We arrived in Darwin mid afternoon and planned to visit the market at Mindil Beach to try the street food and to watch the sunset from the beach. That gave us just a couple of hours to get to the Botanic Gardens and do a bit of birding. I think Sue was starting to tire of visiting Botanic Gardens by this time but she stuck with it and did help find a couple of good birds.
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| Blue-winged Kookaburra |
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| Blue-winged Kookaburra |
Great shots but still waiting for a good picture opportunity with the Laughing Kookaburra.
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| Pacific Baza |
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| Spangled Drongo |
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| Bar-shouldered Dove |
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| Orange-footed Scrubfowl |
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| Grey Goshawk |
Early the next morning we set off for the Kakadu National Park. First stop was the Adelaide River for the Jumping Croc Cruise. The trouble with Crocodiles is that they all look the same although I have to admit that the height some of these could jump out of the water was quite impressive.
The location was surrounded by good birding areas, Fogg Dam with a list of 136 birds was probably the top location but there were plenty of other wetland areas. Another place worth at least a days birding.
Plenty of mud on the river and lots of Egrets and Herons feeding. This little Egret caused me a few problems.Although it is difficult to see because of the mud, it doesn't have yellow feet. This is a sub-species with only the soles of the feet being yellow.
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| Little Egret - with black feet |
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| Striated Mangrove Heron |
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| Whistling Kite |
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| Whiskered Tern |
Next stop was an Aboriginal homestead and a chance to learn a little more about their culture. A beautiful setting with a lake full of Ducks, Geese and Lillies.
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| Green Pygmy Geese |
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| Wandering Whistling Ducks |
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| Rainbow Bee-eater |
Lunch was at the Bark Hut Inn roadhouse before we headed off through the Kakadu National Park towards Jabiru, and our hotel for the night. On the way we took a detour to Cooinda and went on a Yellow Water Sunset Cruise. Lots of birds here so I have covered it in more detail in the next blog.
Jabiru, a great place. In fact I would have been happy to stop and spend time at any of the place we passed through in these three days but as usual we were on a tight schedule. Today Nourlangi rocks and cave art dating back thousands of years, then on to Katherine and the Nabilil Dreaming Sunset Cruise for dinner as we travel through Katherine Gorge.
But before we go, just a couple more pictures around the hotel area in the early morning light.
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| Black Kite - I think |
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| Blue-winged Kookaburra |
Interesting cave art at Nourlangie but I knew that the Angbangbang billabong was less than a kilometre away. No time again but at least I did get this Blue-faced Honeyeater.
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| Blue-faced Honeyeater |
Later that day on the Katherine Gorge cruise
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| Fruit Bats - hanging in the trees |
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| White-faced Heron |
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| Great-billed Heron |
As we sat down to dinner the Fruit Bats started to fly over and there were a lot of them, all going in the same direction. They must have been passing over us for a good hour. The warden estimated between twenty and fifty thousand. You can see why the local mango farmers don't like fruit bats.
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| Fruit Bats |
The next morning, at Knotts Crossing.
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| White-gaped Honeyeater |
and on the road back to Darwin for the flight on to Cairns
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| Rainbow Bee-eater |
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| Straw-necked Ibis |
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| Peaceful Dove |
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| Silver-crowned Friarbird |
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| Dusky Honeyeater |
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| Brown Honeyeater |
So much still to see and do but we are moving on again.
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