The following day was pedal to the metal and I drove through to Northam about 100km east of Perth and stayed the night. Target bird there was the
Mute Swan. An introduced species from the United Kingdom and really not self-sustaining [
more info see here] as fresh blood has been introduced and the birds have a special protected area near the Tourist Information building for shelter at night and breeding. Well, they used to have a special protected area. It was all change. The protected area had become a worksite with lots of concreting going on [it looked like it was going to be a skate park] and not a swan to be seen at 6am! Eventually I talked to a local who was able to tell me that the swans had "relocated" themselves upstream and that there was a path that could take me there and return me on the opposite side of the Avon River. [early English explorers had no imagination]. Eventually I found one [1] and discovered there were about 8. So good pics after a longish chase.
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Mute Swan |
Other birds seen were ...
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Laughing Turtle-Dove, another introduced species |
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Australian Ringneck Port Lincoln Parrot, no red mark above bill |
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Australian Ringneck definitely Twenty-Eight Parrot red mark above bill |
So finishing up at about 8am, I headed off into Perth and decided to check out Lake Joondalup to see if the Oriental Honey Buzzards had arrived for the summer, which they hadn't. I met Judy there. She had been on the Ashmore Reef pelagic and had the same idea as me. After that I headed south to Bunbury and successfully twitched the
Eurasian Curlew which had been resident at Samphire Inlet in the Leschenault Inlet for some time. A bit of a traipse with the bins, camera and scope/tripod for a kay or so out onto a sand spit and there it was. In the company of an {australian}
Eastern Curlew alongside for comparison. The Eurasian is slightly smaller and lighter in the plumage department. Tick.
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Eurasian Curlew |
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Eastern Curlew |
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