A small group of us went early this morning (Wednesday 19th Dec) to Thomson's
Lake following Frank O'Connor's email to the BirdsWA list. Alan Collins was
kind enough to give me very good directions.
We saw absolutely cracking views of Baillon's Crakes, Spotted Crakes, Spotless
Crakes and Buff-banded Rail all together. Often you would have three of the
four species in your binocular vision at one time. All of the different crakes
were plentiful, very busy feeding and happy to tolerate us as we stood quietly,
with the sun rising on our backs and had the pleasure of watching them at close
quarters in wonderful light.
I am not sure how Alan managed a count as it would seem an impossible task to
me under the circumstances but at one time I am confident that there would have
been no less than 10 spotless, 15 Baillon's, 6 Spotted, 3 Buff-banded and a
Native-Hen in view. The Buff-banded were the shyest. We were mainly there to
see the crakes and were short of time but without trying we also saw:
White-necked Heron,
White Faced Heron
Black Swan,
Black Duck,
Shelduck,
Great Egret,
Coot,
Moorhen
Gallinule
Swamp Harrier,
Greenshank
Pelicans,
Black-Winged Stilts
I am sure I have missed some as well but I send this mainly incase anyone else
in or around Perth wants to take this opportunity to see the crakes so well and
easily. The water level is dropping fast and I imagine this situation will
only exist for a couple of more days before they are forced to move on.
>>> Frank O'Connor <> 18/12/07 9:13 >>>
Alan Collins was at Thomsons Lake on Monday 17th and recorded the following.
These are the sort of numbers that I remember seeing in the late 1980s and very
early 1990s before the lake flooded in February one year, and then the typha
died off.
From: "Alan and Julie" <>
To: "Frank O'Connor" <>
Subject: Thomsons Lake 17th December
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:47:55 +0900
Please find below the sightings for today (17th) at Thomsons Lake, I've never
seen such a concentration of crakes and I'm sure my count is a serious
underestimate of the real number of birds present.
Count: 41+ Baillon's Crakes
32+ Spotted Crakes
23+ Spotless Crakes
4+ Buff-banded Rail
1 (poss 2) Black-tailed Native-Hen
45 White-necked Heron
Best Wishes
Alan Collins
_________________________________________________________________
Frank O'Connor Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au
Phone : (08) 9386 5694 Email :
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