Darwin BG

I’m in Darwin this week, staying with my incredibly generous and hospitable aunt and uncle here to do some birding.

There’s a lot of excitement that comes with birding in an entirely new place for the first time. All the sounds are unfamiliar, the birds you only know from photos are suddenly in front of you, and you’re getting lifers everywhere you look.

I’ve found that feeling does pass quickly, but it was driving me forward today on my first morning here. I landed at 1.30am and didn’t make it to bed until 3.00am (first trip lifer: bush stone-curlew on the drive out), but I still managed to get up for the sunrise.

Around 6.30 I snuck out of my aunt and uncle’s apartment for the half-hour walk to the Botanic Gardens. Out the front of their complex I immediately had ticks, all of them very common but no less exciting for it: a dusky honeyeater, two orange-footed megapodes picking in the scrub. On the powerline a Torresian imperial-pigeon sitting next to a bar-shouldered dove (this one not a tick!) really emphasised how huge the imperial-pigeons birds are. A little further down the same line sat a spangled drongo – its heart-shaped tail identifying it even in the pre-dawn light.

Through here I also had rainbow bee-eaters (my favourite), plenty more bar-shouldered doves, magpie-larks, Australasian figbirds (first in two years for me!) and a sulphur-crested cockatoo somewhere nearby.

A sub-adult collared sparrowhawk sat low over the footpath, with blue-faced honeyeater losing their minds in surrounding branches. I wanted to take a photo but the angle meant somebody’s apartment window was directly behind the bird, and it never feels appropriate to shoot towards a house, so I left it alone. Heartbreaking when it’s by far the best opportunity that I’ve had to shoot a tachyspiza raptor. Nearby, a single double-barred finch popped up in a bush.

On Gardens Rd I got two more ticks: a white-bellied cuckooshrike sat high in a palm observing everything around, and on a golf course dam a radjah shelduck sat preening at the water’s edge. Along here there were also a black kite, white-breasted woodswallow, peaceful dove, masked lapwings, a great egret and plenty more magpie-larks and blue-faced honeyeaters.

The Botanic Gardens themselves were remarkable. I walked in and almost immediately saw one of my target birds for the whole trip: a black-necked stork fishing in a small, ugly pond near the entrance. This was a lifer and what an incredible bird this is. Huge, propped up on its absurdly long legs, it seemed to be chasing fish around the pond and would aggressively dive in after them. It was nothing like the rapid strike of an egret, this thing was active, it was chasing, it was fantastic to watch. I still need to get good photos but damn this made me happy.

It also made me happy that only minutes later I saw my first rose-crowned fruit-dove. This was another big target for me here – I’m the world’s biggest pigeon fan and between them, imperial-pigeon, emerald pigeon, banded fruit-dove and chestnut-quilled rock-dove (and, possibly, hopefully, partridge pigeon), I’ve got a lot of doves I’m hoping to tick. This one was sitting at the top of a tree among a larger flock of imperial-pigeons – impossible to photograph in this instance but nevertheless a good sign.

I first wandered east up the hill toward the rainforest section, finding very chatty spangled drongo – a bird I dipped on earlier this year in Melbourne, but having now heard that call it’s incredibly identifiable and if it was nearby I would’ve noticed it. There were more imperial-pigeons here too, feeding on some berries growing on a palm – I suspect a parasiting species? Here there were also sulphur-crested cockatoos hanging around, as well as white-gaped honeyeaters and another tick in a helmeted friarbird. A brown goshawk sat high in a tree on the eastern border.

Up in here I was also able to find two rufous owls roosting. There were plenty of new birds for me here, but this was my main target within the gardens themselves, as it’s the only bird here that I’m unlikely to find anywhere else. They were way above me, impossible to get a decent photo of, but it was clearly them. A local came past and told me it’s a regular roost, and that there’s usually an immature bird with them – though neither of us could find it.

Descending the hill I had a northern fantail, as well as rainbow bee-eaters and brown honeyeaters. I took forever finding a gerygone that I heard calling – a very similar called to the white-throated gerygone, which is what I first assumed it was, but it turned out to be a green-backed.

I wandered back toward the beginning, taking a few more photos of the black-necked stork, as well as two radjah shelduck that had joined it in the ugly pond. A buff-banded rail hurried back into cover here when it noticed me, and a yellow oriole was chased out of a tree by a couple of aggressive varied trillers, which were then themselves moved on by a large flock of Australasian figbirds.

There’s a cafe at the entrance, where I grabbed a much-needed coffee, and while I had my hands full a forest kingfisher shot into the tree directly over my head, taunted me for a few seconds while I tried to set my cup down, then flew off.

I next wandered into the African-Madagascar section (their name, not mine!), which was fantastic. I had my first crimson finch here, and a double-barred finch. I was drawn into a dense fruiting tree by white-gaped honeyeaters zipping in and out, and happily I was also able to get some decent shots of a rose-crowned fruit-dove which sat only slightly above eye-level and relatively unobscured. It’s not an A+, but I think it’s a B+, and that’s a solid start.

In that same tree I found both a shining flycatcher and a lemon-bellied flyrobin. I was shocked at how small the flyrobin is compared to other petroicidae species. Nearby I saw my first rufous-banded honeyeater, and I finally got some good photos of a blue-faced honeyeater.

All day Torresian imperial-pigeons were a bit of a bogey bird for me. I was seeing and hearing them constantly, but always sitting high atop a palm or otherwise impossible to get a decent photo. It was my fourth hour before I found a fruiting tree that a couple had come down to pick at, and they gave me a few good minutes of opportunity before something startled them and everything else in the area and drove them away.

After the gardens my aunt and uncle drove me around to some other spots that I might like to visit on my trip, including East Point and the Rapid Creek estuary. At these spots I saw my first silver gull and my first dollarbird in the Northern Territory.

I’m at 23 new species in my first 24 hours, and 51 species in Darwin overall. I’d guess around half of these I’ve got decent photos of – a pretty good hit rate so far, but one that I expect will fall.

Tomorrow I’m visiting Lee Point, Buffalo Creek and Leanyer Ponds, so hopefully will see quite a few more water birds (and a gouldian finch??)