Summary: Lovely rainforest island not far from Cairns with some interesting birdlife Date of visit: Nov 18 2023 Green Island is a small island of 12 hectares in the Great Barrier Reef, accessible in around 40 minutes by ferry from Cairns. It is the only coral cay on the reef that has rainforest, and it has reliable populations of Black Noddies, Buff-Banded Rails, Ashy-Bellied White-Eyes (somewhat hybridised with Silvereyes), and several species of terns. The island has a main walking track that leads into the National Park section, and pops you out onto the beach on the eastern side, from wher ..read more

Summary: Terrific trip with bird and wildlife spotting on a huge man-made lake; guaranteed Yellow Chats Date of visit: Aug 4, 2022 The completion of the Ord River Dam in the 1970’s created Lake Argyle, one of the largest freshwater lakes in Australia, lying about 60km to the south-west of Kununurra in WA. It is home to many animals and there is a fantastic birding/nature boat trip run by Lake Argyle Cruises that gets you right into the thick of the wildlife action. One of the big drawcards of this cruise is that it goes to a remote island called Chat Island, home of the very charming and other ..read more

Summary: Great base for exploring the area and finding finches and other birds Dates of visit: Aug 3 to 6 , 2022 Kununurra is a large town in the north-east corner of Western Australia, and has a reputation for being the finch capital of Australia. It drew us there for that very reason (because we love finches…), and we were delighted to discover it feels like a large oasis in the arid and vast outback, with many delights to discover and bird locations to explore. This post covers many of the prime locations in and around the town, and gives the low-down on where to find those elusive finches ..read more

One of the last great frontiers for Australian birding is tropical Cape York in far north Queensland, and the jewel in that crown belongs to Iron Range National Park, a low-level rainforest where the birds and plants are more influenced by nearby Papua New Guinea than by Australia. Our birding group had booked for August but due to a delay (*cough* jury duty call-up *cough*), had to delay until November. Never mind, despite the fears of heat and humidity we braved it anyway! Every Good Trip To The Region Starts With A Stroll Along Cairns Esplanade The gateway for Cape York is Cairns, and the t ..read more

We traveled to Perth (via two weeks in South Australia) in order to watch three Matildas Olympic qualifying football matches held in the city across the course of a week. Which naturally led to the question of what to do in between game days… which naturally led to the answer of: go birding at as many good sites around Perth as we could find! Suburban Birding, Take 1: Lake Joondalup And Lake Gwelup In Perth’s northern suburbs lies the huge Lake Joondalup, with a monster 16km trail that circumnavigates the water. There are a couple of select spots where you can see well across the lake at the h ..read more

A 12-day road trip made from October 14 to 25, 2023, starting and ending at Adelaide in South Australia, and driven by the (admittedly incredibly weak) excuse that we wanted to break up our flight from Brisbane to Perth. Call it a nearly two week layover, if you will… The Amazing And Truly Excellent Bird Hides At Gluepot Reserve Gluepot Reserve is a large wildlife conservation reserve some 3 hours north-east of Adelaide, and is so named because the roads basically turn to glue after rain. We didn’t get any rain, and we had barely 24 hours to enjoy the place, but we did find plenty of birds dur ..read more

It may not be everyone’s cup of tea to jet away to the outback town of Mt Isa for a long weekend. It’s generally hot and there isn’t a whole lot to do as a tourist in the area – it is largely a mining town, after all. But there are some pretty cool birds to find there. I suppose much depends on how keen you are on seeing birds that might be outside your normal local patch; if you are, the Mt Isa region is worth a look. Pamela St Water Tanks At the end of Pamela Street on the eastern edge of town is a lovely birding site called Pamela Street Water Tanks, where birds are attracted by some leaky ..read more

[A stop on the Litchfield + Katherine + Kununurra, Jul-Aug 2022 Trip] Dates of visit: 31 Jul to 2 Aug, 2022 Katherine is an outback town in the Northern Territory some 320km south-east of Darwin. It has a number of birding hotspots that are worth a visit if you happen to be in the area, not least being Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge, famous for its scenic beauty. The Katherine Bird Festival has been held annually since 2018 and tends to centre around the gorge. This post will cover that area and a few more; note that the northern Edith Falls section of Nitmiluk National Park, more well-known for G ..read more

[A stop on the Litchfield + Katherine + Kununurra, Jul-Aug 2022 Trip] Date of visit: 31 Jul 2022 Leliyn (Edith Falls) is a delightful waterfall and waterhole in Nitmiluk National Park, 290km south of Darwin and 60km north of Katherine. It (and some spots on the road in) have long been fabled areas to find Gouldian Finches and Hooded Parrots, in particular, but there are plenty of birds here: the site is no slouch, with 171 species recorded in eBird. The roads are sealed all the way to the car park so are easily navigable with a 2WD. Note that a Parks Pass is required to visit. One of the hist ..read more

[A stop on the Litchfield + Katherine + Kununurra, Jul-Aug 2022 Trip] Date of visit: Jul 30, 2022 Litchfield National Park is a scenic gem of the Top End in the Northern Territory. It is about 15000 square kilometers in size and is 90km south of Darwin. In this post we cover five of the spots within the park that we visited in the course of a long day of birding and hiking in July 2022. Most people will enter the area from the Stuart Highway. Here you can follow the Litchfield Park Road west, passing through the gateway town of Batchelor, and stop at whichever sites you fancy; our plan was to ..read more