Fwd: Gibb River Road – trip report

Hi – a trip report for those interested of my recent drive across the Gibb River road in the Kimberley. The trip didnt go to plan, with vehicle issues forcing me to abandon initial plans to make the detour up to Mitchell Falls. In hindsight it was probably for the best, as it allowed for longer stops at each locations. And due to the trip being a combined family trip with my wife (Kellie) and three year old boy (Jaxon), took the pressure off as well. And to be fair, i now feel Mitchell Falls deserves a dedicated trip in itself, so i will return! The trip didnt start well, while during the long drive up from Perth, my cooling system begun over-pressurising in my Navara, an issue i haven’t encountered before. This was forcing coolant out of my radiator and filling up and overflowing through the expansion reservoir. We got to Roebuck Bay caravan park, i got the RAC out and they referred me to a mechanic in Broome. The next morning we headed straight in to Broome, the mechanic was great. He did a head gasket check which came back fine which left a blocked thermostat and radiator cap as potential issues. They were busy for the day so i changed the thermostat myself in his workshop and bought him a carton for helping me out with it, a great result. This resulted in a days delay so the next day we headed to our first stop along the Gibb – Windjana Gorge. We detoured in to Derby, the tide was right up unfortunately, meaning i missed Great-billed Heron. Got a few mangrove birds but didnt spend much time there. We arrived at Windjana about lunch time. The Napier Range is stunning and is quite different geology to what i have seen in other ranges around WA. I spent the afternoon and following morning birding in the gorge and surrounding woodlands. Picked up two Grey Goshawks as they cruised through the gorge in the arvo which was great, my first lifer for the trip. Early morning produced Sandstone Shrike-thrush (lifer) and an Azure Kingfisher (WA tick) as well as all the standards. The Freshwater Crocs were nice to see. After one night we headed to our next stop, the camp site at Mt Barnett which goes up to Manning Gorge. It was fairly busy at the camp but it is an excellent spot for camping. The river has nice sand along it producing areas of little beaches, perfect for my boy Jaxon to splash around in. While scoping the opposite bank on the first arvo, i was pleasantly surprised to see three White-quilled Rock Pigeons (lifer) coming down for a drink. There was also flowering Grevillea on the opposite side of the bank with lots of honeyeater activity. Investigation produced Bar-breasted Honeyeater, a great result (lifer). Bush Stone-curlews called throughout the night. Early morning we trekked out to Manning Gorge (5 km return). The gorge was lovely, but nothing special bird wise. Picked up some lifer reptiles on the walk. In the arvo i went fishing downstream and was having a great session on Sooty Grunter when i flushed a Black Bittern out of a Paperbark. I got my bins on it in flight then as it perched further downstream, i was pumped to get another WA record for this species. The following morning i got up early and birded the woodland. This was excellent with 42 species recorded in about 45 minutes. This included a satisfying track down of Northern Rosella (lifer) after i heard a distant call. Silver-backed Butcherbird was common in camp. The night before we were due to leave, with next stops Drysdale river and Mitchell Falls, Kell noticed a fluid under my car. A closer look showed diesel was leaking, and the problem was a pinhole leak in the front weld of the tank. I was worried the corrugations may open the crack further (which it did) and decided it was too risky to do Mitchell Falls. As a result we stayed another night, then headed to El Questro. We got to El Questro fine, but once out of the car the single drip once every 10 seconds had turned in to a constant drip and fuel was coming out quite quick. There is a permanent mechanic at El Questro and he was excellent. We drained the fuel tank and cleaned up the crack, then applied some QuickSteel. I would highly recommend always taking this stuff on any trip away. The QuickSteel sealed the tank, and held up all the way back to Perth. Birding was generally disappointing. El Questro is not my cup of tea, far too commercialized and touristy for my liking. Plus the lack of birding information was disappointing, especially for somewhere that markets birdwatching as a premier attraction. Upon inquiring about birding, i was informed no birdwatching tours were running and my best bet was to track down a Ranger. After i tracked down a Ranger i got a hot tip that Gouldians were drinking at a particular soak. Excellent, i headed there straight away, only to find the soak was bone dry, no chance of Gouldians coming in to drink there. I worked the Pandanus creek near camp pretty hard, and got Restless Flyctacher (WA tick) and a lifer in Green-backed Gerygone which was a good result. Somehow i have missed Radjah Shelducks on a couple of trips north previously, so it was nice to get those on the river at camp. More Bush Stone-curlews calling at night. Emma gorge is a stunning place. However i was saddened that when swimming in the gorge and coming up to a nice rocky crevice where i was expecting to find Tree Frogs, i was greeted with a line of ugly Cane Toads. Off to Parry Creek farm! It was nice to get to Parry Creek and talk to staff member John who gave me some proper birding advice. Gouldian’s were my number one priority, and John advised they had been around the billabong at camp and in town at Wyndham. An evening stake-out at the billabong for finches produced Masked and Long-tailed Finches, and a juvenile finch which i saw briefly which i felt was a Gouldian. Not being familiar with juvenile finches, and not the best views, it felt stringy to call it as a Gouldian even though i had my suspicions (subsequent views of juvenile Gouldians confirmed this bird was indeed a Gouldian). A pair of Barking Owls called throughout the night. The next morning i was up again early and staking out the billabong. Masked and Long-tailed Finches were back, and i wasnt really expecting anything, when a birding moment which i will always remember occurred. On a scan of the grass about 20 m away an adult black headed Gouldian literally just appeared from no where. It was surreal to see this awesome little bird in the wild. There ended up being two adults and three juveniles come in for a drink – i was pumped! We went in to Wyndham for a look around, which didnt take too long, not much to see. Marglu billabong was great, although i probably expected a little more given how dry the country is at the moment. The billabong is said to hold up to 10,000 birds but there was no where near these numbers. Anyway it nice to get lifer Pied Herons everywhere. Nothing else too exciting but the potential for good birds is excellent. Yellow Oriole was relatively easy around camp, and the Barking Owls gave away their location just before sundown, so i was able to get views of them. I got the scope on them and Jaxon enjoyed watching them. The following morning i was up again early for the Finch stake-out. At 6:13 a small number of Gouldian’s arrived, and over the next 20 minutes their numbers continued to build to 45. Only six were adults (all black-headed) with the remainder all juveniles. Unfortunately no red or yellow headed variations were there, but it was still fantastic to watch these birds for 20 minutes and have views of birds foraging within 10 m of me. Something i will always remember. As we had spare time up our sleeves, Kell was keen to head to Lake Argyle, so off we went. A lovely camp site up on the hill over looking the dam. I was after mannikins, as i had seen none thus far. I spent a solid two hours in Kununurra on the Weaber Plains searching, but all i could find were large flocks of Star Finches! I got Buff-sided Robin at Ivanhoe crossing which was a WA tick. I finally got Chestnut-breasted Mannikin, with a nice flock in the creekline upstream from Dead horse springs near Lake Argyle. Unfortunately i was really after Yellow-rumped and Pictorella, both of which would have been lifers, but i dipped out on these. White-browed Crake at the springs was a nice surprise. The overflow area of Lake Argyle looks fantastic. I scoped the pandanus palms from the opposite bank hard for Purple-crowned Fairy-wrens, but didnt have any luck. Im not sure if they are there, but the habitat looks great. We finished our holiday with the sunset boat cruise on the dam. The amount of water in the dam really is quite incredible. We then had three very full days of driving, which we successfully completed to return to Perth (about 3,000 km in total). Those portable dvd players must be one of the greatest modern inventions. I can not imagine travelling with small kids prior to them haha. A really fantastic trip, filled with many birding highlights, great family time and adventures. And im excited about getting back to hit up Mitchell Falls. All up i picked up 11 lifers and 25 WA ticks, a great result. If anyone wants any more specifics feel free to ask. A list of birds observed from Broome onwards is below. Cheers Bruce Brown Quail Magpie Goose Wandering Whistling Duck Plumed Whistling Duck Radjah Shelduck Black Swan Grey Teal Pacific Black Duck Hardhead Australasian Grebe Hoary-headed Grebe Crested Pigeon Spinifex Pigeon White-quilled Rock Pigeon Peaceful Dove Bar-shouldered Dove Little Black Cormorant Pied Cormorant Little Pied Cormorant Black-necked Stork Black Bittern Eastern Great Egret Intermediate Egret Little Egret Cattle Egret White-faced Heron White-necked Heron Pied Heron Nankeen Night Heron Glossy Ibis Australian White Ibis Straw-necked Ibis Royal Spoonbill Black-breasted Buzzard White-bellied Sea-eagle Whistling Kite Brahminy Kite Black Kite Brown Goshawk Collared Sparrowhawk Grey Goshawk Wedge-tailed Eagle Australian Kestrel Brown Falcon Peregrine Falcon Brolga Purple Swamphen White-browed Crake Australian Bustard Bush Stone-curlew Black-fronted Dotterel Masked Lapwing Common Sandpiper Common Greenshank Gull-billed Tern Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo Galah Little Corella Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Cockatiel Red-collared Lorikeet Red-winged Parrot Northern Rosella Varied Lorikeet Horesfield’s Bronze Cuckoo Pheasant Coucal Brush Cuckoo Barking Owl Boobook Owl Azure Kingfisher Blue-winged Kookaburra Red-backed Kingfisher Sacred Kingfisher Rainbow Bee-eater Black-tailed Treecreeper Great Bowerbird Red-backed Fairy-wren Variegated Fairy-wren Weebill Mangrove Gerygone Green-backed Gerygone White-throated Gerygone Red-browed Pardolate Striated Pardolate White-gaped Honeyeater Yellow-tinted Honeyeater Grey-fronted Honeyeater Yellow-throated Miner Bar-breasted Honeyeater Rufous-throated Honeyeater Banded Honeyeater Brown Honeyeater White-throated Honeyeater Blue-faced Honeyeater Silver-crowned Friarbird Little Friarbird Grey-crowned Babbler Varied Sitella Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike White-winged Triller White-breasted Whistler Rufous Whistler Sandstone Shrike-thrush Australasian Figbird Yellow Oriole Olive-backed Oriole White-breasted Woodswallow Black-faced Woodswallow Little Woodswallow Silver-backed Butcherbird Pied Butcherbird Australian Magpie Northern Fantail Willie Wagtail Torresian Crow Leaden Flycatcher Shining Flycatcher Paperbark Flycacther Magpie-lark Jacky Winter Lemon-breasted Flycatcher Buff-sided Robin Horsefield’s Bushlark Golden-headed Cisticola Rufous Songlark Yellow White-eye Mistletoebird Double-barred Finch Long-tailed Finch Masked Finch Crimson Finch Star Finch Gouldian Finch Chestnut-breasted Mannikin