The suburbs of Perth aren't all that good for birdwatching, once you get away
from the lakes and wader flats - in some suburbs, all you are likely to see are
turtle doves and singing honeyeaters. Of course you do get more interesting
birds in places with significant vegetation - eg flocks of carnaby's cockies in
Kings Park.
Anyhow, during the week we were in Perth, I did manage to slip over to Rotto
[Rottnest Island for those not in the know] to see perchance whether the
red-necked phalaropes reported by Frank O'Connor a couple of years were still
turning up.
I caught the first available ferry across the [almost] birdless sea [other than
the occasional cormorant] to the land of laughing and spotted turtledoves,
common pheasants and peacocks [and of course, the famous quokkas].
On the wader front, I quickly discovered that it would be very difficult to find
a phalarope amongst the thousands of banded stilts bobbing about on the lakes [I
did eventually find a pair of black winged stilts for variety]. Other waders
included red-necked stints [saw a double-flagged RNS - yellow above orange on
its right leg - at the wader roost near the airstrip], curlew sandpipers, pied
oystercatchers, ruddy turnstones, red-capped plovers, banded lapwings, grey
plovers and greater sandplovers. There were also the usual banded chats and oz
shelducks.
It also appeared that all the sea birds were nesting, and I was hassled whenever
I crossed the invisible line. The caspian terns were the most impressive
swoopers [shrieking at the last minute] while the fairy terns seemed to prefer
cloud formations. Even the silver gulls were showing an agro side.
All up, I only had time to circumnavigate a couple of the lakes, and had no joy
in my search for the RNPs before it was time once again the cross the birdless
sea [albiet in more choppy conditions stirred up by the local doctor].
Regards, Laurie
[To be continued]
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