South West Australia, South of Perth
Trip Report, 25.9.97 to 3.10.99
In a short trip south of Perth, WA, Stuart White and Rod Gardner saw all
the endemics and near-endemics bar the big three at Two People's Bay (Noisy
Scrub-bird, Western Bristlebird and Western Whipbird). Frank O'Connor's
webpage was invaluable in planning the trip, and he also accompanied us for
a day around Dryandra State Forest. We weren't trying for a big list, but
to see as many of the south-western specialities as possible. In the end we
managed to see about 125 species. Check Frank's webpage for details of how
to get to these sites:
http://www.iinet.net.au/~foconnor/
25th September - Wungong Gorge and Bungendore Forest
These are the best sites close to Perth for bush birds (an easy drive from
the centre to the south west along the Albany Highway). In our first hour
at Wungong Gorge, we picked up seven of the WA endemics, something of a
dream start. On the road into the gorge, two Red-capped Parrots flew across
the road,, their yellow rumps a giveaway. At the gorge itself, we had
hardly left the car park when a fairy wren call caught our attention, and
we were quickly on to three Red-winged Fairy-wrens, a male and two females.
In trying to squeak these closer, we also attracted a male Western
Spinebill.
We left these birds and within metres found a Western Rosella, the smallest
and cutest of the platycercus. Within another hundred metres, after
Splendid Fairy Wren and Scarlet Robin, we found a White-breasted Robin,
exactly where Frank had predicted it would be. After this, things slowed
down, as it took us about fifteen minutes before we latched on to two
Red-eared Firetails, the only ones of the trip, again where predicted by
Frank. Walking back to the car park, we got our first black cockatoos with
white in the tail flying over, which on call, we later established, were
Long-billed Black Cockatoos.
Next stop was the drier Bungendore Forest, were birding was, inevitably,
slower. This site is a few kilometres from Wungong. In a walk of a couple
of hours, however, we picked up Western Thornbill (several), but failed to
connect with Western Yellow Robin or Rufous Treecreeper. However, a party
of three Red-tailed Black Cockatoos was impressive, and 'Black-capped
Sitella' a good, distinctive subspecies, with the black cap and unstreaked
breast. Western Swamp Wallaby was the first of several great mammal
sightings.
26th September - Rottnest Island
Stuart went his own, non-birding way on this day, whilst Rod went to
Rottnest Island to pick up a couple of 'shame' ticks. A single Wedge-tailed
Shearwater was the only seabird of note during the crossing, and withing
minutes of landing, I had Indian Peafowl and Common Pheasant. It seems
totally weird that these birds count as much on the national list as, let's
say, a Sooty Albatross, or a Noisy Scrub-bird. Might as well mention
another shame tick that we'd picked up easily, Laughing Dove.
Back to real birds, at the wetlands there were White-fronted Chats, and a
small selection of waders, best of which were about 50 Banded Stilts. On a
cycle around the island, two pairs of Fairy Terns were seen patrolling the
rocky coastline, and towards evening the Quokkas came out, whilst an Osprey
sailed above the island.
27th September - Cape Naturaliste
Stuart managed a short sea watch on a very windy day at the cape, the wind
was coming from the east at near gale force. Though limited time, visibility
(due to heavy showers) and only binoculars produced only 3 Shy Albatross, 1
Great Winged Petrel, 100+ Wedge Tailed Shearwaters. I am sure there were
other more interesting birds out there! The best bird seen though was a
superb male Orange Chat seen perching low on the ground trying to keep out
of the wind. This record is unusual as it is 400km away from the usual range
for this species.
28th September - North Mole, Fremantle
In the middle of several days of work for Rod, he grabbed a couple of hours
on the Tuesday to do a seawatch at the North Mole. This was disappointing,
as weather conditions were not good, with a light offshore wind, but a
Banded Lapwing on wasteground on the way out to the mole was some
compensation. They are apparently regular here.
30th September - Dryandra State Forest
On the Thursday we met up again, and with Frank O'Connor, to look around
Dryandra. Frank was a great help in tracking down some of the less easy
birds and the mammals. We saw a good range of birds of the drier woodlands,
most notable of which were plentiful Rufous Treecreepers, but a pair of
Western Yellow Robins took more searching, as did a small party of
Blue-breasted Fairy Wrens. Other good birds included Purple-crowned
Lorikeets, White-winged Triller and Elegant Parrot. But at least as good as
the birds were a Woylie (Brush-tailed Bettong), flushed from its daytime
hiding place, and bounding off like a joint creation of God and George
Lucas. A little later, and even better, was a Numbat, out in the open for
several minutes foraging around on the forest floor. As we were leaving the
forest, and Echidna crossed the track.
1st October - Albany and Two People's Bay
We returned with Frank to Perth to pick up a hire car, and set off in the
evening on the four hour drive to Albany, where we stayed overnight. The
next morning we set off for the legendary Two People's Bay, passing some
wetlands on the way, which had a good selection of waders, including
Whimbrel, Eastern Curlew, Marsh Sandpiper, Pacific Golden Plover, Common
Sandpiper, Grey-tailed Tattler and a Grey Plover.
Two People's Bay itself is stunningly beautiful, and worth a visit for that
alone. For the three special birds, though, it was predictably frustrating.
We managed to hear one Western Bristlebird at the Little Beach car park,
but by that time of day there were dudes milling around being noisy, so not
much joy there. We didn't even hear Western Whipbird or Noisy Scrub-bird,
the latter in full denial of its name. It was already the end of the
breeding season, which perhaps explains their silence, and a visit in July
or August might be a better bet. Also turning up for a day in the hope of
seeing them doesn't do justice to their specialness. These are birds that
need several days of tracking down. Originally Rod had planned not to visit
Two People's Bay, thinking of a special, focused week's trip to the area
just to concentrate on these three. In retrospect, that would have been a
good decision - except the area is stunningly beautiful. But unlike the
rest of the endemics/near endemics, these birds are most definitely not
easy.
1st October - Lake Muir
In the afternoon, we headed west towards Augusta, not via the reputedly
beautiful south coast road, but along the inland road via Mount Baker and
Manjimup. There is a good site for Western Corella near Lake Muir, between
these two townships. We looked for Hannekamp Road, where they were supposed
to be, and couldn't find it, so tried Thompson's Road, on the west side of
Lake Muir, running south from the highway. This turned out to be a good
decision, as there were flocks of Western Corellas feeding in the paddocks
between the lake and the road. We also saw Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, a
Banded Lapwing with two chicks, and at a little swamp by the road a female
Blue-billed Duck and three Yellow-billed Spoonbills.
We stayed the night at Augusta, near the south-west tip of Australia.
2nd October - Cape Leeuwin to Cape Naturaliste
The next morning we headed out to Cape Leeuwin, seeing Long-billed Black
Cockatoos on the way (about our sixth sighting), and Pacific Gulls, Sooty
Oystercatchers and Eastern Reef Egret along the rocky coast.
The day was, unfortunately, another fine one, too fine for a good seawatch,
but a flock of six Rock Parrots in the grounds of the lighthouse was good
value, with great views of the tame birds through a scope.
The seawatch, in what must be one of Australia's best sites on the right
day, produced only distant views of Shy Albatross, Yellow-nosed Albatross,
Flesh-footed Shearwaters, Caspian Terns and Australasian Gannets. We've
been spoilt for seabirds over the past few months.
Later in the morning we headed north towards Margaret River and Cape
Naturaliste. Not far along the road, we finally caught up with the last of
our targetted endemics, a flock of Short-billed Black Cocaktoos in a
paddock. They are not dead easy to separate from the Long-bills, so we
spent about fifteen minutes making sure of our ID, through the scope. One
point that struck us, apart from the less pointed upper mandible, was that
the lower mandible looked incredibly deep.
A little further on we had views of the local, coastal subspecies of Inland
Thornbill, which apparently may be split. It is more heavily streaked on
the underparts. I'd like to propose the name 'Coastal Inland Thornbill' if
it is split.
At Cape Naturaliste in the afternoon, some Humpback Whales were performing
well, with breaches, flipper slapping and lobtailing. Sugarloaf Rock failed
to come up with the hoped-for Red-tailed Tropicbirds.
That evening Stuart headed back to Perth, leaving Rod for one more day at
Cape Naturaliste.
3rd October - Cape Naturaliste
Rod headed out to the Cape and Sugarloaf Rock in the morning. Nothing
special was seen at Cape Naturaliste, with another disappointing seawatch
in calm conditions with a light northeasterly wind, and very similar birds
to Cape Leeuwin. However, in a third visit to Sugarloaf, two superb
Red-tailed Tropicbirds, perhaps the bird of the trip, put in a nice
performance, one of them bathing in the water close to the rock, then both
rising above the rock to circle and show off their tails, before one set
off out to sea. This was at 10.30 to 11 in the morning.
A final twitch of the trip was for the fourth scrunge-tick, a two hour
drive out to Northam, to the east of Perth for a Mute Swan. I'm not quite
sure why I'm admitting this.
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