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Lyrebird Tales Volume 27 Number 4 December 2018 Birdlife Yarra Valley Newsletter Inala Nature Tour to Top End & East Rufous Owl photo © Warren Cousins Kimberley; July 9th to July 19th 2018 The best of the new ticks were the Arafura Fantail, Blue-winged Trip Report by Warren Cousins Kookaburra, Rufous Owl, Lemon-bellied Flycatcher, and the Torresian (Pied ) Imperial-Pigeon. My tour started officially on July 10th, but I flew in to Darwin a Initial “birdie” impressions of Darwin were the masses of Black day earlier to get my own picture of Darwin. This was my first Kites seen everywhere; the dusk mass roosting of the lovely visit there, as Brenda and I had only previously visited Alice White-breasted Woodswallows in the city trees; and the Red- Springs and Uluru. I had time for a 2-hour walk all around the collared variety of our Rainbow Lorikeets. Also although the wharf area and saw my first tick for the trip; a White-gaped prolific Magpie is nowhere to be found, there were large Honeyeater. quantities of Masked Lapwings and Magpie Larks. Day 1: The first official day involved meeting the members of Continued on page 2 the tour. An interesting bunch. The guide was Darryel Binns who preferred to be called “Biggles”. He is a gentleman of my age but unlike me, has vast knowledge and experience with birds (and butterflies). He currently ranks third on the Contents birdwatchers “League Ladder” (as shown on Tony Palliser’s funpage of Birders Totals) with a total tick list of 851 birds 1-5. Tour to Top End & East Kimberley by Warren Cousins including 760 on mainland Australia. 5. Mind how you go! The other three guests were a retired doctor from Hobart (with 6. Bourke’s Parrots by Dace Fitton vast experience of trips to Antarctica and Macquarie Island) 7-9. Interesting Sightings and a very pleasant couple from Zambia (Claire hailed from Tasmania originally, and Alistair is a Brit). Being such a small 8. What bird is that? group, we had heaps of room in the Mitsubishi mini-bus. 9. Committee. Bus outing to W.T.P. notice. At this time of year Darwin has almost 2 hours extra daylight 10-13. Reports of Meetings and Outings hours than Melbourne, so this allows for a bonanza of bird- 14. Calendar of Events watching time. Day 1 of the tour started at Darwin’s lovely Botanical Gardens; then on to East Point, and the boardwalk mangroves off Lake Alexander. We amassed a good total of 37 birds of which 15 were new to me. Lyrebird Tales Pied Heron photo © Warren Cousins Rajah Shelduck photo © Warren Cousins Day 2: Today we remained in Darwin and revisited the Botanic Day 3: So this morning we checked out of the Travelodge Gardens to be rewarded with a Grey Goshawk (plus nest); then Hotel and proceeded to the Aurora Kakadu cabins at South on to other places including Knuckey Lagoon, Marlow Lagoon, Alligator. En route we dropped in to the unmissable and terrific and Howard Springs Reserve. A great day with 50 total species Fogg Dam. What an eye-opener this place is with hordes of including a new 19 for me. Most interesting were the Black massed waterbirds of numerous varieties. A lunch stop at Butcherbird (so much larger than our Grey), Black-necked Adelaide River (famous for the Jumping Crocodile tours); a Stork, Red-Tailed Black-Cockatoo, Jacana, Large-tailed brief drop-in to the Mary River National Park; then on to South Nightjar, Pied Heron, Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, and the Yellow Alligator. The units have a nice lagoon plus boardwalks only a (Green?) Oriole. short walk away. The Rainbow Pitta was still being elusive (have heard it several times, but not sighted yet), but not so the local feral pigs. After dinner we did some spotlighting and came up with a pair of Barking Owls just nearby to our cabins. It moved off from tree to tree so we decided to leave it in peace. We saw 56 birds today including 9 new ticks for me. These included the Black Bittern, Radjah Shelduck, White- browed Crake, and the Barking Owl. Tawny Frogmouth photo © Warren Cousins Broad-billed Flycatcher photo © Warren Cousins Day 4: Heading off today to Cooinda Lodge at Yellow Waters (Kakadu). Found the Zitting Cisticola en route and from there dropped in to the impressive Mamukala Wetlands and Bird Hide which had excellent birding. Had the good luck to see a Whistling Kite drop into the water and lift off with what we thought may have been a Jacana. Too far away and happened Plumed Whistling Duck photo © Warren Cousins too quick for any photos. 2 Lyrebird Tales Lyrebird Tales Also saw overhead a Pacific Baza on the UBIRR road; well Day 5: Leaving Cooinda today for the Pine Creek Railway spotted Biggles. Next stop was at Bardedjilidi Sandstone area Resort. Travelled there via Nourlangie Rock and we arrived where we took a short walk through the bush. It was classic here very early to avoid crowds and were confronted with a Kakadu country; just what you’d expect to see here. On to very scenic and walkable area. The nearby lagoon was also Cahills Crossing for our first close-up view of crocodiles. It was very relaxing and although plenty of birds, there was nothing amazing to see people fishing so close to the river edge. Braver new. Got a nice pair of Barking Owls by pure fluke. Then our than me (or more stupid!). Next stop Jabiru and still trying to drive to Pine Creek recommenced but suddenly with about see a Partridge Pigeon without success. Not far then to our 60km to go, Biggles totally unexpectedly stopped the car and accommodation at the wonderful Cooinda Resort and a sunset announced quite casually he was hoping to show us a Red 2-hour cruise on the nearby Yellow Waters. Heaps of birdlife Goshawk. Now this was exciting as I had heard that this bird and the wildlife included crocs, buffaloes, wild horses, cattle is Australia’s rarest raptor, but I was a wee bit sceptical. Sure and pigs. Nothing new here but so much volume of birds and enough though, within 5 minutes we had both the nest and a a fabulous wetland scenery. roosting pair in a nearby tree. Oh ye of little faith. This was quite a find as the bird is uncommon to rare and probably declining in numbers. Another excellent day with 64 birds seen. The highlight was obviously the Red Goshawk, plus a Red-backed Kingfisher. Black-necked Stork photo © Warren Cousins Was interesting to watch from the boat a Stork trying to swallow a largish File Snake. It was all down except the last 30cm when the snake, in one last gasp, wrapped its remaining body length around the bill. This prevented the Stork from swallowing so he had to regurgitate the whole thing, and start the killing / swallowing sequence again. We saw 60 species today, plus 5 new ticks for yours truly. Highlights were the Baza and Masked Finch. By the way, the Rainbow Pitta finally Red Goshawk photo © Alastair Newton turned up today. Long-tailed Finch photo © Warren Cousins Masked Finch photo © Warren Cousins December 2018 3 Lyrebird Tales Hooded Robin photo © Warren Cousins Then off again at 10am into the nearby Gregory National Park Crimson Finch photo © Warren Cousins via Binns Track. Saw our first Diamond Doves and some immature Gouldians, followed by Red-browed Pardalote. A bit Day 6: Today we left Pine Creek and were heading for a 2- later a real bonus with a Hooded Robin. Even Biggles was night stay at Timber Creek. Soon after departure, we stopped surprised and really pleased with this bird. Another “goodun” at a small waterhole hoping to see Gouldians. After a long wait was a low flying Square-tailed Kite. Back for a late lunch, then and lots of other small bird activity, we missed out but were set off again 3.30pm for another 3-hour foray where two more compensated with views of Long-tailed Finches, Crimson Finch ticks with Star Finch and Yellow-rumped manikin. I was etc. We then dropped in to the Katherine Sewerage Treatment buggered now! Plant where we got a small group of Avocets (these were the first Biggles has seen in the Territory for about 10 years). En Day 8: Left Timber Creek today to go into WA, with Kununurra route we stopped at the Victoria River Roadhouse for lunch. being our next 2-night stop. We first did a few more rounds of Magnificent scenery surrounds this area. After checking in to some local Timber Creek haunts, and next stop en route was our accommodation we went off for a couple of hours birding the Keep River National park. It was nice to get good views of at nearby spots. My best birds for today were the two finches a Black-breasted Buzzard. After this we crossed the NT/WA mentioned above. border, but before checking in to our accommodation, we went to Wyndham (got the Mangrove Fantail), stopping just before Day 7: Left our rooms before dawn and went to the local there at the wonderful Parrys Lagoon. Here they have a great airport, Policeman’s Point and Bradshaws Bridge. Were super bird hide where we saw heaps of birdlife. On way back we also excited to see lots of Gouldian Finches. These were in a large dropped in to the Grotto (as featured in the recent ABC TV group including the most common black faced and some red series, Mystery Road).
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