John File Park

Visited: late dry season

Recommendation: This is an easy place to see wildlife, but what is there depends hugely on the season and the amount of water in the wetland.

John File Park is a few kilometres just outside Kununurra. It's a wide open space and known locally as a really good wetlands full of birds and animals. When I visited, it was right at the end of the dry season. The whole area was very dry and the wetlands had shrunk to a very small patch of reeds and water with some sort of fresh water inlet. That was in the corner of the area. 

I started where I parked the van, on a small patch of ground next to the road. Immediately, there was quite a lot of activity in the bushes and the trees lining the park. There were bee-eaters everywhere, honey-eaters calling and lots of cuckoo. I identified 5 species of cuckoo - the Horsfield, Brush, Pallid Cuckoo, the Pacific Koel and the Pheasant Cuckoo. I think is the most cuckoo species I've ever had in one place at one time. 

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii) 

There was also a Brown Goshawk flying around too and Black Kites sat in the sunshine. The loud, raucous call of the Blue-winged Kookaburra resounded everywhere. It was a really good place to visit, despite the fact that there was such little water there. I would like to go back and see it in all its glory.