Top End 2013 - Edith Falls to Kakadu

September 11th

An early start.

Again.

Derek and I set out for one of the creeks on the way into the campground, which we sussed out yesterday. We arrived and set up, but nothing much showed except some Longtails. At least they were of eastern race, Poephila acuticauda hecki, known as the Heck's Longtail. It's distinguished from it's Kimberley cousin by having a lipstick-red bill instead of yellow.

I'd like to just mention something at this point - I continue to be amazed by how well small sites like these are known to twitchers from all over the place. Even now, when I mention to people "Oh, I saw (this or that) at Edith Falls" the usual response is "Oh, the creekbed on the way in?".

Our target for the morning was Hooded Parrot, which Case saw here a few weeks back. We continued waiting, Northern Rosellas, Budgies, Cockatiels, Galahs, Little Corellas - basically every hookbill except the one we wanted! 21 Gouldians also flew over, but sadly didn't land to drink.

An annoyingly obscured Northern Rosella at the creekbed near Edith Falls 

In frustration, we wandered off in opposite directions down the creek. I followed it along a longer body of water, noting nothing more interesting than a Collared Sparrowhawk. After fifteen minutes I walked back, to find Derek still missing... I continued walking in the direction he had gone, but no sign. I called, but he didnt answer. I was beginning to get a bit worried, when I heard some cockatiels land in a tree nearby and begin making aggressive noises. I half turned, just in time to see a long-tailed, blue parrot fly over my head and land in a tree twenty meters away.

The male Hooded parrot - a Northern Territory endemic

The male Hooded Parrot sat there for a few minutes, unfortunately keeping his head on the other side of a twig, before flying off downcreek towards where we had been sitting.

I followed him back to our folding chairs. A few minutes later, Derek appeared - apparently we'd passed each other on opposite sides of the creek and not even noticed each other. It was getting warm and very fly-y, so despite Derek not having seen the bird, we headed back to camp.

We travelled to Kakadu along the Arnhem Highway. We stopped quickly at the Bowali visitors centre, where I failed to find the red-eyed race of the Partridge Pigeon, which can often be seen around the centre.

We set up camp at the caravan park near Jabiru, and after the usual hot, sweaty, half-hour of tent-pitching, we settled into the pool for a while.

When it was cooler, I went for a walk and managed to get some photos of my second lifer for the day - Dusky Honeyeater. I thought I had seen one at Edith Falls, but I couldn't be sure so I didn't tick it then.

Dusky Honeyeater

After calling Ashwin Rudder for a check in and some Kakadu advice, we set a basic itinerary for the next two days. Tomorrow we are checking out the visitors centre for Partridge Pigeon, and then continuing to Nourlangie for a crack at Banded Fruit-dove... Hopefully our luck holds!!!!!!!!!!! 

12th September

Today we slept in!

Unnnnnnntil about 6.30. So much for that. We're all so used to waking up early that we were awake naturally by six, and stopped bothering to pretend otherwise by half past.

We stopped at the visitors centre on the way to Nourlangie Rock, to try for Partridge Pigeon. A supposedly easy species - or at least, not a difficult one.

As is always the way with the not-supposed-to-be-difficult-species, no luck. One easy to moderate species missed already - I was very worried about our chances of finding the much more difficult Banded Fruit Dove at Nourlangie.

Despite my eagerness to hurry there, we took a wrong turn and ended up at a billabong, so we went for a look. Stunning birdlife, and the place itself was beautiful - turns out what you see in magazines and on TV actually exists! But by this stage in the trip, nothing new in terms of bird species.

Wandering Whistling-ducks

We arrived at Nourlangie and began the walk. Although we spent several hours in the area, not one Banded Fruit-dove showed.

Walking along the track just below the lookout, I heard a sound like someone raking leaves from the forest on the left. Glancing over, the sweat trickling in my eyes (it was already over 30 degrees), I saw a small seating area half obscured by trees - the sound was too big to be reptilian, so I passed it off as a mammal, perhaps a human cleaning up around the seating.

After walking on for a few meters, I turned back. Perhaps if it was a human they could tell me if they'd seen the Fruit-doves.

I arrived, and immediately two rounded, black shapes darted off into the forest, making strange cackling calls. After a moment of surprise and confusion, the name hit me - Orange-footed Scrubfowl, a species, to be honest, I had completely forgotten existed. A lifer for me, so the disappointment of dipping on Fruit-doves dissipated a little.

Orange-footed Scrubfowl - 2 of 3 megapodes on my list!

Returning to the path, as the fowl cackled at me from the depths of the forest, I turned my bins to the rustling in the eucalypts along the track. A male Rufous Whistler hopped into view. Lowering the binoculars, I caught a slight glimpse of a second shape. 

I returned the binoculars to my face, expecting to see a female whistler. 

What popped up instead was a smallish, grey-brown honeyeater, a white gape-line extending from beneath it's beak to near it's ear.

In confusion, I snapped a couple of photos before the realisation hit me - White-lined Honeyeater. A species I hadn't even put on the possibles list, so I was pretty damn surprised! I zoomed in on the blurry photos to be sure, and when I looked up again the bird had disappeared. After a (short) victory dance, I continued the climb up the hill.

White-lined Honeyeater

Agile Wallaby staring at me from the vegetation at Nourlangie

As I searched the stunning cliff faces and rock formations for Chestnut Quilled Rock Pigeon, with no success, I decided to bugger it all and just relax in the scenery for a while. I'd left my short lens in the car, both a curse for missing some great shots, and a blessing for being one less thing to carry in the awful humidity. Some Red-tailed Black Cockatoos flew past at eye level, and a Mistletoebird fossicked in the canopy of a nearby tree - the wonders of being high up, you get to see Mistletoebirds from an angle other than directly below!.

After a second dip for the day on the Partridge Pigeon at the visitors centre, we returned to camp and spent a hot hour or two in the pool, before setting out to Cahill's Crossing, to watch the Saltwater Crocodiles feeding as the tide in the East Alligator River turned and began flowing upstream.

The reverse, up-hill tidal river is something I'd long wanted to see, ever since I read about it in Colin Thelie's book 'Brahminy'. Arriving before high tide, we were able to watch this remarkable phenomenon, as well as watch some crocodiles. Most in the water measured 1-3m, but one massive one on the far bank must have measured at least 4.5, possibly 5m. 

There was very little feeding behaviour among the crocodiles today, but lounging on the bank I did pick up Varied Triller as my third and final lifer for the day.

Why did the crocodile cross the road?

Dollarbird at Cahill's Crossing

Tonight in camp we had a presentation by the ranger on the National Park. I opted out, instead calling Simon and lying in the grass watching the stars. When Derek and Sue arrived back, I regretted the decision. Derek had heard a night bird, and after trying him on a few calls, he reacted immediately to the 'choo' call of the Owlet Nightjar. My bogey bird. I raced for my torch and spent half an hour searching the area, but the night was silent. Bloody bogeys!

Tomorrow we are taking a Yellow Water cruise, and then hopefully doing the boardwalk. There are Bush-stone Curlews wailing right now, so I don't know how much sleep I'll get tonight!

As a current-day blogger's note, guys, if there's anyone who reads these that doesn't already know about Joshua Bergmark's blog "For the love of birds", go check it out - there's a link on the left side of the main page of this blog. He's just been to the subantarctic islands and we in the Australian Young Birders Group all hate him for basically being eaten by penguins, but it's an AWESOME read!