tent and resting for a bit, we went for a drive and didn’t even get out of tent before finding Hooded Parrot. We then drove around to various places around Pine Creek for the afternoon/evening (e.g., the Wastewater Treatment Plant, and Lake Copperfield Recreation Dam), but generally found the birding to be pretty slow, and nothing of note was really seen. We were then waiting till dusk at the famed Ghost Bat site, where the best bird of note was Varied Sittella among 14 species. The Ghost Bat (iNaturalist observation here) was found exiting the mine shaft from about here: -13.833, 131.84. Day 5 (June 26th, 2019): Pine Creek to Victoria River Roadhouse We were up early to try and get to a recent sighting of Gouldian Finch bright and early.
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