bobmcgee

Broome …

The Kimberley adventure brought us finally back to Broome. We finished the trip at the Broome Bird Observatory.

One of the trio still needed a few mangrove birds for his Aussie list and Little Crab Creek, not far from the observatory, would be the place to find them. A tour of Broome including the Port, the playing fields and the sewage works is birding heaven. Add the proximity of Roebuck Bay, which even over winter holds a wonderful trove of migratory waders, Pindan woodland and open plains and a hundred species in a day can be seen with relative ease. I gave a guarantee that I would deliver the White-breasted Whistler and the Dusky Gerygone.

The first morning saw us in the mangroves beating off the mozzies. The whistler duly surrendered and what’s more, the first one to parade for us was a beautiful male, usually much harder to find than the drabber females and young males. But no Dusky Gerygone. Then off to Nimilaica, Barred Creek and back up the Derby Road to Taylor’s lagoon. A great day, some great birds but …

Dawn of day two and we were back in the mangroves, swatting the mozzies, ignoring the White-breasted Whistler, the Broad-billed Flycatchers, Yellow White-eyes, Mangrove Grey Fantails, Sacred Kingfishers, Brahminy Kites and the rest, reputation is at stake, I have never dipped on the gerygone, ever.

The Dusky Gerygone is found only in the mangroves from about Broome, south west along the WA coast to about Shark Bay. Gerygones are little birds, often grey or brown or greyish-brown, distinguished by subtleties of eyebrow or tail tip, and amongst all these the Dusky is distinguished by its lack of distinction, no contrasting tail tip, the subtlest of eyebrows. The clinching detail is the pale iris! You need a good look.

My colleague slapped another mozzie, I distinctly heard him muttering about trusting me instead of trying Streeter’s Jetty. Everybody gets them at Streeter’s Jetty.

A Yellow White-eye peeked out …

Dime a dozen. Mangrove Golden Whistlers are much harder to find, I doubt that one has ever been dismissed as lightly as this one …

More muttering, then …

Reputation rescued.

100% …

Sadly, KTVU had produced a promo patting themselves on the back, boasting …

KTVU Channel 2 News owned this breaking news story with a number of firsts!

– First on-air.
– First on-line.
– First with alerts to mobile devices.
– First on Twitter & Facebook.
– First with aerial shots from KTVU NewsChopper 2.
– First with a live reporter from the scene.
– First live interview with anyone connected to someone on the flight.

Rosenthal is quoted in the promo: “Being first on air and on every platform in all aspects of our coverage was a great accomplishment, but being 100% accurate, effectively using our great sources and social media without putting a single piece of erroneous information on our air, is what we are most proud of as a newsroom.”

One minute a rooster, the next a feather duster …

Appropriate actions will be taken to ensure that such a serious error is not repeated.

The KTVU producer who tweeted “Oh sh*t” after the gaffe has since deleted his account. The station apologized for the error, noting that an NTSB official confirmed the names for them Friday morning.

It’s not clear how the hoax originated, and whether or not the intern created the fake names.

The TV station’s mistake is especially embarrassing considering that the Associated Press reported the correct names of the pilot and co-pilot on Wednesday.

The Asian American Journalists Association has released its own statement on the screw-up, saying: “Words cannot adequately express the outrage we … feel over KTVU’s on-air blunder that made a mockery of the Asiana Airlines tragedy and offended so many loyal viewers of the San Francisco Bay Area station.”

The plane crash killed three people and is under investigation.

Correction …

The NTSB regrets …

Media accuracy …

Geological diversions …

After leaving the Bungles our first stop was the frontier town of Halls Creek where we bought some light beer and groceries.

Then it was off to China Wall which is about 6km away via the Duncan Highway.

The more resistant quartz has weathered out of the softer surrounding rock to produce a miniature version of the Great Wall of China. It snakes through the country for several kilometres.

Maintaining the geological theme we then headed 150 km down the Tanamai to the Wolfe Creek Crater.

Some time in the Pleistocene 50,000 tonnes worth of meteorite came to visit. It’s about 875 metres in diameter and 60 metres from the present crater floor to the rim.

As fascinating as these landforms are our motives were not entirely geological. The creek at China Wall is a known drinking spot for Painted Finch, which sadly we did not see, and one of our number had not seen Grey-fronted Honeyeater which we hoped to find on the Tanamai, and in that we were successful.

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The Bungle Bungles …

After leaving Home Valley it wasn’t long before our wheels hit the bitumen. I’m sure all four of them were very relieved but for the us on board it signalled a hiatus in the adventure. Straight ahead would have taken us to Kununurra but that held no attraction for us. We turned right onto the Great Northern Highway. The scenery is impressive but the country is drier than along the Gibb River Road. A couple of hours later we turned left to head for the Bungle Bungles in Purnululu National Park.

The park is open between April and December 15 provided the weather permits. The road in is moderately rugged. There are a few river crossings along its 50 km. It is not suitable for two wheel drive vehicles or caravans.The longtitudinal chassis members on this camper had fractured …

Had they made it in they would have had two camping areas to choose from, the one to the south (Walardi) is closer to the more spectacular beehive formations, the larger northern site (Kurrajong) is handy for the Echidna Chasm. The distance between the camps is not great. Either could serve as a base for both areas.

The Bungles are not only hard on camper vans, this is a place where you could easily wear out your camera …

The distinctive beehive-shaped towers of the Bungle Bungles are made up of sandstones and conglomerates that were deposited into the Ord Basin 375 to 350 million years ago. Uplift and erosion in more recent times (the last 20 million years) have produced what we see today. The horizontal bands are alternating layers that are more and less porous. Where the water penetrates algae can grow and produce a dark colour, the red bands are due to a covering of iron and manganese oxides.

There are short walks but for the more active let me recommend Whipsnake Gorge in the south and Echidna Chasm in the north. The light is best early and late, go extra early and beat the crowds. Carry water.

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Home Valley …

From Miner’s Pool we headed east again to Home Valley. This is one of two stations near the Wyndham end of the Gibb River Road, the other one being El Questro which is perhaps a bit more famous. Both have developed the tourist side of their operations.

On the way the road crosses a ridge and the impressive Cockburn Range is laid out in front of you. The Pentecost River runs at its foot and discharges into the West Arm of Cambridge Gulf.

Sadly, this is where Joseph Schwab, the Kimberley Killer, shot three of his five victims in 1987.

Once again we had an easy choice of camp site, the fully featured site at the homestead, with kids playground, pool, restaurant, shop and bar or bush camp on the river bank, please camp away from the water’s edge to reduce the risk of crocodile attack. We chose the crocs over the kids. And this was our reward …

We had watched a large Estuarine Crocodile slide into the water just before the photo was taken. We survived the night. The following morning we hiked one of the trails near the homestead and enjoyed a further reward in the form of a flock of Gouldian Finch.

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Politics and words …

I recently admitted I was lost for words.

James in Melbourne isn’t …

It’s the mind-boggling condescension; the grotesque narcissism; the pretentious over-analysis of everything; the ludicrous thesaurus-mined vocabulary, that makes his every speech a weird froth of verbiage devoid of actual meaning; the overwhelming smugness; the insufferable conceit; the off-the-scale self-regard; the insane, all-consuming craving for unanimous awed recognition as the smartest person in the room (and any room); the teenage levels of self-aggrandisement; the hilarious bigging-up name-dropping; the crass, bathetic, utter inability to relate to anyone below his perceived level, AKA everybody; the primed-to-explode grievances that fester behind the rictus smile; the ridiculous OCD of the just-so white-shirt-coloured-tie-and-navy-suit – unless it’s a weekend and it’s the ridiculous OCD of the just-so-khaki-chinos-and-chambray-shirt; the painful fakeness of the manufactured persona; the desperate fist-clenching as he suppresses the anger that ordinary people make him feel; the lightning speed to perceive a slight; the drawn-out hundred-fold revenge in return; the delight in humiliating those beneath him; and the cloying, fulsome, gushing insincerity of his fawning over other world leaders.

Any idea who he might be talking about?

River crossing …

This is the King Edward River, the river that might have stopped us getting to the Mitchell Plateau.

It hadn’t rained for over a week by the time we got to see it. Nonetheless, the driver of this vehicle had a good look and walked the track his wheels would take before he went across.

In the 4WD videos river crossings are undertaken with a splash and a big surge of water. That’s the way to get a good spectacle. If you’re running on diesel with no snorkel your air intake is no higher than your headlight, water in the engine equals immediate failure, a time and money eating retrieval and expensive repairs. If you’re running on petrol your electrics are vulnerable. Especially when the bank is steep, go in nice and slowly, just as the vehicle starts to climb you smoothly increase the revs and ask it to lift you out.

If you are towing a camper trailer the change in angle is too much to ask of a simple ball hitch, especially when there is a rock or two that can have the car leaning one way and the trailer leaning the other. There are a number of devices that allow for extensive rotation in all three planes. I have used a Treg hitch without problems. It’s also worth having a look at the Hitchmaster.

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