Day 11 3/11
Cold overnight but still got out of bed early to walk up the Bald Island Road for a last look for any of the skulkers, only heard Noisy Scrub-bird, which was further off the track than yesterday. Plenty of birds but the same ones as yesterday. Back to the motorhome to pack up, have breakfast and fill the water tank. Drove onto the South Coast Highway and stopped at the Pullinup River Rest Area (Lions Park) at the Marra Bridge near Boxwood Hill for morning coffee. Free camp but not very inspiring, tracks going everywhere and alongside the busy road with lots of trucks rumbling by. Continued on to turn off to Bremer Bay (60km) good road through grain and Angus beef country.
Bremer Bay to Esperance
We arrived at Bremer Bay and headed to the general store to get a few supplies and to fill up ($1.99lt diesel). Checked out the caravan park in town but did not like the look of it, small sites beside the road. So we headed off to the other caravan park, Bremer Bay Beaches Resort and Caravan Park, further out of town and booked in. Had an unpowered site next to the tennis court on a well spaced site with a bit more greenery around it.
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| Bremer Bay Campsite |
We had lunch before going back into town passing the other caravan park on the way to the beach. It was blowing a gale and quite cold so we did not stay long. Decided to go back down the road to another car park, which was beside the Wellstead Estuary. A trail from here followed the estuary with good views of the birds out on the water, Black Swan, Australian Pelican, Greater Crested Tern, Fairy Tern and Caspian Tern. The fringing land-side vegetation had Grey Fantail, White-browed Scrubwren, Silvereye and a (Western) Golden Whistler.
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| White-browed Scrubwren ssp. maculatus |
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| Black Swans in Wellstead Estuary |
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| Greater Crested Tern |
Back at the car park we could see some small shorebirds on a sandbank but to far away to ID. So the 150-400mm lens with the 1.25 tele-converter, making 1000mm full frame equivalent was pressed into service, distance was 117m away. Hard work keeping steady as the wind was very strong but managed a few shots that showed the birds were Red-capped Plover.
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| Red-capped Plover - 117m away |
On the way back to our camp site we called in to the Waste Water Treatment Plant to check it out. We could see a few ducks through the fence and a perimeter road around the outside, so we will go back tomorrow and walk it to see what birds it attracts. Back to camp and nibbles before evening meal.
Day 12 4/11
Started the day with a walk from the acmp ground to a lookout through some woodland which was part of the Native Snail Trail. No many birds along here but a Square-tail Kite flew over.
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| Square-tail Kite |
Back for breakfast and off to the Bremer Bay Wastewater Treatment Plant, which we found on Google Maps..
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| Wastewater Treatment Plant |
We walked around the perimeter of the works and got views through the fence of the birds on the ponds. Mainly 115 Chestnut Teal (trip tick), some with ducklings in tow, 15 Black Duck, two Pink-eared Duck (trip tick) and eight Hoary-headed Grebe. On one of the dam walls was a Common Bronzewing and around in the surrounding vegetation were three Raven and four Grey Currawong. Overhead was at least 50 Tree Martin, hopefully picking off the millions of flies pestering us!
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| Chestnut Teal |
From here we went to the general store for some bread rolls. Next stop was the Fishing Beach for morning coffee, no birds here. Then onto the Bremer Bay Jetty looking for Rock Parrot, which we had been told were seen here recently but none today for us. However there were a few other birds around including Black Swan, an Osprey overhead with a fish in it’s talons and six New Holland Honeyeater.
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| New Holland Honeyeater |
Back at the carpark, two Laughing Dove were perched on a powerline (trip tick) along with an Inland Thornbill who seem out of place on the coast!
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| Inland Thornbill |
Lindsay saw a White-browed Robin three times and I missed it. Birdata said it was out of range but e-bird had it in range. Then we headed back to Wellstead Estuary, where the tide was higher than yesterday but there was still some sandbars above water for birds to take refuge. Australian Pelican were loafing on one of the sand dunes whilst on another 49 Crested Terns were facing the wind in a long line. A flock of shorebirds were frantically flying around, landing and taking off. Eventually they landed on a sandbar, where we could see and identify them. It was a mixed flock of Red-capped Plover, Greater and Lesser Sandplover.
A Western Tiger Snake slithered past us to distract us from the birds.
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| Western Tiger Snake |
Time to go back to camp for lunch and a snooze. In the afternoon we headed off to explore some of the local beaches, first one was Native Dog Beach, which we could see from a viewing platform. This is one of the best beaches in the area for surfing and judging by the big waves assisted by the wind we could believe it. We checked out the real estate on our way back to the campground, plenty of houses on the sandy hills behind the coast, some large pretentious ones others modest. By this time we had both run out of steam and were glad to have refreshing showers back at the campground. I wrote up this diary report in the camp cook shed as the computer was out of battery and would not charge up on the motorhome’s 12v system which was not powerful enough. Dinner and a relax for the evening.
Day 13 5/11
We awoke to an overcast day, not a problem as we were leaving Bremer Bay to travel to Hopetoun. It was relatively warm so we ate our breakfast outside before packing up and leaving about 8.00am. Headed back towards the South Coast Highway and turned off 42km from Bremer Bay onto Gairdner Road. This road is a short cut to the South Coast Highway at Gairdner. Back on the highway we stopped off in Jerramungup to have a coffee and buy a few items at the IGA. Only birds seen here were Australian Raven and Welcome Swallow.
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| Welcome Swallow |
Back on the road we could see there was rain behind and in front of us so we kept going passing through some light showers until 4km before Ravensthorpe, where we pulled into a rest area. As we pulled in we were welcomed by a crowd of Yellow-throated Miner (file photo), not a good sign for any other birds to be around. This rest area had a plaque to say it was on the meridian of 120ยบ east longitude .
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| Yellow-throated Miner |
Lunch was eaten in the motorhome as the rain had caught up and it poured down for a while. As it eased off we carried on through Ravensthorpe and turned onto the Hopetoun Road. About 60kms to Hopetoun with showers of rain most of the way. Stopped in the town to get a few more food items from the well stocked IGA, apart from bread, which the local bakery had also run out. Then booked into the Caravan Park where we had a very tight site in a corner, the opposite to last nights spacious camp. Set up and decided to go for a walk along the beach despite the wind blowing a gale. We could see a few Silver Gull on the jetty in the distance and a few more birds on rocks at the end of the jetty so we headed into the wind to see what they were. We passed a shelter on the beach before we reached the jetty with a sign on it "The Old Shore Birds".
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| The Old Shore Birds Sign |
Once on the jetty we could see a guy throwing scraps out of his car, hence the gathering of Silver Gull, a few were on the bonnet of the car looking in hoping some more scraps might come out of the window but no luck they had eaten it all. They eventually gave up and retired to a nearby rock.
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| Silver Gull |
Two Pied Cormorant were fishing just off the jetty before taking off.
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| Pied Cormorant |
We met some locals sensibly sitting it their cars out of the wind, they told us there were some seals at the end of the jetty and one of the guys gave us a family history story. His GGGrandfather had been in a shipwreck off the coast near Esperance back in the mid 1800’s, his luggage in chests washed ashore and he stayed in Esperance to open a shop. His Grandfather moved to Hopetoun in the early 1900”s to also open up a store, interesting. We walked to the end of the Jetty but no seals in sight. On our way back down the jetty a Common Sandpiper flew in front of us and landed on a rock for good views but left before it’s photo could be taken. Back down on the beach a few more Pied Cormorant plus a Little Pied Cormorant flew in to join the Silver Gull on the rocks. Two Sting Ray were swimming in the shallow water just off the beach and a Pied Oystercatcher with a damaged leg was foraging along the shoreline.
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| Pied Oystercatcher |
Back to the Caravan Park to sort out photos, bird surveys and to write up this diary before dinner. Lindsay was sorting out our next two nights accommodation at National Parks.
Day 14 6/11
We woke up before 6.00 for a coffee starter before going down to the beach for a walk. Saw a bird roosting in the opposite direction to where we walked to the jetty yesterday, so went to inspect, It was a Hooded Plover sheltering from the wind, behind a clump of wrack (seaweed + debris).
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| Hooded Plover |
An immature White-breasted Sea-Eagle flew along the beach and put up a group of Silver Gull, who were minding their own business and did not like being disturbed by the intruder, so some gave chase to make sure the sea-eagle kept going out of their territory.
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| White-bellied Sea-Eagle chased by Silver Gull |
Along the beach in the low coastal vegetation silvereye ssp. chloronotus were foraging.
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| Silvereye ssp. chloronotus |
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| Silvereye ssp. chloronotus |
After breakfast we packed up and headed into town to pick up a loaf of bread at the bakery, bought the only loaf of multigrain on offer. We then went a short distance out of town to Dunns Swamp.
Most of the vegetation along the track in was burnt and not very interesting, the swamp was also not interesting with mostly dead trees.
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| Dunns Swamp |
The only birds around the edge of the swamp were a group of 17 White-headed Stilt and a couple of Masked Lapwing we only heard.
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| White-headed Stilt |
From here we headed back into town and took the coast road towards the east as far as the bitumen went. This was at 12 mile beach, where there is a car park and a toilet, so we parked up and scrambled up the dune to look over the beach.
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| 12 mile beach, Hopetoun |
A Pacific Gull was standing on the reef which was above water just offshore and another dark bird was further along on the same reef. We could not identify it but thought it was a Sooty Oystercatcher. I managed to take a couple of photos with the 150-400mm + the built in 1.25 tele-converter, no mean feat as the wind was blowing the camera around but with the Olympus image stabilisation I managed a reasonable identification shot. Enlarging it further on the back of the camera screen showed it was indeed a Sooty Oystercatcher. Had our morning coffee here before going back into town and out onto the jetty. The tide was higher than yesterday so no exposed rocks for birds to sit on so we decided to head off to the Fitzgerald National Park along Hamersley Drive to our overnight campsite, stopping at Culham Inlet bird hide. This area is a wetland of national importance but today not many birds to be seen. The sky was getting darker and some rain started to fall so we retuned to the motorhome and continued to our campsite. Hamersley Drive along here is amazing, wide undulating and sealed all the way. Arrived at the Hamersley Inlet campground, which is managed by the Shire of Ravensthorpe, only one caravan parked up, found our site and had lunch and a snooze, while a rain shower passed over. Then took the walking track down to the beach in Hamersley Inlet where the sun came out.
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| Hamersley Inlet |
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| Hamersley Inlet - home of the Hooded Plover |
Found a few birds along the shore edge, two Pied Oystercatcher, amazingly five Hooded Plover, a one legged Red-capped Plover and what we finally decided was a Red-necked Stint. Odd to see a single stint when usually they are in larger flocks. Took lots of photos of the Hoodies as well as the Red-necked Stint. Only just manage to get the hoodies in the single frame!
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| 5 Hooded Plover |
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| Hooded Plover |
Walked back to the camp and found a few bush birds, Golden Whistler, Weebill - looks like a lerp in it's bill, Inland Thornbill, Singing Honeyeater and Grey Shrikethrush.
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| Weebill |
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| Inland Thornbill |
Back at camp the birds fired up and made a noise which was created by a pair of Grey Currawong passing through. Met a couple of German tourist who were also in an motorhome and staying at the campground, a short shower of rain cut our conversation short. Back for nibbles and dinner.
Day 15 7/11
We woke up early before 6.00am and had a coffee before going for a walk down to the Hamersley Inlet, where we were yesterday. No sign of the hoodies or any other birds along the shore apart from a lone male Australian Shelduck but there was lots of 4WD tracks that were not there yesterday. Three 4WD vehicles drove in and out of the campground late yesterday afternoon, so suspect they were the culprits. Back in the fringing vegetation were a few bush birds including four Shining Bronze-Cuckoo chasing each other, two Grey Shrikethrush, two Western Yellow Robin (trip tick) and a Fan-tailed Cuckoo was heard.
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| Grey Shrikethrush |
Next breakfast and to pack up. Headed back towards Hopetoun taking a detour to West Beach where the wind was blowing and the surf rolling in.
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| West Beach |
A couple of Greater Crested Tern were braving the elements trying to shelter in between the rocks and a South-western Crevice Skink emerged from under the concrete kerbing on the edge of the car park.
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| South-western Crevice Skink Egernia napoleonis |
Back on the road we returned to Hopetoun and fuelled up the RV and used the dump point. Headed back towards the South Coast Highway and turned off just passed the Ravensthorpe Airport onto the Jerdacuttup Road. -This is a short cut to the South Coast Highway via Jerdacuttup. No places to stop along here for our morning coffee so we ended up stopping at a station properties road beside a wheat field. Then joined the South Coast Highway until we turned off for Stokes Bay National Park. Had our first White-necked Heron for the trip along this road.
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| White-necked Heron |
We reached the campground and found our site No 11, which was very large, as were most of the other sites. Time for lunch which we had with White-browed Scrubwren and Silvereye flitting around. In the afternoon we walked down to the waterfront of Stokes Inlet, where a shell covered sandbar had a few birds roosting including two Pied Oystercatcher, 11 Australian Pelican, eight Greater Crested Tern and two Hooded Plover, one was sitting down on the shell topped sandbar and the other was standing guard not far away, suggesting they may have been nesting. Next we drove the 1.7km to the day use area, which turned out to be good for birds especially the Blue-breasted Fairy-wren with two female and one male (photos),
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| Blue-breasted Fairy-wren - male |
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| Blue-breasted Fairy-wren - female |
Lindsay saw a Red-capped Parrot whilst I was taking photos of the fairy-wrens. Two Great Cormorant and a Whistling Kite flew over and a juvenile Willie Wagtail was perched in a shrub watching the world go by
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| Willie Wagtail |
Back to camp for nibbles before dinner and to catch up with surveys and this diary.
Day 16 8/11
First up did a survey walk down to Stokes Bay, found two male Blue-breasted Fairy-wren, nothing new, the Australian Pelican (10) were still roosting on the shell covered sandbar as they were yesterday afternoon. Silvereye were busy in the undergrowth foraging.
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| Silvereye ssp. chloronotus |
We decided to go to the day use area for breakfast, found three Great-crested Grebe on the water, flying over was one Silver Gull and one Caspian Tern. Six Wille Wagtail were chasing other birds apart from one immature bird who was content to sit on a branch and watch the adults perform. White-browed Scrubwren ssp. maculatus (also known as Spotted Scrubwren) were also in the undergrowth.
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| White-browed Scrubwren ssp. maculatus |
We finished breakfast and headed to the highway, along the way we saw a Black-fronted Dotterel alongside the road and four Emu in a paddock with Angus Cattle plus the White-necked Heron, which we saw yesterday, was still in the roadside dam with a small flock of Grey Teal.
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| Black-fronted Dotterel |
Back on the highway we had a few stops for roadworks and saw a Swamp Harrier over a grain field. Had trouble finding a place to stop as Lindsay needed the loo, eventually found a truck stop on the wrong side of the road. Reached the outskirts of Esperance and headed for a bakery and Cafรฉ, near the Pink Lake, but when we got there as it was Saturday it was full to bursting in the car park so we gave that away as more people descended on the place, obvious where all the locals go as well as the tourists. We were deciding where to go for our lunch when we got a message from the caravan park to say our site was ready, so we went there and booked in. Big place with lots of campsites and cabins, We were in a corner next to the main road out of town north but managed to squeeze in. Had lunch before Lindsay managed to do some washing and we both had welcome showers. No more birding today.
Lindsay joined the Esperance birders Facebook page and quickly got a message to say they were going on a field trip tomorrow and we could join in, sounded good.
Day 17 9/11
Woke up at 5.30am and slowly organised ourselves to meet up with the birders. We did a bit of a drive around first to check out a restaurant nearby the caravan park but all we could find was a not so inviting tavern. Arrived at the meeting place 5 minutes early and waited for 30 minutes watching endless streams of trucks heading north, nobody showed. We gave it away and took the Cape Le Grande road to Lake Wheatfield about 5km out of town. A walking track around the lake led to a bird hide. Along the way we found lots of Musk Duck and a large flotilla of Eurasian Coot (160). Sat in the bird hide photographing the Musk Duck, one was displaying and making its strange call. Other birds on the water were Chestnut and Grey Teal, 52 Hoary-headed Grebe, two Great-crested Grebe, one Australian Shelduck and one Australian Pelican.
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| Musk Duck |
Flying over there was one adult White-bellied Sea-Eagle,
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| White-bellied Sea-Eagle |
26 Australian White Ibis, one Little Black Cormorant. A Fan-tailed cuckoo was calling and along the Banksia line path as were the usual suspects, Red and Western Wattlebird, New-Holland and Brown Honeyeater. Did manage to photograph some Dragonfly along here as well.
Back to the motorhome for morning coffee before we went out to Lake Monjingup Reserve (about12km) out of town.
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| Lake Monjinup Reserve |
The Lake did not have as many birds as the previous Lake Wheatfield. Short walk to the bird hide where we found a guy taking photo of birds, he was not a birder so we told him the names of the ones he was taking pictures of. A Yellow-billed Spoonbill did a fly past as did an Australian White Ibis. A pair of Chestnut Teal emerged from the reeds and a couple of Welcome Swallow perched on a branch in front of the hide. There was also a walkway though the fringing vegetation but not birds to be seen so we had to be content to try and photograph some Dragonflies in flight.
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| Tau Emerald Hemicordulia tau |
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| Australian Emperor Anax papuensis |
Back at the car park we had our lunch listening to Golden Whistler, White-browed Scrubwren (Spotted) and both Western and Red Wattlebird plus a Common Bronzewing in the car parking area.
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| Common Bronzewing |
After lunch we drove back into Esperance via the scenic Ocean Road. Stopped at a couple of lookouts to take photos of the rolling waves and turquoise blue ocean of the Ten Mile Lagoon, quite spectacular.
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| Ten Mile Lagoon Viewing Platform |
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| Ten Mile Lagoon |
As we descended in Esperance passing lots of expensive looking houses scattered around on the hilly sand dunes, we reflected on what a mixture of buildings looking out of place on the rocky fringes of the ocean. Drove to a shopping centre near the caravan park where we bought some travel calm and frozen fish for dinner. Back to the park to write up todays bird surveys along with yesterdays and today's diary events. Quiet evening working out what we are going to do for the next few days.
Day 18 10/11
Another early awake at 5.45am to get ready for today’s Island Bay Cruise. Drove down to Taylors Jetty and parked up, where we had our breakfast. Plenty of time before our boat left at 8.30am.
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| Island Bay Cruise Boat |
We boarded the boat and set off for the islands in the bay, first one was Thomas Island where we saw a White-bellied Sea-Eagle and our first for the trip, a pair of Cape Barren Goose ssp grisea. Also here was a pair of Sooty Oystercatcher.
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| Cape Barren Goose - ssp grisea |
Then it was on to Gunton Island where there were two more White-bellied Sea-Eagles, four Sooty Oystercatchers and four Black-faced Cormorant plus New Zealand Fur Seals. A Greater-crested Tern was in hot pursuit yelling at one of one of the White-bellied Sea-Eagles who was minding it's own business flying over.
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| Black-faced Cormorant |
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| White-bellied Sea-Eagle being chased by a Greater-crested Tern |
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| New Zealand Fur Seal |
The next Island was Cull Island where we found two more Sooty Oystercatchers, two more W-B Sea-Eagles and three Cape Barren Geese. As you might have gathered there are a lot of White-bellied Sea-Eagle on these islands, they have become used to fishermen throwing out fish scraps and head for any passing boats looking for handouts.
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| Sooty Oystercatcher |
Then onto Charley Island where there were more than 100 Silver Gull, two more Sooty Oystercatcher and three Pacific Gull. A pod of Bottle-nosed Dolphin followed us for a short while. Along the way we saw several rafts of Flesh-footed Shearwater, over 100 estimated.
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| Flesh-footed Shearwater |
We anchored up a Blue Haven Beach for morning coffee and a muffin and a few brave souls went in the water snorkelling and swimming, the water was freezing by all accounts. Then it was back to the jetty via a look at the industrial harbour, where large ships loaded up with nickel concentrate, wood chips, grain and iron ore.
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| Esperance Harbour |
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| Esperance Harbour |
Back on shore we drove a short distance to park nearer the main shopping centre, where we found a bakery to buy some lunch plus a custard tart to have with a coffee. Then off to fuel up, eventually found a fuel station after going around in circles for a while. Then time to do some more food shopping before returning to our campsite to relax for the afternoon and evening.
Esperance to Perth
Day 19 11/11
Yet another early start, decided to have breakfast on the road. Took the Esperance Highway north towards Norseman. Stopped at Scaddan Lions Park where there was a toilet and a picnic table for breakfast at 8.15am. Not much here for this former railway town, only saw two houses and a few birds around including a Blue-breasted Fairy-wren (Male).
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| Blue-breasted Fairy-wren - Male |
Back on the road we kept going passing many dry salt lakes until we reached Bromus Dam, a large area with free camping. Nobody here apart from too many biting March Flies, an immature Pied Butcherbird came to visit us and perched on a fence for a few photos.
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| Pied Butcherbird - Immature |
The water in the dam looked OK for drinking water as it had a lot of small fish swimming in it but looks can deceive. From here we continued up the highway with Lindsay at the wheel. We reached Dundas Rocks, where a community of gold miners used to live, it is now a big camping area divided up into numbered sites, with little to show that there was once a small town here. Went for a walk but it was too hot for any bird action as well as us. A Common Bronzewing flushed into a tree and two more sped off into the undergrowth not to be seen again.
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| Common Bronzewing |
An adult Pied Butcherbird entertained us as it went through a repertoire of its calls, such a great singer. We had lunch and discussed several scenarios as to what too do in the afternoon. We ended up deciding that a short drive into Norseman and to stay the night at the Norseman Gateway Caravan Park. We drove into town passing several derelict houses and empty shops, did not look prosperous despite a huge gold mine on it’s doorstep. Bought a loaf of multigrain bread (from Kalgoorlie Bakery) at the local Grocer (IGA) and then booked into the Caravan Park, typical 1980’s style but adequate. Had a snooze and afternoon coffee break. Fortunately for us the Norseman Waste Treatment Plant was just over the fence from our site, far enough away not to smell it! Later when the sun started to set I went over the park fence to check it out. Mainly Grey Teal (47) with seven chicks, six Chestnut-breasted Teal, 11 Pacific Black Duck, one Pink-eared Duck and six Hoary-headed Grebe. Crested Pigeon started to come in to drink, as did one Galah and one Australian Magpie-Lark. Five Little Crow flew over.
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| Norseman Waste Treatment Plant |
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| Norseman Waste Treatment Plant |
Time for nibbles before dinner. By the time we had dinner, washed up and had a nightcap it was time to make the bed and crash out.
Day 20 12/11
First up after coffee was a walk over to the treatment works to check out the birds, which as it turned out were pretty much the same as last nights bird, no arrivals or departures. Back to camp to have a shower and breakfast. Yellow-throated Miner were trying to see off five Little Crow and four Galah came into a water bowl for a drink. Filled up the water tank and emptied the cassette before leaving the park. Fuelled up at the BP Truck Stop ($2.06c a ltr.) and had a chat with a truckie who pulled in with a fellow campers car and caravan on the back of his truck. We had spoken to the owner yesterday who said his 4WD had broken down. He lives in Mackay, so a long road journey for the truckie, whilst the owner was flying home. Then headed towards Coolgardie, stopped for morning smoko at a rest area near Lake Cowan. Back on the road with us both doing a driving stint we reached Coolgardie in time for lunch. Stopped at the Memorial Gardens, where they have an automatic toilet that played horrible tunes, quite spooky. The next delight was a visit to the Coolgardie Water Treatment Works which is handily situated alongside the main Highway on the edge of town. Similar to the one in Norseman it has a wire fence around it, easy to see through and flat enough to walk around the perimeter to see in the three ponds. The birds here were also similar to the ones in Norseman, Grey Teal (86), Pacific Black Duck (7) and Hoary-headed Grebe (14). Extra species here were Australian Shelduck (5), Eurasian Coot (7) and Australasian Grebe (6).
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| Australasian Grebe |
A few bush birds were hanging around in the fringing vegetation, Australian Magpie, Little Crow, Red Wattlebird, Brown Honeyeater, Magpie-Lark and Willie Wagtail.
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| Australian Magpie ssp dorsalis |
Back into town as Lindsay wanted to try out the musical Loo! She gave it the thumbs down. Back on the road we were heading for a roadside rest area for the night. Ahead we could see stormy clouds and a weather warning was put out for strong winds and rain for Southern Cross which is just beyond our night stop. Stopped for afternoon hot drink before arriving at Koorarawalyee (Boorabbin) Rest Area.
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| Koorarawalyee (Boorabbin) Rest Area |
This is a large area with toilet and dump facilities and nobody here when we arrived, set up camp and went for a short walk finding four Western Pink Cockatoo, two which were checking out a hole in a eucalypt. The storm clouds went around us with a few spits of rain but we did get the strong winds. However they did not last for long and it turned into a very pleasant evening as the sun set. Only one other caravanner arrived. The proximity of the main highway made the camp quite noisy with endless trucks whizzing past, hopefully they will die down later in the night.
Day 21 13/11
Well the trucks did subside around 1.00am but picked up again by about 5.00am but in reality they were not much of a problem. The railway Lindsay was concerned may be noisy was actually the old railway line not used anymore due to a realignment to fit in a water pipeline and the new line was well out of earshot. Went for a walk first up, saw three Pink Cockatoo, a couple of Australian Ringneck, four Red Wattlebird and five Australian Magpie. Quiet start to the birding morning, with the Pink Cockatoo being the best sighting.
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| Pink Cockatoo - Female (dark brown eye) |
It was quite cool first thing in the morning, which probably kept the birds quiet but it soon started to warm up. Had breakfast and got on the road to Southern Cross with an ever increasing amount of trucks.
Made it to Southern Cross in one go as we could not find a suitable parking place for morning coffee and headed to the Water Treatment Ponds. Plenty of birds in two out of the three ponds but access was not as good as Coolgardie and Norseman. One pond was easy to view through the wire fence but the larger pond had a raised wall around it making viewing difficult. There were a few higher areas on the outside which allowed most of the pond to be seen. Birds were about the same as the last two visited, Grey Teal (66 adults + 16 chicks), Pacific Black Duck (two adults +16 chicks), Hoary-headed Grebe (8) and Australasian Grebe (3). In the fringing vegetation were Crested Pigeon (2), Singing Honeyeater (2), Yellow-throated Miner (1), Striated Pardalote (1)Little Crow (6) and White-winged Fairy-wren (3 brown plumage birds).
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| White-winged Fairy-wren (Female) |
Had our morning coffee then headed to Lake Koorkoordine (a salt lake) a few more kilometers out of town near the Golf Course. The Mallee fringing the lake looked like good birding country so we parked up in the shade of a tall eucalypt overlooking the lake.
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| Lake Koorkoordine |
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| Lake Koorkoordine in the shade |
We heard a bird calling, one we had heard before but could not quite work out what it was. We tracked it down and high in a tree was a Crested Bellbird, it had been a few years since we last saw and heard this species.
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| Crested Bellbird |
Other birds were, Crested Pigeon (1), Whistling Kite (1), Australian Ringneck (3), Galah (1photo), Singing Honeyeater (2), Striated Pardalote (1), Rufous Whistler (1 female), Weebill (1), Rufous Songlark (1), Tree Martin (est. 10) and Welcome Swallow (3). We widened the search into a 500m area search and added some good birds; Crested Pigeon (3), White-browed Babbler (8), Singing Honeyeater (2), White-fronted Chat (1 immature), Striated Pardalote (1), Black-faced Woodswallow (6), Tree Martin (est 20).
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| Galah |
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| Lunch at Lake Koorkoordine |
We had lunch in the shade and wished we could stay here longer but we were running out of time so had to move on. Headed towards Merredin along mainly good stretches of road but several long stretches of roadworks slowed us down. We stopped at Walgoolan, where a rest area had a display dedicated to the early pioneers of the area. Photos depicted the hard life these pioneers led but most made a go of it until mechanisation started to take over. Farms became bigger as the pioneers sold due to being unable to compete with the more efficient mechanical tractors and harvesters. Arrived in Merredin and parked up before going for a walk along the main street. Ended up at the IGA for a few items including tonight’s dinner. Booked into the Caravan Park and found our site had someone parked in it. Lindsay sorted it out and we got another site. Lindsay headed off to do some washing and I did paperwork, bird surveys and this diary.
Day 22 14/11
Although we could hear trucks rumbling by during the night we managed to sleep well apart from waking up to early. Went for a walk around the perimeter of the park and encountered over 100 Little Corella up to their tricks, hanging on power lines and swinging over, also eyeing up the insulators on the power poles. A few were checking out hollows in the surrounding eucalypt hollows.
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| Little Corella |
Nothing much else, probably because the resident group of Yellow-throated Miner had chased them off. Back for breakfast before we went to the BP truck stop to fuel up. Then we headed to the Merredin Water Treatment Works, the ponds were not as visible as the ones at Coolgardie and Southern Cross as they had walls of loose rock surrounding each pond. We could see the birds which were on the rocks or on the runways in between the ponds. Again mainly Grey Teal (56) plus Australian Shellduck (34) Australian Wood Duck (6), Pied Stilt (8), Pink-eared Duck (6), White-faced Heron (2) Eurasian Coot (7) and Pacific Black-Duck (4). Four Rock Dove flew in for a drink and two Galah flew over. Adjacent to the ponds is a grain handling facility which is quite large so we took the opportunity to drive around and through it on a back road leading to the highway. Plenty of grain stored here with more arriving, interesting.
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| Grain Storage |
Back on the highway we continued on passing huge cleared areas growing grains and more grain handling facilities. We did manage a stop for morning coffee before we reached Northam. We went straight to the free RV park by the river in case it was busy and we could not get a site. We need not have worried as there was only one van parked and that left shortly after we arrived. Two more vans did arrive and it was just the three of us. The sites are alongside the Avon River and well spaced out, you have to be self sufficient to stay here. Plenty of native plants have been located between the sites, making it very attractive.
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| Lovely Triggerplant Stylidium amoenum |
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| White Cottonhead Conostylis setosa |
A few birds were along the river including a pair of Eurasian Coot with two chicks and our first Splendid Fairy-Wren, a nice male.
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| Eurasian Coot |
Had lunch and rested up before we went for a walk along the path beside the river. Plenty of birds along here including several more pairs of Eurasian Coot with chicks, three Yellow-billed Spoonbill attending two nests which had two chicks in each, below them was a Little Pied Cormorant sitting on another nest. We reached Newcastle Road and crossed the bridge to find a pair of introduced Mute Swan with four goslings, the only place in Australia where they are found. We had seen one on our previous visit here.
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| Mute Swan with four goslings |
Also here were more Eurasian Coot with chicks, Grey Teal, Australian Wood Duck and both Australasian and Hoary-headed Grebe. Walked back to the park and took it easy before dinner. Evening spent catching up on bird surveys and this diary as the temperature started to drop down.
Day 23 15/11
Cool start to the morning, up for a quick walk along the river pathway. Nothing new here apart from taking a few photos of Laughing Dove and Australian Ringneck.
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| Australian Ringneck |
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| Laughing Dove |
After breakfast we drove to the weir to find more Eurasian Coot nests, one had an adult, two chicks and two eggs in it! The partner bird was busy diving down to bring food up to the chicks, the other nest had a bird sitting on it. At the weir there were a few Grey Teal and Pacific Black Duck, plus a single Pied Stilt. From here we went over the river to Bernard Park where a small fenced area provided a little wetland that had quite a few birds in it including, three Australian Reed Warbler (one collecting insects and taking them into the reeds, possibly nesting), Australian Wood Duck (36), Pacific Black Duck (16), Moorhen (10 including 2 juveniles), Mute Swan (4) and Eurasian Coot (1). The rest of the park had Laughing Dove, Magpie-lark, Willie Wagtail Welcome Swallow, Tree Martin, Red Wattlebird, Singing Honeyeater and a pair of Yellow-billed Spoonbill perched in a tree.
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| Australian Reed Warbler |
From the park we headed into town but not much going, we did find a supermarket to buy a loaf of bread. Dropped our gear back to the motorhome and had a cup of coffee and raisin toast at the Bernard Park cafรฉ. We then took the highway towards Perth until we reached Mundaring, where we turned off to go to the Beelu NP for lunch. Found a spot with tables in the woodland for lunch and looked for birds, all very quiet except for a pair of Laughing Kookaburra and a few Red Wattlebird. Nine Galah flew through the woodland low down and a couple of Weebill called out. This Wilson's Grevillea was one of a few plants flowering.
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| Wilson's Grevillea Grevillea wilsonii |
We drove down the road closer to the Mundaring Dam and parked up for afternoon coffee. Had two Common Bronzewing and a couple of Australian Wood Duck walked down the road past our motorhome. Then back onto the highway via a winding hilly road through the Perth Hills. Drove towards the Perth Airport Caravan Park and fuelled up at the nearest garage to the park. Booked in and had a site amongst many other caravanners and roof top travellers, not too bad considering the amount of people and location, alongside a busy road. Had our last night in the motorhome.
Day 24 16/11
Awake early to finish packing the suitcases and tidy up the van before breakfast, toast and water as the milk had gone off. Managed to get everything into the suitcases, backpack and a couple of bags of food. The last leg, we headed back to the motorhome depot along the highway minding our own business when a 4WD VW Amorak Ute sped by and flicked up a stone which cracked the windscreen! All our travelling and we got this at the last minute,10 minutes from returning the motorhome. Arrived and parked up the motorhome and joined a long queue of people mainly picking up vehicles. Of course we had to pay for the cracked windscreen, which turned out not to be as expensive as we feared. We had our deposit returned as the van had not other problems. We then got a taxi to the Hertz depot at the airport where we picked up a car for the week, a Toyota Corolla Hybrid saloon, the car we actually ordered! Lindsay worked out a shopping centre to go to but when we arrive we found a supermarket with a couple of other shops around it, not the cafรฉ we had hoped for. Looked around the immediate area but nothing. So another destination was sought, this time about 8km away in Stirling. The shopping mall here wasn’t very exciting, old and run down but it did have a cafรฉ. So we ordered coffee and sandwiches, turned out to be OK. As we were out this way and Herdsman Lake was not far away we drove over and had a short walk around part of the lake. We met another bird photographer who was originally from Liverpool UK and had his partner from the Philippines with him. Opposite where we stopped was a colony of Ibis, mainly Australian White but a few Straw-necked thrown in.
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| Australian White Ibis |
On the edge each patch of reeds had a Reed Warbler (7) singing away and on the water was a single Great-crested Grebe and a single Australian Shelduck, a couple of Little Pied Cormorant flew over with one Little Black Cormorant and two Swamp Harrier were circling above the Ibis colony. As we walked back to the car a couple of Australasian Swamphen were foraging at the side of the track.
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| Australasian Swamphen |
We then headed to our accommodation for the next 8 days via an IGA to pick up some food supplies. We found the right place without any trouble and moved into our excellent self-contained unit. Time for a rest after a somewhat stressful day. We had booked the unit back in April after realising the Ashes was happening in Perth when we were there. We only paid $1,500 for our stay when prices were through the roof for cricket supporters!
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| Perth Unit |
Day 25 17/11
Up early again to get ready for a trip out to Lake Joodalup to search for Oriental Honey Buzzard. Pretty straightforward drive up the highway north but traffic going into the city was one big traffic jam for kilometres. Found our way to the mountain bike car park at the north west end of the lake and parked up. Not far from the parking area towards the lake was a shelter with a bench seat in it, this was the viewing area put in by the local council for birders.
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| Lake Joodalup Birders Shelter |
We arrived to find two other birders watching the skies but no buzzards so far. Good to have more pairs of eyes. We were soon joined by two more birders, one with a scope. Plenty of false alarms ranging from Whistling Kite to Australian White Ibis! A couple of the birders had to leave so only four of us were left.
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| Looking to the skies for the Oriental Honey Buzzard |
After about two hours a promising sighting was spotted in the distance. It did look different to what we had been seeing, this bird was then joined by another. Frustratingly they were quite far away and kept disappearing out of sight. Eventually we all got to see enough of the birds to confirm they were indeed the buzzards, long-tail, flat wing flight, sometimes slightly upturned, one bird was very dark the other was a lighter brownish colour underneath.
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| Oriental Honey Buzzard - K & L photo. File Photo |
All four of us agreed and an Australian lifer for Lindsay and myself. We had seen Oriental Honey Buzzard twice before in Sri Lanka. Time to head home to the unit for lunch. In the afternoon we checked out the W.A. University where the conference was to be held and parking areas, found a parking spot just over the road for $15.00 all day so that meant we could drive to the university and avoid the bus. Back to the unit via a different route, which took us around the city. Had a quiet evening before an early night.
Day 26 18/11
Up at 6.30am to get organised to go to the Australasian Ornithological Conference. Sat-Nav (a necessity) took us on a different route, closer to the city and the commuter traffic, only took one wrong turn! Got to the car park opposite the university with plenty of time to spare so took a walk along the Swan River and managed a bird survey.
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| Swan River - opposite University |
Then across the road to check in to the conference. Met up with Ceri (one of our members of Birdlife North Queensland) amongst the 450 attendees and started to find a few people we knew. The day started of with a welcome to country session before the talks began. The main lecture theatre was OK but some of the other rooms for talks were too small (50 seats) so we missed out on the wader session. Ended up in a Bio-acoustics session which wasn’t very exciting for us, some of the speakers were hard to hear which was very ironic! Morning coffee break was good as was lunch. After lunch we managed to get a seat at the wader talks, much more interesting than the mornings talks. Met up with many people we knew, many we had not seen for a long time. Finished the day and headed home in the traffic. Quiet evening after a busy day.
Day 27 19/11
Off to the conference for the second day. Parked in the same spot and did the walk along the Swan River inlet to the pier again. Then into the university for a coffee and the first session, a very interesting talk from a Palau lady about the birds from that group of islands, good start to the morning sessions. Morning coffee break was a slow process and lunch was even slower as long queues formed to get hot food from trays; sandwiches the day before was much quicker. Caught up with a few more people we knew. The afternoon session was a mixed bag as the audio was not very clear and some of the speakers were hard to understand for several of the talks. At the end of the day was the poster session where Ceri presented a poster on her Birds With Altitude project
Drove home to get ready for an evening session in town. Ordered a taxi to take us into the city to the evening conference dinner at the Aviary, a rooftop bar and function centre. Plenty of people here which made for a noisy evening trying to be heard above everyone else. The food was mainly finger food and the drinks were very expensive, 2 glasses of wine and a lemon, lime and bitters was $48.00!!
The nights entertainment was hosted by Sean Dooley, comedian, author, twitcher and Birdlife Australia Senior Advisor Public Relations.
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| Sean Dooley in Action |
Anyway we all had a good time before getting a taxi back to the unit, where we went straight to bed as we were very tired, not used to partying in the evening!
Day 28 20/11
We arrived on the final day of the conference in time to have a cappuccino before the first session began. Lots of good talks and presentations today, which made it hard to choose which one to go to as the presentations were held concurrently. Interesting talks about shorebirds, citizen science and interaction of birds in urban habitats were some of the presentations. So ended a successful AOC, we said our farewells to many people we knew and others we had met, it was well worth attending as we learnt a lot and were sometimes bamboozled with some of the new technology being employed. The next Australasian Ornithological Conference (14th) will be held in Tฤmaki Makaurau | Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, 18-20 February 2027.
Day 29 21/11
We had a date at the Perth Botanical Gardens in Kings Park with Ceri and arrived at 8.30am to meet her. We went for a walk around a few paths and took photos of the city and surrounds. A few dragonflies were around the water feature and one stopped long enough for a photo, but very few birds.
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| Perth City from Kings Park |
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| South of Perth from Kings Park |
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| Scarlet Percher Diplacodes haemotodes |
We then headed to the cafรฉ for a welcome coffee. We dropped Ceri back to her motel and then onto our unit for lunch. In the afternoon we went back to Herdsman Lake, no sign of the Wandering Whistling Duck, which had excited the Perth birders, ho hum in our area of Far North Queensland! Had a walk around the boardwalk near the information centre, found a couple of Great Egret along with some Pink-eared Duck who were taking it easy around the edge of the lake
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| Great Egret |
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| Pink-eared Duck |
We then went around to the opposite side of the lake, where we were five days ago but it was very quiet apart from this dragonfly Tau Emerald Hemicordulia tau.
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| Tau Emerald Hemicordulia tau |
Then back to the unit for a quiet night as we had to be up early in the morning.
Day 30 22/11
We had an early start to the day for a drive to Fremantle and get on the 7.30 am ferry to Rottnest Island. We met up with the other people on the trip, which was organised by the AOC, and boarded the ferry. It is 30 minutes to the island, saw one Australian Gannet along the way.
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| Rottnest Island Jetty |
We arrived on the island with all the other hoards of tourists and then our group had a welcome to country from one of the local elders. He told us of the history of both the Aboriginal and European settlers to the island. After this we found our coach which was to take us around the island for the rest of the day and drove out to a few bird viewing areas.
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| Viewing Area |
The viewing area at west end was good for seabirds. Managed to take photos of Bridled Terns in flight and a Pacific Gull perched on a viewing telescope. Also saw a group of Fairy Terns on the beach, too far away for a photo. Nearby was a Nankeen Kestrel perched on a rock and an Eastern Osprey on a tower.
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| Bridled Tern |
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| Pacific Gull watching the Birders |
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| Nankeen Kestrel |
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| Eastern Osprey |
We stopped at a few inland lakes where we found lots of waders including 3,500 Banded Stilt along with a few more new birds for our trip list, Sanderling, Grey Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit and Buff-banded Rail. Also Red-capped Plover, Australian Pied Oystercatcher and White-fronted Chat.
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Sanderling
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Red-capped Plover
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| Australian Pied Oystercatcher |
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| White-fronted Chat |
In a group of trees on the edge of a lagoon were a few Silvereye foraging up and down the trunks.
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| Silvereye |
In the forest area we had a female Red-capped Robin and good looks at a few Western Gerygone. Also saw a few Osprey on elevated nest platforms and a Quokka, a small macropod about the size of a domestic cat. This one was in the bush and looked in much better condition than the ones hanging around the settlement and feeding on fast food!
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| Quokka |
Back for lunch, after a short walk, to the settlement via the golf course, where a few Australian Magpie were hanging out.
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| Australian Magpie ssp dorsalis |
We had lunch then headed off for a walk of about 2km before going back to the settlement and having an ice cream! Then back on the ferry where we were able to watch the Aussies flog the poms in the first Cricket test. Quiet night after a hectic and enjoyable day.
Day 31 23/11
A day for a lie in before trying to organise ourselves for tomorrows departure. We took off mid-morning as we had a lunch date with Mick (cousin once removed). We had last seen him seven years ago, had a pleasant lunch and a chatty afternoon before heading off, stopping at the fuel station to top up the hire car. Only cost $21, which was cheap but we had only done around 300km. Hybrid cars are the way to go. Spent the evening finalising our packing before having an early night.
Day 32 24/11
Early start, managed a coffee before driving to the airport to return the car, no problem. Walked to terminal 3 with rain showers threatening but they did not eventuate. We were early and had plenty of time before check in. Checked in and headed to the security check but one body scanner was down so were were redirected to the international terminal to use their scanner. Managed to get a coffee and some food back in the domestic terminal. Had a wait until our flight boarded, amazingly we were first in the queue, that’s never happened before! We left 15 minutes late and had a good trip, landing in Alice Springs for a 30 minute stop. Then onto Cairns, filled in the flight time catching up with 3 days of diary entries.
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| Cairns Esplanade |
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| Cairns City |
We landed in Cairns and collected our car from Beta Airport Parking and then drove the 1½hrs back home. We had a great time in Western Australia but as always good to be home again. 
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