Last week I had a quick trip to Two Peoples Bay and east of Albany using
Frank OConnor's notes. I was hoping to see the Western Bristlebird and
Noisy Scrubbird but also wanted to escape the heat of Perth. Alas, the main
Two Peoples Bay reserve was closed due to extreme fire danger so we tried
Normans Inlet, ManyPeaks and Hopetoun.
Normans Inlet and the eastern edge of Two peoples Bay is reached by taking
the Homestead road off Highway 1 (about 5 km west of the Manypeaks service
station). The turn off is about 50 km from Albany. There are pit toilets
at both sites but very limited camping and no fresh water. Norms Inlet is
the best spot to camp.
At Normans Inlet :
Common sandpiper, Pacific gull, kelp gull, sooty oystercatcher, caspian and
crested tern, eastern reef egret, white faced heron, wedgetail and sea eagle
(an interesting site for the one afternoon), musk duck, hoary-headed grebe,
red-capped parrot, black cockatoo, ?? elegant/rock parrots (flying high
overhead), shy heath wren, yellow rumped thornbill, red-winged and splendid
fairy wrens, silverye and New Holland honeyeaters.
Next spot:
About 20 km further to the east is Many Peaks which is within the
Waychinnicup Nature reserve. The turn-off is located about 5 km before the
end of the Cheyne Beach Road. The road in to the inlet is a bit rough and
sandy in places but navigable by 2wd. There is limited camping, pit toilets
and no water. The Waychinicup creek was flowing but the water was rich in
tannins.. From the camping ground you can follow a rough track up stream to
a sheltered area which was rich in bird life but I did not hear or see NS or
WBs.
At Many Peaks:
Golden whistler, grey fantail, RW fairywrens, shy heath wren, fan-tailed
cuckoo, white-crowned babbler, little wattlebird, whitebreasted robin,
purple-crowned lorikeets, welcome swallow, fairy martin and the ubiquitous
New Holland honyeaters.
We also made a dash for Bremer Bay, Fitzgerald river National Park and
Hopetoun. Bremer Bay was crowded with people.... Hoetoun was much quieter
and there was good camping at the eastern edge of the FR National Park at
4-mile beach. This would be a good spot as a base camp for day-trips into
the NP and also for waders since there is a large area of accessible
sand-flats near the 4-mile beach inlet.
Frank - have you thought more about making web pages on such spots??
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Dr Shane Raidal BVSc PhD MACVSc (Avian Health)
Lecturer in Veterinary Pathology
School of Veterinary Studies
Murdoch University phone: +61 9 360 2418
Perth,WA, 6150 fax: +61 9 310 4144
Australia
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