Top End Birding – Australia – Part 3 Final Leg

This will conclude the final leg of our 3 week trip to Darwin in search of the Top End birds. It moves on from Katherine and continues to Victoria River and Timber Creek before returning to Darwin. So our 3 weeks is up – 3rd to 24th Oct 2013.

Our campsite in Katherine is Shady Lane. It lives up to its name and with the facilities it offered it is probably the nicest of the campsites and the best priced.

Before we leave Katherine we spend an early morning in town in search of the Yellow-rumped Mannikin. Instead we find the Chestnut-backed Mannikin and 3 Buff-banded Rails. Then as we are about to start off again Sally spots several Varied Lorikeets amongst the Rainbows.

We took the advantage of being in Katherine to visit Katherine Gorge. There was quite a steep climb to the top for the view. At 9 am we were going no further than 2/3rds of the way up – hot and hectic – see photos.  We also visited Mike Reed’s home along the night before. He was kind enough to invite us in to check out the birds in his property and to offer us a delicious tea.

The gorge was interesting and we saw some special birds along the way.

And then it was time to move on. We headed West towards Konunurra with the intent of stopping at Victoria River roadhouse and Timber Creek along the way. We got as far as Timber Creek (290 kms west of Katherine) before deciding it was time to return to Darwin. In retrospect this was a poor decision as we ended up having too much time on our hands at the end. It would have been more interesting to have continued the extra 220 kms to see the area and get a taste of the Western Australian birds.

Mike had given us info of places to stop at along the way to find some key species. However it seems that everywhere we went had been burnt out – which was rather a pity. However we were rewarded with several nice sightings along the way – and in particular on the Buntine highway 125 kms west of Katherine. We were told we were unlikely to find Banded Honeyeater this year but Sally found one – see photos, along with Budgerigars and Cockatiels.

Have you ever seen a Road Train – well here is a poor picture – all of 120 metres long! Not something to pass with a Campervan and certainly scary when one passes you – it seems to go on forever.

Victoria River was one of our favourite stopping places – from a birding point of view. We had a long road with a flat bare field on the way to the boat launch which seemed to call in a number of different species – Australian Pratincoles and Bustards as well as different Falcons and Goshawks. The bridge over the river served as a great vantage point to look for the elusive Purple-crowned Fairy-Wren which we eventually found. Also it was from there that we were lucky enough to watch Brown Quail scurrying about.

Our next stop was only 90 kms further – Timber Creek. Lookout in the town sprinklers for Finches, go to Policeman’s Point to find the Fairy-Wrens and don’t forget the airstrip for Oriental Plovers and Pratincoles expected at this time of the year. Good advice but mostly unlucky with habitat change. However we did take the scenic lookout over the town and found our first Black-tailed Treecreepers. The Timber Creek campsite was well treed and not bad for some birds – albeit birds we had seen previously. Gregory’s Tree was just up the road – a large Baobab of significance to both the Aboriginals and the early settlers. We were told Gouldian Finches were often seen there but we found none! However the site was interesting.

Decision time. On to Konunurra or back to Darwin. We chose the later and now regret not exploring beyond as we had too much time on our hands at the end in Darwin. We probably would not have found many more species but it would have been good to see the area. Certainly we were expecting Katherine to Konunurra to be dry hot and barren but we found it far from that. The Victoria River which we followed was as large as any in in South Africa and still flowing strongly at the end of the dry season. The journey was through sandstone escarpment and the habitat varied and well treed.

From Timber Creek after a late start we headed straight back to Katherine. We popped in to several of the birding spots we had visited along the way but mostly it was too late in the day. One or two birds were photographed.

So back in Katherine to Shady Lanes camp site. The plan to visit Ferguson River again very early. We arrive there at 06h30. The Hooded Parrots are all around us. We quickly take our position right next to the waterhole – this time I took a chair for comfort!

The Hooded Parrots soon started coming down to drink – there must have been close to 50 of them. Once they had had their fill it was the turn of the finches – Long-tailed, Masked, Double-banded, Crimson and a couple of Gouldians.

After an unintended detour to Lichfield Park we headed for Darwin – a long haul in the heat of the day – fortunately the air-conditioner in our campervan worked extraordinarily well.

Once back in Darwin we stayed at a different campsite – Oasis. It was closer to where we wanted to revisit the next day – Fogg Dam. Early start as usual. The Dam seemed much quieter than when we visited 2 weeks earlier – perhaps because of all the rain they had (which we missed). Anyway we were rewarded with several new species which we had yet to see.

From there we headed for Adelaide River bridge along the Arnham Highway – hoping to find a Mangrove Golden Whistler. This was not to be although we did find a bird which we were almost sure could have been a female – picture taken and later told it is a Lemon-bellied Flycatcher.

The following day we returned to Lee Point. A walk along one of the tracks flushed 50 to 100 Chestnut-breasted Mannikins – which obligingly posed for photos. The waders on shore were abundant – thousands. A great many were Great Knots.

We also re-visited East Point and found that the Northern Fantails had completed their nest and were sitting for us.

That night we headed south to a campsite we had heard about – Tumbling Waters. Very attractive and with quite an active camp bird population. Sally even spotted one elusive Northern Rossella right next to our campsite. We had been looking everywhere to find one.

While there we visited Darwin River Dam but heard lots and saw little (that we could ID anyway).

While there we visited Denise Goodfellow – whose book we had been using throughout our travels. We were very impressed with her knowledge of all things flora and fauna. She helped to set us right with several of our mystery birds.

Our last day (morning) was spent initially on Tiger Brennan Drive, Darwin looking for the Chestnut Rail without success – tide was too high. Afterwards we returned to where we started – Charles Darwin NP. We tried the mangroves for Mangrove Golden Whistler – which we could not find despite it calling within metres of us. Otherwise a quiet day with sightings of a number of birds including Pheasant Coucal and a Grey Shrike-Thrush.

So that concludes our 3 week trip around the Top End of Darwin. We hope you have enjoyed the stories and photos. We are waiting at the airport for our flight at one in the morning – back to Melbourne.

Paul & Sally Bartho