Kakadu produces a plethora of Herons, Egrets and Brolgas. The Herons included a new one for me, thankfully I have some amazing family who are able to spot birds while I am taking photos of crocodiles! My partner Annie spotted this Striated Heron:
Nankeen Night Herons are far noisier then I had known before. At night they cause quite a cacophany in the campground, almost as loud as the Whistling Ducks and the Blue-winged Kookaburras, not to mention the Channel-billed Cuckoos. This Nankeen Night Heron was at Mamukala Wetlands, just near the bird hide:
The Pied Herons were at Kakadu, but in huge numbers at Crocodylus Park in Darwin. I've never seen flocks like this before:
In keeping with the multiple birds from above, Cattle Egrets filled the dead trees during our Yellow Waters cruise:
Yes, it was cloudy and much more like the build-up than the dry season, but beautiful on the boat. This is a photo of another boat, the same as ours on the same evening:
Of all of these, the birds that really "performed", were the Brolgas. My Mum had come to spend some time with her grand-children (yes, I'm under no illusion she was there to spend time with me!) and she had two requests for the trip, wildlife requests that is. The first was to see a dingo in the wild, tick, managed to see one for her on the drive back to Darwin from Kakadu, and second, a little bit trickier to organise, was to not only see Brolgas, but see them dancing. We managed the first part of that, Mum saw Brolgas, but they had stopped dancing by the time I had taken her back to them. These photos are when I first drove past and saw them less than 20 metres from the edge of the Arnhem Highway, the road into Kakadu from Darwin:
it then flew down to catch some mudskippers trying to get to the boat ramp on the South Alligator River
Nankeen Night Herons are far noisier then I had known before. At night they cause quite a cacophany in the campground, almost as loud as the Whistling Ducks and the Blue-winged Kookaburras, not to mention the Channel-billed Cuckoos. This Nankeen Night Heron was at Mamukala Wetlands, just near the bird hide:
The Pied Herons were at Kakadu, but in huge numbers at Crocodylus Park in Darwin. I've never seen flocks like this before:
In keeping with the multiple birds from above, Cattle Egrets filled the dead trees during our Yellow Waters cruise:
Yes, it was cloudy and much more like the build-up than the dry season, but beautiful on the boat. This is a photo of another boat, the same as ours on the same evening:
Of all of these, the birds that really "performed", were the Brolgas. My Mum had come to spend some time with her grand-children (yes, I'm under no illusion she was there to spend time with me!) and she had two requests for the trip, wildlife requests that is. The first was to see a dingo in the wild, tick, managed to see one for her on the drive back to Darwin from Kakadu, and second, a little bit trickier to organise, was to not only see Brolgas, but see them dancing. We managed the first part of that, Mum saw Brolgas, but they had stopped dancing by the time I had taken her back to them. These photos are when I first drove past and saw them less than 20 metres from the edge of the Arnhem Highway, the road into Kakadu from Darwin:
Happy Birding!
I'd love that cruise along the river too; lovely series, and I LOVE the brolgas
ReplyDeletebeautiful Brolga's
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