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Visited: winter
Recommendation: There is so much to see here between the campsite area and the weir. It is a fantastic place for some easy wildlife spotting.
This unassuming private and cheap park is a wonderful spot for birders and photographers. It was the first place that I really felt like I had arrived in the Outback. The lagoon was stunning with incredible sunsets and the moon setting wasn't bad either! Birds flock to the water all day long from the huge Brolga to the smallest Weebill. 5 minutes walk up the road was the weir over the Normanton River and that was another hotspot with plenty of birds flying around the river and sheltering in the bushes and trees.
At the lagoon Agile Wallabies would come down to drink in the mornings and, if undisturbed, would quite happily graze alongside it. That is what this wallaby was doing until it spotted me. Sorry!
Agile Wallaby (notamacropus agilis)
Comb-crested Jacana were plentiful here and I spent a happy hour watching this juvenile (I think - as it hasn't got a fully formed crest) searching the lily pads for food. Hard to be graceful on water with feet that size but it managed even with a mouth full of spider.
Comb-crested Jacana (irediparra gallinacea)
Another regular customer was the Rufous-throated Honeyeater. These are small birds and the juveniles often don't have the rufous patch which can make identification difficult. They would fly onto a lily pad and drink very quickly before returning to the safety of the trees.
Rufous-throated Honeyeater (conopophila rufogularis)
Familiarity breeds contempt and as birders we complain about the hard to shoot species but have some disdain for the common species that bounce around in front of us almost begging to be photographed. And so, the Willie Wagtail (actually a member of the fantail family) is always around, where ever you go in Australia. This time it was making a real effort to persuade me to photograph it and I like this picture as much as any one of a rarer bird.
Willie Wagtail (rhipidura leucophrys)
The walk to the weir takes you though the back of the back of the park and along sealed and unsealed lanes where I found many species. The Little Friarbirds could only be seen on a certain green bottle brush tree and the Weebill and Apostlebirds only in the park itself. The best find I had was a pair of Red-winged Parrots feeding on grass seeds.
Male Red-winged Parrot (aprosmictus erythropterus)
Female Red-winged Parrot (aprosmictus erythropterus)
I really enjoyed being at the weir itself. There was a short raised access lane onto a platform with machinery on it. I was quite glad it was raised as I had been warned about big crocodiles in the area. From this access way the river water lapped the edges and the platform itself was over the water giving a great view up and down the river. There were regular fly-bys of Brolga and I really wanted a shot of them coming up the river but it was not to be. White-bellied Sea Eagle had a huge nest in a nearby tree and circled regularly. I even caught a glimpse of a Little Kingfisher one morning.
At the waters edge birds would come down to drink and with more skulking around in bushes, I watched the delightful Double-barred Finch come and go.
Double-barred Finch (stizoptera bichenovii)
In the surrounding trees I frequently caught the electronic sound of cuckooshrike calling and managed to spot both the White-bellied and Black-faced species. The former is quite common further east and I didn't have a decent shot of the latter. This one obliged beautifully.
Black-faced Cuckooshrike (coracina novaehollandiae)
My favourite sighting amongst the fabulous birds I saw at the weir was the cryptic Striated Heron. Always shy and easily flushed, I stumbled across this one getting ready to catch a fish and managed to rattle off some shots before it flew away. This was obviously a regular perch for it and I returned several times to see it there but didn't get another picture as good as this.
Striated Heron (butorides striata)
And yes, I did see the crocodiles. This was an absolute beast, approximately 5 metres long according to locals. Never have I been more thankful for a powerful telephoto lens.
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