Spent a wonderful few days in Kakadu, based at the South Alligator River region. The Aurora motel and campground was very comfortable and spacious, unlike our previous experience at Cooinda. We did do a fair bit of driving, but probably no more so than before. Highly recommend this as a place to stay for anyone visiting.
The wildlife was enough to get excited about. Crocodiles on the banks and in the South Alligator River everytime we drove by, 7-8 snakes on the road one night, as well as Nankeen Night herons and Southern Boobooks on posts at night, dingoes, bandicoots, all was just amazing in a very short period of time. The night in question had unseasonable rain which may account for some of the excitement. We also drove through fires on both sides of the road, burning uncontrollably and unmonitored which was a bit weird. The flames threw up very high reflections in the night sky.
The birdlife though was exceptional. I think the count was around 90 for the 4 or so days we were there, and although not as plentiful on the Cooinda/Yellow Waters cruise, they were certainly everywhere both near water and on the wetlands flats. My mum was with us also and her one bird she really wanted to see was a Brolga, dancing if possible. She saw the Brolgas and unfortunately wasn't in the car with me when I was treated to some dancing. Jabirus/Black-necked Storks were in abundance along the roadside, as were Whistling Kites, and a lot of other birds of prey.
One of the treats of the cruise was an Azure Kingfisher who sat perched beautifully within a few metres of the boat. Besides the crocs, we also saw a large Goanna, frogs and toads (thankfully not many) and the campground was full of honeyeaters, figbirds, kingfishers, parrots and corellas as well as the Orange-footed Scrub-fowl, something I had expected to see in Darwin but hadn't the previous week. The finches were out in force, as well as a lot of water birds. All too many to show here, but I will start off with some of my favourite bird photos, starting with a normally plain bird, the Bar-shouldered Dove, that gave a beautiful display for a non-too impressed mate:
Staying with the pigeon/dove theme, finally saw a Torresian Imperial Pigeon while staying at friends place in Darwin:
