Darwin - Day Three - East towards Kakadu

Today I was heading east from Darwin towards Kakadu National Park.  First port of call was Howard Springs, a small reserve known for its population of Rainbow Pittas.  I did see some, but no well enough to photograph.  I did photograph some other birds here like  Spangled Drongo and Shining Flycatcher

Then I headed to another small wetland at the delightfully named town of Humpty Doo.  Here I saw my first Cicadabird of the trip and also had more close encounters with more Straw-necked Ibis.

Main location for the day was to be the wetland reserve at Fogg Dam.  It is a magical place, full of many waterbirds.  I was brought down to earth as I got to the main causeway.  There would be no getting out of the car today!

Along the causeway I saw Pied Heron, Green Pygmy-geese and many Egrets of all sizes (this one is Great Egret). On the causeway were many Rainbow Bee-eaters, and on the lily  and lotus leaves were Comb Crested Jacanas.

Carrying on east, I spotted some Black-necked Storks and pulled over to photograph them from a bridge, and nearly got blown off the bridge by a passing road-train!! 

Further along the Arnhem Highway I stopped successively for Black Falcon, a very pale Brown Falcon, and almost immediately again for  a dark morph Brown Falcon.

In many places the landscape is dominated by termite mounds  - many are huge!    In the arid landscape I kept hearing a sharp piping call, and finally tracked it down to a Black-tailed Treecreeper.