Buffalo Creek

Visited: very late dry season

Recommendation: Buffalo Creek was the first place I visited when arriving in Darwin and I returned several times. The different environments offered here result in a huge number of bird species - my record was 65 in one visit. A must do when in Darwin.

Buffalo Creek is a northern suburb of Darwin. It is the traditional country and waterways of the Larrakia people. While it is close to the centre of Darwin, it is not developed and there is plenty of open space to enjoy, especially at low tides when the beach is very wide and extends for miles. The area is subsequently a popular recreation area for fishing, launching boats, bird watching and just simply walking along the beach. Best of all, flocks of migratory birds use this stretch of beach, making it an important conservation area. 

The bush is adjacent to the sand, sandwiched in between the beach and the road. So it's quite narrow but it's just full of birds. It was quite difficult to get photographs of some of them. But I did hear and see species like the Green-backed Gerygony which is endemic to the area. There were also trillers, orioles and figbirds. The Arafura Fantail was something I chased around for quite some time without managing to get a photograph and that continued here. The uncommon Broad-billed Flycatcher was identifiable by the graduated tail but again, no photograph. The air was thick with the calls of the Australian Yellow White-eyes zipping around, chattering away as they do. So it was a really pleasant walk and a very interesting introduction to the area around Buffalo Creek. 

There is an unofficial tour guide that will take you out on a boat onto Buffalo Creek, either early in the morning or late afternoon, and I thoroughly recommend it. It's a wonderful, experience, and possibly, even better than the ones I've had in far north Queensland, which I never thought I would say. The creek runs east from the beach and you get into the water at the boat ramp. Then it is a quiet, smooth ride just up the creek, only a couple of kilometres. You go nice and slowly, and the birds are quite unconcerned by the boat. If you get too close to them, obviously, you flush them, but it's a very rare opportunity to get some phenomenal views of some very difficult-to-see birds. 

Also around the banks of the creek were lots of Striated Herons. They were a bit flighty but every now and again we got to watch them as they stood on a branch above the water and then leaned down waiting and watching the fish below. On the banks were numerous mudskippers, Giant Mudskippers at that, and they were very cool to to see although they didn't actually do very much.

The Mangrove Gerygone could be heard calling at times and our guide said it was quite unusual to see them. But he did show us this fantastic nest. And I always loved the gerygone nests. They're built so that they look like just detritus from hanging from trees or branches. And they're quite incredible, you just wouldn't believe that such a small bird would need such a long, large nest, and could be able to actually build one. 

And while we were sitting looking at this feat of engineering, we turn to see the gerygone, the owner of the nest, was actually sitting very close by. They might be very plain kind of birds but they are warblers and their song makes up for just about everything. 

Mangrove Gerygone (Gerygone levigaster) 

But the highlight of the trip and our main purpose for being there were rails. We saw the Buff-banded Rail fairly early on and they're relatively common and easy to see. At the other end of the scale was the Chestnut Rail. Incredibly rare, cryptic and very very difficult to see, I was hopeful but not convinced we would find them. However, we did. We saw several of them and not only that but we watched them just wandering along the banks of the creek. It really was a case of putting yourself in the right place at the right time. The guide told us that there were chicks around as well but we didn't see them but that was fine, it was just wonderful to see this incredible looking bird. 

In the late afternoon light they looked quite dull but it was only when I got my photographs back that you could actually see that rich brown color contrasting with the red and the yellow. It had a very grey head and and yellow bill and the bright red eye. A lifer for me, I'm not sure where I would ever see one again and that was just totally totally wonderful. 

As I said before, the creek runs out by the boat ramp, but then it runs alongside the mangroves north before joining the ocean. So you have this kind of triangular strip of land (which obviously varies in shape at times) in between the sea and the creek. And this patch of sand was just full of waders. Visiting in October, the migratory waders were back in the area and I was hopeful that there would be likely to be a good variety down there. Buffalo Creek didn't let me down. 

Not only was there a wide range of shorebirds present, but they were also very accessible. So I spent some time wandering up and down the beach, trying to identify what was there and get photographs of them. And the usual suspects, things like the Common Sandpiper and the Eastern Curlew, were present and actually provided some quite nice photographs of them in a different kind of light than I've had them before. 

On the edge of the beach where it meets the bush were Orange-footed Scrubfowl (now named Megapode) out in the open, scratching around in the sand, which I found to be quite unusual and amusing. It was a rare opportunity to get some photographs of them actually in direct light. 

Also along the beach was an army of Soldier Ccrabs, quite difficult to photograph really, but I wasn't too displeased with this shot. Every time you take a step forward to them, they move en masse, a bit like a starling murmuration away from you, but it was very, very cool to watch them. 

Soldier Crabs (Mictyris longicarpus) 

What was most interesting to me on the beach were the amount of raptors that were down there. There were kites circling, which wouldn't normally be expected to hunt on the beach. What I found really curious was the number of them that were sitting on the beach. Black and Whistling Kites were there and actually let me get reasonably close to them, especially the Whistling Kite, which looked absolutely stunning in the early morning light. Not something I have seen before. The Brahmany Kite had a bit more of an idea and was just circling around the part of the creek where it goes out to meet the ocean, looking for prey. A White-bellied Sea Eagle very elegantly sat high above the mangroves, just observing.