Tim,
There is a Birds Australia WA Group pamphlet on birding sites around
Geraldton. You can contact the Perth office on 08 9383 7749 for details of
where it might be available in Geraldton. Try the tourist bureau. They
might post it to you in Geraldton??
If you are there for a few weeks, then it would be worthwhile getting a
tour to Kalbarri National Park about 2 hours north. The Murchison River
Bridge just north of the Kalbarri turnoff is worth a visit also. Birds
Australia have a Kalbarri pamphlet also. There may also be a pamphlet for
Greenough which is about 1/2 hour south of Geraldton, but you would need a
car to get to these areas.
You may be able to arrange a trip to the Abrolhos Islands on a weekend
(maybe the June 5-7 long weekend) to see Lesser Noddy and other seabirds.
Being winter, a boat trip might be a bit rough. I believe that there are
helicopter (and maybe seaplane?) tours to the Abrolhos. Ask at the
Geraldton tourist bureau.
As for Perth, one site fairly close to the airport is the Bayswater Bird
Sanctuary (Eric Singleton Reserve) at the river end of King William Street
off Guildford Road. This is probably only a 10 to 15 minute taxi ride from
the airport. You could organise for a taxi to pick you up again at a
specified time. You could easily spend 2 to 3 hours looking around this
reserve (depending on the weather!). There is a bird observation hide,
plus cycle tracks around the outside. You would see most of the south west
ducks, plus chances of Little Grassbird, Australasian Spotted or Spotless
Crake, a few raptors, etc. A scope can be useful but is not necessary.
Tomato Lake is not that far from the airport (maybe 15 to 20 minutes in a
taxi). I don't have a road map on me for better details. I think it is
roughly SE from the airport. You could spend 1 to 2 hours here. From
memory there isn't much shelter. Again, you would find a variety of
waterbirds.
The Botanic Gardens at Kings Park is further away (30 minutes). You have
chances here of Western Spinebill, Little Wattlebird, Short-billed
Black-Cockatoo, White-cheeked Honeyeater, etc. From Kings Park you could
walk back into the city (20 minutes), or take longer and walk around the
lakes at the Narrows Bridge interchange to the city (maybe 60 to 90
minutes).
If you wanted to see south west endemics, then you could go to Wungong
Gorge / Bungendore State Forest about 50 to 60 minutes away near Armadale.
See my notes on my web pages at :
http://www.iinet.net.au/~foconnor
However, this site is generally better early in the morning, especially on
a weekend as Wungong is a fairly popular picnic spot. You would need to
arrange for a taxi to pick you up again. You could easily spend 4 or more
hours at these sites. It is a fair walk uphill (20 minutes) from Wungong
to Bungendore.
All the best
Frank
To unsubscribe from this list, please send a message to
Include ONLY "unsubscribe birding-aus" in the message body (without the
quotes)
|
