Visited: early summer
Recommendation: This location is phenomenal, really beautiful. It is easy to be distracted by the views but the wildlife is incredible too. Exploring this national park should be at the top of the list for anyone spending time in Kalbarri.
Sometimes the wildlife takes a back seat and that was what I assumed I would find as I entered Kalbari National Park. It's a huge area with low-lying scrub and small trees and you don't see or hear a lot of wildlife. My first stop was the Z-Bend Trail, which takes you down to the bottom of the river and this incredibly beautiful gorge that rivals King's Canyon and Katherine Gorge. It was very still on my first morning visit and overcast, so it was only high 20s.
As I walked, I started to be able to pick out the soft call of the Diamond Dove and the clack-clack of the Brown Honeyeater every now and again and then occasionally a call I didn't really recognise. As I move around the country and the environment changes, so does the wildlife and I have to remember or learn lots of new calls.
Diamond Dove (Geopelia cuneata)
I descended to the bottom of the gorge, which was a Category 5 trail even though it's only 2.6 kilometres return. It was a very serious climb, for me, anyway. I sat at the bottom, and again, it was quiet. There was no wind, and it was much warmer in the bottom. I expected to see birds or animals drinking in what was the remaining of the river, but there was nothing there. An occasional piercing call from a soaring kestrel broke the silence, but it was just so stunning and really interesting. The rock formations and the colours were just wonderful to sit and look at.
At the bottom of the gorge, I sat and looked towards the water and saw this fabulous stone that looked just like a crocodile head poking out of the water. It even had a... a gouge out of it for the eye, and I thought that was rather wonderful.
Once I made my way back up I still hadn't seen very much. I hoped maybe to pick up some reptiles on the road on the way out as the temperature climbed. But the first thing that I did see was lots of birds concentrated in one area over the acacia and wattle trees that were still in flower. I stopped to have a look at them, and I quickly picked a Pied Honeyeater and then another. There were around 20 of them, all of them female or juvenile.
Pied Honeyeater (Certhionyx variegatus)
It was difficult to photograph the honeyeaters with the glare against the bright sky but the Masked Woodswallows came in, sitting in the bushes. I'm not sure if they were eating the foliage or hunting for bugs. I haven't photographed these birds very much so it was lovely to get some good shots of them.
Masked Woodswallow (Artamus personatus)
Then I saw a smaller honeyeater, which at first I thought it was the Western Spinebill, because I could see it had a decurved beak. Once I got a look at it through the camera, I realised it was a Black Honeyeater. Of course it didn't help that there was absolutely no black on the bird, but that's the nature of naming birds, isn't it? I did find a few young males that were moulting into their adult plumage.
Black Honeyeater (Certhionyx niger)
It didn't take me long to realise again that they were only juveniles and females. I did this process a couple of times, where I stopped and watched these groups of birds in kind of a feeding frenzy. And I must have seen 40 different birds, 40 different individual birds, and I saw maybe two adults, two young adults, young adult male birds, just moulting into their adult plumage.
I also visited the Hawks head and Ross Graham Lookouts and again they were quiet. Unfortunately, the skies were clear and the temperature had climbed considerabely. I didn't go down on any of the walks, preferring to sit in the shade of the picnic areas. I was rewarded with a small group of Redthroat who didn't seem to mind the heat.
Also warming themselves were the dragons. The Long-nosed and Central-netted Dragons were on the road and the low walls around the picnic areas.
Redthroat (Pyrrholaemus brunneus)
Long-nosed Dragon (Gowidon longirostris)
Central Netted Dragon (Ctenophorus nuchalis)
Also on the road were the spectacular Perentie, the largest monitor species in Australia and the very odd looking Thorny Devil.
Perentie (Varanus giganteus)
Thorny Devil (Moloch horridus)
Next up was the Nature's Window lookout. A short walk takes you to a precipice with this wonderful rock formation. The scenery just makes you feel quite small with its breath-taking beauty. You are free to sit here, take photos and relax for as long as you want. So I did, until I heard the chatter of the Inland Thornbill. A group of them were singing and it just added to the atmosphere. The chirrup of the Red-capped Robin completed the picture.
Inland Thornbill (Acanthiza apicalis)
Red-capped Robin (Petroica goodenovii)
I spent one evening spotlighting here. I had my dinner in the Nature's Window car park and waited for it to get dark. I started by driving out onto the road but there wasn't too much on the access road. However, once I'd turned onto the main road out of the park, it got a lot busier. I started seeing small geckos and when I stopped for them, I realised they were a new species of Spiny-tailed Gecko. For a small grey gecko, I thought it was just absolutely stunning. I must have seen between eight and ten of them on the road on the way out. And it became a bit of a mission to avoid running them over.
Soft Spiny-tailed Gecko (Strophurus spinigerus)
Next up was a python on the road. I pulled over and tried to persuade it to get to safety but it wasn't too happy about that and it reared up at me. So I backed off and let it settle down and got some pictures of it from further away. It's a Stimson's Python.
Stimson’s Python (Antaresia stimsoni)
Another night, I stayed at a campsite about 10km south of Kalbarri and spotlighted down a few of the roads leading to the many lookouts over the ocean. I immediately started to see the Soft Spiny-tailed Gecko on the bitumen, I counted at least 10 of them. On my way out, I saw what looked like another Scaly-foot. It was small and unusually, it sat still for me. Turned out that despite looking just like the Scaly-foot it is a Shovel-nosed snake. Who knew?!
Western Shovelnose Snake (Chionactis occipitalis)