Kimberley flora and fauna

This is bit of a nature blog on some of what we saw on our Kimberley travels as there was too many photos to put on the other post.

Birds by far were the most obvious and abundant animals, especially around rivers and water holes. Wetlands especially were teeming with waterbirds but many were not overly full due to the region's lower than average rainfall in the previous wet season.

Magpie Geese and Whistling Ducks at Parry's Lagoon near Wyndham

Straw-necked Ibis were common

Intermediate Egret

Jabiru

Masked Lapwings

Pied Heron

Radjah Shelduck

Australian Little Grebe

Darter sunning itself at Windjana Gorge

 Some of our campsites near rivers or billabongs got very noisy in the morning with all the cacophony of birds and it was hard to get a sleep in.

Whistling Kite were at times abundant, especially around townships. 

Masked Finch.

Peaceful Dove. This tiny dove was found everywhere.

Rainbow Lorikeets preening

Bar-shouldered Dove, a common sound of the tropics

Pied Butcherbird. Most of our campsites had at least one of these chortling their beautiful song each morning

Magpie-lark

Pied Butcherbird eating a grasshopper

White-quilled Rock Pigeon were seen in some rocky gorges but they were very difficult to photograph as they hid amongst the boulders..

Rainbow Bee-eaters were a common sight around river banks

Striated Pardalote

Reptiles were also very common and we did manage to see a few times the most famous in the Kimberley, the Saltwater Crocodile. This one was at Parry's Lagoon and was trying unsuccessfully to stalk waterbirds.

Saltie

The only Freshwater Crocodiles we saw were at Windjana Gorge where we counted at least 19 sunning themselves on the bank and also many at Geikie Gorge. We did hear at one of our campsites a young crocodile yapping late at night.

Freshies

In some gorges the Merten's Water Monitor, a semi aquatic goanna, was seen. These can be unnerving when you are swimming with them as their head looks like a snake when they are half submerged. They've evolved to have a flattened tail and can move fast in the water where they hunt.

Merten's Water Monitor

Another goanna was the large Yellow-spotted Monitor Varanus panoptes. These lizards can grow up to 1.5m in length and this fully grown adult was seen crossing the road.

Yellow-spotted Monitor crossing road

Several Dragon Lizards were common throughout the Kimberley wherever we went. One is the Northern Long-nosed Water Dragon Lophognathus longirostris .This long tailed lizard was found at a lot of small creeks sunning itself on branches and rocks.

Another was the White-lipped Two-lined Dragon Diporiphora albilabris. This species inhabits the drier country, particularly rocky areas with spinifex grass.

Diporiphora albilabris

Ctenophorus dragon in the process of shedding its skin

We were lucky enough to see Frill-necked Lizards on two occasions but they were too quick for my camera. Most 'frillies' should be going into semi-hibernation this time of year so it was good to see some.

Below is a few miscellaneous insects we saw. They make them big in the Kimberley!

Katydid grasshopper

Below is a mix of photos of some interesting plants including a few bush foods we found (and tried). By far the most delicious were the Native Passionfruit Passiflora sp.

Yum!

Another bush food was the native figs Ficus spp.  There were many different varieties of these, some dry and tasteless and others delicious.

A good haul of native figs at Little Merten's Falls

The Boab tree is another bushfood, amongst other uses, but the girls didn't like the powdery texture of the flesh even though they tasted a bit sweet.

Boab nuts

Screw Palms Pandanus sp were common everywhere and this is another bush food used by aboringines salthough we didnt try it as it needs a lengthy preparation. Craig had tried it before in Darwin and it tastes like cabbage and leaves your lips and mouth slightly numb.

Pandanus fruit

Water Lilies were everywhere in permanent billabongs throughout the Kimberley and these two types below were the most common, the one in the first photo being tiny.

Red Everlasting

Red Kurrajong

Orange Bloodwood flowers

Sophie's blog 8/6/15

 we found a big crocodile at wyndham.

what a funny way to write a diary in the car. it was very bumpy too!

 we went on a helicopter ride to a waterfall. it was fun

 me at mitchell falls

 we had a swiming pool cake on my 6th birthday

 i wanted to see a waterfall on my birthday

we went on a camel ride in broome. my camel was called bully.

Gibb River Rd

We've reached Broome after spending 8 days traveling the 'Gibb' and beyond.

We began the Kimberley at Kununurra and spent some time fishing at Wyndham jetty and a small billabong called Telegraph Pool halfway between Kununurra and Wyndham. Sophie caught the first fish, a catfish at the jetty. Tayla caught a large Snapping-turtle on her fishing line but it got off near the water's edge. I had no luck with the elusive Barramundi but I did catch two fish and threw them back as I didnt know what they were.

We visited Parry's Lagoon south of Wyndham and the bird life here was amazing. Here we saw or first Saltwater Crocodile and the birds and us were feeling slightly nervous with him around.

Parrys Lagoon

Camping under a boab

 Our first major stop on the road was Emma Gorge near El Questro Station. Even though it was a long rough walk up the gorge the falls at the end made it worthwhile but the water temperature made us feel like we were in Victoria again!

Emma Gorge, El Questro Station

Next was Home Valley Station after crossing the deep Pentecost River. One couple in a 4x4 had two tyres come straight off the rim from the rocks in the river and they damaged their rim as well.
We spent two days at Home Valley and tried our luck (or no luck as it happened!) fishing the Pentecost. After seeing a large Saltwater Croc near us we cut short our fishing and headed back to camp. Apparently, after talking to staff at Home Valley, there was a 24 foot (6m) croc with a den near where we fished and a tourist had a close call a few weeks previously.

Pentecost River: Croc heaven

Non-crocodile swimming spot

 
Craig had lost his thongs at the previous camp but he found one and made another out of foam matting and rope. It 'worked' for 3 days until he bought a new pair.

Turning north off the Gibb onto the Kalumburu Rd we called at Drysdale River Station to get fuel. It was $2.09, the most expensive we'd found so far. Sophie liked the fridge phone at the station (it actually had a pay phone in it).

Huh?

 After 150 or so kms of extremely corrugated road we finally turned off the Kalumburu Rd and camped at the King Edward River crossing on the Mitchell Falls Rd. There were many signs of cars and trailers coming to grief on this road. It took us a while to put all our bones back in place after the rattling.
The next morning we got to the Mitchell Falls camp ground after another rough road. After lunch we took a helicopter to the falls with smiles all round, especially the girls. The Kimberley has had a reasonably mild wet season so the falls aren't quite as big as usual.

 On the walk back from the falls we found the hidden little gem of Little Merten's Falls. Wow, what a spot! This waterfall has a large alcove behind the falls with many aboriginal paintings and a large swimming hole in front. Most of the native fig trees were loaded with fruit and we spent a great deal of time here under the falls swimming, looking at paintings and eating the figs. Above the falls the view was great as the sun began to set.

Little Merten's Falls

The next day we were back at the King Edward River and found some fantastic aboriginal paintings in a rocky outcrop. There was a mixture of styles including many Wandjina and Bradshaw-style art. One overhang had a human burial site in a crevice with several bones and skulls.

Bradshaw paintings

Wandjina painting

The next day was Sophie's birthday but I will let her write a blog about this and other things she saw.

One other fantastic place we visited but almost bypassed was Bell Gorge, one of the highlights of the trip. This was a very deep and extensive gorge system and we followed it downstream for a long way, swimming and rock climbing.

Bell Gorge

Another little side trip we did was visit Windjana Gorge, part of a huge ancient barrier reef system extending from the Arafura Sea to Fitzroy River at the south end of the Kimberley. Here there were many Freshwater Crocodiles and Tayla counted 19.

Freshwater Crocodiles at Windjana Gorge

Anyway, we're sitting here in balmy Broome resting our sore bums from a camel ride and preparing for our next stage of the trip.

Craig's putting together another post for the blog on the nature in the Kimberley, we'll keep you posted,

The Boasies