Part 1.
September 22nd, 2021.
The dry had ended in the Top End and we were into the build-up. It was also the first day of the 2021 fowl season.
I woke up at 4:30 am, brewed a double shot, packed my gear, and headed out to the gate to wait for my brother.
We had organised this early morning excursion after he had been out the previous week on his DR650. He had been looking for likely spots, away from the crowds we knew would flock to Lambells Lagoon and Harrisons Dam.
My brother had found a location out in Howard Springs Hunting Reserve. He told me that coming home with a bag was ‘a sure thing’.
He arrived on time as usual, and we headed out. The location wasn’t far along the bitumen past the Iron Bridge but after we had left the blacktop, it was a fair drive on the twisting, narrow and muddy dirt track. Driving between the trees whose trunks already bore the scars of previous human incursions, their thin, hard branches stretched towards the ute, I was glad we were in his BT50 and not mine.
The sun had not yet risen as he turned the engine off and announced, ‘this is it’. I was sceptical. He had promised bags before and not delivered. In the darkness we walked out onto a dry floodplain and stood together in an open corner. We positioned ourselves close to trees, hoping they would hide us from the honking Magpie Geese as they flew overhead.
We talked and we stood, and we stood and we talked. The sun rose and with it, came the heat. After a couple of hours and without a single shot fired between us, we headed back to his ute and stowed our gear. It was then that my brother told me about the hundreds of Brolgas he had previously seen when he had ridden out this way the week past. He wondered aloud if they were still around.
I turned and stared into the middle of the floodplain, opposite the corner in which we had been standing. I thought I could see some objects through the heat haze, out in the middle of the floodplain. I was handed a set of Bear Grylls binoculars (seriously?) and spied a large flock of Brolgas, feeding amongst the drying grasses with Glossy Ibis’ at their feet.
I began walking out towards them. They would have been 500 odd meters away at that point at least. I’m guessing I got to within 150 to 175 meters of them before several of them who had been observing my entire approach, beat their large wings and rose into the air.
As I continued to walk, my advance was met by a continuous wave of Brolgas rising into the air. I don’t think I got any closer to the last of them than I had to the first.
I continued to walk out to where they had been feeding, took out my phone, and added a place marker to my Hema Maps app.
I would be unable to return for several days due to work but I decided that on my next day off I would come back, this time with my camera.
Continued in Part 2
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