Saturday 11th October
After much deliberation, we had decided to return to the south-west, in the
hope that the weather might have improved. On the way down to Geraldton we
made a number of stops. Bird highlights were a male Red-capped Robin by a
parking area north of the Murchison River, White-browed Babblers opposite
the
Billabong Roadhouse and 6 Crimson Chats north of the Billabong Roadhouse.
Little Crows were common between Carnarvon and Shark Bay. We stayed
overnight at the Top Tourist Tourist Park to the north of Geraldton. In the
grounds we found a large party of Variegated Fairy-wrens.
Sunday 12th October
Our intention was to spend the night at Mullewa and make a trip towards
Yalgoo and back the next day. We got to Mullewa mid-morning (seeing 2 Mulga
Parrots between Geraldton and Mullewa) and stopped briefly at Pindar Common
just east of Mullewa. We hit a major problem - hordes of grasshoppers or
locusts flying around. The radiator grille of our van was filling up with
them quickly and our windshield was getting messier by the minute. There
were a few birds around where we stopped - Grey Shrike-thrush, White-winged
Fairy-wren, Inland & Yellow-rumped Thornbills and Crested Bellbird - but it
was no fun being bombarded by the insects! We decided to head back towards
Mullewa. Just east of the town we saw Spotted Harrier and a male Red-capped
Robin.
We stopped for lunch at Wilroy Common, south-east of Mullewa. Here I
followed an unfamiliar call and found at least 4 White-fronted Honeyeaters*
feeding on flowering bushes - the 32nd honeyeater species of the trip.
We spent the night at the council caravan park at Carnamah. The weather was
deteriorating again - rain was back!
Monday 13th October
We spent the day driving from Carnamah to Busselton, so birding was limited
to what we saw along the road. The best bird was Western Corella* - at least
2
were among Little Corellas between Carnamah and Moora. When we got to
Busselton we checked in at the Mandalay Tourist Park (a superb site where we
spent the next four nights).
Tuesday 14th October
The weather was showery so we drove down to Cape Leeuwin. As I walked along
the eastern side of the cape I managed to flush two Rock Parrots*, almost
treading on one! There were several Flesh-footed Shearwaters offshore. On
the way back north we stopped at Cowaramup Bay, to look for Red-eared
Firetails - no luck here.
Wednesday 15th October
We spent the morning on a whale-watching trip from Busselton. Not far out,
Flesh-footed Shearwaters and Yellow-nosed Albatrosses found us. For most of
the trip they were around the boat and gave great views in flight and on the
water. The small albatross group included one adult. We had fabulous views
of Humpback Whales around the boat, breaching and showing their tail flukes.
The icing on the cake was a sighting of 4 Blue Whales - luckily they stuck
around and didn't motor off. Wonderful!
After lunch we checked the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse Museum area for
Red-eared Firetails. The omens were not good since one of the guides told us
he hadn't seen any for a few weeks. We didn't find any. Later we went to
Sugarloaf Rock, where
we had a measly view of a Red-billed Tropicbird*! We had a pleasant time,
though, chatting to a couple of Canadian birders.
Thursday 16th October
We went back to Cowaramup Bay, to look for Red-eared
Firetails - again, no luck here. We went to Sugarloaf Rock again in the hope
we'd get better views of Red-tailed Tropicbirds - and we did, within
minutes. We watched two birds for some time then another joined them. They
were fabulous birds - the red tail wasn't easy to pick out. Two Humpback
Whales - a female and her calf - were close inshore.
After lunch I plucked up the courage to take the van down a rough track just
before the car park at Cape Naturaliste (mentioned by Frank O'Connor on his
web site). At the end we parked at a rough car park and I scanned the scrub
for Emu-wrens. I could hear at least two calling very close but couldn't see
them. I walked a few yards down a side track and had the good luck to see a
male Southern Emu-wren* pop out of cover briefly - handsome he was. We had a
scary moment driving out as the rear wheels of the van kept spinning as we
tried to go up a slope. Luckily we got traction and managed to get back to
the tarmac OK!
We checked around the lighthouse museum again and walked some tracks but
failed to find any Red-eared Firetails.
Friday 17th October
It was another wet morning as we left our caravan park for the last time. On
the way north we saw a good variety of water birds along the Vasse Estuary,
including 2 Red-necked Avocets but we had no luck with Banded Stilts. We
checked for the latter at Peel Street, Coddanup but the tide was
unfavourable and the weather was miserable. We checked in at Woodman Point
Tourist Park, Freemantle for the last two night of the trip.
Saturday 18th October
The weather was fine so we made the decision to visit Rottnest Island. A
courtesy bus picked us up from the Tourist Park and we landed at Rottnest by
10.45. We spent most
of our time on the island walking around. Governor's House Lake proved to be
one of the best spots. Here birds included Red-necked Stint, Banded Stilt*
(hundreds), Banded Lapwing (the only birds we saw on the trip) and, at long
last, White-fronted Chat* (we saw two more on our walks). Near the tennis
courts we saw 2 Rock Parrots flying around and Sacred Kingfishers were
plentiful. Mammal highlight was the Quokka - we saw at least 7 of these tiny
wallabies. To our surprise, we hadn't seen a venomous snake all trip - until
we saw a Dugite crossing the road!
Sunday 19th October
Our last day in Australia. After a short visit to the river front in Perth,
we returned our van late morning and headed for the airport. The last bird
we saw was, perhaps fittingly, an Australia Pratincole as our plan taxied
out for takeoff. On to Kuala Lumpur and then home!
It had been a wonderful trip - great birds, fabulous scenery and some of the
friendliest people you could hope to meet. It was certainly great fun being
part of the travelling community. One of the drawbacks to hiring a van was
that it was impossible to get to some of the more out of the way places -
try going down a corrugated road in one (the reason we didn't try for
White-throated Grasswren at Gunlom Falls)!
On the bird front there were some disappointments - the biggest being Hooded
Parrot, Budgerigar, Red-backed Kingfisher (I think back to the day at the
Alice Springs Desert Park!), Southern Scrub-Robin, Dusky Grasswren,
Redthroat, Pictorella Mannikin and Red-eared Firetail. I just don't know how
we missed some of them. Perhaps another time
and place! The total trip list was 312, of which 119 were lifers. We also
saw
lots of good mammals, reptiles and wild flowers.
Our thanks to Frank O'Connor for his splendid website - we relied on it
heavily in WA.
Rob
Robert Grimmond
Kent, UK
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
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