Kalbarri National Park

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.  

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. 

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. 

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. 

Also on the road were the spectacular Perentie, the largest monitor species in Australia and the very odd looking Thorny Devil. 

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.

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)