Katherine – Hooded Parrots!

Monday 13^th June

Having to spend some time in Katherine turned out to be a bonus!

In fact it turned out to be THE DAY.

The auto-electrician came late in the morning, (an easy to fix job) and we caught up on chores and reading etc.. Cost was $70, but because I paid cash he gave me a dozen eggs. "If they were any fresher, they'd be laid tomorrow" he said. "I've got 200 chooks and don't know what to do with the eggs".

After reading McCrie’s info re this area, we decided we should try a couple of spots within about 20km, late in the day, to look for those elusive Hooded Parrots (HP’s)! Gouldian Finches (GF) were also reported to be seen in the same area.

Chainman Creek is about 20km along the road to Kununurra. As we approached the described spot, Rob saw parrots fly up off the side of the road – he had kept saying that this was how he imagined we might see the HP’s. We pulled over off the side of the road, and as soon as we got out of the car we immediately saw some HP’s...oh the excitement!

We both had really good views of several small parties of the parrots, about 25 individuals in all.

We actually got a pic of one, but unfortunately it was a very young bird, lacking colour, still dependent on its parents, and hence too inexperienced to give us a wide berth.

The adult birds have bright splashes of yellow, irredescent green and black.

At the same time that we were looking at the first HP’s, C spotted a single Gouldian finch. This was also an immature bird, but still unmistakeably a GF.

So two firsts in about 5 minutes!

 A small flock of Cockatiels flew in while we were waiting for more action.

Lots of Grey- crowned Babblers around the camp.