My Birding Trip into the Bush

I have joined the Darwin NT birding club and I managed to get on the first outing of the year with them, I was chatting to someone else in the apartment block and once I mentioned that i go birding she told me she was the treasurer of the club and that I should come and meet everyone at the meeting in the university, the next day she banged on my door and asked me if i wanted to come to the meeting, i went along and met a room full of old people, i was the youngest by far which made me happy, the meeting was given a talk by a PhD student who is studying the birds of indonesian islands, which i thought sounded great for a job, afterwards i was introduced to the bird outing leader, part of the conversationw as that i was going with them in their car and that i should meet them at 6.45am at their house to be picked up, this is all well and good when trying to find somewhere in Darwin during the day but in the dark it is another matter, i got lost but called them and they guided me to their house




The trip was about 120Km out into the bush heading inland, Darwin region is pretty flat and boring but by the time we got to the park it was large rolling hills and a few more trees, we had passed over some large rivers that are also full of crocodiles and along the saide of the marshy areas there were many birds, egrets and herons of all species, When we arrived at the Bird Billabong( Aboriginal name for lake I think) there were about 12 birders at the place and all attired in large floppy hat, to stop the sun burning the skin off your head, mostly long trousers, to stop the biting insects eating you and sucking you dry of all blood, faces and ears covered in sun cream, and a large bag with food and water, i had the hat, sun cream and bag with some food and lots of water, it wasn't actually that hot but the sun was really intense, I like going to really keen birdes as they can identify all the birds without breaking out the identification book, then know all the calls and it was nice to be able to be told what a bird was without struggling, this makes it very easy and very enjoyable, we spent maybe 2 hours walking the 4 Km to the lake, seeing all sorts of birds of prey and many other smaller birds, the air was filled with shrieking parrots, this country has more parrots than any other in the world i think, and many large ones, and they can kill at 40 paces with their amazing shrieks, why anyone would want to have a parrot as a pet i dont know.




When we got to the lake it was surrounded by birds on the shore line and nothing swimming, this is because the lake had crocodiles, i was shocked to see them everywhere, maybe 8 in total but that was only the ones we could see, the birds wouldn't enter the water, only paddling around the edges, there were many types of egrets and herons and even the giant stork, the Jabiru, also many families of the local Whistling ducks, there was even a hide on a bridge in th water, it was so prefessional, the parks authority do very good jobs for the visitors. then we wandered about the edge of the lake and took a short cut across the bush to get back to the car park, it was a fantastic day out and these folks apart form being old were great to be with, and they new all the birds names, being driven was also a nice touch, i have checked the calender and I cannot see another outing soon and perhaps i was lucky to get the only dry season trip this year, we will see maybe next dry season.