I'll be wanting to see the list of ten mammals which you thought I thought you might hopefully see...
LaughingDove Goes Travelling - SE Asia and Australia
- Thread starter LaughingDove
- Start date
Here it is:
(I will add that I wrote this before I arrived in Sandakan based largely on flicking through the field guide and the standard highly optimistic or ridiculously lucky trip reports on mammalwatching.)
Moonrat
Banded Palm Civet
Sunda Stink Badger
Bornean Yellow Muntjac
Malay Weasel
Tufted Ground Squirrel
Flat-headed Cat
Kinabalu Squirrel
Banded Linsang
Binturong
So I saw five of my list (bold). Though I think I saw fewer than that of yours?
End of the Malaysia Leg and Off to Australia!
I was still feeling a bit groggy from yesterday's illness but definitely much better, although frequent toilet trips had kept me up over night.
I had breakfast then hung about at the hostel for a while, then at 11:30 I called a Grab. It was earlier than necessary, three hours before departure and only a 20 minute drive to the airport, but there wasn't really anything better for me to do.
There is a bus to the airport, but that costs 5 ringgit and a Grab was only 10 ringgit and right from the accommodation rather than down the street. Grab in KK really is almost too easy and cheap, I haven't bothered a with a local city bus at all while here.
It was all very easy going through the airport, especially compared to budget airlines in Europe like Ryanair and Wizz, AirAsia check in was perfectly good. The self-print baggage tag machine was rather running out of ink which concerns me, but is apparently no problem. So I was through quickly and was actually at the gate two hours before scheduled departure.
There's a nice view across the runway out to sea and all the islands just off the coast. There was also one of AirAsia's relatively new (less than half a year I think since first delivery) A320NEOs although they look like same as the old A320s, NEO standing for New Engine Option.
There were all sorts of shops selling overpriced tourist tat which in the past is the sort of thing I would have bought, but it occurs to me that I haven't bought any tourist tat of that nature at all on this trip, all those lifers being the best souvenir of course!
It's a bit sad that the Malaysian leg of the trip is over, and although there are a few places that I didn't get to, I visited lots of cool places and saw loads of stuff. More than I thought I would manage. Six weeks is a long time to travel on your own though, and although there is another solo travel leg at the end of the trip, most of the next month-ish that I'm in Australia will be with various family and relatives.
So I'm off to Darwin now. When I just searched flights from Kota Kinabalu to Darwin I got all sorts of rubbish connections like going via Singapore then Perth then Darwin or even stranger things like going via the South East of Australia. All terrible routes and very expensive. There just aren't that many airlines that fly to Darwin. And those that do are generally excessively expensive. But I noticed that Jetstar Asia has a flight from Singapore to Darwin four times a week and I got that for a really good price by Darwin standards ($230 Singaporean for a one way 4hour+ flight I think it was) which is very high for that length of time on a budget airline but by far the best option to fly into Darwin. Rather conveniently, AirAsia had a flight from Kota Kinabalu to Singapore that lands 4hours and 50minutes before the Jetstar flight takes off, which is pretty good. However being two separate budget airlines that are not in any sort of alliance of course means the purchase of two entirely separate tickets so they won't check your luggage through like a normal connection and you have to go through immigration, pick up the bags, then go back through immigration and security again. It also turns out that AirAsia lands at Terminal 4 in Singapore and Jetstar goes from Terminal 1. And Terminal 4 apparently doesn't have a SkyTrain connection but it's a bus instead. And there was me thinking that AirAsia and Jetstar, two budget airlines so they'd put them around the same bit of the airport to keep the poor cattle class scum away from the proper airlines. Ah well. Assuming no delays I've easily got long enough, it's just a hassle.
So then, now that I'm done with Malaysia, here are some stats. I don't yet have my list of lifers properly sorted yet, but here's some other things based on my yearlist of mammals and birds.
The trip so far, Malaysia and a couple of days in Thailand has added 407 species new for the year and the overall species list will just be a couple higher with Tree Sparrows and Feral Pigeons and things. The mammal front though is where things really are excellent and way better than expected. So far on this trip, I've seen 93 species of mammals. 92 in Malaysia. I'm absolutely stoked with that! Some really good mammals too!
Let's see how Australia compares... I've not got as long but I will be visiting three states with a nice range of possible species.
Now the other interesting thing, my costs here in Malaysia. Because I've been travelling solo and keeping track of all my money, especially without bank cards most of the time, I know exactly how much I've spent.
Over 41 days in Malaysia, both West and East Malaysia, I have spent, to the nearest 50 ringgit RM6800. That’s approximately 1440 euros, £1270, AU$2260, or US$1680.
Divided by the 41 days, that’s an average daily spend of RM166 or 35 euros, £31, AU$55, US$41. That does not include any flights and also does not include my one domestic flight from KL to Sandakan which was a bit over RM400 if I remember correctly although I can’t find the receipt email thing. I haven’t included flights because they tend to be super variable. But those prices are absolutely everything apart from flights – all accommodation, food, activities, land transport.
I really think that’s really cheap for almost six weeks! You could probably do it for 2/3rds of the price if you were really doing everything as absolutely cheaply as possible, but I did everything fairly comfortably and paid for expensive things when I needed to. And a £31 per day cost for all accommodation, food, activities and transport is really very good considering everything I’ve done.
That’s a cost of £13.80 per mammal species or £3.12 per bird species which is of course a really dumb way to measure it and even for me with my list-heavy focus, the list is just one part of the adventure that is a solo, backpacking, wildlife-watching expedition.
I’ve got about and hour until take off now, for my journey that seems ideal for making sure I get zero sleep tonight. I land in Singapore at 5PM and take off at 11:05 and land in Darwin at 5:10 (Darwin is an hour and a half ahead. A half hour time zone, seriously Northern Territories? Just pick a side and go with it). A relatively short stay in the Northern Territories by the standards of this trip so far, just ten days, but I’m going to be packing in quite a bit.
Australia next! Of course as I will be with relatives most of the time in Australia, I won’t be able to do quite as excessive ‘I will see that animal no matter what it takes even if it damn well near kills me’ style of wildlife watching, as much as I will try, I will have a private vehicle and I will be on a considerably higher per-day budget especially in terms of the quality of accommodation.
The trip is certainly no where near over though, and the wildlife sightings are most definitely not either.
I was still feeling a bit groggy from yesterday's illness but definitely much better, although frequent toilet trips had kept me up over night.
I had breakfast then hung about at the hostel for a while, then at 11:30 I called a Grab. It was earlier than necessary, three hours before departure and only a 20 minute drive to the airport, but there wasn't really anything better for me to do.
There is a bus to the airport, but that costs 5 ringgit and a Grab was only 10 ringgit and right from the accommodation rather than down the street. Grab in KK really is almost too easy and cheap, I haven't bothered a with a local city bus at all while here.
It was all very easy going through the airport, especially compared to budget airlines in Europe like Ryanair and Wizz, AirAsia check in was perfectly good. The self-print baggage tag machine was rather running out of ink which concerns me, but is apparently no problem. So I was through quickly and was actually at the gate two hours before scheduled departure.
There's a nice view across the runway out to sea and all the islands just off the coast. There was also one of AirAsia's relatively new (less than half a year I think since first delivery) A320NEOs although they look like same as the old A320s, NEO standing for New Engine Option.
There were all sorts of shops selling overpriced tourist tat which in the past is the sort of thing I would have bought, but it occurs to me that I haven't bought any tourist tat of that nature at all on this trip, all those lifers being the best souvenir of course!
It's a bit sad that the Malaysian leg of the trip is over, and although there are a few places that I didn't get to, I visited lots of cool places and saw loads of stuff. More than I thought I would manage. Six weeks is a long time to travel on your own though, and although there is another solo travel leg at the end of the trip, most of the next month-ish that I'm in Australia will be with various family and relatives.
So I'm off to Darwin now. When I just searched flights from Kota Kinabalu to Darwin I got all sorts of rubbish connections like going via Singapore then Perth then Darwin or even stranger things like going via the South East of Australia. All terrible routes and very expensive. There just aren't that many airlines that fly to Darwin. And those that do are generally excessively expensive. But I noticed that Jetstar Asia has a flight from Singapore to Darwin four times a week and I got that for a really good price by Darwin standards ($230 Singaporean for a one way 4hour+ flight I think it was) which is very high for that length of time on a budget airline but by far the best option to fly into Darwin. Rather conveniently, AirAsia had a flight from Kota Kinabalu to Singapore that lands 4hours and 50minutes before the Jetstar flight takes off, which is pretty good. However being two separate budget airlines that are not in any sort of alliance of course means the purchase of two entirely separate tickets so they won't check your luggage through like a normal connection and you have to go through immigration, pick up the bags, then go back through immigration and security again. It also turns out that AirAsia lands at Terminal 4 in Singapore and Jetstar goes from Terminal 1. And Terminal 4 apparently doesn't have a SkyTrain connection but it's a bus instead. And there was me thinking that AirAsia and Jetstar, two budget airlines so they'd put them around the same bit of the airport to keep the poor cattle class scum away from the proper airlines. Ah well. Assuming no delays I've easily got long enough, it's just a hassle.
So then, now that I'm done with Malaysia, here are some stats. I don't yet have my list of lifers properly sorted yet, but here's some other things based on my yearlist of mammals and birds.
The trip so far, Malaysia and a couple of days in Thailand has added 407 species new for the year and the overall species list will just be a couple higher with Tree Sparrows and Feral Pigeons and things. The mammal front though is where things really are excellent and way better than expected. So far on this trip, I've seen 93 species of mammals. 92 in Malaysia. I'm absolutely stoked with that! Some really good mammals too!
Let's see how Australia compares... I've not got as long but I will be visiting three states with a nice range of possible species.
Now the other interesting thing, my costs here in Malaysia. Because I've been travelling solo and keeping track of all my money, especially without bank cards most of the time, I know exactly how much I've spent.
Over 41 days in Malaysia, both West and East Malaysia, I have spent, to the nearest 50 ringgit RM6800. That’s approximately 1440 euros, £1270, AU$2260, or US$1680.
Divided by the 41 days, that’s an average daily spend of RM166 or 35 euros, £31, AU$55, US$41. That does not include any flights and also does not include my one domestic flight from KL to Sandakan which was a bit over RM400 if I remember correctly although I can’t find the receipt email thing. I haven’t included flights because they tend to be super variable. But those prices are absolutely everything apart from flights – all accommodation, food, activities, land transport.
I really think that’s really cheap for almost six weeks! You could probably do it for 2/3rds of the price if you were really doing everything as absolutely cheaply as possible, but I did everything fairly comfortably and paid for expensive things when I needed to. And a £31 per day cost for all accommodation, food, activities and transport is really very good considering everything I’ve done.
That’s a cost of £13.80 per mammal species or £3.12 per bird species which is of course a really dumb way to measure it and even for me with my list-heavy focus, the list is just one part of the adventure that is a solo, backpacking, wildlife-watching expedition.
I’ve got about and hour until take off now, for my journey that seems ideal for making sure I get zero sleep tonight. I land in Singapore at 5PM and take off at 11:05 and land in Darwin at 5:10 (Darwin is an hour and a half ahead. A half hour time zone, seriously Northern Territories? Just pick a side and go with it). A relatively short stay in the Northern Territories by the standards of this trip so far, just ten days, but I’m going to be packing in quite a bit.
Australia next! Of course as I will be with relatives most of the time in Australia, I won’t be able to do quite as excessive ‘I will see that animal no matter what it takes even if it damn well near kills me’ style of wildlife watching, as much as I will try, I will have a private vehicle and I will be on a considerably higher per-day budget especially in terms of the quality of accommodation.
The trip is certainly no where near over though, and the wildlife sightings are most definitely not either.
SabineB
Well-Known Member
it just occured to me..... how is the stolen wallet situation going? are you ok with always having to find a Western Union and the like and kind of running aroung with way to much cash or did you manage to find a workaround for that situation?
Great stories from Malaysia, thank you! Apart from that, have fun in Australia!
Great stories from Malaysia, thank you! Apart from that, have fun in Australia!
I've been using Western Union the whole time in Malaysia who has been kind of annoying because all the cash since Taman Negara has come in only three lots.
However I will very soon be done with those issues because I will be picking up new bank cards from my aunt in Darwin! Yay! And I'll be most definitely sure to keep my two cards in two completely separate places! So I have learned something from the whole ordeal I guess...
I was just wondering why you hardly had any stomach problems, but your malaria medication are antibiotics
. The one time I took those I was also very proud I didn't get any stomach problems, I normally take Lariam to save money (and I don't get hallucinations anyway )That is a lot of mammals for one trip. How many of those did you see in Borneo and what are the biggest misses there? Lot's of mammal watchers go for the Clouded leopard, but for that you would need a car I guess....
That is cheap and would be hard to do in Africa if you actually want to see some wildlife (except Ethiopia and Madagascar)....
That's pretty close to what I had. But I specifically said that there were no cats on the list (and also that it would only be species I haven't seen, which is obviously not something you'd necessarily know), so Flat-headed Cat is out.
Moon Rat
Banded Palm Civet
Sunda Stink Badger
Malayan Weasel
Tufted Ground Squirrel
Kinabalu Squirrel
Pen-tailed Tree Shrew
Sunda Pangolin
Sun Bear
Kinabalu Ferret-badger
I reckon you'd have got the Moon Rat if the situation at the RDC had been a bit more conducive. Sun Bear and (especially) Kinabalu Ferret-badger were the real outliers - I didn't think you'd see them, but I would have been delighted if you had.
I am hoping you get Striped Possum in Australia.
I was just wondering why you hardly had any stomach problems, but your malaria medication are antibiotics
That is a lot of mammals for one trip. How many of those did you see in Borneo and what are the biggest misses there? Lot's of mammal watchers go for the Clouded leopard, but for that you would need a car I guess....
That is cheap and would be hard to do in Africa if you actually want to see some wildlife (except Ethiopia and Madagascar)....
52 mammals were new in Borneo and there will be some overlap with Penisula Malaysia with e.g. treeshrews and some squirrels so probably just under 60 mammal species in Borneo.
All the rich hiring local guide type mammals watchers try for Marbled Cat and Clouded Leopard and Flat-headed Cat and with a guide etc. there's a good chance. Cloudies are actually really reliable at Deramakot Reserve and there's a guy who runs clouded leopard tours there that usually see them. The key misses are basically the species in my and Chli's post (though basically no one sees Pangolins. The others are seen quite often)
I made a brief post a bit earlier in this thread about someone who I met at Kinabatangan and was at Danum two days after me and saw a Clouded Leopard on the road at dusk.
That explains the lack of food poisoning!
Because given how long I was there and how cheaply and streetfoodily I was eating, I'm surprised it took that long for me to get sick. And just a few days after I stopped with the malaria tablets too!
I'm really pleased with how cheaply I managed to do that trip. It's definitely the cheapest I've ever travelled.
Moonrat was one that I actually thought I would get too. Just a couple more hours each night at the RDC would have done it I reckon.
From mammalwatching trip reports and speaking to people around, I think the pangolin is less likely than sun bear. I think you'd have a better chance at clouded leopard or marbled cat than pangolin. A number of guides at Danum had never seen a pangolin.
I'd really like to get close to all the possums possible on the Tablelands. I've set myself up with that possibility. Though the pygmy possum will be tricky.
"The others" from the two lists? Tufted Ground Squirrel is very rarely seen, and Kinabalu Ferret-badger incredibly-so. Linsang is renowned for being barely ever seen. Kinabalu Squirrel is not often recorded in trip reports.
Not the ferret badger, no.
But I've seen all the others on trip reports not too infrequently.
The Kinabalu Squirrel is weird. I felt extremely lucky to see one of course having seen how infrequently they show up on trip reports, but the bird guide who I spoke to on Kinabalu seemed to think that if you spent a bit of time looking on the Kiau View trail they weren't too tough. And I did subtly check to make sure he knew what he was talking about and wasn't misidientifying sculptor squirrels. Certainly easier than Jon Hall's 'frequently seen' Malay Weasels on Kinabalu!
Singapore Transit And a Start to Northern Territory Wildlife
There was a hell of a lot of turbulence on the flight from Kota Kinabalu to Singapore. I struggle to remember a flight with that much turbulence although a mid afternoon flight over the ocean very close to the equator is the sort of flight that would encountered turbulence. I don't mind at all though. I don't worry about it, and I find it breaks up the monotony of a smooth flight. (Is that weird?) The captain also announced wind gusting at 20 knots on landing which is fairly high.
It's a very short flight from KK to Singapore, only just over two hours, and with a meal that I had pre-ordered the flight passed very quickly. I hardly read any of my book. Just for some déjà vu linking back to my very first post from this trip, I'm reading another Philip K Dick book. Valis this time which is a bizarre book but really entertaining. It's a first person narrative but written in the third person by a narrator called Horselover Fat who occasional forgets what narrative perspective to use. PKD's 'thing' really is messing with the reader as much as possible.
For some reason I thought I had just under five hours in transit but it was actually just under six.
Going through immigration, picking up my bag, getting a bus and SkyTrain then dropping off my bag and going back through immigration took about an hour. Meaning I had ages sitting around in Singapore. I mean, enjoying the wonders of Changi airport. Wonderful. Ugh. So I went to the bog standard airport water lily garden. There's supposed to be a butterfly garden somewhere at the airport too but I have no idea where.
I also found a Subway which is good because I like them and never found any in Malaysia. Although the person there insisted that it was cheaper if I have two cookies and a coke on top of a foot long sandwich than just the sandwich. Somehow I managed to force myself to eat two delicious chocolate chip cookies. That meal was probably more calories than a consider portion of days in Malaysia although there were quite a few days when I didn't eat enough food, mostly due to spending too long looking for wildlife. Skipping meals for wildlife watching isn't necessarily recommended, but it is the key to getting over 400 birds and almost 100 mammals in less than six weeks.
11PM is far too late to take off, especially for a flight that's only four hours long so lands too early. But what can you do, that's what you get for being a cheapskate and booking budget airlines. The other thing you get for being a cheapskate is being stuck in a middle seat because you've obviously got to pay for seat selection which I didn't. I also hate Jetstar. Everything they do irritates me. Their planes are a hideous colour, their website is awful to use, and they're not even all that cheap! I've got three Jetstar flights on this trip all of them were with Jetstar as the only carrier on the route. (Singapore-Darwin, Darwin-Cairns, Cairns-Perth) C'mon we need some competition on these routes, we can't let Jetstar get away with terrible service at not all that cheaply. Generally that previous sentence applies for basically all aviation in Australia. And of course, what four hour middle of the night flight would be complete without... Australian incoming passenger cards. Urgh.
And then I was in Darwin! Naturally, Australian Quarantine insisted on me unpacking all of my stuff because some of it was a bit muddy with some seeds stuck to it, but oh well. So I got to the accommodation, I had a little bit of sleep, then my aunt and I walked down to pick up the car. Today wasn't a big day in terms of wildlife watching, mostly just doing things around the city and picking up the car. As I said, now that I'm not on my own it won't be quite the level if inense wildlife watching as I had been doing, bit without her and a car it would be completely impossible to do the Northern Territories. There is no way to do it without private transport. So I just have to accept a slower pace.
After getting some things sorted out in the morning, we went to the Botanic Gardens for a little bit although it was too hot and midday is to see anything much apart from the Orange-footed Scrubfowl that are everywhere and then went to some mangrove areas near the city and added a number of mangrove birds, including some nice Top End specialities, although missed Chestnut Rail which is supposed to be a very difficult species anyway. I thought there would be Agile Wallabies and Black Flying Foxes about but didn't see any. More exciting though was a brief glimpse of a Lesser Water Rat/Water Mouse at dusk before leaving.
I will definitely do some spotlighting around here at some point, particularly the Botanic Gardens which aren't too far from the AirBnB that I'm staying at, but having completely missed last night's sleep that won't be tonight. It's only 6 and I feel like I'll collapse from sleep deprivation any minute. I need to get some decent rest for the proper wildlife watching which starts tomorrow and I need to I make the most of it because I've just got ten days total in NT which is not nothing by is certainly faster paced that my time in Malaysia.
Under normal circumstances I’d probably write more about the Darwin city birding, but I really need some sleep. I’m also not yet fully over my upset stomach from Malaysia. Just look at the species list.
New birds:
Silver Gull
Pied Imperial Pigeon
Peaceful Dove
Magpie-lark
Dusky Honeyeater
Figbird
Black Kite
Australian White Ibis
Orange-footed Scrubfowl
Spangled Drongo
White-gaped Honeyeater
Varied Triller
Rainbow Bee-eater
Large-billed Gerygone
Rufous-banded Honeyeater
Shining Flycatcher
Red-headed Honeyeater
Mangrove Gerygone
Yellow White-eye
White-winged Triller
Green (Australasian Yellow) Oriole
White-throated Gerygone
Mangrove Golden Whistler
Green-backed Gerygone
Lemon-bellied Flycatcher
Mangrove Grey Fantail
Jacky Winter
Double-barred Finch
Masked Lapwing
Straw-necked Ibis
Bar-shouldered Dove
Little Friarbird
Helmeted Friarbird
Little Corella
Galah
Red-collared Lorikeet
Radjah Shelduck
(Mostly fairly common species, and there are I number of supposedly very common species that I’m still missing, but there are also a number of pretty unusual species in that list like mangrove ones and I’m especially happy with the finches!)
Mammals:
False Water Rat
There was a hell of a lot of turbulence on the flight from Kota Kinabalu to Singapore. I struggle to remember a flight with that much turbulence although a mid afternoon flight over the ocean very close to the equator is the sort of flight that would encountered turbulence. I don't mind at all though. I don't worry about it, and I find it breaks up the monotony of a smooth flight. (Is that weird?) The captain also announced wind gusting at 20 knots on landing which is fairly high.
It's a very short flight from KK to Singapore, only just over two hours, and with a meal that I had pre-ordered the flight passed very quickly. I hardly read any of my book. Just for some déjà vu linking back to my very first post from this trip, I'm reading another Philip K Dick book. Valis this time which is a bizarre book but really entertaining. It's a first person narrative but written in the third person by a narrator called Horselover Fat who occasional forgets what narrative perspective to use. PKD's 'thing' really is messing with the reader as much as possible.
For some reason I thought I had just under five hours in transit but it was actually just under six.
Going through immigration, picking up my bag, getting a bus and SkyTrain then dropping off my bag and going back through immigration took about an hour. Meaning I had ages sitting around in Singapore. I mean, enjoying the wonders of Changi airport. Wonderful. Ugh. So I went to the bog standard airport water lily garden. There's supposed to be a butterfly garden somewhere at the airport too but I have no idea where.
I also found a Subway which is good because I like them and never found any in Malaysia. Although the person there insisted that it was cheaper if I have two cookies and a coke on top of a foot long sandwich than just the sandwich. Somehow I managed to force myself to eat two delicious chocolate chip cookies. That meal was probably more calories than a consider portion of days in Malaysia although there were quite a few days when I didn't eat enough food, mostly due to spending too long looking for wildlife. Skipping meals for wildlife watching isn't necessarily recommended, but it is the key to getting over 400 birds and almost 100 mammals in less than six weeks.
11PM is far too late to take off, especially for a flight that's only four hours long so lands too early. But what can you do, that's what you get for being a cheapskate and booking budget airlines. The other thing you get for being a cheapskate is being stuck in a middle seat because you've obviously got to pay for seat selection which I didn't. I also hate Jetstar. Everything they do irritates me. Their planes are a hideous colour, their website is awful to use, and they're not even all that cheap! I've got three Jetstar flights on this trip all of them were with Jetstar as the only carrier on the route. (Singapore-Darwin, Darwin-Cairns, Cairns-Perth) C'mon we need some competition on these routes, we can't let Jetstar get away with terrible service at not all that cheaply. Generally that previous sentence applies for basically all aviation in Australia. And of course, what four hour middle of the night flight would be complete without... Australian incoming passenger cards. Urgh.
And then I was in Darwin! Naturally, Australian Quarantine insisted on me unpacking all of my stuff because some of it was a bit muddy with some seeds stuck to it, but oh well. So I got to the accommodation, I had a little bit of sleep, then my aunt and I walked down to pick up the car. Today wasn't a big day in terms of wildlife watching, mostly just doing things around the city and picking up the car. As I said, now that I'm not on my own it won't be quite the level if inense wildlife watching as I had been doing, bit without her and a car it would be completely impossible to do the Northern Territories. There is no way to do it without private transport. So I just have to accept a slower pace.
After getting some things sorted out in the morning, we went to the Botanic Gardens for a little bit although it was too hot and midday is to see anything much apart from the Orange-footed Scrubfowl that are everywhere and then went to some mangrove areas near the city and added a number of mangrove birds, including some nice Top End specialities, although missed Chestnut Rail which is supposed to be a very difficult species anyway. I thought there would be Agile Wallabies and Black Flying Foxes about but didn't see any. More exciting though was a brief glimpse of a Lesser Water Rat/Water Mouse at dusk before leaving.
I will definitely do some spotlighting around here at some point, particularly the Botanic Gardens which aren't too far from the AirBnB that I'm staying at, but having completely missed last night's sleep that won't be tonight. It's only 6 and I feel like I'll collapse from sleep deprivation any minute. I need to get some decent rest for the proper wildlife watching which starts tomorrow and I need to I make the most of it because I've just got ten days total in NT which is not nothing by is certainly faster paced that my time in Malaysia.
Under normal circumstances I’d probably write more about the Darwin city birding, but I really need some sleep. I’m also not yet fully over my upset stomach from Malaysia. Just look at the species list.
New birds:
Silver Gull
Pied Imperial Pigeon
Peaceful Dove
Magpie-lark
Dusky Honeyeater
Figbird
Black Kite
Australian White Ibis
Orange-footed Scrubfowl
Spangled Drongo
White-gaped Honeyeater
Varied Triller
Rainbow Bee-eater
Large-billed Gerygone
Rufous-banded Honeyeater
Shining Flycatcher
Red-headed Honeyeater
Mangrove Gerygone
Yellow White-eye
White-winged Triller
Green (Australasian Yellow) Oriole
White-throated Gerygone
Mangrove Golden Whistler
Green-backed Gerygone
Lemon-bellied Flycatcher
Mangrove Grey Fantail
Jacky Winter
Double-barred Finch
Masked Lapwing
Straw-necked Ibis
Bar-shouldered Dove
Little Friarbird
Helmeted Friarbird
Little Corella
Galah
Red-collared Lorikeet
Radjah Shelduck
(Mostly fairly common species, and there are I number of supposedly very common species that I’m still missing, but there are also a number of pretty unusual species in that list like mangrove ones and I’m especially happy with the finches!)
Mammals:
False Water Rat
Fogg Dam (and getting sick)
I had an early start today to head out to Fogg Dam, one of the premier birding sites in the Darwin area, about 60km from the city. Naturally, there is no way whatsoever to get there without a car. This is Darwin after all.
A couple of things I wanted to me room yesterday are that it's really dry here, really dry. The forests are like tinder. Very different to anywhere else on the trip and to anywhere else I will be going this trip. I'm also finding bird identifications really tricky! I've birded WA and Queensland before but even so I'm finding it takes a lot of work to get stuff IDed here. I found it much easier in Malaysia. I could blame the fiels guide as I'm using a new one, the Sclater one, and there's an element of adjusting to a new book, but some of the IDs are tricky!
We would have been ready to head out just before dawn, but my digestive system was still not being very amenable. I'm still trying to convince myself that it's just mild travellers diarrhoea but I would have thought it should have healed by now. And of course I would get ill just at the bit of the trip that's really tight on time. Sigh.
We got to Fogg Dam before 8 though, despite it being an hour away and it's really nice. Loads of waterbird on the dam area, and the marshy fields behind, inlcuding heaps of Whistling Ducks and Magpie Geese and most excitingly Brolga and Green Pygmy Goose. The forests and marshy paperbark swamps around the dam area were really cool too with nice boardwalks and Rose-crowned Fruit Doves and Paperbark Flycatchers were common. I think there is definitely the potential for some nice small mammals by spotlighting and there is a sign describing how Northern Quolls are 'commonly seen' but I suspect this may be a mammalwatching.com style 'commonly seen' rather than actually seen by people. It would be nice to go spotlighting here though I'm not sure if I'll have to chance to on this trip. I did see a wallaroo though, which is nice. I also saw a roadkill Dingo which was interesting. It would be nice to see a live one.
I didn't find any pittas at Fogg Dam which I was really hoping for. Rainbow Pitta is probably my top bird target for NT, so after Fogg Dam we went for a quick visit to Howard Springs Nature Park which is also supposed to be good for pittas but it was not the ideal time of day and also quite busy with people being a Sunday afternoon. We would have stayed longer, but I had to go to a doctor to check about my illness. I think the point at which you are throwing up with most food and also showing basically all the symptoms of dysentery, including stool that’s mostly blood, is maybe possibly time to start thinking about going to a doctor. And it really wasn’t getting better on its own. I’ve got antibiotics now so hopefully it will be fine. And we’re going to go back to Howard Springs to try for pitta again tomorrow morning.
I wanted to go spotlighting in the botanic gardens, but my aunt wasn’t feeling up to driving and I couldn’t walk 3km each way in the dark (well I could be I’d have to be expecting to do that). And I wasn’t actually up to it either really, but I would still have tried to do it anyway!
This post is shorter and less detailed and descriptive than usual (or less excessively and unnecessarily verbose, depending on perspective) because I’m not feeling exactly 100% as you may have gathered, and also because now that I’m travelling with someone times like sitting and waiting at meals or for whatever where in Malaysia I was on my own so would type another couple of paragraphs on my phone are now spent talking and engaging in normal human social interactions.
Anyway, the species list should give some more details:
Brown Goshawk
Whistling Kite
Tree Martin
Northern Fantail
Blue-winged Kookaburra
Black-shouldered Kite
Olive-backed Oriole
Magpie goose
Plumed Whistling Duck
Wandering Whistling Duck
Comb-crested Jacana
Gull-billed Tern
White-necked Heron
Pied egret
Little Pied Cormorant
Australasian Darter
Black-necked Stilt
Australian Swamphen
Royal Spoonbill
Yellow-billed Spoonbill
Glossy Ibis
Black-faced Cuckooshrike
Whiskered Tern
Green Pygmy Goose
Pacific Black Duck
Australian Pranticole
Little Black Cormorant
White-browed Crake
Azure Kingfisher
Australian Hobby
Spotted Harrier
Broad-billed Flycatcher
Willie Wagtail
Arafura Fantail
Sacred Kingfisher
Rose-crowned Fruit-dove
Little Shrike Thrush
Weebill
White-bellied Cuckooshrike
Singing Honeyeater
Paperbark Flycatcher
White-faced Heron
Pacific Baza
Rufous-throated Honeyeater
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
(+two species where I can’t read my own handwriting and right at this moment can’t for the life of me remember what they are supposed to be right now! It will come to me tomorrow)
Mammals:
Common Wallaroo
(+roadkill dingo)
I had an early start today to head out to Fogg Dam, one of the premier birding sites in the Darwin area, about 60km from the city. Naturally, there is no way whatsoever to get there without a car. This is Darwin after all.
A couple of things I wanted to me room yesterday are that it's really dry here, really dry. The forests are like tinder. Very different to anywhere else on the trip and to anywhere else I will be going this trip. I'm also finding bird identifications really tricky! I've birded WA and Queensland before but even so I'm finding it takes a lot of work to get stuff IDed here. I found it much easier in Malaysia. I could blame the fiels guide as I'm using a new one, the Sclater one, and there's an element of adjusting to a new book, but some of the IDs are tricky!
We would have been ready to head out just before dawn, but my digestive system was still not being very amenable. I'm still trying to convince myself that it's just mild travellers diarrhoea but I would have thought it should have healed by now. And of course I would get ill just at the bit of the trip that's really tight on time. Sigh.
We got to Fogg Dam before 8 though, despite it being an hour away and it's really nice. Loads of waterbird on the dam area, and the marshy fields behind, inlcuding heaps of Whistling Ducks and Magpie Geese and most excitingly Brolga and Green Pygmy Goose. The forests and marshy paperbark swamps around the dam area were really cool too with nice boardwalks and Rose-crowned Fruit Doves and Paperbark Flycatchers were common. I think there is definitely the potential for some nice small mammals by spotlighting and there is a sign describing how Northern Quolls are 'commonly seen' but I suspect this may be a mammalwatching.com style 'commonly seen' rather than actually seen by people. It would be nice to go spotlighting here though I'm not sure if I'll have to chance to on this trip. I did see a wallaroo though, which is nice. I also saw a roadkill Dingo which was interesting. It would be nice to see a live one.
I didn't find any pittas at Fogg Dam which I was really hoping for. Rainbow Pitta is probably my top bird target for NT, so after Fogg Dam we went for a quick visit to Howard Springs Nature Park which is also supposed to be good for pittas but it was not the ideal time of day and also quite busy with people being a Sunday afternoon. We would have stayed longer, but I had to go to a doctor to check about my illness. I think the point at which you are throwing up with most food and also showing basically all the symptoms of dysentery, including stool that’s mostly blood, is maybe possibly time to start thinking about going to a doctor. And it really wasn’t getting better on its own. I’ve got antibiotics now so hopefully it will be fine. And we’re going to go back to Howard Springs to try for pitta again tomorrow morning.
I wanted to go spotlighting in the botanic gardens, but my aunt wasn’t feeling up to driving and I couldn’t walk 3km each way in the dark (well I could be I’d have to be expecting to do that). And I wasn’t actually up to it either really, but I would still have tried to do it anyway!
This post is shorter and less detailed and descriptive than usual (or less excessively and unnecessarily verbose, depending on perspective) because I’m not feeling exactly 100% as you may have gathered, and also because now that I’m travelling with someone times like sitting and waiting at meals or for whatever where in Malaysia I was on my own so would type another couple of paragraphs on my phone are now spent talking and engaging in normal human social interactions.
Anyway, the species list should give some more details:
Brown Goshawk
Whistling Kite
Tree Martin
Northern Fantail
Blue-winged Kookaburra
Black-shouldered Kite
Olive-backed Oriole
Magpie goose
Plumed Whistling Duck
Wandering Whistling Duck
Comb-crested Jacana
Gull-billed Tern
White-necked Heron
Pied egret
Little Pied Cormorant
Australasian Darter
Black-necked Stilt
Australian Swamphen
Royal Spoonbill
Yellow-billed Spoonbill
Glossy Ibis
Black-faced Cuckooshrike
Whiskered Tern
Green Pygmy Goose
Pacific Black Duck
Australian Pranticole
Little Black Cormorant
White-browed Crake
Azure Kingfisher
Australian Hobby
Spotted Harrier
Broad-billed Flycatcher
Willie Wagtail
Arafura Fantail
Sacred Kingfisher
Rose-crowned Fruit-dove
Little Shrike Thrush
Weebill
White-bellied Cuckooshrike
Singing Honeyeater
Paperbark Flycatcher
White-faced Heron
Pacific Baza
Rufous-throated Honeyeater
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
(+two species where I can’t read my own handwriting and right at this moment can’t for the life of me remember what they are supposed to be right now! It will come to me tomorrow)
Mammals:
Common Wallaroo
(+roadkill dingo)
I may do a few zoos around Cairns. There are quite a few zoos in Kuranda near Cairns but I did most of them on my last visit two years ago and they're really expensive so I probably won't do them again.
I'm thinking that I might visit Green Island on the Great Barrier Reef this time. I went to Michaelmas Cay in the outer reef which is really good but expensive to get to.
Dysentery in Darwin (And Territory Wildlife Park And More)
The plan for today had been an early start to get to Howard Springs for its 7AM opening to try for the pitta, then go down to Territory Wildlife Park, and then do another birding site in the evening and go spotlighting in the Botanic Gardens. However my intestines were not being cooperative. The dysentery is pretty bad now to be honest... I had quite bad dysentery during the night last night
Well I guess getting a nasty disease is one of the two main indicators of an adventurous trip. The other being a traffic accident. I really mustn't tempt fate.
We eventually got out about three hours later than intended. I'm pleased we got out at all, first thing in the morning I was really terrible, but it seems like the 'I feel like I'm about to die' stage is just the first part of the day. Howard Springs Nature Park is a small recreational park type place with some barbeque stands and swimming areas, but it has a decent patch of monsoon forest and is generally regarded is the best place to find a Rainbow Pitta. It took a little bit of walking around, but not too much, until I suddenly spotted a rainbow pitta moving low in the vegetation along a stream. It was a really good view, for a pitta, as it moved along the stream. Although in some vegetation I could see it well and get some half decent pictures. Rainbow Pitta is a slightly odd name choice. It’s got a highly iridescent blue patch on the wing, but what makes it unusual for a pitta is that it’s mostly black in colour with a green back. A very interesting pitta species.
After Howard Springs, we continued on to the Territory Wildlife Park, a zoo about 60km from Darwin in some bushland. It is not a large zoo in terms of the size of the collection, but what is there is really spread out over a large area of natural bushland so you walk along bushland tracks between the exhibits, or there is a train as well, and there are plenty of wild birds around including lots of Yellow Orioles and a few Blue-winged Kookaburras. I even saw a wild snake of some species here. After Malaysia I was starting to think that I was completely unable to find snakes! We were at the zoo a bit later than we had intended, but still managed to get around it and left just at the 5PM closing time. The zoo focuses exclusively on nature Northern Territory wildlife with a fairly broad collection of native wildlife including aviaries, a nocturnal house, and an aquarium, though not a huge number of species, everything was nicely done. The nocturnal house included a number of nice rarities, as you might expect, and there were some particularly nice birds too including Beach Stone-curlews, and an endemic Melville Island subspecies of Masked Owl.
After the zoo, we headed back to Darwin, then had dinner and a quick pop around the Botanic Gardens for spotlighting. We didn’t spend very long there, but Northern Brushtail Possums are everywhere and there were Bush Stone-curlews, Black Flying Foxes, and what I believe are Common Bentwing Bats.
Tomorrow, we depart Darwin for Kakadu National Park. Thankfully, the antibiotics seem to be kicking in a bit.
Birds:
Sacred Kingfisher
Striated Pardalote
Banded Honeyeater
Red-winged Parrot
Blue-faced Honeyeater
Little Eagle
Mistletoebird
Buff-sided Robin
Rainbow Pitta
Shining Flycatcher
Australian Pelican
Brown-capped Emerald Dove
Forest Kingfisher
Bush Stone-curlew
Mammals:
Northern Brushtail Possum
Common Bent-wing Bat
Black Flying Fox
The plan for today had been an early start to get to Howard Springs for its 7AM opening to try for the pitta, then go down to Territory Wildlife Park, and then do another birding site in the evening and go spotlighting in the Botanic Gardens. However my intestines were not being cooperative. The dysentery is pretty bad now to be honest... I had quite bad dysentery during the night last night
Well I guess getting a nasty disease is one of the two main indicators of an adventurous trip. The other being a traffic accident. I really mustn't tempt fate.
We eventually got out about three hours later than intended. I'm pleased we got out at all, first thing in the morning I was really terrible, but it seems like the 'I feel like I'm about to die' stage is just the first part of the day. Howard Springs Nature Park is a small recreational park type place with some barbeque stands and swimming areas, but it has a decent patch of monsoon forest and is generally regarded is the best place to find a Rainbow Pitta. It took a little bit of walking around, but not too much, until I suddenly spotted a rainbow pitta moving low in the vegetation along a stream. It was a really good view, for a pitta, as it moved along the stream. Although in some vegetation I could see it well and get some half decent pictures. Rainbow Pitta is a slightly odd name choice. It’s got a highly iridescent blue patch on the wing, but what makes it unusual for a pitta is that it’s mostly black in colour with a green back. A very interesting pitta species.
After Howard Springs, we continued on to the Territory Wildlife Park, a zoo about 60km from Darwin in some bushland. It is not a large zoo in terms of the size of the collection, but what is there is really spread out over a large area of natural bushland so you walk along bushland tracks between the exhibits, or there is a train as well, and there are plenty of wild birds around including lots of Yellow Orioles and a few Blue-winged Kookaburras. I even saw a wild snake of some species here. After Malaysia I was starting to think that I was completely unable to find snakes! We were at the zoo a bit later than we had intended, but still managed to get around it and left just at the 5PM closing time. The zoo focuses exclusively on nature Northern Territory wildlife with a fairly broad collection of native wildlife including aviaries, a nocturnal house, and an aquarium, though not a huge number of species, everything was nicely done. The nocturnal house included a number of nice rarities, as you might expect, and there were some particularly nice birds too including Beach Stone-curlews, and an endemic Melville Island subspecies of Masked Owl.
After the zoo, we headed back to Darwin, then had dinner and a quick pop around the Botanic Gardens for spotlighting. We didn’t spend very long there, but Northern Brushtail Possums are everywhere and there were Bush Stone-curlews, Black Flying Foxes, and what I believe are Common Bentwing Bats.
Tomorrow, we depart Darwin for Kakadu National Park. Thankfully, the antibiotics seem to be kicking in a bit.
Birds:
Sacred Kingfisher
Striated Pardalote
Banded Honeyeater
Red-winged Parrot
Blue-faced Honeyeater
Little Eagle
Mistletoebird
Buff-sided Robin
Rainbow Pitta
Shining Flycatcher
Australian Pelican
Brown-capped Emerald Dove
Forest Kingfisher
Bush Stone-curlew
Mammals:
Northern Brushtail Possum
Common Bent-wing Bat
Black Flying Fox
Got your Pitta. Good job.
Do you wanna weigh in on the Wilkins or Short-eared Rock-wallaby discussion for the one(s) at TWP? Did you see one or two?
If you go to Kuranda Koala Gardens you could solve the mistery of the Marbled Frogmouth
Just saw one of those Rock-wallabies. I tried to find a keeper to ask about that, but by the time I got around to it it was pretty much closing time and there was no one about to ask.
On to Kakadu!
Antibiotics really are great. It will be a shame when they stop working. I suppose we'll just have to go back to dying of dysentry and bacterial infections and things, bacteriophages pending. Not that the antibiotics have instantly cured me, but I'm definitely improving at this point and not getting worse.
We headed off in the morning for the town of Jabiru in Kakadu National Park where we will be staying for three nights. The drive was very interesting through open bushland with rocky escarpments and lots of massive termite mounds. Plenty of Blue-winged Kookaburras along the way too which are nice as well as various other birds and some feral water buffalo. I was keeping an eye open for Australian Bustards which would be a really nice bird, but didn't see any on the drive in.
In Jabiru we're staying in a really fancy hotel that's shaped like a crocodile which is cool looking. It's the sort of place that I could never afford when travelling on my own means but it's brilliant when someone else is paying. We've got three nights here which should be enough time to explore Kakadu National Park and hopefully find all the endemic sandstone escarpment birds and mammals that are the top targets for Kakadu.
We got to the hotel by about midday with a couple of brief stops along the way, and after lunch at the hotel, headed down to one of the birding sites that are dotted around the park, Yellow Waters/Cooinda. The main thing to do here is a morning cruise on the wetlands at sunrise which is supposed to be good for birds, so we booked that and then had a look around the area a bit. There were some of the common wetland birds around as well as a few interesting new ones like a Red Goshawk which is quite rare and I thing I saw a possible one on the drive too. There were also some feral animals around: lots of fetal horses or Brumbies as well as some feral cattle. I guy working there said they were a properly established feral population in Kakadu so I'll list them pending other news, but I had initially assumed they would just be single escapees. I also had seen feral Water Buffalo on the drive up.
We then headed back towards Jabiru, stopping at a site called Nourlangie Rock on the way. This is an area of massive rocky outcrops with one huge impressive rock dominating and is supposed to be a good site for some of the local endemic birds as well as the local endemic Black Wallaroo. I got a few of the endemic birds like the rock pigeon and fruit dove, though I'm hoping for better views and photos another day, and didn't see the wallaroo. We were just there for an hour and a bit though and will be back. There is also quite a lot of aboriginal rock art around here which is the main attraction for most people and is actually really cool to look at. The signs say that some of it is over a thousand years old, and there's quite a bit of well preserved rock art.
After dinner back at the hotel, I went for a bit of spotlighting (on my own for this bit, but that's not really relevant) There's a nice track nearby that goes into the bushland. In the trees near the hotel was a Northern Brushtail Possum as well as heaps of Black Flying Foxes. Also loads of cane toads. Apparently before cane toads reached Kakadu in the early 2000s, a lot of small mammals were quite easy. Quolls were possible, and rabbit-rats and phascogales were apparently near-guaranteed just around Jabiru. Now they're entirely gone and almost entirely disappeared from Kakadu as a whole. Along the bush track by far the most commonly seen animal were cane toads and all you could hear was their hopping on the leaf litter. Really sad. I was practically stepping on them, and unlike when I write that hyperbolically, this was literally almost stepping on several. I could hear a dog barking too which always worries me when spotlighting. Domestic dogs will attack. There are supposed to be dingoes common around Jabiru too, but they don't worry me. They'll run away. I don't think dingoes bark like domestic dogs either. I thought I might find sugar gliders or Northern Brown Bandicoots or maybe some wallaby things but no such luck. (All those on the list were seen in the day/evening). Cane toads are stupid though. One massive one sat in the middle of the path and let me prod its side with my boot for a while. They don't seem to mind, or notice. Then eventually it hopped away and went head first into a tree trunk. Not huge numbers of microbats around, not compared the rainforest at least but that's not surprising. More megabats. The forest is far far quieter too but again not surprising. The nicest sound or at least most interesting are the wails of the stone curlews which would be pretty scary if you didn't know what they were. Beautiful night sky and milky way too. In Malaysia there were generally clouds obscuring the stars and I only got nice clear views of the stars a couple of times like on one of the nights on the Kinabatangan. I just spent a couple of hours spotlighting. Cane toads, cane toads, cane toads. It seems much worse here than in FNQ where I have seen them before.
Black-necked Stork
Torresian Crow
Red Goshawk
White-lined Honeyeater
Dusky Moorhen
Leaden Flycatcher
Swamp Harrier
Grey Goshawk
Golden-headed Cisticola
Chestnut-quilled Rock-pigeon
Banded Fruit-dove
Partridge Pigeon
Feral Water Buffalo
Antilopine Wallaroo
Feral Cattle
Feral Horse
Agile Wallaby
Antibiotics really are great. It will be a shame when they stop working. I suppose we'll just have to go back to dying of dysentry and bacterial infections and things, bacteriophages pending. Not that the antibiotics have instantly cured me, but I'm definitely improving at this point and not getting worse.
We headed off in the morning for the town of Jabiru in Kakadu National Park where we will be staying for three nights. The drive was very interesting through open bushland with rocky escarpments and lots of massive termite mounds. Plenty of Blue-winged Kookaburras along the way too which are nice as well as various other birds and some feral water buffalo. I was keeping an eye open for Australian Bustards which would be a really nice bird, but didn't see any on the drive in.
In Jabiru we're staying in a really fancy hotel that's shaped like a crocodile which is cool looking. It's the sort of place that I could never afford when travelling on my own means but it's brilliant when someone else is paying
. We've got three nights here which should be enough time to explore Kakadu National Park and hopefully find all the endemic sandstone escarpment birds and mammals that are the top targets for Kakadu.We got to the hotel by about midday with a couple of brief stops along the way, and after lunch at the hotel, headed down to one of the birding sites that are dotted around the park, Yellow Waters/Cooinda. The main thing to do here is a morning cruise on the wetlands at sunrise which is supposed to be good for birds, so we booked that and then had a look around the area a bit. There were some of the common wetland birds around as well as a few interesting new ones like a Red Goshawk which is quite rare and I thing I saw a possible one on the drive too. There were also some feral animals around: lots of fetal horses or Brumbies as well as some feral cattle. I guy working there said they were a properly established feral population in Kakadu so I'll list them pending other news, but I had initially assumed they would just be single escapees. I also had seen feral Water Buffalo on the drive up.
We then headed back towards Jabiru, stopping at a site called Nourlangie Rock on the way. This is an area of massive rocky outcrops with one huge impressive rock dominating and is supposed to be a good site for some of the local endemic birds as well as the local endemic Black Wallaroo. I got a few of the endemic birds like the rock pigeon and fruit dove, though I'm hoping for better views and photos another day, and didn't see the wallaroo. We were just there for an hour and a bit though and will be back. There is also quite a lot of aboriginal rock art around here which is the main attraction for most people and is actually really cool to look at. The signs say that some of it is over a thousand years old, and there's quite a bit of well preserved rock art.
After dinner back at the hotel, I went for a bit of spotlighting (on my own for this bit, but that's not really relevant) There's a nice track nearby that goes into the bushland. In the trees near the hotel was a Northern Brushtail Possum as well as heaps of Black Flying Foxes. Also loads of cane toads. Apparently before cane toads reached Kakadu in the early 2000s, a lot of small mammals were quite easy. Quolls were possible, and rabbit-rats and phascogales were apparently near-guaranteed just around Jabiru. Now they're entirely gone and almost entirely disappeared from Kakadu as a whole. Along the bush track by far the most commonly seen animal were cane toads and all you could hear was their hopping on the leaf litter. Really sad. I was practically stepping on them, and unlike when I write that hyperbolically, this was literally almost stepping on several. I could hear a dog barking too which always worries me when spotlighting. Domestic dogs will attack. There are supposed to be dingoes common around Jabiru too, but they don't worry me. They'll run away. I don't think dingoes bark like domestic dogs either. I thought I might find sugar gliders or Northern Brown Bandicoots or maybe some wallaby things but no such luck. (All those on the list were seen in the day/evening). Cane toads are stupid though. One massive one sat in the middle of the path and let me prod its side with my boot for a while. They don't seem to mind, or notice. Then eventually it hopped away and went head first into a tree trunk. Not huge numbers of microbats around, not compared the rainforest at least but that's not surprising. More megabats. The forest is far far quieter too but again not surprising. The nicest sound or at least most interesting are the wails of the stone curlews which would be pretty scary if you didn't know what they were. Beautiful night sky and milky way too. In Malaysia there were generally clouds obscuring the stars and I only got nice clear views of the stars a couple of times like on one of the nights on the Kinabatangan. I just spent a couple of hours spotlighting. Cane toads, cane toads, cane toads. It seems much worse here than in FNQ where I have seen them before.
Black-necked Stork
Torresian Crow
Red Goshawk
White-lined Honeyeater
Dusky Moorhen
Leaden Flycatcher
Swamp Harrier
Grey Goshawk
Golden-headed Cisticola
Chestnut-quilled Rock-pigeon
Banded Fruit-dove
Partridge Pigeon
Feral Water Buffalo
Antilopine Wallaroo
Feral Cattle
Feral Horse
Agile Wallaby
I've seen only passing mention of feral cattle up there, so not sure of their status. It's probably safe to assume they are established and countable.
I found this interesting article from last year, with a cull at Kakadu taking out 3,652 wild horses, 1,965 buffalo and 294 pigs.
Thousands of wild horses, donkeys, buffalo and pigs shot in Kakadu cull