NORTHERN TERRITORY January/February 2001

At Chris' instigation a group of us (Stuart Dashper, Chris Lester, Rosemary Lester, Ross Mulholland, Fred Smith and myself) made a 10 day trip to the Top End in search of birds (of course) and this is a brief report on that sojourn. Our trip in the wet season was extremely hot and humid but well worth the effort for the cheap air fares, lack of other tourists, spectacular thunderstorms and super birding.

Howard Springs
Our first destination was this small reserve about 30km south east of Darwin. It consists of open woodland and a smaller area of monsoon forest surrounding a lagoon, which is a popular swimming spot. Our main aim was to see Rainbow Pitta but this proved a little more difficult than expected. Many were heard but only brief views of a couple of birds were had (see Fogg Dam section). It was a nice start to our birding in NT though with standouts being a superb view of a couple of perched Large-tailed Nightjars, a gorgeous Rose-crowend Fruit-Dove and a number of the Top End honeyeaters like White-gaped, Rufous-banded and Bar-breasted. 

Darwin
Returning to Darwin for a couple of days, we based ourselves in the suburbs so that we could visit the best birding spots, of which there are quite a few. We mainly concentrated on East Point (for waders), Darwin Sewage Works, Holme's Jungle Swamp, Lee Point and the mangroves at Buffalo Creek and Bleeser's Creek. Navigating in Darwin is easy enough and with a car all these sites are easily reached. The beach at Lee Point proved to be really good for waders. We saw large numbers of Great Knot, Terek Sandpiper, Sanderling and Lesser and Greater Sand Plover. In the mosquito-infested mangroves at Buffalo Creek we had super views of Red-headed Myzomela as well as Mangrove and Large-billed Gerygone but not much else of great note. The sewage works were more restricted in size than I expected but still good value with lots of Common Sandpipers, Wandering Whistling-Duck, Pied Heron and so on. It was interesting to see relatively high numbers of Yellow Wagtail as well as a couple of Little Ringed Plover and Little Curlew. In the nearby mangroves we had a great observation of a Swinhoe's Snipe walking through a channel. Holmes Jungle Swamp is a nice but restricted reserve of monsoon forest, grassland and lagoons. Best birds here were Zitting Cisticola and Black Bittern. 

Katherine/Edith Falls
This area was on our itinerary for a couple of reasons - Hooded Parrot, Gouldian Finch and Chestnut-backed Buttonquail. We found the road in to Edith Falls excellent for Hooded Parrots, although we saw far more immature and female birds than adult males, of which we saw two or three only. We also found it to be good for Black-tailed Treecreeper, Varied Lorikeet and Rufous-throated Honeyeater amongst others. In the wet, once you have seen the Hooded Parrot there probably isn't much need to hang around too long - apparently during the dry season the surrounding areas are good for Gouldian Finch (I am told they can be found in the Salmon Gums north of the town) and there are also a couple of sites for Chestnut-backed Buttonquail but we had no success - not through lack of effort! I am also told that many of the local caves hold reasonable populations of the rare and unusual Ghost Bat.

Kakadu

Nourlangie Rock in the morning mist

Our visit here was somewhat restricted by the amount of water lying around. We were slightly hopeful that we might be able to get in to Gunlom Falls to search for White-throated Grasswren but this was not to be. We stayed at Cooinda and contented ourselves with Nourlangie Rock where most of the other specialties can be found. In fact, we had little trouble finding Chestnut-quilled Rock-Pigeon, Banded Fruit-Dove and White-lined Honeyeater at the lookout at the end of the carpark walk. There is a fairly rigorous climb to the top of the escarpment on a difficult to follow trail. We didn't see anything in the way of birds that we hadn't seen at the base of the rock but the view is well worth the effort - really spectacular.

Plenty of Oriental Cuckoos were seen on the Yellow Waters boat trip from Cooinda. At Cooinda itself we saw Barking Owl and White-browed Robin.

Fogg Dam
This reserve is a must on any birding itinerary in the Top End. I really liked it, not least because this is where I got my best looks of Rainbow Pitta. I saw at least six birds, most of them immatures but we did have prolonged looks at an adult in superb plumage. The water level was too high for any big numbers of waterbirds but in the monsoon forest we had Green-backed Gerygone, Cicadabird, Little Kingfisher, Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove and a whole heap of others.

Victoria River Crossing/Timber Creek

view from the escarpment

Stuart and I had a few extra days after all this so we decided to make a trip to Victoria Crossing and Timber Creek. This turned out to be a wise move with some great sightings including good numbers of Star Finch and Yellow-rumped Mannikin, White-quilled Rock-Pigeon, Spinifex Pigeon and Oriental Cuckoo. Not surprisingly, no sign of Gouldian Finch or Pictorella Mannnikin which disperse widely during the wet season. We found the Rock-Pigeon at the top of the escarpment walk a couple of kilometres west of Vcitoria River and the gorgeous Purple-crowned Fairywren was easy to track down in the riparian vegetation near the bridge at Victoria River. There was also the superb scenery at Gregory National Park enhanced by the numerous waterfalls following an overnight thunderstorm.

Bird List 26th January  ~ 6th February   2001