#286 to #296 around Darwin, Northern Territory, October 3

We spent the morning of our last day in Darwin driving to a few birding locations. First of all, we had a look around the botanic gardens for the Rufous Owl, but once again could not find it. Then we went to East Point to have a look for waders. I absolutely love waders, and fortunately for me, there were quite a few at East Point. I managed to pick out some nice ones too!

#286 Terek Sandpiper

#287 Lesser Sand Plover

#288 Striated Heron

#289 Forest Kingfisher

#290 Northern Fantail

Then we went to the East Point Mangrove Boardwalk. There wasn’t a lot around, but I did get a good look at (and bad photos of) two Torresian Kingfisher.

#291 Torresian Kingfisher

 eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31863245  

We only had a short time at this location because I wanted to be at Buffalo Creek early enough to have a chance of finding a Chestnut Rail, which of course, I couldn’t find. But I gave it a good go. I also had great view of a Black Butcherbird, but getting a photo was extremely difficult!

#292 Black Butcherbird

eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31866220

I eventually gave up on the Chestnut Rail so that we could explore Lee Point (we were running out of time) where I got onto some very nice waders.

#293 Yellow Oriole

#294 Grey-tailed Tattler

#295 Grey Plover

#296 Greater Sand Plover

eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31866960

And that was the end of our Darwin holiday. We went back to the hotel to collect our luggage, ate some lunch, and headed to the airport to fly home to Melbourne. I saw 110 species including 41 lifers (42 including Red-collared Lorikeet that eBird considers a sub-species of Rainbow Lorikeet, 43 including Masked Lapwing that has been split from our southern version). That’s a lot in just 4 days!