On the road from Fitzroy Crossing to Broome, we saw a goanna cross the road – the only one we have seen. We have seen hardly any reptiles at all in the N.T and W.A ... a few skinks, two little dragons, a few dead snakes on the road, no dead lizards. One of the rangers at Kakadu said she had only seen two goannas in the last 18 months.
The cause of the reduced number of reptiles is thought to be the cane toad. They are poisonous, so anything that eats them, dies. You see lots of dead cane toads on roads and at Mamarkala wetlands in Kakadu, we saw dozens of what we thought were baby ones hopping across the pathway – like tiny little black frogs, that would be abundant food for the smaller reptiles.
The campground at BBO is really pretty, bushy, small and basic with the emphasis on birds of course, and we are sorry that we are not staying here instead of going on to the caravan park in Broome. But it is about 26km out of Broome, and the road going in is rather rough and corrugated, so it would have been hard to do shopping, washing etc. There is no power, but there are solar heated showers.
Each evening at 6pm there is a ‘bird log’. The Ranger reads through a list of birds that are seen there, and sightings for that day from all the people present, are recorded. There are atwo areas set up with bird baths and a hide, and a viewing platform overlooking the beach, for observation of the waders.
They also run several tours, just in a 4WD, to see the birds of different habitats, but we didn’t go on any as we were quite happy just walking through the trails or along the beach
– it is actually a mangrove with extraordinarily extensive mudflats when the tide is out, but sand and really pretty rocks higher up the beach.
There is good information about the plants and the habitat in general, which makes it all the more interesting.
Plants.. the vegetation is like mallee...red soil and stunted trees and shrubs. All the plants look unfamiliar, except for the wattles and a few others.
This was an interesting tree that has leaves that face each other like a butterfly.
The corkwood ( a Hakea) was in flower
It is a RAMSAR site, because it is a take-off point for migratory waders that arrive in Australia every spring to escape the northern winter, then leave in autumn, to return to breed in the far northern hemisphere, Siberia etc.
Roebuck Bay is a stunningly beautiful bay with red cliffs and turquoise water.
R’s bird highlights: Yellow Whiteye, Little Bronze Cuckoo, and Eastern Reef Heron
Great stuff...I have always wanted to see the Bungle bungles, they look sensational. How sad the north is being overrun with cane toads. The things we have done to this country are just horrifying sometimes. Davo.
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