Martin's Sussex Birding Blog

Sunday, 17 September 2017

Australia (4/8) The Red Centre

We arrived in Alice early afternoon and made a visit to the Old Telegraph Station just outside the town. It shows the fascinating story of how the first telegraph line was established from Darwin down to Adelaide thus enabling direct communications to the southeast coast for the first time.

There were a good few Black and Whistling Kites around but none of the less common raptors. Plenty of birds but all ones I had seen before.

Black Kite

Whistling Kite

Crested Pigeon

Galah

The next morning we had a trip out into the Western McDonnell Ranges visiting Simpsons Gap and Standley Chasm. Fortunately a late start was scheduled, the only one on the trip, to allow a few brave souls to go ballooning over the desert. Myself, I was standing outside the Olive Pink Botanical Gardens at 0630 in the half light. Major problem, there was a high fence and a locked gate with a sign saying that the gardens did not open until 0800. I hadn't planned for this.

Fortunately one of the members of staff arrived at about 0700 and was happy to let me in early. A big relief, I was expecting to see the Western Bowerbird and this was one of my two main targets on the holiday. The other being the Cassowary which I was extremely unlikely to get to see.

Yellow-throated Miner

Australian Ringneck - also called Port Lincoln Parrot

White Plumed Honeyeater

Grey-crowned Babbler

Possible Little Crow

I found the corvids very difficult to identify. Given the location this is likely to be a Little Crow or a Torresian Crow. In both species the eye is dark in the juvenile bird turning to white in an adult. I have probably seen both birds at some time on the tour but I am unable to call the difference.

Spinney-cheeked Honeyeater

Wallaroo

Grey Shrike-thrush

Western Bowerbird

Western Bowerbird. I knew this bird was there, I had researched it on the web from home and I even knew where to look for it in the Botanic Gardens. I can now say that I traveled to the other side of the world to twitch a bird. Fortunately I was the only one that did and I had it all to myself.

I had a quick look around to see if he had a bower but there were two birds present and I did not want to disturb them so backed off and left them to it.

Western Bowerbird

Little Woodswallow

We spent the next day travelling the 450 Kilometres from Alice to Yulara the town closest to Uluru (Ayers Rock).

Uluru (Picture by Sue)

There was little change in the birds we saw but the background colour did change in keeping with the Red Centre.

Magpie Lark

Another Grey Shrike Thrush

Juvenile Pied Butcherbird

Below the only snake that we came across during the trip. It's not a good shot and I did for an instant consider getting my gardening scissors out to tidy up the view. Then I remembered where I was. I think it's probably a Western Brown, very aggressive when threatened, very fast and highly venomous. The aboriginal name for it is Gwardar which translates to - go the long way around.

I usually stick to birds in these blogs and leave the touristy bits to others but I was saddened by Uluru. It has been a home for the Aboriginal people for a long time. Some would say 60,000 years. Two hundred years ago Europeans turned up and took ownership of the land. A concept that the Aboriginals did not understand.

I thought that the land around Uluru had been given back to the Anangu people but now I find that it has only been leased back to them without giving them control over access, tourism etc.

35 people have died climbing Uluru and many have had to be rescued. For safety reasons and because it has spiritual significance, the traditional owners of the site, the Anangu, have asked people not to climb the rock.

There are signs around the base of the rock......

......and what happens

"Either we can't spell or they can't read" says traditional owner Vince Forrester of the thousands of tourists that climb Uluru each year.

My views - I would love to climb the rock but this place deserves the same respect as any other religious site. Stop the climbing.

and more disrespect, this time from the Zebra finches

Next stop The Top End via a flight to Alice and then another on to Darwin

Keep looking - four more blogs on Australia to follow

Australia (5/8) Darwin and Kakadu

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.

Blue-winged Kookaburra

Great shots but still waiting for a good picture opportunity with the Laughing Kookaburra.

Pacific Baza

Spangled Drongo

Bar-shouldered Dove

Orange-footed Scrubfowl

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.

Little Egret - with black feet

Striated Mangrove Heron

Whistling Kite

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.

Green Pygmy Geese

Wandering Whistling Ducks

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.

Black Kite - I think

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.

Blue-faced Honeyeater

Later that day on the Katherine Gorge cruise

Fruit Bats - hanging in the trees

White-faced Heron

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.