Birding In the Knuckey Lagoons and Sewage Ponds

I had a birding sunday this weekend and it was pretty interesting, surprisingly we first went to the sewage ponds, it is a very quiet and still place, I had to go with my neighbour who is the treasurer of the local Naturalists, not nudists, people who love nature, so she has access to the site, she has a special electronic pass that opens the gate, we went inside to find it alive with ducks swimming in the settling ponds, herons eating bugs and many hawks that were just roosting i think, they didn't seem to be attacking the other birds. We drove around the site, it is huge and they have about 10 large ponds, maybe 4 hectares in total. We sat in the car the whole time so as not to disturb the birds, and we could get closer to them by doing that, we sat close to the main inlet and the little herons were diving into the water and pulling out brown things, but these brown things had legs and tentacles, I thought it was very odd so finally asked the question what are they eating, it turns out they are eating the cockroaches that get washed down the drains and are flushed into the ponds, very funny, not what you were expecting was it. We traveled on to our next wonderful destination the local refuse tip, once we got close I could see literally hundreds or maybe a thousand birds of prey circling around, just a whole swirling mass of Black kites and Whistling Kites, just hundreds and hundreds of them, it was good but for only a few minutes, we then set off to the local jungle park, it is a nice picnic area and some nice walks but it was alive with black cockatoos and small Honeyeaters, I managed to see a new species for me, my list is getting longer. we then also went on to the Knuckey Lagoons, they are small local water holes that keep water all season and when we arrived it was full of birds, Geese and ducks and herons and egrets and even the large Black-necked Stork, it was amazing, the only thing you have to look out for are the local aboriginals, they were out looking for Turtles I think , but as they seem to think they own the country just because they got here first doesn't mean they can take everything, even anything as I want to look at these without them killing it all.

Anyway there was a murder in the park around the lagoons, it was some of the aboriginals who are alcoholic, which means most of them and they get stinking drunk and then just seem to kill each other from time to time, there has been 3 murders this way since i have arrived in Darwin, one in the Botanical gardens right next door to my apartment block, not encouraging for long term stays here then. But the birding is great, we spent 8 hours touring the places with many birds and I enjoyed every minute of it

Lovely Knucket Lagoons, unless your drinking parner goes insane and beats you to death