Darwin - Day Seven - Litchfield and back to Darwin

I headed up to Litchfield National Park on the way back to Darwin.  First stop was to look at the Magnetic Termite Mounds.  These mounds are very thin and all oriented towards the midday sun so they present the thin edge in the heat of the day. In the car park were lots of noisy Blue-faced Honeyeaters.

Litchfield is famous for its waterfalls, and they are very picturesque (even more so early in the morning before the hordes of tourists get there!!)

Back towards Darwin I stopped far a field of cows with Cattle Egrets. Whilst watching them I noticed a Rainbow Bee-eater using a nearby branch as a perch, only to be chased off by a White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike

After checking back into the hotel, I took a short walk in the park opposite and was rewarded with great shots of Rufous-banded Honeyeater and Double-barred Finch. Later I also found another Cuckoo-shrike, but this time it was a Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike.

Tasmania part 3

We started the day at Strahan, on the west coast. It was a bit showery, but we decided to risk the walk to Hogarth Falls. The falls were lovely, and the rocks near them were covered in tiny soft ferns. Of course, we did get caught in a shower, and by the time we got back to the car we looked like a pair of drowned rats!!

Tasmania has twelve species of birds that are endemic, and on my first trip in 2003/4 I saw eleven of them, and heard the twelfth. The one I missed seeing was Scrubtit. I had been tipped off (by my guide from 2003/4, Tonia Cochran at Inala) that Nelson Falls in Franklin Gordon Wild Rivers National Park was a good spot to look for them this time. Well, the falls were spectacular, AND I saw Scrubtit. Thank you Tonia!

On the way north, we had noticed this hydro-electric power station on the River Nive, but it was too late to photograph it. So we stopped on the return journey. After dinner, I wandered around the village, but the only thing of interest was this old Massey Ferguson Tractor left in the middle of a field.

Next morning we headed to Hobart via Mount field National Park. On the way we passed by the delightfully named Meadowbank Lake. Once in the park, it was off to another waterfall, Russell Falls, before heading up to Lake Dobson. At an altitude of over 1000m ( 3250 ft) it was very chilly! On the way back down, I stopped for this Black Currawong, who was happy to pose for me on a fallen tree.

More from Tasmania to follow.......