Tour Part 1 - Darwin

Finally got round to sorting a "few" of the 3800 pictures I took on my 21 day jau.nt from Darwin - Kakadu - Cairns - Tablelands - Georgetown.
This post covers the first nine days when we were based in the Top End. It was great to get back but boy was it hot and this was only September, our last full days birding in the NT peaked at a slightly warm 44 degrees!
These images are in no particular order other than alphabetic...so here goes
Black-necked Stork or Jabiru

Blue-winged Kookaburra

Black Bittern - we saw a couple of these sometimes illusive herons on our cruise on Yellow Waters in Kakadu

Black-tailed Treecreeper

Blue-faced Honeyeater

Brolga in the mist at dawn on Yellow Waters in Kakadu

Brush Cuckoo

Comb-crested Jacana

 Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon - an endemic restricted to the sandstone escarpments in Kakadu and Arnhem Land

 Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon

 Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon

 Cockatiel - amazing to see these commonly kept cage birds in the wild where they should be

 Cockatiel

 Crimson Finch

 Forest Kigfisher

 Golden-headed Cisticola

 Galah

 Glossy Ibis

 Glossy Ibis sunning itself

 adult Gouldian Finch - these colourful endemic finches were very popular cage birds and were collected to the point of being almost extinct in the wild. They have made quite a recovery over the last ten years. We saw a small group of adults and juveniles on the Marraki Track approx 75km from Darwin

 adult and immature Gouldian Finch

 Grey-crowned Babbler

 Hooded Parrot

 Lemon-bellied Flycather

 Lesser Crested Tern

 Long-tailed Finch

 Long-tailed Finch

 Little Corella

 Little Friarbird

 Magpie Goose

 Mangrove Gerygone nest building

 Northern Rosella

 Olive-backed Oriole

 Paperbark Flycather

 Partridge Pigeon

 Rainbow Pitta

 Red-backed Kingfisher

 Red-backed Kingfisher

 Red-tailed Black Cockatoo

 Straw-necked Ibis

 Tawny Frogmouth

 White-bellied Sea Eagle

 pair White-bellied Sea Eagles

 White-breasted Woodswallow

And just to prove that we did look at other wildlife....

Freshwater Crocodile

 Freshwater Crocodile

 Gilberts Dragon

 Estuarine Crocodile - saltie

 Two-lined Dragon

Ooops bit of a gap

My apologies had not realised that it had been so long since my last posting here. Life has been a tad hectic since mid August with Tish's work rota meaning she has had a lot of night shifts that has rather cut down on family activities. This was then followed by me being away for three weeks on my tour of the Top End and Far North Queensland - the next two postings will be some of the best shots from the tour.
On my return it was the childrens school holidays during which time we got the house ready for Aunty Jo to arrive yesterday 4th October. I will try and get back into the routine of updating more regularly again......

New Pool...

Slightly later than I had originally hoped but I have finally been able to upload a short video tour of the new house - had lost my cable in the move and could not upload it!

There is no commentary in this one so will have to get the mob to do another one at some stage
http://youtu.be/KJQmjxu1_Go

Despite being late winter and still rather nippy at night the children have been in the pool several times already and have on two occasions dragged us in!
 It does at times take them a while to get in the pool

But once they are in even when they are shivering so much it is hard to get them out. the pool is deep - probably around 5'6"so canon balls are the order of the day

Cameron

Hamish

Xanthe

And me

Tish for some reason refused to get in...