Rapid Creek

Casuarina Coastal Reserve runs for an 8km stretch between the estuaries of Rapid Creek and Buffalo Creek. Bike paths and walking tracks pass on one side sandy beaches, dramatic sandstone cliffs and shady casuarina trees, and on the other patches of woodlands, monsoon forests, mangroves and paperbarks.

Rapid Creek is the southernmost part of the reserve. On a cool (for Darwin) morning I walked from the Rapid Creek pedestrian bridge to Dripstone Cliffs, and easy 3k return trip. There are regular Ranger-guided walks through the reserve, which might help me identify some on the plants I'm photographing.

It was quite windy, which made locating birds a bit more of a challenge, but I came across a very obliging group of lemon-bellied flycatchers whose posed singly and in groups in a small tree, a nearby vine and the mangroves. I could have filled a card with their antics alone.

Brown honeyeaters were the most dominant honeyeater species. Raptors soared above the flying fox colony. Woodswallows perched wing to wing in groups of twenty or more. Tiny peaceful doves were camouflaged in the grass, The mistletoe was in full blossom - amazing flowers, matched by their associate mistletoe bird.

Bird List:

Mistletoebird Dicaeum hirundinaceum (pictured above)

Black Kite Milvus migrans

Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus

Peaceful Dove Geopelia striata
Bar-shouldered Dove Geopelia humeralis

Galah Cacatua roseicapilla

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Cacatua galerita

Sacred Kingfisher Todiramphus sanctus

Brown Honeyeater Lichmera indistincta

Lemon-bellied Flycatcher Microeca flavigaster

Magpie Lark Grallina cyanoleuca

Varied Triller Lalage leucomela

Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike Coracina novaehollandiae
White-bellied Cuckoo-Shrike Coracina papuensis

Yellow Oriole Oriolus flavocinctus

White-breasted Woodswallow Artamus leucorhynchus

Long-tailed Finch Poephila acuticauda
Crimson Finch Neochmia phaeton

Welcome Swallow Hirundo neoxena