2015 Newsletter Highlights

Luke’s efforts in delivering excellent detail and contribution to reputable tourism have not gone unnoticed. Luke is a well-know face of tourism in the Northern Territory, show casing what this diverse landscape has to offer on overland birdwatching and outback photography tours. NT Bird Specialist’s guiding services are often booked to provide specialist and luxury tours (bird watching, photography, travel agent, media and film crew familiarisations tours), and guide training. NT Bird Specialists is acquiring an international as well as Australian following for his work in the Northern Territory and the Kimberley.

November 2016
NT Bird Specialists won a ‘First Time Entrant’ Brolga Northern Territory Tourism Award. Winning a Brolga Award is the highest tourism accolade in the Northern Territory.

October 2015 and 2016
NT Bird Specialists and Luke Paterson guided tours, activities and lectures during Kakadu Bird Week.
Read Australian Geographic Article by Gemma Chilton here: Images by Don Fuchs and Luke Paterson.

Yellow Waters Credit: Don Fuchs

Yellow Waters, Credit: Don Fuchs

See more Kakadu Bird Week 2016 photos by Don Fuchs, Australian Geographic here:

August 2015 and 2016

Luke has been sponsored by Tourism NT to represent the birdwatching industry in the Northern Territory at the British BirdFair at the ‘Australia’ Outback Northern Territory’ stand and lecture hall.

April 2016
Leica Optics, Singapore Airlines and Tourism NT  birding documentary in Darwin and Kakadu National Park, hosted by ‘The Urban Birder’ (David Lindo and crew) and captured by the “Young BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year’ and travel writer, Luke Massey and Katie Stacey

Watch video
Read Birdwatch Magazine Article by David Lindo here: 
Read Sunday Territorian Article by Katie Stacey here: Page 1 and Page 2

April 2016
Guiding the Channel 9 Getaway travel show and host Kathy Lette for ‘Scenic Tours’.

November 2014
Luke was sponsored by Tourism NT to represent Northern Territory bird watching tourism in Sydney at the Australasian Bird Fair.

April 2013
Luke was featured on the Channel 9 ‘Today Show’ in the ‘Best Job In the World’ and again in May 2015 on the Today Show for a morning shoot at Kakadu National Park.

Luke has also been nominated by his guests and won multiple Tourism Top End ‘Super Deeds Awards for Going the extra mile in tourism’.

May 2011
Luke Paterson guided a 2 week ‘Ken Duncan Landscape Photography tour’ through the Kimberley (Broome – Broome).

November 2010
Luke won the prestigious Brolga Northern Territory Tourism Award for ‘Most Outstanding Interpretive Guide 2010’.

We wish to thank Luke for his guiding expertise over the last seven years and wish him well in his new ventures. We take this opportunity to thank all our valued clients, friends and mentors for their input to our life experiences. We have many stories to tell and we can be found at our home, Eastwood Farm, in Gympie, Queensland  when the stories need to be shared again. If you are returning to the Top End for more birding, Luke will be the guide to show you around again.

Best Wishes to all.

Accipiter novaehollandiae).

This is a favourite bird of the Top End Tour. It is a strongly built, medium-sized bird of prey. White Goshawks are about 40–55 cm long, with wingspans of 70–110cm. Females are much larger than males, weighing about 680 g. Males average 350 g. This Goshawk is found in their preferred habitats of forests, tall woodlands, and timbered watercourses. The Mary River Wetlands and Kakadu provide excellent environments for these birds.

Goshawks usually prey on mammals such as, possums, and bats. They may also eat birds, small reptiles, and insects. Females, due to their size, can catch larger prey than males. Hunting is often done by stealth, but White Goshawks are willing to pursue their prey before catching it with their talons.

They partner for life, breeding from July to December nesting in tall trees on a platform of sticks and twigs. The female lays a clutch containing 2 or 3 eggs, which hatch in about 35 days. Chicks fledge 35–40 days after hatching. The female is usually responsible for incubating the eggs and feeding the young. The male does most of the hunting.

Described as the birdwatcher’s Glastonbury, The British Birdwatching Fair is jointly organised by the Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust and the RSPB.

Birdfair encompasses the whole spectrum of the birdwatching industry whilst at the same time supporting global bird conservation. This is the event of the year if you’re into birds and wildlife and can visit the UK in August.

There are hundreds of stands selling the latest products for wildlife enthusiasts. You’ll find everything, from scopes to sculptures, binoculars to bird food, eGuides to eco-holidays!

Check out the NT Tourism stand to find bird watching holidays to the Northern Territory. Ask about the NT Bird Specialists tour of the Top End.

This website is your complete guide to who is exhibiting and appearing at Birdfair http://www.birdfair.org.uk

The world’s largest wildlife event, the Birdfair, has celebrated its quarter century by raising a record amount for conservation. Birdfair is held annually at Rutland Water for three days every August.

For 25 years, the bird fair has funded and helped promote the Birdlife Partnership’s work around the world. There is no doubt that the event has become a major force for conservation”.

The British Birdwatching Fair has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1989. The idea evolved from a local event held in 1987 at Rutland Water Nature Reserve called “The Wildfowl Bonanza”. The Fair takes place on the nature reserve at Rutland Water which itself is a huge water storage reservoir owned by Anglian Water. The nature reserve is a RAMSAR and Special Protection Area and is managed by The Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.

NT Tourism has been operating a stand at the Bird Fair since 2008 and friendly staff and operators will provide great information to prospective Northern Territory birdwatchers.

The aim of the Fair was to get birdwatchers together to celebrate birds, to develop a commercial fair for the birdwatching industry and to support international conservation projects.

In excess of 20,000 visitors now attend the Fair annually and over 300 exhibitors display their products, with BirdLife International and its partners receiving the profits for conservation projects. Birdfair attracts exhibitors from all over the world promoting businesses as diverse as eco-tourism, optical equipment, old/new wildlife books and birdfeeding products.

We have enjoyed attending the Bird Fair and hope we can come again one day.

Moving across the area you will experience a variety of different ecosystems, including, coastal, tidal, estuarine, mangrove and riverine areas, wetlands, savannah woodlands, escarpment and monsoon forest environments.

Wetlands are all the low lying areas which fill up with water in the ‘Wet’ season and gradually dry out though the ‘Dry’ season providing great habitats for the concentration of water birds as the ‘Dry’ progresses. During the ‘Wet’ season the birds are able to disperse to areas much further inland.

Wetlands in the Top End of the Northern Territory

Monsoon forests occur in small isolated patches supporting the fruit-eating birds and flying foxes which have an important role in the diversity of the area. These are found in coastal areas and around the wetlands and river systems.

Monsoon Rain Forest

The dominant sandstone escarpment areas of Ubirr and Noulangie in Kakadu National Park provide great examples of this habitat and wonderful examples of Aboriginal Art.

Sandstone Escarpment

The coastal, tidal, estuarine, mangrove and mudflat areas provide habitats for nurseries for fish, including barramundi and the floodplains, billabongs and rivers are home to the visiting migratory shorebirds birds. The Mangroves and nearby areas are home to many special species.

Mangroves

Savannah woodlands consisting of mostly eucalypts and tall grasses support a great variety of plants, animals and birds. Luke loves to find the special species in these areas.

Savannah Habitiats

If you choose a hotel on the Esplanade for your Darwin accommodation your visit will begin with magnificent views of the Darwin Harbour with the sea birds circling and calling.

Darwin Harbour

Travelling around the outskirts of Darwin you will have your introduction to the important mangrove areas and their elusive birds and the foreshore where migratory birds rest on their travels north and south. Over the next days you travel to the Mary River and Kakadu areas. The parallel river systems across the Top End provide endless landscapes and diversity of habitat.

Mary River

Mary River Sunrise

The Mary River area provides an abundance of both the riverine environment and the beautiful wetlands areas. In Kakadu National Park the diversity is very obvious with mangrove, wetland, monsoon forest, escarpment and savannah areas.

Waterlily on Wetlands

Across to the Pine Creek area and the habitat is predominately savannah woodland, home to the famous Gouldian finch and the hooded parrot.

Savannah Grasslands

Birdwatchers visiting this amazing area will be rewarded with sightings of many beautiful species both common and rare and will take home memories of a magic environment.

We wish to thank you all for a wonderful holiday. We have so many happy memories and photos. We’d love to go up the Top End again. Our tour took us to the Mary River Wetlands, the Kakadu National Park and the Savannah forests of the Pine Creek area. Our photos illustrate these different environments and the birds of each area.

Mary River Wetlands
The trip in this area featured visits to Fogg Dam and the Mary River, famous for both its birds and crocodiles.

Photo: Forest Kingfisher

Photo: Magpie Geese on Wetlands

Kakadu National Park
The Kakadu National Park is a home to some special birds. We were very fortunate to see the Rose-crowned Fruit Dove in the Escarpment country and the Azure Kingfisher on Yellow waters.

Photo: Escarpment

Photo: Rose-crowned Fruit Dove

Photo: Azure Kingfisher

Photo: Yellow Waters

The Pine Creek area was very productive with good sightings of the Gouldian Finches in good numbers and the elusive Hooded Parrot.

Photo: Gouldian Finch

Photo: Hooded Parrot

We will enjoy reliving our memories with stories and photos to tell the tale over many years. Thank you Luke.

WOW! A new refreshing website for our old friends and new clients to follow the NT Bird Specialists activities on. Our interactive facebook page will allow you to report your wonderful findings and add photos to our site. We look forward to hearing from you.

Our new website has been developed by Jacki Hull from Stimuli Marketing & Design on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. (www.stimulimarketing.com.au)

This is a good opportunity to review the history of NT Bird Specialists. Mike began doing the tours in 1999 when visitors to Mary River Park were asking for such tours.

Dr Max Findlayson and Mario Bellio Garcia were among the first visitors. They were amazed when Mike was able to find all the seven birds they asked for, including. Rufous Owl, White phase of the grey Goshawk, Great Billed Heron, Black Bittern, Pacific Bazza, Brolga and the Australian Bustard in a very small area near the Mary River and Mary River Wetlands.

Mike’s reputation spread from that day and the NT Bid Specialists business was begun.

In 2005 Mike was honoured for the recognized for his skills when he won the Northern Territory Brolga Award for the Outstanding Interpretative Guide for the year.

Over the years Mike was able to provide tours for many international bird journalists and visitors. Several of these visits were well documented.

In 2004, George Millar wrote for the Cornell University Living Bird Magazine.

“Living Bird Magazine (published by Cornell University) sent me to Australia to write an article on the birds of Kadaku National Park and the Top End. I joined the Mary River Bird Festival with Mike Ostwald as the guide. Mike’s expert knowledge on the birds and their behavior and other wildlife of the region provided me with more than ample information and photographs for my article. Without his expertise of the wildlife and knowledge of the area, my article would have been incomplete. His first-hand knowledge of the culture of the area added an important element to the trip. His leadership, personality, and knowledge combined to make it a world-class tour. “

Also in 2005 the Gouldian Finches moved back into the territory close to Mary River Park. It was an amazing experience to take the visitors only a few kilometers to see up to 300 Gouldian Finches come on to drink from a small waterhole. Tours continued to this spot for up to 6 weeks that year and the following year. Many tourists became instant birdos with their first bird being a Gouldian Finch!

Great research was done on the Gouldian Finches by Dr Don Franklin of the Darwin University.

Another spectacular site was at Mamakula Wetlands in the Kakadu National Park. On one trip Mike decided to stop for a look and was rewarded with a sighting of about 800,000 Magpie Geese on the waterhole. The rangers were estimating the numbers using helicopters!

The annual Bird Week held at Mary River Park over these years provided many birdwatchers with amazing sightings and experiences in the area and provided us with ongoing friendships. The writers and photographers reporting over these years provided a snapshot of the experiences which make up the fabric of the history of this era.

2007, saw the end of the ‘hands on’ guiding era for Mike, with the shift back to Eastwood Farm near Gympie in Queensland. Our life is the richer for all the wonderful experiences shared with so many wonderful people over the years through our NT Bird Specialists business many of whom we now have as friends.

Luke Paterson joined the NT Bird Specialists team in 2007 and the bird story now becomes his!

Jean Léveillé writes a column on bird watching around the world for a French-Canadian Medical Journal. He is a Doctor of Nuclear Medicine, a bird photographer an author of bird photography books. The favourite photo is the one of Rufous Jack, the baby Rufous Owl, sitting on its nest with his mother watching nearby, which Mike was able to show Jean and Denise.

Rufous Jack became a trademark of the business and birdwatchers came from all corners of the world to see him. Mike even had a group of 29 Australian birdwatchers move in and out of a hide to see him sitting on the nest without any disturbance! A testament to Mike’s bushman’s skills and the patience of the visitors!

Through the years many birdwatchers had very special experiences with Mike as they marveled at his skill of finding the ‘right’ bird for them in this pristine wilderness environment.

In 2001,Shamada Tadashi and his crew, from Japan, arrived for a 6 weeks stay. They filmed the birds of the Top End for a TV production to be shown in Japan. ”Kakadu : Land of Turbulent Change”.

Mike’s knowledge allowed them to access the nests of many birds to get amazing footage. (Kakadu)