DAY 13
Up and away by 5 A.M., as
three of us spend our last day with George Swann of Kimberley Bird watching. It
is our day to hunt for whatever birds we would like to see before going home, a
complementary day on top of our 12 day Canning Stock Route trip. We opt to spend
most of the day sifting through the waders looking for something special and a
visit to the Mangroves for those species found mainly there.
Outside my Hotel the two
young Osprey?s are stretching and exercising their wings whilst still in the
nest. Nearby Mum or Dad tears yet another fish apart to feed the hungry
mouths.
First up we have a quick
visit to the mangroves around Dampier Creek and get good views of a male
Mangrove Golden Whistler. Red-headed Honeyeaters are in abundance and easy to
see, as are Yellow White-Eye. The tide is coming in so we head to Little Crab
Creek past the Bird Observatory. As we pick our way through the mangroves out
onto the mud flats we see Mangrove Greyfantail, Dusky Gerygone and hear a
White-breasted Whistler calling.
The tide was a very low one
and did not come anywhere near the mangroves but we were able to spend about 3
hours looking through all the waders, many of which were showing some colour
still as they were moulting out of breeding plumage. The highlight was getting
good views of a Common Redshank. An Asian Dowitcher was seen briefly by George,
and then a raptor put all the birds up in the air, and it was not to be seen
again.
We moved out onto Roebuck
Plains to look for fresh water waders at Kidney Bean Lagoon (note this is
private property and special permission is required to enter), see the BBO or
one of the commercial birdwatching operators. On the way we flushed a male Grass
Owl which we watched circling around and dropping into the grass close by. A Black-breasted Buzzard flew overhead
low enough to get close looks at the black breast and rufous neck. We also saw a
hundred or more Australian Pratincoles but no sign of the Oriental Pratincoles
seen two weeks ago when I was last at the BBO. We also only saw two female
Yellow Chats and there had been around one hundred birds there a fortnight
before.
We spent about 2 hours here
getting really close views (down to 3 metres on some occasions) of several
species of waders. The highlight being 4 Long-toed Stints one seen closely
enough to observe its longer middle toe.
Late afternoon we had a quick
visit to the Broome Sewerage Works for another look through the fence. We
finished off the day with a drive to the Port and around the Ocean beaches
looking for Brown Boobies and Lesser Frigate Birds, the former being seen but
missing out on the latter. All up around 92 species over a very relaxing
day.
That's all
folks
Dick Jenkin
DUNGOG
NSW
