Hello fellow birders,
Here is a trip report of a recent holiday to WA with my wife, Deb, three month old baby daughter, Gabrielle, and mother in law, Sue. I was very fortunate to go out birding with a top WA birder, Sue Abbotts for a day, for which I am very grateful.
Sue picked me up at 7.00 am on Monday the 29th of November and we headed out past Armidale on the Albany Highway then turned off to follow the Brookton Highway to Collins Rd. As soon as we stopped we could see plenty of Rufous Treecreepers and got to see the brilliant colours in the morning light. Later Sue found us a couple of Western Yellow Robins. Sue assured me that they are quite hard to find and this proved so true as they were the only WYR that I was to see on this WA trip. Other highlights were seeing Yellow –plumed Honeyeaters and Western Rosellas.
The next day Tuesday the 30th of Nov, while walking with the baby at the local Nedlands park I observed the pinkie-white skin markings on the sides of the chin of the first year Australian Ravens, which was a buzz.
Wednesday the 1st of December we stopped at Lake McLarty, on route to Bunker Bay. Following Sue Abbotts mud map,(which was perfectly accurate) I set out into the lake leaving Deb with baby Gabrielle and her mum at the car. The lake was abounding with birds, but alas I had a bit of a meltdown in getting past identifying the Red-capped Plovers while fumbling with my new lighter tripod, which seemed very hard to operate in comparison with my heavier tripod and get to the field guide, while the mud rose to my ankles. It was a huge buzz for me to see the Banded Stilts (which I had wanted to see on each of my visits to WA without success) in company with elegant Black-winged Stilts and Red-necked Avocets. But it was with a heavy heart and feeing of utter failure that I trudged back to thew car. The list of great and new, hoped for ticks had evaporated. I had needed a lot more time, experience and it seemed that a lot of birds were on the opposite (western) side of the lake. Later that night, I thought I’d have another go on the return journey from Bunker bay.
We stopped at Buselton and on the foreshore observed Western Corellas at the kiosk, where we had lunch while we looked up into the Morton bay Fig trees at the birds, which have been in these trees on both other visits to the area.
At Bunker Bay (and everywhere else in the South-west)the place was abounding with New Holland Honeyeaters and what I didn’t realise until looking at the field guide yesterday was that WA has a subspecies called Longirostris, with a longer bill than the eastern ones. WA seems like as described by Sean Dooley in his book, The Big Twitch, as being like the east but with something a little almost indefinably different, that WA has so many bird species that have little differences. This was so with the Silvereye, with race Chloronotus, with its olive –green back (seen everywhere, at Bunker Bay, Prevelly Beach, Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse, and Augusta); the White –browed Scrubwren, race Maculatus with its spotted breast (seen from our lounge at Bunker Bay in villa 502); the Golden Whistler with race Fuliginosa (seen on Bunker bay fireshore scrub); the Grey fantail race Preissi (seen in a lot of south-west); the Inland Thornbill, race Apicalis seen at Bunker Bay and other south-western spots(formally called Leeuwinensis in my old S & D field guide, and Bunker Bay is in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Nat Park?).
Some of the highlights were seeing the Western Spinebill in the Bunker bay Resort driveway, a female in yellow Kangaroo Paw flowers and a male also in yellow kangaroo Paw. Sue Abbotts had suggested this was a good way to see them. Other highlights were seeing the White-breasted robin from the lounge room at the villa at Bunker Bay. Another was seeing Humpback Whales from Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse and Southern Emu-wrens also at the Lighthouse, both male and female. Also the WA race Splendens of the Splendid Fairy-wren in full breeding colour at the lighthouse and Meelup Bay, and seeing a flock of Baudin’s (Long-billed) Black-Cockatoos on the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse rd in a tree and being able to identify all their features. Another buzz for me was seeing a group of Western Rosellas in a tree outside our villa and getting great views of the male. A low point was not seeing the Rock Parrot at Augusta after having two different trips to see it and having a good mud map from Sue abbots. On the return journey back to Perth, we stopped at Lake McLarty on Wed 8th of Dec at 5.00 pm and the lake was completely dry. While Deb fed the baby I with scope trudged out into the dry lake hoping to get lucky. I saw a few groups of red-capped Plovers and that’s all. We had gone to the western side of the lake on the sealed road and stopped at the signposted birding info and gate. On getting back to the car, I found both Deb and her mum in a state of excitement with Deb saying they had observed a new bird that was very close to the car that seemed to fit the picture of the Southern Scrub-robin, in the field guide, but they were not certain. I seemed to remember Sue Abbotts, saying that it was not possible to see it in the South-West? On a positive note (for me) I looked up into a tree opposite the car to find a male of the WA race Anthopeplus of the Regent Parrot in my bins. I managed to scope it too. It was a bird I had not even thought to look for, and having seen the more yellow eastern race at Wyperfeld, it was a huge thrill for me and left me on a high for this WA trip. ============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
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