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


janzin

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1 hour ago, Kitsafari said:

Stunning birds and beautiful photos Janet! 

 

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

 

They definitely aren't, as you know! We saw another species of pitta later in the trip which wasn't nearly that cooperative.

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Wow, what gorgeously colourful birds! Love this report Janet, looks like an awesome report so far. Like Kit and Jo I also loved the Attenboroughs about Lyre- and Bowerbirds, and yes the Chainsaw is unforgettable.

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One of the main natural and cultural highlights of the Northern Territory is Kakadu National Park. This vast park is (according to Wikipedia) about half the size of Switzerland, and comprises four rivers, extensive wetlands and floodplains, waterfalls, and numerous geological features. And perhaps most importantly, in addition to its incredible natural beauty, it remains a sacred land to the aboriginal peoples, with over 5000 recorded rock art sites.  Several of these are easily accessible to tourists and any visit to the park, even for birders :lol:, must include these historic sites.

 

And it is home to several endemic and specialty bird species.

 

The best time to visit Kakadu is in the dry season, and for birders, August-September is a great time. Towards October and through December it becomes unbearably hot--reaching over 100 degrees--and increasingly humid. From December through April is the wet season and the floodplains flood, many roads are impassable, and some areas are closed off.  For more information on the park, check out this site: https://parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/

 

We had three nights to spend in the park and our home base was the centrally located and comfortable Cooinda Lodge (with very good food!) But we didn't head there right away. Not long after we entered the park, Laurie spotted one of our first target birds: Partridge Pigeon, just sitting by the side of the road.

 

partridge_pigeon_JZ5_3330a.jpg

 

A handsome pigeon, indeed! I didn't even notice the lovely purple in the wing until I got home and looked closely at the photo.

 

We stopped to pick up some lunch and breakfast provisions at the local supermarket (most breakfasts we ate out in the field, as we usually were leaving our lodgings too early for their breakfast.) Right in the parking lot of the market we found this unique looking bird--he was actually most interested in picking at some fast-food crumbs on the sidewalk and so let us approach quite closely.

 

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Our first major birding stop was the Mamukala Wetlands. This place is a birder's paradise! A short walk leads to a very large hide with ample benches and seating and very close proximity to wetland birds.

 

Here's the general view from the hide. Lots of birds!! How many species can you pick out of this photo?

 

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One of the first things we focused on wasn't a bird at all...but this huge lizard! Although it is called Sand Goanna, it seemed happy in the water.

 

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Following is a sampling of photos taken from the hide. Hold on for bird overload :)

 

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This Night Heron wasn't actually swimming...but it was odd to see him posed like this! He was standing I think in shallow water.

 

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These Wandering Whistling Ducks are so sweet, they get two photos.

 

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Here's a bird that wasn't a lifer for us in Australia--as we have the same Glossy Ibis here in the Americas.

 

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Now, here's another bird worth multiple shots. It was a bird I'd really hoped to get some good photos of, and I'm pleased.

 

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The hide was also fantastic for practicing flight shots, as the ducks and geese would fly in and out in predictable directions.

 

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It was truly difficult to tear ourselves away and according to my photo time-stamps, we spent nearly two hours here. But there was more to see today so we dragged ourselves out of the hide.  Although we weren't quite done at this spot...on our way back to the car we found a group of roosting Little Corellas.

 

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Now it was about 3 p.m. and time to head to our first rock art site: Nourlangie, where in addition to the paintings there were a couple of target birds to be sought. But would they be found?

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Two important endemic, and highly localized birds were our target at the aboriginal rock art site of Nourlangie: Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon, and Banded Fruit-dove. I won't hold you in suspense--we dipped on both of these here--not for lack of trying! However, we would have another chance tomorrow as we could return here and they are also possible at another site we will visit, Ubirr.

 

But even without the birds, Nourlangie was spectacular, and we had plenty of time to spend taking the trails among the rock art sites.

 

Here's a bit of the landscape.

 

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I call this "Elephant Rock" although I don't think that's really its name.

 

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The boardwalk trails wind in and around the rock face, and there are three major areas of paintings. There are many recognizable animals and spirit creatures.

 

You'll certainly recognize Kangaroos in these.

 

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Mimi spirits

 

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This is in the style of what is called "x-ray art" that is, naturalistic depictions of animals and beings that show the internal organs and other anatomical features, usually painted in white and red ochre.

 

nourlangie_FUJI1148a.jpg

 

Some of the most spectacular art is in the Anbangbang Gallery.

 

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I am no expert in interpretation of these images, but if anyone is interested, more info can be found here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nourlangie_Rock

 

Although we didn't find either of our target birds here, we did have a brief glimpse of a very localized and rare Black Walleroo. He didn't really pose for photos though.

 

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And a pretty Skink...

 

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Birds were few, but we did get a nice posing Torresian Crow. These are quite common but this one was very cooperative and calling.

 

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The day wasn't quite done with birds though. On our way back to the lodge, we found a beautiful Brown Falcon by the side of the road, he was hunting something...

 

brown_falcon_JZ5_3819a.jpg

 

And right at our lodge, a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo finally posed. Of course we were constantly hearing their croaking calls and seeing them flying high, but getting one perched out in the open, with at least a bit of a crest, was not so easy! At least not with our limited time. Unfortunately I never got the full crest display, but this will have to suffice.

 

sulphur_crested_cockatoo_JZ5_3879a.jpg

 

All in all another fabulous day. Tomorrow morning, another highlight awaits--a dawn cruise on the Yellow River.

Edited by janzin
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loving this report and of course all the spectacular photos....thanks for sharing...

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Wow, Mamukala really delivered for you. When we stopped there we didn’t see a single wader, and only a few very distant ducks.  I was quite disappointed, I guess we were just unlucky.  

 

i was home with a sick child one day this week, and I try to show my kids nature documentaries so they’ll want to go on safari with us (my fifteen month old already roars when she sees a lion or tiger on tv :D), and there was a bunch of episodes about Australia on. Between that and your report, I really feel the pull of returning Down Under!

 

i imagine,staying in Cooinda, you must have done at least one Yellow Waters cruise?  I can’t wait to see your photos for there, what a beautiful area and full of birds.

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3 hours ago, Zubbie15 said:

Wow, Mamukala really delivered for you. When we stopped there we didn’t see a single wader, and only a few very distant ducks.  I was quite disappointed, I guess we were just unlucky.  

 

 

i imagine,staying in Cooinda, you must have done at least one Yellow Waters cruise?  I can’t wait to see your photos for there, what a beautiful area and full of birds.

 

@Zubbie15 What time of year were you there? I suppose it might depend greatly on the water levels.

 

Yellow Water Cruise will be up next, as soon as I get some time, hopefully tomorrow :)

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Black wallaroo? That's a new one for me! Looks like you were really lucky to see that!

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7 hours ago, janzin said:

 

@Zubbie15 What time of year were you there? I suppose it might depend greatly on the water levels.

 

Yellow Water Cruise will be up next, as soon as I get some time, hopefully tomorrow :)

 

We were there early August, so should have been good. There were a lot of fires in that/region while we were there, perhaps that had scattered the birds somewhat.  Looking forward to your next installments.

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9 hours ago, kittykat23uk said:

Black wallaroo? That's a new one for me! Looks like you were really lucky to see that!

 

Yeah we were excited! Its one of the rarest 'roos and restricted to this one area in the Northern Territory. http://www.rootourism.com/fsheet17.htm

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@janzin Love your photos - just superb. Your TR is bringing back memories from my QLD trip two years ago. I stayed at O'Reilly's and whilst it might market itself to all sorts of interests, the birding and wildlife there was superb. It's also very comfortable with good food! Loved your pics of the Superb Fairywren, surely one of the best birds in the world!

Edited by Galago
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The next morning Bellbird had arranged for us to go on the dawn Yellow Water Cruise, a highlight of any trip to Kakadu. https://www.kakadutourism.com/tours-activities/yellow-water-cruises/ This cruise goes along the Yellow River and billabongs and for most tourists, the highlight is the chance to see crocodiles, but of course there are a multitude of birds as well. Its not possible to get a private cruise here, so we shared the boat with others, but the guides gave us ample time to stop for birds and do photography. All the guides are well versed in history and aboriginal lore as well as the natural highlights; most of the guides are indigenous people.

 

Our accomodation, Cooinda Lodge, was actually within walking distance of the cruise departure, but Laurie suggested we drive so as to be the first in line, so that we could sit in the very front of the boat--best for bird photography. The dawn cruise is best for birds.

 

The morning mist on the water was just beautiful.

 

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Here are some of the birds we saw as we cruised the waterways.

 

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One of the highlights for birders are the kingfishers. We were really fortunate to get great looks and even photograph-able views of the two most-wanted. Even the non-birders aboard were excited by these beautiful birds.

 

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And the smallest of the Australian Kingfishers...

 

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And more Comb-crested Jacanas, affording nice close-ups.

 

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The billabong when the light came up. The boat in the rear is a fishing tour.

 

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And indeed, we saw some crocodiles. These are all "Salties" or Saltwater Crocodile, sometimes called Estuarine crocodile. The other tourists were quite impressed but honestly, we thought they seemed pretty small compared to the Nile Crocodile in Africa :lol: I suppose they get bigger.

 

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After our wonderful 2-hour cruise, we returned to Cooinda Lodge for a huge buffet breakfast--breakfast is included in the sunrise cruise fee.  Once satiated, we made a run back to Nourlangie to try again for the Banded Fruit-dove.  Laurie had seem them here on his last trip, but alas, once again we had no luck. Oh well, a reason to return!

 

That afternoon we would head to Ubirr, another aboriginal site with some special birds.

Edited by janzin
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Really beautiful pictures from the Yellow River @janzin and the Azure kingfisher is gorgeous.

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Before heading to Ubirr we made a stop at a spot where Laurie knew of a special bird, Variegated Fairywren. We saw a pair but they were a bit distant and not that photographable, but a beautiful bird. This pair also were banded. Laurie expressed that he really didn't bother photographing birds with bands, but it wasn't going to stop me from snapping a lifer!

 

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The rock art site of Ubirr is another heritage site with extensive and accessible paintings.

 

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One extraordinary painting shows the Tasmanian Tiger, or Thylacine. This creature became extinct on the mainland more than two thousand years ago--an indication of the age of this painting.

 

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There are many paintings here of fish and other foods.

 

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A big draw here, in addition to the rock art, is the gorgeous view from the escarpment...especially at sunset. We didn't stay quite until sunset at we still had birding to do, but the view was spectacular.

 

ubirr_FUJI1209a.jpg

 

Folks hike up to the very top of the flat rock for sunset. We didn't go up all the way. (iphone panorama--click to see full size)

 

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(iphone panorama--click to see full size)

 

looking the other way...

 

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But what about our target birds?  There were two we were aiming for here: Chestnut-quilled Rock-pigeon, and Sandstone Shrike-thrush.  Just as we were coming down the escarpment, we found them both...at the same time! I didn't know which to shoot first and I opted for the pigeon.

 

chestnut_quilled_rock_pigeon_JZ5_3924a.j

 

I did get a record shot of the Sandstone Shrike-thrush, but the lighting was terrible.

 

A couple of other birds we saw at Ubirr. Both of these are very common birds which we saw in many places, but my photos from here were best :)

 

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Last but not least, as we were walking back to the car, we heard a rustling in the rocks.  Another wallaby species for the trip!

 

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Another memorable day at Kakadu. Tomorrow, we head out of the park, further south towards Nitmiluk National Park.

 

 

 

 

 

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Did you over saturate that azure kingfisher or is it really that blue @janzin :P ? Wow! What a little gem!

 

I like the wallaby too. Did you see any bilbies?

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1 hour ago, kittykat23uk said:

Did you over saturate that azure kingfisher or is it really that blue @janzin :P ? Wow! What a little gem!

 

I like the wallaby too. Did you see any bilbies?

 

That's pretty much the color! They don't call it "azure" for nothing! ;)

 

No Bilbies...looking at this distribution map, we were not in the area in which they are found. https://savethebilbyfund.com/about-bilbies/biology

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~ @janzin

 

Several of the landscape shots really struck me as looking like great habitat for smaller reptiles and invertebrates.

 

It's helpful to see the terrain in order to better appreciate the context of all that you've photographed with style and grace.

 

Knowing next to nothing about the rock art, your generous assortment of photos is a real plus.

 

When it once again becomes possible for Safaritalk threads to be viewed by non-members, I'll share a link to this trip report.

 

There are life science students here who would benefit from reading your comments and seeing such excellent photography.

 

Thank you!

 

Tom K.

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5 hours ago, Tom Kellie said:

 

 

Several of the landscape shots really struck me as looking like great habitat for smaller reptiles and invertebrates.

 

 

 

Indeed @Tom Kellie Australia is a herpetologist's dream, in fact I know someone leading a "herping" tour there next year! We saw several lizards but there are some really wild ones that I would have loved to find.

 

And as always thank you for your kind comments :)

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We headed out of Kakadu early the next morning. Our first destination outside of the park would be Pine Creek. So I won't go on a site-by-site here because honestly I don't recall where some of these birds were spotted, so this post will just be some miscellaneous birds that we saw in Kakadu during the time we were there.  :)

 

This guy sure looks a lot like our friend the Kori Bustard in Africa.

 

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The Red Goshawk is one of the rarest raptors in Australia. We were lucky that Laurie knew where there was a nest. Unfortunately, I recently read on his Facebook page that the tree blew down (after nesting season, so the nest wasn't occupied at that time.) Hopefully the pair will stay in the area.

 

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little_woodswallows_JZ5_5009a.jpg

 

 

Next stop, Pine Creek.

 

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@janzin I am really enjoying your TR - makes me want to get on a plane and return to the "Top End" immediately but then I think of the January temperatures and humidity, although one day last week Hobart was 5C hotter than Darwin.

 

Your wallaby sightings are amazing, you have many more species than me so I must look more carefully in future.

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@janzin, no need to emphasize that all your photos are fantastic! The sunset at Ubirr is a proper spectacle ... unfortunately also we have missed it by leaving the rock too early.

 

A birding question: does the number of bird species varies over different months/season?

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@xelas I forgot that you'd been there, hope this brings back memories :) As for birding, I think in the Northern Territory, most birds are resident; however there are a few that migrate down from Indonesia and such. For instance, a bit later in the season it is possible to see Dollarbird, and Imperial Pied Pigeon, but we were too early for those. The other migrants would be shorebirds and we were definitely not there at the peak time, that's also later in the wet season,  October onward.  But of course after September it gets increasingly hot and humid so usually folks recommend Sept/early Oct as prime birding months.

 

Here's a run-down of the seasons for birding: https://www.experiencethewild.com.au/?p=Birding-Info-Best-Time

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Fantastic report! Really brings back memories from Kakadu! Did you get to see a lot of monitors/goannas?

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11 hours ago, ForWildlife said:

Fantastic report! Really brings back memories from Kakadu! Did you get to see a lot of monitors/goannas?

 

Thanks, we saw just a couple...there's a Sand Goanna earlier in the report and we saw a couple of water monitors later in the trip, in Queensland.

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Our next stop was the little town of Pine Creek, along the road from Kakadu to Katherine, our destination for the night. This unassuming old mining town is actually a birding hot spot, as there's a reliable place there for Hooded Parrot, Great Bowerbird, and several other targets.

 

But first, there were a couple of mammals to see. Flying mammals...but mammals!

 

The town park has a huge tree used as a roost for both Little Red and Black Flying Foxes.

 

The tree:

 

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Can you see the mass of bats? Here's a closer look.

 

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Every so often, some would fly out and we spent some time and had some fun doing flight shots. They are big targets so it wasn't TOO hard to catch them in flight.

 

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Laurie knew of a bower of the Great Bower Bird here. Would he be around?

 

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This Bowerbird likes white objects. Laurie came prepared---with a bottle cap treat for him.

 

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He brought it into his bower to add to his collection. I wonder how many of those bottle caps came from Laurie? :lol:

 

great_bowerbird_JZ5_4415a.jpg

 

 

We walked around the park and picked up a few more good birds. This pair of Grey-crowned Babblers were busy preening...themselves and each other. They are very social birds.

 

grey_crowned_babblers_JZ5_4420a.jpg

 

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We had seen Red-winged Parrot way back in Darwin on our first day, but this was the first opportunity in good light.

 

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There was a dripping pipe that was attracting lots of Rainbow Lorikeets! Remember, up here they are the Red-collared Lorikeet subspecies.

 

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And yes, we did find Hooded Parrot here! But they were deeply buried in the tree, and so while I got a few record shots...just in case...I'll have much better looks--and photos--tomorrow.  Tomorrow, Nitmiluk National Park, Edith Falls, and a quest for another iconic Australian bird...the Gouldian Finch.

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