I imagine there are some birders out there in the VLS and potential-VLS community. This post is for you. Recently, we traveled up to Darwin and Kakadu — the area known as Australia’s Top End. We spent about 4 or 5 days up there with a friend who is really into birds. Because there are a number of endemic species to the area, we spent a lot of time looking for these species in particular.
In Katherine Gorge, we came across the Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon while we were cooling off in a pool. We also saw some lovely Rainbow Bee-eaters and a Blue-winged Kingfisher. After leaving the Gorge, we headed to Pine Creek in search of the Hooded Parrot. Amazingly, we found these beautiful birds and even got a chance to look at them through the scope.
We also saw a Northern Rosella, Australian Pratincole, a Figbird, lots of Friar Birds and a whole tree of Flying Foxes (I know they’re not birds, but they are pretty cool and sometimes spooky when they swoop around at night!)
Then, we headed into Kakadu in search of the Banded Fruit Dove, Partridge Pigeon, Brown Tree-Creeper, and a certain Grass Wren only found on the Escarpment in Kakadu. We did see the Fruit Dove and the Pigeon, both of which were excellent birds. We missed the other two, unfortunately, but I felt alright about that since they aren’t really very pretty species anyways.
Our final birding adventure came on the cruise of the Yellow Water billabong. What an amazing place. We saw lots of Sacred Kingfishers, darters, Jicanas, flycatchers, Rufous night herons, and even some brolgas! It was truly amazing, and we really got inspired to learn more of the birds here in Adelaide. Hopefully we’ll do a good job, and we’ll be able to report back on our new species here soon!
But, for anyone thinking about a trip, I’d definitely recommend Kakadu and Katherine Gorge. Definitely some amazing places there — just be careful about swimming because there are heaps of crocs, too!
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