Broome Roadtrip 07

Stirling Range Retreat is an excellent place to stay. Unpowered campsites through to mud-brick, self-contained cottages, all set in acres of bush within sight of the Stirling Ranges. Birds are not the only attraction in the vicinity. The flora is special too -- wildflowers and orchids are a speciality. I confined myself to the birds, getting up before dawn and walking the tracks of the Retreat. I had a few target birds. Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo, Red-capped Parrot, Elegant Parrot.

I was there in late November towards the end of the grain harvest. This means grain trucks [semis and B-doubles] and thus plenty of grain lying on roadsides. My first morning walk took me out onto the main road at about 06hr30. Just a few parroty birds further down the road so I did a bit of stalking and, to my delight, found RCP, EP, Regent Parrots and Ringnecks all together. I tried very hard to get all four species in one photo but three was the limit. Tick. Tick.

Australian Ringneck, Regent Parrot, Regent Parrot, Red-capped Parrot, Ringneck, Red-capped Parrot.

Red-capped Parrots Purpureicephalus spurius, male

Red-capped Parrot Purpureicephalus spurius, male

Red-capped Parrot Purpureicephalus spurius, female/juvenile?

Regent Parrots Polytelis anthopeplus, female L, male R 

Regent Parrots Polytelis anthopeplus, female front, male back

Regent Parrot Polytelis anthopeplus, male

Elegant Parrot Neophema elegans, female

Elegant Parrot Neophema elegans, female

Elegant Parrot Neophema elegans, male

Elegant Parrot Neophema elegans, female

Elegant Parrot Neophema elegans, female

Elegant Parrot Neophema elegans, female

Elegant Parrot Neophema elegans, female

Elegant Parrot Neophema elegans, female

Broome Roadtrip 04

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.

Mute Swan

Other birds seen were ...

Laughing Turtle-Dove, another introduced species

Australian Ringneck
Port Lincoln Parrot, no red mark above bill

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.

Eurasian Curlew

Eastern Curlew