The Obligatory Crimson Chats Trip

(In all posts from now on, lifers seen will have their names italicised)
The horrid droughts up north of Victoria drove a wide variety of species further south than usual earlier this year. Most significantly, there was a massive state-wide irruption of Crimson Chats, a species that is normally impossible to see without going interstate. Originally I didn't think I'd be able to track any of the chats down, as at first they seemed to only be present in large numbers in the mallee of far north Victoria, which would have required an overnight trip that I thought would be impossible to justify in Year 12.
However, chat sightings then began to pop up from a site in Bendigo, White Hills Chinese Diggings Reserv. This  was only about 2 hours drive away from home. Hence, I figured I could head out early in the morning, twitch the chats and then get back with enough time left in the day to study. Somehow I was able to convince my dad that this was a good idea.
And so in the middle of the term 3 holidays we left home at about 6 in the morning, arriving in the diggings reserve a little after 8.
After having some trouble finding the entrance of the place, we managed to discover a short and rather unimpressive trail leading into some woodland. Here I initially saw very little of note, with only New Holland honeyeaters and a few white-browed scrubwrens present. I noticed the main bird of note here about halfway down the trail: a male rufous songlark singing from atop a bush, a species that has been more widespread in Victoria this year than usual.
We noticed that the woodland seemed to continue a bit further to the left, so we made our way through the undergrowth. Here the area was swarming with white-winged trillers, another spring migrant that came down south in unexpectedly high numbers this year.

WHITE-WINGED TRILLER

As we continued walking, we met a few other birders. At first their reports that they hadn't seen the chat yet put a dent in my spirits, and I was fairly sure this trip was going to be yet another case of me travelling an unholy distance purely to dip on my target. Then someone with sharper eyes than I spotted a small, bright red bird moving between two bushes: a male chat! We moved towards it and first found a small party of immature crimson chats, before getting crippling views of several brilliantly coloured males. I could not have asked for more.

CRIMSON CHAT

CRIMSON CHAT (immature)

To add icing on the cake, a rather fearless brown-headed honeyeater flew past me and landed in a nearby tree as I was watching the chats, giving me the best views of the species I've had to date, although the lighting wasn't good enough for any particularly good photos. A breeding pair of white-backed swallows were also making circuits of the area, and as we left the site one flew right past me, giving me a good look at it. Though we were unable to see the black honeyeaters that had previously been spotted at the site, we still left thrilled with our success.

BROWN-HEADED HONEYEATER

At this point in time, although the trillers and songlarks continue to be unusually common throughout Victoria, the irruption of chats has mostly ended, so I am glad I was able to twitch them while they were still around. For any other hopeful readers, I believe a few birds are still hanging around Lake Tyrell. 

Birding the Top End: Day 6 (Final)

This was our last day in the Top End, but it was also one of our most eventful. To mark the ending of the Australasian Ornithology Conference, several events had been scheduled. In the morning, we were to visit some billabongs near the Mary River, before returning to Darwin and embarking on a boat ride seeking several mangrove specialties.
We awoke at the usual ridiculously early hour, having some trouble finding a place to park our car before we boarded a tour bus arranged for us. We were happy to see Luke and his wife Sarah were guiding us on this trip again. As was true previously, their skills would prove extremely useful at finding a variety of birds we would absolutely have missed on our own.
On arrival at the site, we walked through some dry woodland heading towards the billabong, splitting into 3 groups. My dad and I decided to go with the group lead by Luke. We came across several of the honeyeaters we'd seen earlier, getting great views of an immature banded honeyeater and a bar-breasted honeyeater among others. Many white-winged trillers were also present, and 2 tree martins were for once seen perching still, a rare opportunity for half-decent photos of the species.

BANDED HONEYEATER

BAR-BREASTED HONEYEATER

TREE MARTIN

Upon arriving at the wetlands themselves, we began gradually walking around them. The usual host of Top End waterbirds was observed: plumed whistling-ducks, green pygmy geese, jabirus, magpie geese, pied herons, wandering whistling-ducks, glossy ibises, grey teal, white-naped stilts, black-fronted dotterels, whiskered terns and Radjah shelducks (among others) all gave fairly good views. A roosting Nankeen night-heron and a dusky moorhen were highlights, the latter being a relatively rare vagrant to the Top End. At one point we observed a Jabiru struggling with a water snake for a few minutes, before eventually managing to kill and swallow it.

PIED HERON

WANDERING WHISTLING-DUCK

WHITE-NAPED STILT

GLOSSY IBIS

JABIRU

MAGPIE GOOSE

GREEN PYGMY-GOOSE

As we made our circuit we ran across the other groups, who had come across a rare grey-fronted honeyeater on their walk. Try as we might, we could not refind this bird, and had to settle for silver-crowned friarbirds and red-collared lorikeets feeding at blossoming eucalypts on our way back.
It wasn't till we left the site that one of my favourite birdwatching moments to date occurred. As we passed through an area of dry woodland near the site, I asked if we could get a chance to stop and search for black-tailed treecreeper. Luke initially was unsure we would make it back to Darwin on time, but after seeing one from the vehicle agreed to make a brief stop, which could double as a visit to a nearby public bathroom.
We followed my life black-tailed treecreeper a short distance into the woodland, when Luke suddenly stopped us with a whisper of "finches up ahead" followed by an ecstatic "GOULDIANS! GOULDIANS!"
4 or 5 stunning GOULDIAN FINCHES were feeding in the grass up ahead, most of which were in adult plumage. Among them was a brilliantly coloured, red-headed male, which my poor photos could not possibly do justice.

BLACK-TAILED TREECREEPER

GOULDIAN FINCH

We left Mary River feeling absolutely blessed. To further add to this, upon our return to Darwin a grey goshawk was soaring overhead, a species which I have only seen a few times before and never gotten very good views of.
After a brief rest, we headed to Stokes Hill Wharf, where we were to board a boat and search for chestnut rails. At the wharf itself we observed two roosting great cormorants, along with many black kites attracted by the smell of food from the many nearby restaurants. The boat itself was comfortable, and offered free water.
As we neared the mangroves, we immediately observed several egrets, striated herons, an Australasian darter and an azure kingfisher, along with a distant white-breasted sea eagle. In the mangroves themselves we were treated to crippling views of 5 chestnut rails. This usually secretive species seemed completely unafraid of our boat, striding along the mudflats right in front of us. A single Torresian kingfisher was also observed, although I didn't manage to get any photos of it at all. The cruise ended with views of a very sought-after bird totally unlike the expected "5-second look at a bird dashing between mangroves" and I would highly recommend a boat trip around Darwin's mangroves at low tide as a way to see this species. As we left the mangroves we also got distant views of a beach stone-curlew. This marked the end of our Top End adventure, and we left Darwin at around 10 am the following morning.

CHESTNUT RAIL

STRIATED HERON

All in all, the trip was extraordinarily successful, involving great views of species that I hadn't thought I'd see for a long while to come. The main species we dipped on were most of the mangrove passerines  (mangrove golden whistler, mangrove robin, mangrove grey fantail, etc.), Arafura fantail, black-breasted buzzard, all the area's buttonquail species and all Kakadu's sandstone specialties (since we did not visit Kakadu at all). On a future trip, I would seek to spend more time at Charles Darwin National Park (hopefully with actually functioning insect repellent), spend one or two nights in Jabiru so we could search for sandstone specialties at Ubirr in the morning, and make a visit to Holmes Jungle Nature Reserve to try for the buttonquails. I'd probably try to track down Arafura Fantail at Fogg Dam along the monsoon forest walk. However, I was left very satisfied by my experiences in Darwin, and despite the questionable timing of the trip in the middle of Year 12 I would happily do it all again.

Birding the Top End: Day 5

I set aside this day to try and target the area's Mangrove specialties.
We began by heading out in the early morning to Tiger Brennan Drive, hoping that the somewhat saner weather would cause us to be more successful. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Little more than an endless onslaught of brown honeyeaters was observed.
Having failed to see anything of interest here, we moved onto Charles Darwin National Park. I had been warned that the sandflies here were problematic, and I can attest to this being the case. I was covered in insect repellent, but still emerged from the place with my skin covered in sandfly bites.
We drove into the carpark to observe several black-faced cuckooshrikes. We walked swiftly down to the mangroves, seeing a double-barred finch and some assorted honeyeaters along the way. Asides from our later cruise, we had our most luck with the area's mangrove specialities here . . . not that that's saying much. We managed to find a small flock of red-headed honeyeaters, though I failed to get a good enough picture of them to show here.
We returned to the carpark to discover that my dad had somehow lost the car keys in the mangroves. I stood in the carpark and watched the car for an agonising hour (or at least that's how long it felt), while my dad tried to figure out where they had slipped out of his pocket. As the seemingly limitless sandflies bit at me in the carpark and (I'm told) at my dad in the mangroves, our insect repellent proved completely useless.
As a consolation prize, I managed to observe a fair few honeyeaters feeding on blossoming eucalypts while I waited for my dad. Though no new species were seen, I got the best views of silver-crowned friarbird and rufous-throated honeyeater of the trip here. By the trip's end we had made a fairly clean sweep of all the area's honeyeater species save for black-chinned honeyeater, but waiting here and watching the blossoms seemed a productive way to tick them off for any future visitor. Just please, for the love of God, don't make our mistake. Bring an insect repellent that works.

RUFOUS-THROATED HONEYEATER

SILVER-CROWNED FRIARBIRD

After this rather traumatising experience ended with my dad finding the car keys, we rested in our hotel room the remainder of the day, trying to avoid the urge to scratch the countless sandfly bites. At night we went out to a Sri Lankan restaurant in Nightcliff, where we were pleasantly surprised by how brilliant the food was. Even I, who usually loathes Sri Lankan food, thoroughly enjoyed the meal. A stop to photograph an adorable pair of Torresian imperial-pigeons preening beside the road certainly added to my enjoyment.

TORRESIAN IMPERIAL-PIGEON

We then called it a night and rested well.

Birding the Top End: Day 4

The day began early as always, as we drove out at the crack of dawn along the Arnhem Highway to a site that Where to Find Birds in the Northern Territory said was the nearest potential site for Gouldian Finch. Unfortunately, we arrived there to find a massive quarry, and I saw absolutely nothing of note. For any other users of said book, it is almost certain that we just butchered the directions, so I cannot make any actual statement on how good the site listed as 'Mary River pools' actually is for Gouldian Finch.
Having realised our inability to follow directions, we doubled back to Adelaide River to try for Mangrove Golden Whistler and potentially Arafura Fantail. Although we came across a decent feeding flock, we dipped on both species, though we did find variable trillers, white-gaped honeyeaters, lemon-bellied flycatchers, a rufous-banded honeyeater and a pair of broad-billed flycatchers. 

VARIED TRILLER

We drove further back to make the obligatory stop at Fogg Dam. On the road in we managed to tick a red-backed kingfisher perching on a wire. We stopped first at the carpark to walk the Woodlands to Waterlilies track. The forest proved extremely birdy, with several tame brown whistlers that whistled back whenever I whistled at them. Yellow orioles, rufous whistlers, orange-footed scrubfowl and the same variety of honeyeaters seen previously were all present. The wetlands held a brown goshawk (potentially a collared sparrowhawk, I don't trust in my ability to tell one from the other), along with Rajah shelducks, comb-crested jacanas, forest kingfishers (some of which I tried and failed to turn into little kingfishers), swamp harriers, whiskered terns and various egrets. We dipped here on the hoped for white-browed crake.
Driving along the dam wall provided much of the same, along with a distant blue-winged kookaburra. We saw a few feral buffalo from the observation tower at the end of the road before driving back.

RED-BACKED KINGFISHER

YELLOW ORIOLE

BROWN WHISTLER

RADJAH SHELDUCK

COMB-CRESTED JACANA

BLUE-WINGED KOOKABURRA

As we neared Darwin, we made a brief detour to Channel Island, where we hoped to find great-billed herons. From the top of a jetty on the bank of the island furthest from the mainland, we saw a large, dark slaty-grey heron fly across the water, which after some deliberation we ticked as a great-billed heron. However our fear of crocodiles initially stopped us from pursuing it, and despite walking across more of the island we could not retrace it. Yellow oriole, red-tailed black cockatoo and a lone whistling kite were also observed on the island before we gave up and made our way back to the hotel.
Later that evening we travelled to Stokes Hill Wharf to have dinner and see if any Asian gull-billed terns could be observed roosting. We saw a brahminy kite being harassed by silvergulls, along with many masked lapwings. Due to the wharf being off-limits we could not get very close to the roosting birds there, but were able to identify Australian terns, little terns, great crested terns and great cormorants. Coincidentally we also lost our hotel keys here, something that threw me into a bit of a panic thinking we might suddenly get robbed. We were unable to refind them, but we also went completely unrobbed, so this proved far more unimportant than I feared.
Exhausted by my panicking and a day of good birdwatching, we ate some Thai and called it a night.

Birding the Top End: Day 3

This was our first full day of birding around Darwin.
We had heard from Luke the day before that Buffalo Creek was a good site for rainbow pittas. Armed with this knowledge, we headed to the area early in the morning.
First we walked down to the beach, where we found a group of birds roosting on the sand. Silvergulls made up the majority of the flock, but Caspian terns, lesser crested terns,  eastern reef egrets and a lone far Eastern curlew were present as well. As the sun rose, we moved to exploring the nearby bushland.
A variety of small birds flitted through the trees, among which I tentatively identified lemon-bellied flycatchers and dusky myzomelas. A forest kingfisher briefly got me excited thinking it was a little kingfisher before I managed to identify it. A white-bellied cuckooshrike posed photogenically in the nearby carpark, a great bowerbird and a yellow oriole perched briefly atop a tree stump, and many bar-shouldered doves were seen. As we continued walking around, a Brahminy kite was spotted watching the water for prey.

WHITE-BELLIED CUCKOOSHRIKE

FOREST KINGFISHER

Having searched the area from about 6 to 9.30 with no luck, we were about to give up when my dad suggested we make one last circuit of a short trail going through some of the area's monsoon forest. Aside from two Northern fantails in the canopy that disappointed me by not being mangrove grey fantails, the area seemed devoid of anything new, until my dad excitedly whispered "pitta! pitta!" There in the undergrowth in front of us was our target, a lone rainbow pitta just as stunning as I had imagined it.

RAINBOW PITTA

The pitta walked across the trail and disappeared into some undergrowth. I thought that by walking further down I might flush it back ahead into a clear area or get some looks at it from the beach, so I walked onto the beach. This proved a horrible mistake, as the pitta immediately decided to walk back along the path while I was away, before vanishing into an even thicker area of monsoon forest. To this day my dad has not stopped reminding me that he had managed stunning views by staying still on the path, even filming a video of the bird on his phone which he occasionally uses to annoy me.
Thrilled with our success, we drove a little further down to Casuarina Coastal Reserve. Here a massive flock of red-tailed black cockatoos immediately captured our attention, before we walked down to the beach. Several little terns were feeding offshore. A massive flock of chestnut-breasted mannikins flew into some nearby grass, but if there was a yellow-rumped mannikin among them it was completely missed by me. A pair of rainbow bee-eaters were perched in a small tree, and a family of grey-crowned babblers was foraging on the beach. As we drove out, we managed good shots of one of Darwin's infinite black kites perched on a branch.

RED-TAILED BLACK COCKATOO

GREY-CROWNED BABBLER

BLACK KITE

Our final birding site for the day was the mangroves along Tiger Brennan Drive. Unfortunately it was about midday by the time we got to these, and it was absolutely sweltering. Likely as a result of this, the only species seen in the mangroves were brown honeyeaters and yellow orioles. As compensation, we did observe an aerial dogfight between a distant Eastern osprey and a white-bellied sea eagle, ending in the sea eagle perching triumphantly atop a boat's mast. A brahminy kite was also seen soaring overhead.

BROWN HONEYEATER

WHITE-BELLIED SEA EAGLE

We rested for the remainder of the day.

Birding the Top End: Day 2

This day consisted of the second half of Luke's Parrots and Finches tour.
We woke early, driving down to a site near Nitmiluk National Park. Our primary target here was the Gouldian finch, an endangered and highly sought-after species pursed by most birders in this area. Luke took us to an area of dry woodland, and after some watching and waiting we walked our way into the middle of a massive feeding flock. Long-tailed finches, white-winged trillers and masked finches fed on the ground, while hooded parrots and cockatiels made their way through the trees. Black-faced woodswallows perched in the treetops watching over the rest of the flock to ensure safety from predators, although they did not seem to be worried about a distant pair of brown falcons perched on a wire. We scanned many finches to try and pick out a Gouldian, but were ultimately unsuccessful. At one point an immature Gouldian was spotted, but after few got decent looks at it we were left unable to tick it in good conscience.

MASKED FINCH

BLACK-FACED WOODSWALLOW

Walking further down to a dried-up creekbed provided looks at the much yellower northern race of weebill and a very fearless white-throated honeyeater. Eventually we came across another feeding flock containing much the same species, along with a few red-winged parrots, a Jacky winter, a striated pardalote, a pied butcherbird and a silver-crowned friarbird . . . but no Gouldian finch.

WHITE-THROATED HONEYEATER

Somewhat fed up with searching for the Gouldian finch, we stopped over in Nitmiluk National Park at a campground near Edith Falls. Here a wide variety of birds were present. Tall eucalypts around the campground held rufous-throated honeyeater, banded honeyeater, white-throated gerygone, rufous-banded honeyeater, rufous whistler, yellow-tinted honeyeater and dusky myzomela. A few fruiting trees held red-winged parrots and great bowerbirds. In a corner of the campground we came across the trip's first and only Northern rosella, along with Northern fantail and double-barred finch.

NORTHERN ROSELLA

GREAT BOWERBIRD

NORTHERN FANTAIL

As we drove out of Nitmiluk, we made one final stop at a waterhole Luke thought could potentially be a spot for Gouldians. In the now-sweltering weather, a heat haze made photography of the few birds seen at first extremely difficult. Initially all seemed quiet save for a small flock of long-tailed finches. Then gradually we noticed some distant little woodswallows, a species that often acts as a sentinel for large feeding flocks. Upon closer inspection, a small group of peaceful doves held a few diamond doves too. And then, after hearing its distant calls for a few minutes, we watched as an immature Gouldian finch flew swiftly into a tree beside us, called, and bolted. This technically counted as a tick, but since the immature lacked the vibrant colouration of an adult Gouldian, we were all left somewhat unsatisfied.

GOULDIAN FINCH

LITTLE WOODSWALLOW

We then began the long drive back to Darwin, most of which I slept through. A little eagle and good views of crimson and double-barred finches while eating lunch at Adelaide River were the main sightings of note.

DOUBLE-BARRED FINCH

CRIMSON FINCH

Upon arrival in Darwin, we hired a car and returned back to our hotel, the Mantra Pandanus. We had checked into the hotel on our first night before the tour, and had simply paid for the extra night while we were away in Pine Creek to ensure that we could use the rooms for the rest of the trip as well. The hotel proved suitably comfortable, with luxurious rooms and a decent location near several birding sites.
We rested a bit, then visited the Botanical Gardens for the opening ceremony of the Australasian Ornithology Conference. With the directions of many other birders we were able to find the gardens' famous rufous owls. The rainforest section of the gardens also held olive-backed orioles, pied imperial pigeons, Australian figbirds, white-gaped honeyeaters, blue-winged kookaburras, rainbow bee-eaters and orange-footed scrubfowls. 

OLIVE-BACKED ORIOLE

RUFOUS OWL

ORANGE-FOOTED SCRUBFOWL

Having eaten at a food stall and participated in the opening ceremony, we watched the white-breasted woodswallows circling above us on their way to their roosts and then decided to call it a night. 

Birding the Top End: Day 1

Apologies for the long period without any updates. I recently finished year 12, and was for most of the year too busy with schoolwork to post here. Now that year 12 has ended, I am now devoid of excuses.
One of my few breaks during the year was a 7-day birdwatching trip up to Darwin with my dad, celebrating my 18th birthday. This trip proved incredibly useful, with over 170 different species seen, a fair deal of which were lifers (their names are italicised).
The day after our late-night arrival in Darwin, we had scheduled a 2-day tour with Luke Patterson of NT Bird Specialists. I can highly recommend Luke's company and his guiding, and without him we would certainly have dipped on many of my targets.
The tour began early in the morning, with a walk around Darwin's Esplanade. Here we got onto a few of the city's commoner birds: Australian figbird, white-gaped honeyeater, Torresian imperial pigeon, spangled drongo and orange-footed scrub fowl all gave decent views. The main highlight was a roosting pair of Barking owls in trees beside a flight of stairs heading down from the Esplanade, blessedly just out in the open enough to allow decent photos and views.

BARKING OWL

We then set off on the long drive that would eventually take us to Pine Creek, making several stops along the way. Throughout the drive, black kites were abundant. Try as I might, I did not manage to pick out any black-breasted buzzards among them.
Our first stop was at Howard Springs Nature Park, a site containing wet rainforest where rainbow pitta could sometimes be seen. Though we dipped on the pitta here, we got our first looks at brown whistler, crimson finch, rainbow bee-eater, varied triller, blue-winged kookaburra and yellow oriole. A pair of nesting large-billed gerygones allowed surprisingly good views, and the highlight was a quiet rose-crowned fruit dove perched high in the canopy. A little pied cormorant perched high on a tree stump in the rainforest looked very out of place, likely having flown there from the nearby lake, around which a lone Merten's water monitor and a few little pied and little black cormorants were basking in the sun. We ate breakfast here, with a few rather tame silver-backed butcherbirds hungrily eyeing our food.

LARGE-BILLED GERYGONE

ROSE-CROWNED FRUIT DOVE

RAINBOW BEE-EATER

SILVER-BACKED BUTCHERBIRD

MERTEN'S WATER MONITOR

We next stopped near Adelaide River at a familiar place, a water treatment plant. Here, as always seems to be the case, the plant had attracted a myriad of waterbirds. Most common were plumed whistling-ducks, but a lone Radjah shelduck, a few pink-eared ducks and a pair of Australasian shovelers were also present. On the water were some Australasian grebes, and black-fronted dotterels fed at the water's edge. The dry woodland around the plant gave us our first looks at a few common species we'd see most days after this: dusky myzomela, white-throated honeyeater and peaceful dove. 

PLUMED WHISTLING-DUCK

PEACEFUL DOVE

We ate lunch in a picnic ground at Adelaide River. Around this were many lemon-bellied flycatchers, a sacred kingfisher, more white-throated honeyeaters and the first rufous-banded honeyeater of the trip.

SACRED KINGFISHER

LEMON-BELLIED FLYCATCHER

One more brief stop was made at a few pools of water beside the road to Pine Creek, where the first black-necked storks of the trip were observed, along with a white-necked heron, a royal spoonbill and some Radjah shelducks.
We arrived at Pine Creek and immediately checked into our accomodation, the Pine Creek Railway Resort. The rooms here were good and the shower was much-appreciated after our drive, although we somehow managed to jam the door before dinner, and had to be rescued by Luke.
After a brief rest, we all gathered together to explore the town. Flowering trees held white-quilled honeyeaters, little friarbirds, white-gaped honeyeaters and bar-breasted honeyeaters. White-breasted woodswallows perched on wires. A family of grey-crowned babblers chattered noisily to themselves as they fed, and a great bowerbird was seen flaring its pink crest in front of its bower, hoping to attract a nearby female.

BAR-BREASTED HONEYEATER

WHITE-QUILLED HONEYEATER

WHITE-GAPED HONEYEATER

Our main target at Pine Creek was the resident hooded parrot population, and these did not disappoint. Not only did we get brilliant views of a massive flock feeding right in front of us on some recently burned grassland, but a stunning male bird drinking from a tap proved very photogenic. I could not have asked for a better first sighting of this species, one of the Northern Territory's few endemics.

HOODED PARROT

A final walk around some lilypad-infested ponds added yellow-tinted honeyeater and paperbark flycatcher to the already-impressive trip list. We ate dinner at a local pub, which was having a pizza night. We briefly attempted a spotlighting drive along a nearby road, but were unsuccessful, seeing only a tawny frogmouth and none of the hoped-for buttonquails. Satisfied with the day, we slept well, exhausted as we were with the day's efforts.