Mary Pool

Visited: late dry season

Recommendation: This is a great place to combine free camping with some wildlife spotting.

On my way out of Kununurra, travelling across to Derby I stopped at a free campsite called Mary Pool. It's a little out of the way, but it's got really good access and it's situated along the creek. There's an old causeway there, which makes it quite an interesting place. You can park on the bank right overlooking the water. I thought there was a lot of potential here but it was actually pretty quiet. Turned out to be the kind of place that the more I looked, the more I found. After staying there for the night and birding in the afternoon and the next morning, I came to the conclusion that it was indeed an interesting place with tons of potential.

My first find as I was on the way to the bathrooms was this lovely bower. There were Great Bowerbirds hissing and squawking away all over the place. I didn't actually see one come to this bower, but it was obviously fairly recent and quite well maintained.

Great Bowerbird (Chlamydera nuchalis)

Also making a noise about the place were the Grey-crowned Babbler, juveniles and adults scrabbling away in the undergrowth looking for food. They're always entertaining to watch. I also found their nest and the adults were still building, returning with material frequently.

Grey-crowned Babbler (Pomatostomus temporalis)

Down on the causeway, I found a female Darter sitting up. She sat there motionless for a good couple of hours, watching the world go by. I find that female darters are much more shy than the males. She has paler colouring on the breast.

Australasian Darter (Anhinga melanogaster)

The Black-fronted Dotterel were running around as you often see in these places and on the causeway birds coming down to drink. The Yellow-tinted and Brown Honeyeaters were here in good numbers.

Black-fronted Dotterel (Elseyornis melanops)

Yellow-tinted Honeyeater (Ptilotula flavescens)

Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta)

I heard some noise up in the trees and I looked up to see a pair of Whistling Kite mating, which looked a little precarious. They had a nest there as well so they were all ready to go!

There was a lot of noise in the gum trees above where I spent the night. I knew one call, the familiar kek-kek-kek of the Sacred Kingfisher and I could tell the other noise was the chatter of some sort of parrots. I eventually pinned it down to being at Varied Lorikeet. I was really keen to photograph again, having not seen them for quite some considerable time. But, they were eating in the flowering gum trees high up and took off whenever I got anywhere near them. It's funny how some birds are so friendly in one place, like these lorikeets in Cloncurry and then so skittish in another!

Sacred Kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus)

Varied Lorikeet (Psitteuteles versicolor)

On the way out of the area, I found some lovely Spinifex Pigeons. Zebra Finches and woodswallow were all coming down to a muddy puddle. I think birds can't taste. There was a sparkling, clear pool just round the corner. Mary Pool was a really, really nice place to spend the night. It felt safe, comfortable, the great facilities and fantastic views and bird life.

Black-faced Woodswallow (Artamus cinereus)

Spinifex Pigeon (Geophaps plumifera)