Broome 2017 _ Wave The Waders Goodbye _ Day 01

Well, not permanently. Until next spring. Broome Bird Observatory does a 5-day course in late March/early April when waders gather in Roebuck Bay and set off to their northern hemisphere breeding destinations.

You live on base. The cuisine is themed for the seven world-wide migratory flyways. You do a tour each day, have some lectures/talks and spend the last few hours of each day observing gathering birds on the bay and watching them head off. Usually. Bar-Tailed Godwits and Great Knots are migratory. The others are Aussie residents.

Day 01

Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica

Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris

Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus

Eastern Reef Egret Egretta sacra grey morph

Lesser Crested Tern Thalasseus bengalensis

Nankeen Night Heron Nycticorax caledonians juvenile

Broome Roadtrip 02

I lodged at the Broome Bird Observatory for 3 days before and 3 days after the Ashmore Reef Pelagic Cruise. It sits on the edge of Roebuck Bay about 20km from Broome by road. It is a great place for birds!!

Silver Gull, Common Sandpiper

Brahminy Kite

Sanderling

Australian Bushlark

Brown Falcon catching some last rays.

White-bellied Sea-eagle

Whistling Kites

Yellow Chat, male

Roebuck Bay 

Mudskipper, species unknown to me.

Blue-spotted Mudskipper

Broad-billed Flycatcher

Great Egret

Mangrove Mudskippers

Oriental Pratincole

Pacific Golden Plover

High tide roost. Birds on the beach.

A close up of above. What can you see?

Curlew Sandpiper

Lesser Sand Plover

As to the shorebirds above? I reckon you can see Red-necked Avocets, Bar-tailed Godwits, Black-winged Stilts, Caspian Terns, a Common Sandpiper, Crested Terns, Eastern Curlews and Silver Gulls.

Going South now -- 02 -- Karumba

One advantage of travelling late in the season is the lack of grey nomads everywhere. On the roads, in the caravan parks. Hence you have the place to yourself and, if you time your trip for pre-01 November, everything is still open. Such was life in the Karumba Caravan Park where I stayed two nights and took advantage of the early morning birding boat trip. I discovered Karumba [and the Gulf of Carpentaria for that matter] only has one tide a day, not two! Something to do with not being in the direct line of the sweep of the tides around the main coast of Australia. I don't understand. If anyone has an answer please let me know.

However they do have great birds. This Jabiru had been found six years ago by the tour folk as a neglected orphan of twins so they started giving him some extra fish on regular basis. Now he flies in to say hello most tours. He is totally independent but does accept any fish they throw him!

Black-necked Stork
Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus

Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus

Little Bronze-cuckoo Chalcites minutillus

Terek Sandpiper Xenus cinereus

White-Bellied Sea-eagle
Haliaeetus leucogaster
We couldn't have got closer if we tried.
About 10 metres away.

The White-breasted Whistler is a difficult bird to see. Well, the male is. Here is the female.

White-breasted Whistler, female
 Pachycephala lanioides

Here is the usual view of the male, if you get to see him at all. According to the tour folk, in 14 years they had never had a clear view of the male.

So we waited a few seconds while he was still about and, lo and behold, he hopped in front of the mangrove leaf and stayed still for 30 seconds. Plenty of time! Quite a speccy bird. I was well pleased with the view [and the photo too].

White-Breasted Whistler, male

Last, but not least is the Yellow White-eye.

Yellow White-eye Zosterops luteus