At the start of the year when I told my wife that I was
going to try and get 300 bird photos in 2016, I half-heartedly suggested that
to do it we would need to visit Darwin.
Amazingly, she was ultra-keen to go to Darwin
as well, and a few months later it became a certainty as we booked flights and
a hotel for a 4 day holiday. My wife’s parents graciously offered to
stay at our house and look after our children which meant that this was our
first holiday as a couple for many years. Then the countdown began…
We arrived in Darwin
a bit after midnight on the 30th
of September, collected out luggage, and got a taxi to our hotel room. After
checking in and settling, we finally got to bed at 1:30am. It took me the usual hour and a half to get to
sleep. The alarm woke us up (well, I don’t think I got any ‘real’ sleep) at 5:00am so that we could get ready for our tour
to Kakadu on a big tour bus. Two hours of attempted sleep would have to be enough! It wasn’t a birding tour by any means, but I was
hoping to see plenty of birds anyway! We made our way to the pick-up location
just outside of our hotel by 6:00am
and were greeted by hordes of Red-collared Lorikeets flying around in the
pre-dawn light. Lifer number one!
After only a short wait, the bus turned up, we got on, and
began the long drive to Kakadu. Along the way I spotted many, many birds, but
could only identify a few as it was still a bit dark. There were many raptors
around, most of them Black Kites (I saw at least 50) and Whistling Kites.
Our first stop was the Warradjan Cultural
Centre, which was only a quick stop for people to go to the toilet and buy souvenirs
from the shop. In other words, a quick look around in the area for birds! There
were plenty to be found, and I racked up five lifers in about five minutes
(Red-tailed Black-cockatoo, Shining Flycatcher, White-throated Honeyeater, White-gaped
Honeyeater, and Northern Fantail). I’m also 99.99% sure that I saw a
Bar-breasted Honeyeater, but that .01% of doubt comes from no photo and only a
brief view. Bugger! I managed to get photos of quite a few species in a short time, but I got some better photos of some species later on and chose to use them for later posts...
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| #249 Shining Flycatcher |
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| #250 White-throated Honeyeater |
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| #251 White-gaped Honeyeater |
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| #252 Mistletoebird |
Then we got to Yellow Water, for which
I had very high expectations! And to be honest, it did not disappoint, even
though the tour operators said it was the worst time for birding. There had
been recent rain that had filled up the area, pushing the birds into the floods
and out of the main areas. The heat was also against us. The thermometer on the
bus was reading 41 degrees. It certainly felt like it as well. As a result,
many birds were hiding in the shadows. On top of all of this, there had been a
recent influx of honeyeaters that had just (in the past few days) dispersed as
the trees had stopped flowering. But I loved it anyway. We had some great views
of saltwater crocodiles, and I managed to get some ripper photos of them. I
was able to photograph all of the birds that I expected to see on the cruise, except
for the kingfishers, of which we saw none. On the cruise, I picked up four
lifers (Green Pygmy-goose, Paperbark Flycatcher, Black-necked Stork, and Pied
Heron) as well as a few photos for the year list. At the hotel next to the car
park where we had lunch, I was lucky enough to find two more lifers (Great Bowerbird
and Dusky Honeyeater).
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| #253 Green Pygmy-goose |
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| #254 Black-necked Stork |
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| #255 Pied Heron |
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| #256 Plumed Whistling-duck |
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| #258 Intermediate Egret |
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| #259 Dusky Honeyeater |
Our final destination was Nourlangie
Rock, the place that I was looking forward to the most. This location hosts a
few of the top-end endemic species that I was hopefully optimistic of finding.
This most certainly was not the case. It had gotten even hotter, and impossibly
more humid. I was really feeling the heat. Dehydration had set in. I was preparing
to disappoint myself by staying in the shade and not exploring the location. I
searched deep within for some inner-strength and failed to find the courage to
proceed. I got moving though when I saw that a group of old ladies from our
tour bus walking off in front of me. I guess it was embarrassment that pushed
me onwards! I made it up the short path and few steps to the rock art site. While
everyone else was exploring the rock art, I heard a Sandstone Shrike-thrush
calling, and was off to find it! The heat, dehydration and exhaustion were all temporarily
gone as I followed that call. A lot of frustration followed as it was very
difficult to find the source of the call, but eventually I got a few glimpses here
and there. The photo that I longed for was simply too difficult to get. Then I
heard a White-lined Honeyeater, but couldn’t get a visual at all, so according
to my own birding rules, I couldn’t claim it as a lifer. Bugger! And then the
heat got me again, so I walked back to where the bus was parked and sat in the
shade, pouring the remains of one of my water bottles over me. I could still
hear the Sandstone Shrike-thrush, but I had run out of energy. The bus left
soon, and we started heading back. Out of the bus window I saw a Partridge
Pigeon, a bird that I had really hoped to see, causing me to do my ‘lifer dance’.
Yes!!!
We stopped off a few times at various
places to let some more people off the bus at the accommodation within Kakadu,
and then we all changed onto another bus before starting the long drive back to
Darwin. On the way back I was quite happy to see a Blue-winged
Kookaburra out of the bus window. Unfortunately I didn’t know where I was
because there was absolutely no mobile phone coverage for the maps app to work!
Luckily I saw a few more throughout the trip. All of them eluded my camera!
It was dark by the time we made it back
to Darwin. On the way I witnessed the single most amazing sunset I have
ever seen in my life! I also managed to drink four bottles of water without the
need to pee. The headache started about an hour before we got back to the
hotel. At least I wasn’t sunburnt!
eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31819591
eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31819608
eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31819618
