Target: 300 Birds: #277 to #285 around Darwin and Litchfiled National Park, Northern Territory, October 2

For our third day in Darwin we had planned to hire a car and drive to Litchfiled National Park. Not a well known birding location, but an incredibly beautiful place to explore.

We couldn’t get the car until 8:00am, so that meant that I could finally explore the park opposite our hotel (where we had been upgraded the most amazing room thanks to my wife’s industry contacts). I knew that there was a Barking Owl roost about 100 metres from our hotel, so that’s where I headed. Along the way I found quite a lot to photograph as well! We found the Barking Owls quite easily, as they were making quite a bit of noise!

#277 Double-barred Finch

#278 Torresian Imperial-pigeon

#279 Little Friarbird

#280 Orange-footed Scrubfowl

#281 Bar-shouldered Dove

#282 Barking Owl

eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31842789

Then we picked up the car and headed to Litchfield. We had a wonderful day exploring the beauty of Litchfield, but as expected I didn’t find many birds. We did see quite a few raptors on the way and my wife was beginning to see the difference between the common Black and Whistling Kites, mostly due to the forked tail of the Black Kite. I mentioned that if we see anything with big, long wings and a square-shaped tail that we would need to pull over immediately. Then, on the way to Wangi Falls, we saw one. I started yelling, “Square-tailed Kite! Square-tailed Kite!” as the bird soared right next to the car. My wife was driving, and she stopped as soon as she could – there was a car right behind us, and there was nowhere to safely pull over. We found a spot a few hundred metres up to the road to do a U-turn, and went back for a look, but could not find it again. It was equally thrilled to see such a wonderful species and disappointed that I could not get a photo.

At Wangi Falls I found more birds than the rest of the park. I was hoping for a Black-tailed Treecreeper, but none were seen or heard. Then we headed back to Darwin, and somewhere along the way I saw a Dollarbird perched on the power lines, so we pulled over and got a photo!