Australia's Unique Wildlife: Birds and Beasts Down-under

[janzin]

1 hour ago, Tom Kellie said:

~ @janzin

 

It's exceptional when the subjects decide to become photographer's assistants.

 

Those King Parrots pitched right in to perform on both sides of the lens.

 

I laughed to see that. Better them doing so than a cassowary or an emu.  HA now that would be a sight!

 

 

[janzin]

We arrived in Darwin early afternoon, after an easy 4-1/2 hour flight on Virgin Australia. Australia is big! Our tour with Laurie Ross wasn't due to start until the next morning, so we had an afternoon free. Our hotel for the next two nights was the Club Tropical Resort, which is not in the town itself, but very convenient to the airport and to most birding locations in the area. Unfortunately though, there was no easy way for us to get into the main part of town without a car (and I'm honestly not sure if there was anything much there to see--when we passed through it the next day it didn't look that impressive.)  Luckily we'd bought some sandwiches at the airport because the "resort's" restaurant wasn't even open for lunch. So after a quick bite, with some drinks and chips from the vending machine, I went out for a look about the grounds while Alan rested.

 

It was blazing hot and dry here--Darwin is actually one of the northernmost cities in Australia and surprisingly close to the equator. So there was not much bird activity during mid-day, and the grounds of the hotel had few trees. But I did find a few nice birds on the lawns.

 

 

 

 

Black Kites, which were pretty much ubiquitous during our trip, were circling overhead.

 

 

There were some other lifers, such as Double-barred Finch, White-breasted Woodswallow, and Red-tailed Black Cockatoo---of which there seemed to be a large roost right behind the hotel! But I got much better photos of these birds later in the trip, so I'll pass up posting the inferior ones here

 

Our Northern Territory trip began in earnest the next morning, when we were picked up by Laurie Ross. Laurie runs his own company, Tracks Birding & Photography, but he also freelances for Bellbird and some other companies like Tropical Birding. The first thing he asked us was whether our prime objective was to see as many birds as possible, or to get great photos but with less species. We told him it was a pretty even mix of the two   For those that are more serious about getting the perfect shot, Laurie would set up blinds, sit for hours in one spot, etc. That wasn't what we were after.  As it turned out he gave us the perfect mix of bird-finding and photo opportunities. Since he lives in Darwin and gives tours and birds there (and throughout the Northern Territory) extensively, he has many, many "secret" hot spots for all the specialty birds. He knew where everything roosted, nested, foraged, etc.

 

Our first stop was very near to the hotel where we stopped for some Red-winged Parakeets roosting. The light was very low and again, I have better shots of these later. Next, as the light improved, we went to a spot he knew for a variety of finches, honeyeaters, and other targets. We definitely hit the jackpot there and saw the following beauties...in lovely early morning light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 19, 2019 by janzin

[Tom Kellie]

~ @janzin

 

The Magpie-lark in action. Wonderful moment for the bird, less so for the tiny invertebrate.

 

Be still my aging heart — the Crimson Finch is a wonderful image of an utterly lovely species.

 

I never knew that Casper the Friendly Ghost had a pigeon counterpart. The Torresian Imperial-pigeon is striking.

 

A 4½ flight to Darwin! Having never visited Australia, I lack any sense of scale. Thanks for mentioning that.

 

Tom K.

[kittykat23uk]

@janzin I have wanted to see and especially hear a lyrebird ever since watching Attenborough's life of birds series where one particular individual was recorded imitating a range of man-made sounds, I found it very poignant that its  repertoire included a chainsaw which was cutting down it's forest habitat. Here is the link to the relevant clip (hopefully ):

 

 

Edited January 19, 2019 by kittykat23uk

[janzin]

cool video...we didn't hear him sing or see him display. Just dig and dig!

 

I didn't realize you could upload videos directly, let me see if this works.

Edited January 20, 2019 by janzin

[kittykat23uk]

I upload my vids to youtube and link to them from here. 

 

I clicked your link and it downloaded to my phone I could play the video,   very nice! There didn't seem to be any sound though.

[janzin]

Odd, I'm hearing sound on my IPad. But you're not missing anything, the only sounds are digging and camera shutters clicking!

[shazdwn]

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your report about my backyard (I live in Darwin).  I've met Laurie and he seriously knows his stuff! Lovely guy too.

 

I had to laugh at the photo of the magpie lark (although we usually call them pee wees around here).  I had one dive bombing my car at the traffic lights in the middle of the CBD the other day, they are very territorial around breeding time.  We also have some double-barred finches nesting in the nature strip near our house.  See Darwin is not as lifeless as you may have thought

[janzin]

@shazdwn no Darwin is hardly lifeless! We saw so much there! And cool that you know Laurie, yes he's a great guy, fun to be with.

 

So to continue.... Our next stop was a little oceanside park where Laurie knew of some roosting and nesting Frogmouths. This is of course a highly desired target bird for every international birder! Sure enough, the Tawny Frogmouths were waiting for us. Very cool looking birds, related to nightjars and potoos here in the Americas.

 

 

Sure enough, one was on a nest!

 

 

The morning just kept getting better and better. Next stop, a small trail leading to a beach where Laurie had a reliable Rainbow Pitta.  I'd seen his photos of this gorgeous bird on his Facebook posts but I didn't dare to hope we'd get close looks.  We came to a spot on the trail with a little opening and Laurie said, just stop here, be very quiet and let's wait a bit. Well it wasn't more than three minutes before the Pitta came hopping out!

 

 

OMG, he was really posing for us, seemingly unafraid!

 

 

Laurie said he came here often and the bird was just used to him. In fact, other folks came along the trail, which as I mentioned led to a beach; even some dogs came past which I was sure would scare away the pitta, but the bird seemed unbothered.

 

Wow! Can it get any better than that?? 

 

After about 20 minutes and 300 Pitta photos, we felt we had enough and continued towards the beach area. Finding many more great birds, although it was hard to beat the Pitta.

 

 

Australia has the most amazing, colorful doves and pigeons. If anyone things this group of birds is dull, just go to Australia. The Rose-crowned Fruit Dove is gorgeous, unfortunately the light was behind it and this photo doesn't even do it justice.

 

 

 

 

Well the morning wasn't even over yet and our minds were blown. What would be next??

 

 

[kittykat23uk]

That pitta is gorgeous!

[shazdwn]

Great pitta photos - those guys are not easy to capture.  I'll have to hit up Laurie for his secret spot. 

 

Speaking of Aussie animals with weird names did you happen to come across any Spangled Drongos?

[Treepol]

@janzin beautiful pitta and rose-crowned fruit dove pics

[twaffle]

I just love your photos of the birds, absolutely stunning.  Where I live in South Australia, I'm lucky to have wild koalas visit my trees often and I have a small mob of kangaroos who call my paddocks home.  Although I've only see them a couple of times, our neighbours have platypus in their ponds (they have a conservancy that is fenced to keep feral cats and foxes out) so I guess I'm pretty lucky.  At the moment I have flocks of sulphur crested cockatoos visiting my walnut tree as the nuts are ripe.  They don't leave many for me but I don't really mind.  Your trip looked amazing and I love seeing my country through a visitors eyes.  One day I'll see as much of it as you have.

[kittykat23uk]

Wow! @twaffle I would love to see a platypus!  

[Zim Girl]

Simply stunning bird pictures @janzin, I love the fruit dove - amazing colours. Really enjoying this report.

[xelas]

Australian birds are insanely colourful! Great for spotting them, and easy to ID. @janzin did you have the count?

[janzin]

Thanks everyone who is following along and thanks for your kind comments!

 

6 hours ago, twaffle said:

I just love your photos of the birds, absolutely stunning.  Where I live in South Australia, I'm lucky to have wild koalas visit my trees often and I have a small mob of kangaroos who call my paddocks home.  Although I've only see them a couple of times, our neighbours have platypus in their ponds (they have a conservancy that is fenced to keep feral cats and foxes out) so I guess I'm pretty lucky.  At the moment I have flocks of sulphur crested cockatoos visiting my walnut tree as the nuts are ripe.  They don't leave many for me but I don't really mind.  Your trip looked amazing and I love seeing my country through a visitors eyes.  One day I'll see as much of it as you have.

@twaffle I didn't even realize you lived in Australia! You are so lucky to have all these fantastic birds and critters. Where are you?

 

7 hours ago, shazdwn said:

Great pitta photos - those guys are not easy to capture.  I'll have to hit up Laurie for his secret spot. 

 

Speaking of Aussie animals with weird names did you happen to come across any Spangled Drongos?

@shazdwn oh yes, we saw plenty of Drongos, in both Queensland and Northern Territory.  Photos to come....

 

 

5 hours ago, kittykat23uk said:

Wow! @twaffle I would love to see a platypus!  

@kittykat23uk you'll have to wait until the Tropical North Queensland section, but we saw platypus there!

 

22 minutes ago, xelas said:

Australian birds are insanely colourful! Great for spotting them, and easy to ID. @janzin did you have the count?

 

@xelasI was going to wait until the end to reveal   but the trip total was 282 species, 252 of which were lifers.  Most of the non-lifers were shorebirds, herons, gulls and terns.

[janzin]

The morning was far from over.  We went to several more spots, criss-crossing town to pick up new birds--it may have seemed random but Laurie knew exactly where he was going

 

We stopped at another spot to pick up Rainbow Lorikeet. In some Australian and international lists, this Lorikeet in the Northern Territory has been split into Red-collared Lorikeet. You can see that it has a red collar, whereas the bird further south has a green collar. However, the authority we go by--the AOU (American Ornithologists' Union) still considers it a sub-species of Rainbow Lorikeet. We saw both so if the AOU ever accepts the split, we will gain another life bird!

 

But for the moment I have to call this Rainbow Lorikeet

 

 

 

Some other birds we saw at this site:

 

More Figbirds!

 

 

 

 

Peaceful Doves are ubiquitous in all the places we went, but one of those birds that became so common you forgot to photograph them. So before I forget, here's one.

 

 

We headed out of this park and as we were driving, we spotted a small flock of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos. Although we'd seen them flying a few times, this pair seemed to land and start feeding on the ground so Laurie said, let's follow them. We drove up a dirt road and found them on the ground.

 

The male is solid black, unfortunately he never showed his crest or his red tail.

 

 

However, the female--which I actually think is more striking than the male--obliged with a little crest display.

 

 

Next stop was more or less in the middle of a roundabout where for some odd reason, dozens of Bush Thick-knees were just hanging out! They were behind a fence and there was a lot of leaf litter and brush, so it was hard to get a photo.

 

 

We had one final stop to make before lunch. The Darwin Botanical Gardens. We knew from Laurie's Facebook posts that there were several owls that roost there. Of course, he knew right where to find them.

 

 

Wow, what a beauty! But we weren't done! There was also...

 

 

The Rufous Owl had a fledgling and Laurie had seen it very recently. But we looked and looked in the very dense tree and could not find it. (Of course, I saw that right after our time with Laurie was over, he returned and saw it right out in the open. Oh well!) We spent a long time and many shot of this great bird, but we were getting really hungry by now, and it was getting very hot. So we started to head out, but before we left we found another couple of good birds.

 

Not to be confused with the Lauging Kookaburra, the Blue-winged Kookaburra, although smaller overall, has a more massive bill, and a bluer wing. And is only found in Northern Australia and New Guinea.

 

 

Last but not least we were rewarded with this distant Grey Goshawk.

 

 

Time for lunch! In addition to knowing where the birds are, Laurie also knew great, funky places to eat. I had a fantastic lunch of smoked salmon and avocado on toast in a cute, very busy cafe on an industrial strip not far from the Botanical Gardens, and I wish I could remember the name! (Edit--after perusing Trip Advisor I found it--Sweet Brew & Co. Dining Room. Very good for lunch!)

 

 

Edited January 21, 2019 by janzin

[janzin]

The afternoon was not quite as productive as the morning, but we did still see quite a few new birds.

 

We headed to the East Point Reserve and walked out among the tide pools. Its a beautiful spot.

 

 

Can you see the shorebirds? No? Well they are out there, but required a scope. Luckily Laurie had one

 

 

We actually picked up several shorebird species there, but they were all at scope-viewing distances. So no photos unfortunately. Several life birds though, including Greater and Lesser Sand-plover, Red-necked Stint, Grey-tailed Tattler, and Terek Sandpiper. We were hoping for Beach Thick-knee but no luck with that.

 

Our final stop for the day was the East Point Preserve Mangrove Boardwalk. Our targets there were Sacred Kingfisher and Mangrove Robin.  We had good views of Torresian Kingfisher...

 

 

We saw Sacred Kingfisher too, but too distant for photos. The mangroves here are very dense!

 

 

 

We heard Mangrove Robin but never did see it, although Laurie tried his utmost to call it out.

 

But we had great views of this gorgeous Broad-billed Flycatcher. You can see where he gets his name.

 

 

And Large-billed Gerygone.

 

 

The end of the line for the day...that's our guide Laurie Ross on the left, Alan on the right. Interestingly, Laurie almost never took his own camera with him, although he had his rig with 600mm lens in the car at all times. Only if he thought there might be a unique opportunity. His goal was really to get us the birds and the photos and not spend time getting shots for himself, which was really thoughtful.

 

 

A very satisfying and productive day in Darwin! Tomorrow, we start heading south to Kakadu National Park---but with some stops along the way.

 

[jilm]

so far so fabulous....I can not wait to go and can not wait to keep reading your report...the photos are so wonderful...I hope I get to see some of these birds and nice to know Laurie puts you first...

[janzin]

thanks @jilm I know you will have a great time with Laurie.

[janzin]

Leaving Darwin bright and early, our first destination was Fogg Dam Conservation area, a huge wetlands compound. The goal was of course a variety of waterfowl and a few specialty birds.

 

We arrived just as it was getting light. The ponds are covered in water lilies. There is a road that runs across a levee and you can get out in some spots, but beware of crocodiles! (We actually didn't see any here.)

 

 

 

One of the specialties we were looking for was White-browed Crake. As with most crakes and rails, they are very secretive. But Laurie managed to call one out and we got great views, although photos were tough!

 

Another nice, but skulky bird was Golden-headed Cisticola.

 

 

We actually didn't see much waterfowl here, but there were egrets and herons, Australian Darter, and distant ducks. (I'm trying not to overpost the same species, so where I have better photos of the same species, I am holding off for now.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next...onward to Kakadu!

[Kitsafari]

On 1/20/2019 at 3:19 AM, kittykat23uk said:

@janzin I have wanted to see and especially hear a lyrebird ever since watching Attenborough's life of birds series where one particular individual was recorded imitating a range of man-made sounds, I found it very poignant that its  repertoire included a chainsaw which was cutting down it's forest habitat. Here is the link to the relevant clip (hopefully ):

 

 

 

@kittykat23uk i watched that show too, amd thought exactly as you did. ?

[TonyQ]

What a fantastic day in Darwin, beautiful birds and stunning photos.

Australia seems to have an amazing selection of birds.

Laurie sounds like a very good guide

[Kitsafari]

Stunning birds and beautiful photos Janet! 

 

And that awesome pitta - if only all pittas are like that!