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Darwin and Ashmore Reef Birdwatching Tour
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Darwin and Ashmore Reef Birdwatching Tour
When: Tue 12 Oct - Fri 22 Oct 2010
Leaders: Chris Doughty and Simon Mustoe |
Darwin and Ashmore Reef Birdwatching Tour
Darwin/Darwin (11days) $6,820 |
| The tour will commence in the `Top End' of the Northern Territory. in Darwin. The Darwin area offers superb birding with many local specialities. Here at the northernmost tip of the Northern Territory there is a pronounced monsoon climate, with a heavy rainy season from approximately December to March. Instead of the parched desert country typical of most of the territory, the vegetation here is rich and varied. We will explore a diverse array of habitats; eucalypt savanna is the dominant habitat; but we will also explore sandy beaches, mangroves, creeks and marshes. Amongst the more interesting species we may encounter during our visit in the Darwin area are Pied Heron, Eastern Reef-Egret, Straw-necked Ibis, Black-necked Stork, Magpie Goose, White-browed Crake, Brolga, Comb-crested Jacana, White-headed Stilt, Red-kneed Dotterel, Black-fronted Plover, Australian Pratincole, Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, Bar-shouldered Dove, the very large Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, Little Corella, Red-backed Kingfisher, Rainbow Pitta, Singing Bushlark, Mangrove Robin, Lemon-bellied, Broad-billed and Shining Flycatchers, Northern Fantail, Green-backed Gerygone, White gaped, Rufous-banded and Red-headed Honeyeaters, Yellow White-eye and Yellow Oriole. Leaving mainland Australia behind, the remainder of the tour will be spent exploring the little-known and seldom visited Ashmore Reef. This small, remote and almost forgotten fragment of Australian territory barely breaks the surface of the sparkling blue waters of the Indian Ocean. We sail to Ashmore Reef aboard the Auriga Bay II and this is where we will be accommodated, throughout our time here. There are very few places on earth where you can spend a week at sea and expect to encounter up to a dozen species of whales and dolphins, half a dozen species of marine reptiles and over thirty species of seabirds. Amongst the cetaceans we could expect to be entertained by Long-snouted Spinner, Indo-Pacific Hump-backed and Fraser's Dolphins and the huge Humpback Whale. We also have an excellent chance of observing Tahiti and Bulwer's Petrels, both Matsudaira's and Swinhoe's Storm-Petrels and Streaked and Hutton's Shearwaters. The tour has been specifically timed to take place at this time of year, when literally millions of birds from the central Siberian Plateau and the Soviet Far East, have no option but to migrate southwards, to winter in Southeast Asia and the Indonesian Archipelago. Each year a few of the many millions of birds on migration, 'overshoot' their regular wintering grounds and find refuge, amongst the vastness of the Indian Ocean, on Ashmore Reef. On this tour we can expect the added excitement of finding one or two extreme rarities, such as Pechora Pipit, Middendorf's Warbler, Asian Brown Flycatcher and Island Monarch, or perhaps, even a species of bird which has not previously been recorded on Australian territory. |
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