22000kms around Oz (1 Viewer)

I'll be adding to this frequently, so please be patient...there's just so much to put into words...!

For the duration of 2006, I was fortunate enough to be able to spend it travelling the world. After 6 months spent in India and SE Asia, we finally left the melting pot that is Bangkok and arrived very tired and weary in Perth, Western Australia on June 1st. Now, remember that Australians (especially those here out west) are bureaucratic sticklers... so thusly we were pulled over by customs and given the usual 3rd degree and Dawn’s bag was rifled through and swabbed. No problem there we thought, until the bored-looking customs guy came back saying it had tested positive for cocaine.....eek! I could almost hear those latex gloves snapping! After consulting with a colleague he decided that the antibiotics in her bag had given the machine a false reading...hmmmmm not convinced - I think they really were that bored and wanted to give us a fright. It worked! So after being told off for not declaring a Snicker’s bar, the wooden beads I was wearing and my insulin we were finally allowed in...Happy birthday Dawn!
Despite this, I truly love Australia, and being back filled me with a huge sense of excitement at our upcoming adventure. We spent the next two weeks based at the Rainbow Inn, a friendly backpacker’s just out of the city and slowly acclimatized. The weather was gorgeous – blue skies, not too hot during the day and quite chilly at night, perfect! We walked in and out of the city most days, bought road maps, supplies, got warned for jaywalking (!) by a jobbing copper on an empty road (this was quite laughable as we’d just come from Phnom Penh where crossing the road was akin to playing Frogger..!) and spent afternoons chilling in Hyde Park, getting the birdlist up and started with the commoner birds: Willie-Wags, raucous flocks of gaudy Rainbow Lorikeets, Western Ringnecks, Little Corellas, Black Swans, Silvereyes, Pacific Black Ducks, Australian Shelducks, Silver Gulls, Australian Magpies and Ravens, Red Wattlebirds, New Holland and Singing Honeyeaters and the striking Magpie-Lark. After constant searching we finally bought ourselves a Mitsubishi Pajero 4WD for AU$4000, complete with a double-bed in the back and all the camping supplies we could need, from a great couple just finishing their trip round Oz. We had already decided that we were going to buy a car and re-sell it at the end of our travels as it meant we should be able to recoup some of the costs, whereas a hire car, although it has no repair costs, is money gone. We took it to be checked out by a recommended garage and found that it needed a new head gasket, so we had the AU$2000 of work it needed knocked off the price which left the vendor, Max, totally gutted. We were given a hire-van by the garage and used it to visit Monger and Herdsman’s Lakes and to show Dawn the splendour of King’s Park.
These visits boosted the list and gave me my first lifers on the continent – fabulously odd-looking Pink-eared Ducks, confiding Black-fronted Dotterels and Little Grassbird at Lake Monger. Also seen here were the bizarre Musk Ducks in full display, their weird submarine-like bings echoing round the lake as they dropped their heads, raised their tails, flicked their wings and kicked their legs. Australian Hobby chasing Tree Martins and Welcome Swallows, Whistling Kite and Australasian Harrier started the raptor list, whilst Australian Pelicans always seemed so out of pace in this urban setting. Western Swamphens, Dusky Moorhens, Blue-billed Ducks, Australian Shovelers, Hoary-headed and Australasian Grebes, Grey Teal, Hardheads, Australasian Darters all mingled with more familiar birds from home like Coots and Great-crested Grebes.

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An early-morning visit to Herdsman’s Lake added Nankeen Night-Heron, White and Straw-necked Ibis and Western Gerygone, whilst an evening visit gave us a huge flock of Little Corellas and our first Galahs of the trip. King’s Park was, as always, a great place to spend time. Being enjoyed by hundreds of people did nothing to deter the birds, with Mistletoebird, Rufous Whistler, White-cheeked Honeyeater, Western Thornbill, Grey Fantail, Spotted Pardalote, Weebill, gorgeous Common Bronzewings that almost glowed as the sunlight caught that iridescence on their wings, and that iconic Aussie bird, the Laughing Kookaburra all showing well. As we ate lunch, cocky Magpies and a Grey Butcherbird fed from our hands or sat on our legs waiting for another morsel. The wonderful views out across this charismatic city and the poignant war memorials really do make this park a special place.
A day trip to Rottnest Island was planned and didn’t disappoint. Brown Skuas, Arctic Terns and Australasian Gannets were logged on the way out, with Bottlenose Dolphins around the boat too. We leisurely walked round the island, with a gorgeous flock of 52 Banded Stilts present on the saltpans with the more common White-headeds. Other waders included Red-capped Plovers, Red-necked Stints alongside more familiar Curlew Sands and Turnstones. Noisy Greater Crested and Caspian Terns were busy sorting nesting sites here and a walk across the golf course gave Dawn her first adorable Quokkas and Blue-tongued Skinks, and me Banded Lapwings and Pheasant (!) We wandered along the coast with its crystal waters (but a bit too chilly for a dip!) and looked back towards Perth, its highrises looking so isolated on the horizon. Sacred Kingfishers, White-browed Scrubwrens, Black-faced Cuckooshrikes and the local race of Singing Honeyeater were seen in the woods and back at the café, the resident Indian Peafowl were seen as they, along with the gulls, ravens and Quokkas, kept a beady eye open for any scraps left lying around.


During this time we outlined our basic plan: to head southwest towards Albany, then come back up through Perth to give us the chance to iron-out any problems with the car, and then head all the way around the top and down again to Melbourne. The 14th arrived all too quickly so we stocked up and packed our newly-repaired jeep – christened the Moomin due to her colouring and strange noises - and set off in our new ‘home’ on our epic journey around this awesome continent, with a mixture of apprehension and unbridled excitement at what was to come. And what a trip it was gonna be....

Great opening account BBB! I love the pic of the displaying Musk Duck and the full-on Bluetongue.

I've got the whole of May off and was thinking of doing a bit of travelling. I think you've just inspired me to take a trip over to the west!:t:

Do it Chowchilla - it's a fab country you've got over there!

We drove south out of Perth via a quick stop at Birds WA for a birdcall cd and Bibra Lake which gave good views of Australasian Spotted Crake, Yellow-billed Spoonbills, a couple of Long-billed Corellas seemingly paired with Littles and all the usual waterbirds. We headed toward Rockingham and stopped at Penguin Island, which again was closed for the breeding season so I’m still penguin-less! We followed Hwy1 southwards stopping at a few places along the way: saw the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere at Busselton (but being a tightass didn’t pay to walk out onto it!), had lunch at Yalgorup NP where I nearly peed on an irate Blue-tongue and saw Inland Thornbill, Dusky Woodswallows and startled a couple of Emus, causing them to crash back into the bush.
Having loads of time and total freedom of travel meant we could meander off the roads whenever we felt like it, and we did just that seeing a sign for the scenic route through Australind. This was a good choice as the fields gave us Elegant Parrots, Black-faced Woodswallows, Crested Pigeons, ibises, confiding Sacred Kingfishers and dainty groups of Yellow-rumped Thornbills hopping in the grasses. Dawn also saw her first (live) Western Grey Kangaroo – bizarrely in a children’s play area! The cd’s that had come with the car were now fast becoming annoying, the radio was sporadic at best and Dawn was for some reason getting bored of listening to bird calls....
We made out way down through the Margaret River, reaching Augusta after dark and found a nice little carpark on the harbourside, complete with toilets and a covered picnic area. We’d bought a free camping atlas in Perth which was a godsend, showing all the places in the country where it’s legal to stay overnight, whether they’re free or not and the facilities each site has. We used our groovy camping gas hobs to cook up some pasta and sauce (our staple diet for the next 6 months!) and settled into the car to sleep. It was actually very snug and comfortable inside and lent the whole trip a more gritty air as this was now our home and everything we owned was inside it. The only downside to this way of travelling is that after an argument (and trust me there were lots!!) you can’t escape anywhere further than the front seats.....
The 15th found us at Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, the weather was sunny with a strong wind. Time for some seawatching! It didn’t take long to find my first albatross – a superb Yellow-nosed! Wow, fantastic! After about an hour I’d seen at least 8 of these, 10 Shy and 2 Black-broweds...not bad at all! Sooty Oystercatchers fed on the rocks below, Australian Pipits and Nankeen Kestrels were seen around the buildings and a couple of Rock Parrots flew along the coastal heath. Went up to Skippy Rock, took the obligatory photos and saw Splendid Fairywrens and White-breasted Robins in the vegetation. Tried in vain to see Southern Right Whales in Flinder’s Bay but to no avail.
The 16th found us at the impressive Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk. This was a bit different to the treetop walk in Taman Negara we’d down a couple of months previous I can tell ya! Amazing views from the 40m high-point and a great, informative walk through (literally in some cases!) the karri trees below. Red-winged Fairywrens bounded under our car back in the carpark, looking like little balls with legs! Unfortunately the males all seemed to be in eclipse down here. We continued eastwards stopping at Conspicuous Cliffs and the gorgeous similarly-named beach below, but conspicuous by their absence were those whales again...
We finally reached Albany, found a Woolworth’s to buy more food and headed down into Torndurrup NP and walked out to ‘the Gap’ and the ‘Natural Bridge’ which overlook the roiling waters of the southern oceans. Apparently, the rocks on this part of the coast have their exact matches down on the Antarctic one!
The next couple of days were spent visiting Little Beach at Two People’s Bay. We arrived very early in the morning and after parking up had heard all 3 of the target birds. Funnily enough, the Noisy Scrub-birds (no misnomer there!) were the easiest to see – we had great views of a pair dashing across the path ahead of us. They were calling either side of the path to each other so we hunkered down and waited for them to cross. Excellent but brief views, but that call is astounding. The Western Bristlebird was seen twice in short flights and called so close near to the toilets but never did show properly. Western Whipbird was actually the hardest to see, but we managed great views on the last day. Other goodies here included a great Southern Emu-wren, Shy Hylacolas, Spotted Harrier, Western Spinebills and a fine Wedgie. The beach itself is gorgeous, white sands lapped by the turquoise waters and not a person about.

We also visited Cheyne’s Beach where we heard more scrub-birds and saw a couple of Red-eared Firetails, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Brown Falcon, Western Wattlebirds and Red-crowned Parrot. I definitely preferred Little Beach as this place was a lot busier. Stops at the bridge on the Lower Kalgan River gave us Chestnut Teal and Crested Bellbird.
We headed back northwards and stopped for a night at the Stirling Ranges Retreat as our cameras and batteries needed recharging. This place was great, the owner Ayleen made us feel most welcome and the huge kitchen was a change from our cooking stoves. The kookaburras made sure of not sleeping in too! It also has the added bonus of Einstein – its resident Owlet-Nightjar! He sat out on the front of his hole in the tree next to the kitchen watching the world go by and was the only one I saw all trip.
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A walk round the grounds gave the list a boost: Regent Parrot, Restless Fly, Yellow-plumed Honeys, Grey Shrike-Thrushes, busy flocks of Purple-crowned Lorikeets, Grey Currawongs, Southern Boobook and the following morning, best of all, 3 Western Shrike-Tits watched foraging in the gums.
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We left and drove through the Stirling Ranges along the Red Gum Trail, which was dusty and a little corrugated at times but it felt like the real Oz, all red dirt and gum trees. The wind was pretty strong, but a few stops gave us a couple of ticks: Yellow-throated Miner and Tawny-crowned Honeyeater. Fought against an ever-increasing wind that had dust swirling across the road along with a few tumbleweeds and a few fires started to burn back crops caused swathes of blinding smoke to billow across the road too. Stopped in Narrogin to buy a new cd (yeay!) and we finally ended up in Dryandra NP and spent a couple of days exploring. We stayed at the Congelin campground where cooking was fun with the added help from the local Possums that would actually climb up your leg to see if there was anything going spare, and then just walk over everything to make sure! At night the little buggers would climb up on the roof and go through everything on the rack too...!

We did a few of the walks and a couple of night-drives and picked up Spotted Nightjar, Bush Thick-knee, White-browed Babbler, an excellent Varied Sitella, understated Jacky-Winters, Blue-breasted Fairywrens, Golden Whistler, Scarlet, Red-capped and Western Yellow Robins, Rufous Treecreepers and a Painted Buttonquail. On the mammal front we saw the amazing Short-beaked Echidna, a Numbat and a Banded Hare-Wallaby.

We left on the 21st and headed back into Perth, stocked up on food from Woolworths (dammit they were right about how good Vegemite tastes!), refuelled, had a last lunch at Hyde Park then bade a fond farewell to Perth as we got onto the Brand Hwy and began our trip northwards...

Amazing, Ads.
We seem to be dogging each others footsteps.
Just did a search for Oz & your thread came up.
Have just booked for our second Oz trip (four weeks starting Nov 22nd).
This time will be in the Brisbane area for ten days, followed by almost three weeks in the Adelaide area.
Last time we went to the Cairns area first before Adelaide (where we have friends & relatives) with a few days in Sydney/Blue Hills in between.
Went to Kangaroo Is. for a few days last trip & friends say they would like to drive to Uluru while we're staying with them this time! (sounds a bit ambitious - but that's OK with me if they think it's pos.)
Look forward with great anticipation to your next posts. Might well be quizzing for details if your path crosses ours, so to speak.
First question though: what resource were you using for non-bird animals - e.g. we saw echidna sp. but I didn't know there were more than one species?
Cheers,
H

Hey H

Jealous now, I wanna go back soooo bad. It always amazes me that London's full of Aussie's...don't they know how good they've got it??!!
We used Peter Menkhorst's fieldguide to the Mammals of Oz. You can get it from NHBS or Amazon but it's probably cheaper to pick it up out there.
Any specifics I don't cover and sound good to you, ask away!

All the best

Ads

Hey, you had your turn!
Yeah, everyone says they'll go back - & many do.
Just seeing your pics reminds me of the light quality - so fine.
Can't wait.
H

I tell ya H, as soon as I sell my land I'm emigrating!!!

Great stuff. I'm going to find this really useful I reckon. We're due to arrive in Oz on about 8th of June, and are hoping to drive around for 6 months. Bit worried about the rocketting fuel prices though, you might have done your trip just in time!

Larry Wheatland said:

Great stuff. I'm going to find this really useful I reckon. We're due to arrive in Oz on about 8th of June, and are hoping to drive around for 6 months. Bit worried about the rocketting fuel prices though, you might have done your trip just in time!

Click to expand...

Fuel prices are a hot topic in Aus at the mo'. Coles (a large supermarket chain) have just had their knuckles rapped for overcharging customers. I think you'll find it varies enormously from petrol station to petrol station.

Of course the distances are humungous and in six months you'll cover thousands of Ks so cost it carefully into your budget.

Hope you're still up for meeting up when you get here! I'm still reading your accounts -great stuff!:t:

Excellent report from my favourite birding country, Ads. Hugely envious of the trip to Two People's Bay. That beach looks ideal for parking my wife and kids on while I seek out the scrub-bird et al. Must get out west next time I go. Have promised myself that I'll visit the Kimberely to see Black Grasswren before I'm 50 (still got 15 years to squeeze it in).

Menkhorst's Field Guide is good and illustrated by Frank Knight who also did Australia's best bird field guide. It's just a bit of a depressing read as almost everything seems to be threatened or nearly extinct.

Look forward to new instalments.

E

Thanks Edward - don't ever mention Black Grasswren to me!!! You'll find out why soon enough...grrrrrr. On a better note, yep, that beach was lovely at Two Peple's Bay and a perfect place for non-birders to chill!
Larry, fuel-wise I think we spent about £700 each in the four months, but not sure how much it's risen by now (bet it's not £1.15ltr over there!). It cost us from $1.29 (cities) per litre to $2.80 (Gibb River/Iron Range) and anywhere in between for unleaded, so a diesel will be more economical.

Anyway here's another section....enjoy

Over the next week we steadily made our way through up the vast nothingness that can be Western Australia. We could drive for hours without seeing another vehicle and when we did there was much waving involved, be it another traveller, a police car or a massive road-train. The road was an endless ribbon of bitumen as far as the eye could see vanishing off into the horizon. The few railway crossings we did encounter were always fun as there are no signals, it’s just a case of check, double-check and go for it. We were told that most fatal accidents on WA roads are from cars that have stopped for a rail train only to be rear-ended by a road-train and pushed in front of the oncoming train...!! Still, the scenery was what you would expect from Oz, red deserts, low-lying heath and the odd emu standing sentry-like against the blue skies. Numerous dead ‘roos littered the road which proved great for getting close views of scavenging Wedgies. Driving at night was to be avoided as ‘roos – and bloody great cows – seemed to be attracted to headlights like moths are but have the ability to write-off your car....!
Living out of the car was getting a bit more normal now, filling the esky with ice-filled tubs kept the milk, cheese and drinks cold for a few days, filling our numerous water containers at every place possible was the norm and finally managed to get into a routine. But the pure freedom of being able to go where we liked, when we liked and then just to pull up and sleep wherever was the most amazing feeling ever.
We stopped at the Pinnacles and had an amazing sunset there, went to Kalbarri and visited ‘Nature’s Window’ and the Z-loop and took in the awesome scenery there. We wanted to visit Monkey Mia which was a scary 160kms off the highway yet only looked a short distance on the map!! On the way there we camped up at Eagle Bluff and awoke to the most memorable sunrise I think I’ve ever seen. Looking out across the bay we had good views out on to Eagle Rock with its pair of nesting Ospreys (one of which took a stick from the ground about 10ft away from us) with a couple more Rock Parrots on the rocks next to them and a flock of White-backed Swallows hawked over our heads.
We stopped at Peron NP and highlights included finding Chiming Wedgebills on call, easy-to-see Thick-billed Grasswrens scurrying from bush to bush, a dapper Crested Bellbird, excellent Zebra Finches nesting in the info booth, Torresian Crows and White-browed Babblers.
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No sign of Malleefowl though...Monkey Mia itself was well worth the effort. Although very touristy, to stand in the water as Indo-Pacific Bottlenosed Dolphins swam about half a foot from you was simply amazing. Comical Australian Pelicans forlornly watched the fish bucket for any scraps. The carpark here was also good for the Thick-billed Grasswrens too.
As we headed back to the highway we had a flyover male White-winged Fairywren and we stopped at Hamelin Pool. The homestead attracts a lot of birds, most notably Emus, who come to drink the available water. The lady owner was hand-rearing a tiny striped baby that had been brought in, seriously cute! The bushes attracted quite a few White-plumed Honeys and more grasswrens. We walked down to the pool itself, the surrounding ‘shingle’ made up of billions of tiny shells from which the first settlers used to make bricks. We walked out onto the boardwalk over the stromatolites in the water, and although not visually amazing they are apparently the oldest lifeforms on the planet.
We spent time driving out to Exmouth (only 217km off the highway..!), but the very expensive trips out to Ningaloo to see the Whale Sharks kinda prevented us from doing that. We stopped at the lovely Coral Bay and kicked ourselves for not buying a mask and snorkel....but did pick up a nice Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo, Rufous Fieldwren and a bizarre sighting of a Royal Spoonbill that landed briefly in the carpark! The Cape Ranges themselves were excellent, with a great selection of new birds for the list: Western Bowerbird, Crimson Chat, Brown Songlark, White-winged Triller, Mangrove Fantail, Yellow White-eye, Dusky Gerygone, Bar-shouldered Dove, Little Woodswallow, Grey-headed Honey, Slender-billed Thornbill and Grey-tailed Tattler. We camped the night in the dunes of Jurabi CP and had an unforgettable stargazing experience – the sky was so clear there just seem to be 10 times the amount of stars down here, so clear that the Milky Way is clearly visible overhead....wow!
We walked the trail at the picturesque Yordie Gorge and then had to wait around for the tide to drop so we could drive across the river mouth and head down the 4WD track towards Ningaloo Homestead to save us from having to backtrack big-time. Hardcore! Had great views of more White-winged Fairywrens along this rough track and after getting barged off the road by some old **** in a monster 4x4 finally got onto the ‘main road’ back to the highway. This road was so badly corrugated that I thought the fillings would fall out of my teeth! It was also unfortunately littered with very fresh roadkill – euros and ‘roos – I think caused by the aforementioned ****. Upon approaching a dead emu it moved....I got out the car and the sorry sight of the young emu mewling and twisting pathetically with broken legs and back brought a lump to my throat, making me wish for a Starman moment where I could just touch it and make it better. So, with nothing else for it, I just turned the car around and finished the job properly....not pleasant : (
Upon reaching the NW Hwy, even though it was getting dark, we decided to push on to a free camping site but after driving through moths so thick it looked as if it was snowing, dodging numerous ‘roos and a f*****g massive black bull that just materialized in front of us at 110kph we pulled up into a lay-by near Giralia and called it a night!
Awaking the following morning I could hear a familiar call. Jumping out of the car I was treated to the sight of a flock of Budgies flying over. Looking around there were about 1000 feeding in small flocks, being constantly chased, unsuccessfully, by Hobbies. As we drove along the highway we saw at least another 4000 in varying flocks and a lunch break at Barridale Rest-stop next to the almost-dry Yannarie River gave me one of the most amazing ornithological sights of my life as an immense flock of c25000 swirled up and down the watercourse, settling en masse to drink then exploding back into the air. The noise of their wings was deafening as they passed by...this is how they are meant to be seen!
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Intermingled with these were smaller flocks of raucous Cockatiels, Galahs and Little Corellas whilst overhead numerous Brown Falcons, Aussie Hobbies and a couple of Black-breasted Buzzards circled with interest; Crested Pigeons displayed in the shadows, Pied Butcherbirds hunted from the trees and Zebra Finches made tactical dashes to the water’s edge where a couple of White-necked Herons waded. Absolutely fantastic! Dawn said she’d never seen me look so happy!
We stopped by the Fortesque River for a bite to eat and got Painted Finches and Fairy Martins and then headed into Millstream-Chichester NP and spent the night at Snake Creek campsite. We visited the stunning Python pool with its amazing (use that a lot don’t I?!?) reflections, climbed to the top of Mount Herbert for some stunning panoramic views and also got some good birds: Blue-winged Kookaburra, more Western Bowerbirds and Painted Finches, Red-backed Kingfisher, Rainbow Bee-eaters, Star Finches, Diamond Doves and the spectacular Spinifex Pigeon.
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At the campsite, Budgies were beginning to breed in the surrounding gums and watching them mate has to be the funniest thing I’ve seen – the male climbs on and literally pumps away for ages, holding her in place with his wing and nibbles at her face as if saying...well, I’ll leave that to your imaginations!!
We reached Broome Bird Obs on the 30th and after planning for just one night’s stay, we ended up staying for two weeks.....

Great stuff............

Great stuff indeed. Droolingly good.
Thanks, Ads.
Larry - we're gonna overlap by two weeks if you're still there into December.
Would be great to meet up if at all poss.
H

Thanks guys....hope your still with me for the rest of the journey...can't believe I've written that much and only just gotten to the end of June!

Ads

The BBO is a great place, set on the edge of Roebuck Bay which is itself a mecca for migrating shorebirds. The Obs was run by Pete, assisted by Loyd, both Brits abroad and great fun, and Naoko, a lovely Japanese girl with a good sense of humour. A true gentleman, Peter Madvig from Sydney was also volunteering for the season and he was such a character. These guys made our stay here probably the memorable of the entire year and it was certainly hard to leave them. We initially paid for one night on a powered site, but then we moved the car and parked up by Pete’s house and made a deal with him that we could stay for a while and I’d produce some sketches that we could then professionally copy and sell in the shop as payment – cool!
I basically felt right at home here, and we became part of the furniture pretty quickly. We’d bird and do various things in the morning, then I’d sketch during the hottest part of the day in the kitchen shadehouse which overlooks the water baths, then later we’d eat and chat the night away with the staff and other guests...bliss!
The birding around the Obs was great, especially the Great Bowerbirds - watching the male tinker with his bower was a real highlight. He had a penchant for green and white, anything from glass to shells. In fact, the scientists that stay here to examine the amazingly rich mud in the estuary had rinsed out their sample jars and left them to dry only to come back and find all the white caps missing...mystery was later solved when a visit to the bower found them as his latest decorative items!
Other common residents included cute Double-barred Finches (probably the hardest bird to extract from a mist net) were present always, often joined by lovely Long-taileds, Paperbark Flys, Rainbow Bee-eaters, a menacing Brown Goshawk that kept an eye on the birdbaths, White-throated Gerygone, Rufous-throated, Yellow-tinted and Brown Honeyeaters, Yellow White-eyes, Diamond, Peaceful and Bar-shouldered Doves, engaging family groups of Grey-crowned Babblers, Mistletoebird, Black-faced Cuckooshrikes, Rufous Whistler, Little Friarbird, White-breasted Woodswallow and Red-backed Fairywren. Agile Wallabies came in to drink and a disturbingly large King Brown snake was resident here too, one evening slithering under the fridges in the shadehouse....time for bed!!
Roebuck Bay itself held huge numbers of shorebirds including Asiatic Dowitchers, Great Knot, Knot, Curlew and Terek Sands, Whimbrel, Far Eastern Curlews, Red-capped and Grey Plovers, Red-necked Stints, Red-necked Avocets, Turnstones, Blackwits and Barwits, Pied Oystercatchers, Greenshank, Greater Sandplover and White-headed Stilts. To compliment this, huge Black-necked Storks (misleading known as Jabirus here!), herons and egrets, cormorants and pelicans, White-bellied Sea-Eagles, Black and Brahminy Kites, Lesser-crested, Whiskered, Caspian and Gull-billed Terns all vied for attention. In the water itself a pod of Snub-finned Dolphins was seen once.
In the mangroves along Crab Creek, gorgeous White-breasted and Mangrove Golden Whistlers showed along with Broad-billed Flys, Mangrove Fantail, Dusky and Mangrove Gerygones were all seen. Late evening drives around the dusty roads behind the Obs gave us Red-chested Buttonquail, Brown Quail, Tawny Grassbird, Pheasant Coucal, Golden-headed Cisticola and Rufous Songlarks.
I was lucky enough to be invited out onto Roebuck Plains with Pete and the others a couple of times and got great views of our goal – gorgeous Yellow Chats, the males looking like little Jif lemon bottles perched out on the brush. We even went netting out there one morning and I was able to band my first Grey-crowned Babbler, Yellow-tinted Honey and Bar-shouldered Dove. This was one of the great things about this place in that I was asked to help and do all these things that I’ve never done before – could you imagine turning up at any observatory in the UK and being asked to help band the birds?? No way! One Saturday we were even asked to help with cannon-netting waders out in the bay as part of a project run by Chris Hassle – another ex-Brit. We caught a good-sized flock of Barwits, Curlew Sands, Knot and Great Knot and then they were processed by the team. It was good fun scrambling down the banks and quietly getting into position so as not to disturb the flock that had been gently persuaded to settle in range of the nets all morning and than BANG! we all scarper out to the net and roll it back up the beach to keep the birds away from the rising tide. Upon releasing the waders, it was eyes to the sky to keep a look out for the ever-present kites that know the birds are disorientated and vulnerable. Again, it felt a real priviledge to be part of something like this, something I doubt I’ll ever be able to do again.
Venturing around the nearby pleasant town of Broome and its mangroves gave us Masked Lapwings, Red-collared Lorikeets, Black-chinned Honey, Red-headed Myzomela, whilst huge flocks of Plumed Whistling-Ducks were present at the sewage works, along with Marsh Sandpiper and a migrant Barn Swallow. A trip out onto Gantheaume Point with Loyd was timed so as to see the fossilized dinosaur footprints only visible at low tide, and we got a covey of Red-backed Buttonquail here too as well as a group of feeding Brown Boobies close to the shore. A trip just north of town up to Coconut Well gave us a stunning beach and also Lesser Frigatebird and a fly-by flock of four Brolgas. Whilst here the wheel bearing went on the car, so we had to get that fixed, and we also bought another spare wheel, a jerry can and got four new tyres on the car too....kinda expensive but with the Gibb River Road coming up, we had to do it. Our last day was spent sorting out the car, packing up our food and saying goodbye to the fridges and regular showers (!) – back to living in the car! Also signed and numbered the sketches I’d done and Pete was suitably impressed with them, let’s hope they sell! So, on July 13th, with a heavy heart but also that faint thrilling feeling of venturing into the unknown and what was to come of it, we said our goodbyes (a bit of a Wizard of Oz moment: Loydie, I’ll miss you most of all...!!) and left the brilliant Bird Obs for the final time and set off eastwards for Derby....

Just a few piccies of some of the great birds at Broome....

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I went to Australia in 1997 and really want to go again one day. This brought it all back. Great stuff, thanks.

After stopping to look at our first ‘Freshies’ on Ski Lake, we reached Derby (rhymes with ‘Herbie’ not ‘Barbie’!) pretty quickly, and after visiting Coles for supplies and fuel, visited at the impressive Prison Baob Tree just outside town for lunch. With a girth of 14m (!) it’s reckoned to be over 1000yrs old.

Then it was time to start the infamous Gibb River Road, which is sealed for the first 75kms. Even as we hit the dirt we averaged a good 80kph and to be honest, the rest of the road wasn’t half as bad as we were told – driving up Kaeng Krachan or Doi Chang Dao in Thailand was far worse! Still, it did get worse in places with stretches of major corrugations and dustbowls. Part of it had been graded which was lovely, but the overriding problem we (and everybody else we talked to) encountered was the dust!! It permeated everything and everywhere, covering clothes, bedding, cooking stuff, us....the situation not helped by the fact the rear door didn’t close properly in one corner! It dried out the window winders and the door hinges so that they made an ear-splitting screech as they were opened. It was hot also, so it was ok to open the windows until a vehicle came the opposite direction and we had to wind ‘em up pretty quickly or get a face-full!! The scenery was archetypal Oz and it felt like we were on a real adventure now, having said goodbye to bitumen for the next 1000kms....
We turned off after roughly 125kms and made our way the 40kms-or-so to Windjana Gorge. This road was worse than the Gibb, with serious dips and corrugations. We reached the campsite to find it totally packed so after craftily using their loo (!) we decided we didn’t wanna pay to stay with all the screaming brats and drove on further and parked up at the Lillemooloora historical site. I later found out that this was where the Aboriginal tracker, Pigeon, killed a police officer he was working with and led a rebellion in the area in the 1890s, fascinating stuff. The night skies out here are amazing, and the country is so vast that you really do feel insignificant.
The following morning we drove back to Windjana Gorge and walked up through it. The gorge is stunning, and the early morning mist still clung to the waters in which lots of Freshies swam. No dipping here then (although allegedly Freshies won’t harm you....yeah, ok)! The erosion here made fantastic formations on the towering cliffs, and just to remind us that this was all seabed long ago, there’s a trilobite fossil on one of the sides! As the sun climbed and warmed the gorge, the birds became more active: Azure Kingfisher, Olive-backed Oriole, White-bellied Cuckooshrike, Green-backed Gerygones, White-gaped and White-throated Honeys, Red-browed and Striated Pardalotes, Cockatiels, Zebra Finches, Black-fronted Dotterel and a pair of noisy Peregrines. A truly lovely place.

We left after breakfast and rejoined the Gibb and headed onwards. 80kms later we reached Lennard Gorge and went for a walk and do some birding of course. The four waterfalls that cascade into the ever-narrowing gorge were magnificent and it was easy to walk down for a better look. The main goal here was White-quilled Rock-Pigeon, of which we had fantastic views of a pair that flew across the gorge and fed on the opposite rocks.
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Also here was Silver-backed Butcherbird, my first gorgeous male Red-backed Fairywrens, Weebill, Double-barred and Crimson Finches, Northern Fantail, Red-winged Parrot and agile Little Woodswallows.
We had a few other goodies along the Gibb, Black-tailed Treecreeper and a flock of Pictorella Manakins being the best, with a noisy flock of awesome Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos, Varied Sitellas, Brown Falcon and Wedgie all noteworthy.
The following day we stopped at a floodway near Mistake Creek for breakfast. I wandered up the mostly-dry creek and found a mixed flock of finches coming to drink: Long-tailed, Double-barred, Crimson and Masked, but best of all 12imm Gouldians! Not an adult in sight, but great little beasties and a real want-bird! In the flowering shrubs Banded, Black-chinned, Yellow-tinted and Rufous-throated Honeys fed whilst Black-tailed Treecreepers and Red-backed Kingfisher were also seen. A large flock of c150 Red-tailed Blacks flew over, their raucous calls the perfect backdrop to this amazing wilderness. As we turned off the Gibb River Road and onto the Kulumbaru Road we stopped at Drysdale Station for fuel (expensive!), water and ice and then pulled into Miner’s Pool for lunch where I saw a flyover Grey Goshawk. Further along the road we picked up 2 lovely Brolgas feeding in a flooded field and after c105kms (of which the last 20kms were very corrugated) we reached the turn-off towards Mitchell Falls.
The first part of the road was fine but then it got a lot worse! We switched to 4WD for the first time and hit the King Edward River crossing...wow, how deep was that ??!! It’s only 80kms to the campsite but it took the best part of 2hrs to get there and we had to cross two more rivers – both longer and deeper than the first! Kinda scary, especially as the bow wave came up over the bonnet and we didn’t have a snorkel on the car....eek! It was a well-we’re-going-for-it-and-can’t-stop-or-turn-round-now moment....Serious 4WDing! Corrugations, sudden serious drops down hills, blinding sun through blinding, choking dust clouds, ruts, bumps, creeks, rocks and suicidal cows all made for a memorable and eye-opening drive!! This is what I’d expected from the entire Gibb River but thankfully that wasn’t the case. Dawn did a hell of a job to get to the campsite, which we found to be absolutely packed!! I couldn’t believe how many people were up here! So, somewhat bemused, we cooked up dinner, settled round the campfire and later spotlit a couple of co-operative Southern Boobooks.
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Now, to make a long story short....I spent the next 3 days looking for Black Grasswren, and never saw the bastard things. Nothing. Not even a squeak. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Sweet FA. Even drove the 50km to Surveyor’s Pool which took nearly 3hrs to reach along the worst road I’ve ever driven, often with only 3 wheels on the ground. And still nothing – except nearly stepping on a hunting King Brown, the result of which doesn’t even bear thinking about, although the mood I was in I probably wouldn’t have cared! So, as it’s still painful to think about the experience even now, that’s all I’m gonna say. The dip of a lifetime. I didn’t speak for 3 days nearly except to snap a grunting reply so I guess I was a complete git to be with. I’ve never felt so thoroughly beaten by a bird, ever. Hope you birders out there can sympathise, you’re the only ones that can! On top of everything else, we had to change one of the wheels as we’d got a slow puncture....
On a positive note, good birds seen included Pied Imperial, more White-quilled Rock- and Partridge Pigeons, Chestnut-backed Buttonquail, Northern Fantail, Variegated Fairywren (of the lavender-flanked rogersi race), Leaden and Bar-breasted Flys, Northern Rosella, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Silver-crowned Friarbird and Varied Triller. A few Narbeleks were seen dashing over the grasswren-less boulders on most days. Little Merton and Big Merton Falls were nice, but Mitchell Falls was truly spectacular, and 2006 was a good wet year in the Kimberley, so we saw them about as good as they get. Swimming in the pools above was a great relief from the heat and there aren’t any crocs up there either...which is nice! There is also a lot of Aboriginal art on some of the rocks, an amazing glimpse into the past. The only downside for me (well, apart from the blatantly obvious) was the amount of helicopters ferrying people over the falls, kinda destroying the atmosphere somewhat.
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The drive out was a quiet event, even the river crossings didn’t phase me at all and the rest of the Gibb kinda went by in a corrugated, shaking blur. Managed to see some birds on the way, Red-browed Pardalote, Grey-fronted and impressive Blue-faced Honeys, 2 more imm Gouldian Finches, Brush Cuckoo and a couple of flyover Magpie Geese being the best. The last river crossing, over the Durack River, was a long one but passed without incident and soon afterwards we finally got onto the tarmac, turned on to the Great Northern Hwy and headed into the small township of Wyndham.
The following morning we finally found the three Aboriginal statues behind the main street and sure enough we were greeted by the astounding sight of a flock of Gouldian Finches that come in to feed there very early. The flock comprised 2 red-headed and 6 black-headed males, 6 females and c130imms – amazing!! Right on cue, they all disappeared as soon as the video was pointed at them thus I only managed one grab...grrr!
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Happier now, we returned to the campsite and spent 2hrs cleaning the Moomin out and de-dusting everything. A quick stop at the local garage and the friendly guy there fitted a new valve onto the troublesome wheel and all was fixed. So, with a car working perfectly and everything ship-shape once more we set off eastwards, thinking nothing else could go wrong now could it? How wrong can you be......

This just gets better & gooderer. (Even tho' my work's 'puter won't let me see half the pics.! - ?)
just looked at home - excellent pics too.