Over the following week and a half, I'll be publishing an edited version of my trip diary from my latest trip, a 20-day excursion into the NT and NW-WA, the Kimberley region and Kakadu, for the purpose of attending the final Save The Gouldian Fund annual Gouldian census.
No doubt Simon will interrupt me with some of his own posts as well :)
The reason I was able to be involved in the census was due to the incredible generosity of Sue and Derek Burton from Portland Victoria, who offered to take me with them on their trip.
I'll be posting two diary entries a day, so it'll take ten days to get through it.
Hope you enjoy!
August 27th, 2013
Foreword to this post:
Because
today I'm bored and have little to do, I'll be writing the most part of
this blog post in present tense - as it happens. At the beginning,
because i started midway through the second flight, and towards the end,
because I'll be going out birding for a little while, I'll be using
past tense.
I expect most of the future posts will be past tense like
normal due to long days birding :D
Day one of the trip!
I
was awoken by my alarm at the somewhat ungodly hour of six am, which
may not seem too bad, but seeing as in the last 24 hours I'd travelled
several hundred kilometres already, it was a bit of an insult to the
injury.
We left for the
airport after some last-minute final packing, and arrived to find my
plane from Canberra to Sydney and been delayed by half an hour.
Eventually the plane boarded, and we took off at approximately 7.30.
Half an hour and one bottle of violently orange "fruit juice" later, we banked east and headed for the coast and Sydney.
Planes
from Canberra to Sydney generally overshoot the city and head out to
sea, circle back, and then land. I kept an eye out the window, but saw
nothing of interest in the waves.
Landing
on the runway, I had a small party of three Australian Pipits to amuse
me while we waited another half hour or so to park the plane. I was then
told to run very quickly to gate 34 in order to make my connecting
flight to Darwin.
Thankfully gate 34 wasn't all that far, and I made the flight with a few minutes to spare.
I
never do tire of flying. I love the feeling of liftoff, although
the whole ear-pressuring thing is a bit of a pain. The bit in between
landing and taking off is suitably diminished if you don't have a window
seat, but if you do, staring out over the continent gives you some interesting thoughts. Right now I'm looking out the window, and seeing
nothing but geometric shapes of roads and paddocks. What the hell did we
do to this landscape? It's almost hard to imagine there was once something
else here. And there's no suggestion, looking out, of what did use to be
there.
I'm particularly
lucky this trip, in that both of my seats on the planes to Darwin are
window seats, and although I can't tell yet I'm pretty sure I have 2
windows on the way back too. The Canberra-Syndey leg was excellent, as I
was in front of the wing and got a great view. This part
(Sydney-Darwin) isn't as good , as I am directly over the wing and it
fills most of the view. I can see some scenery around it though, so
that's okay.
The
plane's taking a course directly over western Queensland, including
over Mount Isa, home of the Kalkadoon Grasswren. The landscape is so
barren, it's kind of hard to imagine anything living down there - much
less the Night Parrots that brought recent fame to this area (or would have, if we knew where they were!). It may
look desolate, but I'm still really looking forward to exploring this
area with Simon in 2016 for our schoolies!
We're
beginning to approach Darwin now, it's been 3 hours so far, another 25
minutes or so estimated. So far the fastest we've gone that I've seen is
832km/h. Seriously, it's amazing these things can fly so fast. It
really gives you a sense of what people mean when they say 'marvel of
engineering'.
Later...
Well,
we have landed. I'm sitting in the baggage collection area waiting for
Derek - for memory he'll be another 1-2 hours :/.as we landed, we
basically passed through a flock of medium sized dark birds. We were
past them in a second, but I got enough features to call them black
kite. I kept an eye out on the rather scorched looking runway (it's 32
degrees or so outside) for Pratincoles or Little Curlews, but only saw
some Straw Necked Ibis.
28th August
Well, my yesterday's diary went missing as I expected, before I finished writing it. The "notes" on my iPad (where I'm writing these) automatically upload to my mail server whenever I'm connected to the internet, then delete themselves. Very annoying.
Essentially,
Derek arrived at the airport, and while I waited for him to pick up the
car, I walked round the airport carpark. That bagged me a few lifers,
which was awesome!
Blue-faced Honeyeater at Darwin International Airport - No, not a lifer!
Figbird at Darwin International Airport - Again, no, not a lifer!
Rufous-banded Honeyeater at Darwin International Airport -this one IS a lifer
White-gaped Honeyeater at Darwin International Airport
Red-collared Lorikeet at Darwin International Airport
We arrived at Kylie's house (Derek's sister), and immediately Derek and I took off for a walk around the Palmerston Golf Course in the fading light.
We didn't see much, but we got some interesting stuff, like Radjah Shelduck.
Radjah Shelducks, Palmerston Golf Course
So,
today. We got up at 6.30, after a surprisingly good nights sleep, we
set off around the golf course, seeing a brief appearance from a White
Throated Honeyeater, Spangled Drongos, and to my surprise, a male
Mistletoebird. We stayed at the golf course for about an hour, picking
me up several lifers and lots of year ticks including White Breasted
Woodswallow, Crimson Finch, Chesnut Breasted Mannikin, Green Pygmy
Goose, Magpie Goose, Comb Crested Jacana (with babies!!), White Browed
Crake (brief but very close views - too fast for pics), Forest
Kingfisher and White Bellied Cuckoo Shrike. Plenty of other more
familiar but equally enjoyable birds, Figbird, Grey Crowned Babbler and
Rainbow Bee Eater among them. As we were leaving, a flock of four Red
Winged Parrots (all females) flew over. Tick!
Little Corella, Palmerston Golf Course
Mixed waterfowl (and a sneaky feral!), Palmerston Golf Course
Green Pygmy Goose, Palmerston Golf Course
Crimson Finch, Palmerston Golf Course
Comb Crested Jacana with babies!! Palmerston Golf Course
Chestnut Breasted Mannikins, Palmerston Golf Course
Golden-headed Cisticola, Palmerston Golf Course
White-breasted Woodswallow, Palmerston Golf Course
All that done, we packed up after a quick breakfast of weetbix, shared by a couple of inquisitive White Gaped Honeyeaters.
We
hit the road, and began our trip for real. The drive was fairly
uneventful. Lots of burnt countryside, low scrubland, that typical brand
of tropical northern eucalyptus forest. We were surrounded by termite
mounds, some of which Derek estimated would have been 4m tall.
Black and Whistling Kites were everywhere, although while I dozed off apparently they noticed a wedgetail.
We
had a stop in Pine Creek, which was supposed to be to look for Hooded
Parrots, which I'd heard about several times from there. We were very
quickly distracted though by a Striated Pardalote as we were eating
lunch, and having finished, we walked along a creekbed until we came to a
puddle among some eucalyptus that was absolutely teeming with birdlife.
Blue-winged Kookaburra, Pine Creek
Olive-backed Oriole, Pine Creek
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike, Pine Creek
Earlier
that morning I had rung Ashwin Rudder, who I've mentioned on this blog
before. I'd normally text him to give him updates, but I couldn't be
bothered and I wanted to hear his voice when I told I'd seen the crake.
During our conversation, he mentioned he hadn't been far enough inland
in his February trip to the region to see Banded and Rufous Throated
Honeyeaters. Boom. Both species in the tree in front of me! And I know
he went to Kakadu, so he could have seen them where I did.
World's worst shot of Banded Honeyeater, Pine Creek
Sadly,
the Banded HE did not hang around for photos, although the Rufous
Throated did. Olive-backed Orioles, Black Faced Woodswallows a female Leaden
and some Paperbark Flycatchers were also present.
In
a flash, my eye landed on a solitary Long Tailed Finch. I called out to
Derek, but the finch had already disappeared. I could hear some parrots
calling, so I went in that direction, but the calls emanated from a
patch of trees well into private property - and I'm pretty sure they
were red-winged anyway.
Derek
headed back to the car, and I took my time following him. Having only
had a chance for a terrible shot of the Banded HE (despite great views),
I wanted a better go. The Bandeds stayed away, but I did see the single
Longtail again, dashing into and then out of the tree above me. Very
skittish.
We
continued on towards our destination, the Victoria River Roadhouse. We
could see the landscape gradually changing, becoming hillier with red
rocks beginning to peek through. The Kimberley was beginning to show!
We
arrived at the Roadhouse, and after some initial difficulties, Derek
and Sue got their camper trailer set up, and I spent half an hour
banging away at tent pegs for my swag, eventually giving up after
getting them halfway in. It's not windy, so I won't blow away at least.
Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, on the way to Victoria River Roadhouse
White-faced Heron, under the Victoria River bridge
Shortly
after arrival, a man came over to us and introduced himself as Dave, a
fellow birder. I went off for a wander with him down to the Victoria
River, and we had a good time chatting about various birding sites and
species. Apparently he once came across Peter Slater near Alice Springs. He was taking photos of a Western Bowerbird and directed Dave towards
some Dusky Grasswrens.
We
returned, and Dave and I swapped images (his are fantastic, he uses a
7D and 100-400 just like me, but he's much better with them). We settled
down to dinner, and I educated Derek and Sue to the calls of Barking
Owls, which were supposed to frequent the roadhouse lights.
After
tea, Derek and started a lap of the campground, me looking for
night-birds, and he looking for reptiles and frogs. The temperature had
cooled from the slightly boiling temperature of about 35 to a pleasant
25 or so, so it was quite comfortable.
We
found no reptiles, but while Derek was in the toilet block, I managed to
fluke landing the torch-beam on a flying bird - which turned out to be a
Barking Owl, a new species for Derek, and a second-time for both me and
Dave (who had also been in the toilet block). I messed around with some
settings, and the owl sat obligingly. Eventually it flew off, but it
made not a single sound, which I found quite surprising.
After
a while back at the trailer, I decided to try for better photos. S I
set back off again, detouring past another big light in the hope of
Owlet Nightjar or Spotted or Large Tailed Nightjars. None of those, but I
did see two semi-nocturnal Blue Winged Kookaburras, which I assume
we're hunting for insects in the lights beam.
Getting
back to where I saw the owl before, I saw it fly in again. Another flew
by, headed towards the kookaburras, but I focused on the one in front
of me. I managed a few shots, using the elastic strap of my headlamp to
tie my real spotlight torch to my camera lens so I had both hands free
to photograph. Amazing birds. Again the birds were silent.
Barking Owl, Victoria River roadhouse
It's
now 10.22 and I'm in my swag, and the owls have finally started
calling. It's lovely, listening to them. I'd better get to bed, we have
an early start tomorrow looking around. Hopefully no dingoes or
crocodiles will come near me tonight!!
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One blog post down, many more to come! It looks as if I'll be taking a break, dear non-existant readers, for a couple of days as my second pelagic of the year is happening! More posts Monday....
Julian
Awesome start to the write up, looking forward to reading more.. Philip Peel
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