I have just returned from a Landscope trip to the Pilbara in Western
Australia including many of the offshore islands including the Monte
Bellos, Barrow, Boodie, Serrurier, Flat, etc.
The birding highlight of the trip were two flocks of Red-necked Phalaropes.
The first was 33 birds and we got to within 20 metres with the boat. The
second flock was of 50 to 100 flying in the distance and landing on the
surface.
Other good birds on the trip were Beach Stone-curlew, Wilson's
Storm-Petrel, a few Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (and several large breeding
colonies just being prepared), Hutton's Shearwater (4), Roseate Terns
(about 10,000 in one area), Bridled Terns (large numbers), White-winged
Black Terns (large numbers), Common Noddy (a few), Brown Booby (very few),
Brown Quail (common on several of the islands), White-breasted Woodswallow
(nesting on several of the islands), etc.
The other highlight of the trip were the mammals with Rufous Hare-Wallaby,
Spectacled Hare-Wallaby, Shark Bay Mouse, Barrow Island Mouse, Golden
Bandicoot, Euro, Northern Ringtail Possum, Burrowing Bettong, Humpback
Whale, Bottle-nose Dolphin, Indo-Pacific Humpbacked Dolphin. Lots of
turtles (mostly Green).
Before the trip I spent a few days in Karratha and visited the surrounding
areas including Millstream Chichester NP. The highlights were Black
Bittern, Black-chinned Honeyeater, Rufous-crowned Emu-wren, Spinifexbird,
Spinifex Pigeon, Collared Kingfisher, etc.
After the trip I spent 6 days in Exmouth. The outstanding highlight was a
White-tailed Tropicbird that flew over the golf course and sewage ponds.
Other good birds were Grey-headed Honeyeater, Mangrove Robin,
White-breasted Whistler, Mangrove Golden Whistler, Dusky Gerygone, Striated
Heron, Spinifexbird, Western Bowerbird, Spinifex Pigeon, plus a number of
species breeding. Black-footed Rock-Wallaby was a highlight and there was a
very good range of reptiles on the roads in the early evening.
I have written my web page for Exmouth. I haven't had time to put a list
of my sightings on my web page yet, so this will be a couple of weeks
before this is done. The web page for the Karratha area will be completed
then also. See http://www.iinet.net.au/~foconnor
All up I completed about 200 Atlas forms (about 3cm high!!) although most
of them were incidentals.
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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