Gulf & Inland Bird Tour
Gulf & Inland Bird Tour
Mt Isa - Lawn Hill National Park - Karumba - Cloncurry - Mt Isa
(Mini-Bus)
6 birdwatchers maximum
Day 1 - 4
Accommodation: Burke & Wills Motor Inn, Mt
Isa
The first impression of
Mt Isa relates to being a mining town, but visitors are always
pleasantly surprised to find beautiful gorges and waterholes in this
rugged outback environment. The tour starts in Mount Isa, and the
birding highlights include Kalkadoon and Carpentarian Grasswrens,
Spinifex Birds, Painted Finches, Ground Cuckoo-shrikes and Spinifex
Pigeons. We travel to several waterholes and gorges, visit Lake
Moondarra and the Sewage Plant. Looking for the specialities keeps us
busy, as some of them are very difficult to find, like the Carpentarian
Grasswren. They are only found in two small locations in Australia, and
north of Mount Isa is the one of the best spots.
Other birds we look for include varieties of Honeyeaters, Pigeons and Doves, and uncommon raptors.
Day 5 - 7
Accommodation: Adel's Grove, Lawn Hill
N.P.
We travel from
Mount Isa via the Camooweal Road to the southern part of the Gregory
River, which is the best area for the Purple-crowned Fairy-wrens.
Depending on interest we stop at the Riversleigh fossil site.
The destination is Lawn Hill Gorge, a smaller version of Katherine Gorge in the Northern Territory. It's a great birding and holiday spot, where we look for the Sandstone Shrike-thrush, Purple-crowned Fairy-Wren, Buff-sided Robin, Northern Rosella and the Channel-billed Cuckoo, which stays here all year around.
We stay at Adel's Grove, 10 km from Lawn Hill. The accommodation is in air- conditioned small cabins with power, but the generator gets turned off at night. In winter the nights are quite cool, so that never was a problem. There are only shared amenities, and hot water is produced with wood-fire stoves, so it is all quite basic.
Lawn Hill is very inviting for swimming and canoeing, as there are no motorboats on the water. More species of Finches and Honeyeaters are found in this region.
Day 8 - 10
Accommodation:
End of the Road Motel,
Karumba Point
From Lawn Hill
we travel via Burke & Wills Roadhouse to Karumba. As bird activity
varies we stopped intermittently on the road, have lunch at the Burke &
Wills Roadhouse and arrive in the afternoon in Karumba.
The mangroves at the coast of the Gulf are great for Red-headed Honeyeaters, White-breasted Whistlers, Mangrove Robins, Broad-billed Flycatchers and Mangrove Golden Whistlers, while the vast Karumba plains are good for raptors and grassland birds. The shoreline offers even in winter some waders.
Day 11 + 12
Accommodation: Gidgee Inn
Motel, Cloncurry
We drive via Normanton to Cloncurry.
Near Normanton we stopped at the Norman River where we usually catch up
with Brolgas and Sarus Cranes, plus other wetland species.
Near Cloncurry we have more chances for the Kalkadoon Grasswren and south of Cloncurry for the Rufous-crowned Emu-Wren. Of course there are other birds around these areas. Even Night Parrots have been historically reported south of Cloncurry. In May 2003 we watched a Grey Falcon hunting in this area, although that was quite likely a vagrant.
Day 13
After morning birdwatching we travel back to Mt Isa to return you to the airport or to the accommodation of your choice. Transport is in a 6 (forward-facing) seater Toyota 4WD troop carrier, and we carry a satellite phone and a First-Aid Kit.
Kirrama Wildlife Tours
P.O. Box 1400, Innisfail, Queensland, 4860, Australia
Phone: (07) 4065 5181
International Phone: 61 7 40655 181
mailto:info@kirrama.com.au
All photos on these pages by Klaus Uhlenhut © 1996
All content and scripts Copyright 1997 - 1999 Graphically Speaking