We went on another camping trip around the Pilbara and this time I used the mornings for birding. Our first stop was at Wittenoom (the place that got erased from the maps). Animals seen (day 1): Torresian Crow Galah Zebra Finch Brown Honeyeater Singing Honeyeater Mistletoebird Painted Finch Budgerigar Crested Pigeon Tawny Frogmouth Animals seen (day 2): Diamond Dove Peaceful Dove Rainbow Bee-eater Red-backed Kingfisher Budgerigar Austr. Ringneck Weebill Grey-headed Honeyeater White-plumed Honeyeater Rufous Whistler Grey Shrike-thrush Willie Wagtail Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike Star Finch Painted Finch Zebra Finch
Driving north of Karijini onto Mt Sheila got me my last species of Woodswallow to complete the set. Animals seen: Spinifex Pigeon Little Woodswallow Brown Falcon That night we camped next to a lake south of Millstream-Chichester NP. Animals seen (day 3): Black-fronted Dotterel Austr. Ringneck White-plumed Honeyeater Grey-crowned Babbler Animals seen (day 4): White-plumed Honeyeater Grey-crowned Babbler Purple-backed Fairy-wren Western Bowerbird Rufous Whistler Willie Wagtail Brown Honeyeater Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater Crested Pigeon Peaceful Dove Zebra Finch Whistling Kite Cockatiel White-necked Heron Austr. Woodduck
At another non-wildlife camping trip to Karijini NP I saw a lot of the above species again and added one new one to my list. On the way between Fortescue Falls to Fern Pool there was a colony of Flying-foxes hanging in a tree above the stream and fairy-wrens were easy to call up. Circular Pool was good for Bowerbirds. Also at the campground with Honeyeaters. I saw five Crimson Chats on the path running above/next to Dales Gorge. On the way back we saw a dingo. Animals seen (the ones I remember): Black Flying Fox Dingo Torresian Crow Galah Zebra Finch Singing Honeyeater Weebill White-plumed Honeyeater Grey-headed Honeyeater Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike Crimson Chat Western Bowerbird Purple-backed Fairy-wren Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater Peaceful Dove
While at work in PH: Animals seen: Australian Green Tree Frog Next up: Back to Perth and the south-west
So after a short stint back in Germany and an even shorter stint in the U.A.E. I’m back in south-west WA (since Friday). On Friday I got my rental car and drove down to Dryandra for another Barna Mia tour with a quick stop at a lake in the city to stretch my legs after the 11h flight (with several crying children in close proximity). Sadly no luck again with the WB Bandicoot Animals seen (at lake): Black Swan Australian Magpie Australasian Darter Rainbow Lorikeet Red Wattlebird Australian White Ibis Blue-billed Duck Willie Wagtail Australian Raven Animals seen (at Dryandra): Western Grey Kangaroo Common Brushtail Possum House Mouse
Saturday I went for a morning birding session along the Old Mill Dam track, where I got to add a couple species to my list. Animals seen: Austr. Wood-duck Austr. Ringneck Purple-crowned Lorikeet Rufous Treecreeper Silvereye Brown-headed Honeyeater Gilbert’s Honeyeater Purple-gaped Honeyeater Inland Thornbill Common Bronzewing Singing Honeyeater White-eared Honeyeater Yellow-plumed Honeyeater Red Wattlebird Western Whistler Grey Shrike-thrush Grey Fantail Scarlet Robin Barna Mia was another bust but at least everyone there knows me by now
Sunday I was supposed to go out on a pelagic from Fremantle but of course it got cancelled last minute (Sa evening) after we’d just gotten the go ahead the day before. Pelagics are so frustrating. And because I’d booked a hotel in Perth for the night I couldn’t really change my plans and go somewhere else anymore... So I decided to stay in Dryandra and do another session around the dam and then later around Lol Gray trail before driving to Perth and calling it a day. (I’d booked The Great Southern Hotel because of a $30 discount that came with my flight but parking was $15 extra and the internet so slow that it could barely load up pictures let alone YouTube videos ). Anyway, I got some sleep after barely having had any all week before. Animals seen (north-west corner): Yellow-rumped Thornbill Restless Flycatcher Animals seen (at dam): Austr. Wood-duck Austr.Ringneck Purple-crowned Lorikeet Animals seen (opposite side of the road): Brown Honeyeater Grey Currawong Red Wattlebird Laughing Kookaburra Animals seen (at Lol Gray trail): Gilbert’s Honeyeater Silvereye Varied Sittella White-browed Scrubwren Red-capped Parrot Elegant Parrot White-cheeked Honeyeater Yellow-plumed Honeyeater Blue-breasted Fairy-wren Western Spinebill
Monday after checking out I decided to have a look at King’s Park. Animals seen: Quenda Red Wattlebird White-cheeked Honeyeater Rainbow Lorikeet White Ibis Nankeen Kestrel I also went down to the waterfront and then another drive back to Barna Mia. Animals seen: Crested Tern Little Pied Cormorant Pacific Black Duck Austr. Darter Animals seen (on the drive): White-faced Heron Black-shouldered Kite Austr. Magpie Austr. Raven Blue-billed Duck On the way up to Barna Mia I had the usual roos and an early Woylie. Surprise, surprise: unsuccessful again. Animals seen: Western Grey Kangaroo Woylie House Mouse
After the tour I decided to do some night driving and head south to Mt Trio again. I got very lucky and had a Dunnart run across the road in front of my car Animals seen: Gilbert’s Dunnart At Mount Trio I added Tawny-crowned HE and the recently split Black-throated Whipbird to my list (got good views of the third one after only hearing two before). Animals seen: Western Rosella Tawny-crowned Honeyeater New Holland Honeyeater White-cheeked Honeyeater Western Spinebill Black-throated Whipbird White-browed Scrubwren Red Wattlebird On the drive to Stirling Range Retreat I interrupted a feeding frenzy. Animals seen: Austr. Raven Austr. Magpie Grey Currawong Grey Butcherbird
At the Retreat I got advice on where to look for the couple of birds left to find but couldn’t get onto any Western Gerygone. The other ones I postponed since I still had to drive to Cheynes. Animals seen: Dusky Woodswallow New Holland Honeyeater Red Wattlebird Red-capped Parrot Scarlet Robin Regent Parrot Weebill Western Shrike-tit Yellow-rumped Thornbill Austr. Ringneck Inland Thornbill Gilbert’s Honeyeater Brown Honeyeater Varied Sittella Rufous Whistler Striated Pardalote Austr. Wood-duck At Cheynes I only had time to look around the beach. Couldn’t find any Rock Parrots but had jumping and fin-slapping Humpbacks Animals seen: Humpback Whale White-bellied Sea-eagle Pacific Gull Sooty Oystercatcher White-breasted Robin New Holland Honeyeater Silver Gull I’ll see if I can get myself to look for Honeypossum tonight. Tomorrow I’ll try to hunt down the last of the three skulkers and then who can guess where I’ll be in the evening?
Ok, on we go: (Btw is anyone still reading this? I know I’ve been getting shorter and shorter with my posts but it feels like I’m just writing into empty space.) I did make myself go for a wander at night and picked up some heat signatures (did I mention that I’m the proud owner of a thermal imager now? ) which might have been Honey Possums but they always ran off before I could get onto them. So no Honey Possum pictures for @Chlidonias (yet). (I haven’t heard any guesses for what unrepresented species I got a picture of so can’t upload anymore anyway ) In the morning I headed out to the Heath area behind the Caravan park. The first Bristlebird I picked up gave some reasonable views and I would have been happy with that, but the second one seemed to have forgotten I was there (was stood there motionless for a while to be fair) and decided to call from the top of a Banksia not two metres away from me. Of course I hadn’t brought my camera... They are quite a bit smaller than the Rufous which I technically knew, but it’s still different to actually see it in person. I also saw the usual Honeyeaters and Swallows around as well as a couple White-breasted Robins (one seems to live in the little plants area right in front of the Caravan kiosk). A Noisy Scrub-bird dashed across the path in front of me but it wasn’t a great view, which I wasn’t too bothered about since we’d had about as good a sighting as you can get on my last visit. Back at the Caravan Park I found a Fan-tailed Cuckoo on one of the powerlines. Heading towards the whale watching rocks I picked up both species of fairy-wren (sadly both not in breeding plumage) on the way. At the water I had very close views of passing Humpbacks (no jumps this time) and some gulls. At the beach I saw a group of Crested Terns and two Sooty Oystercatchers. There was also Quails/Buttonquails there but I only saw backsides when they flushed out of their cover and into the closest bushes so not sure which. No Rock-parrots again. Animals seen: Western Grey Kangaroo Humpback Whale White-cheeked Honeyeater New Holland Honeyeater Western Bristlebird White-breasted Robin Noisy Scrub-bird Tawny-crowned Honeyeater Western Spinebill Welcome Swallow Fan-tailed Cuckoo Splendid Fairy-wren Red-winged Fairy-wren Pacific Gull Silver Gull Crested Tern Sooty Oystercatcher Then it was off to another 4h drive back to Dryandra. On the way I saw an Emu and when it was getting dark a Fox and a Brushtail Possum at Dryandra itself. Animals seen: Emu Red Fox Common Brushtail Possum I’ll leave it here as I have another 5h drive in front of me now. Next up: Barna Mia visit 8 or 9 (I’ve lost count)
How much did that cost, and is it any good (perhaps might be better to ask, has it been good value for money)?
I had to go with the cheapest option from Pulsar, because I’m not made out of money. I’ve only used it a couple times so don’t have a final verdict yet. It does help finding stuff (like at Cheynes) that you’d probably walk past on a normal night out. It has it’s limitations though f.e if the cover is too thick or trees against the night sky. The other day it picked up a fly from a couple of meters away. It helped me find the Bandicoot at Barna Mia so I guess I’ve gotten some value out of it My main problem with it is that it’s another gadget to carry around next to head torch, normal torch, binoculars, and camera and it’s becoming a bit of a juggling act. I ordered it online from a German shop.
Finishing up Wednesday: Back at Barna Mia I went out on the tour again. We were already joking that I could hold the tours myself now. Again no hide or hair of the Bandicoot. Our guide tried to stretch it out as long as she could but as usual we saw everything but. When she took the group back I was allowed to stay in again. I made my way back to the second feeding station in Barna Mia 2 and couldn’t believe when the thermal picked up the shape of something small and Bandicoot-shaped off in the bushes in the back. (To be honest I was starting to think that they had them on paper only.) I got decent views and was trying to sneak closer for pictures when a Woylie decided that it wasn’t getting enough attention and chased the Bandicoot of into some underbrush. I could tell it was still there but there was no getting pictures while it was hiding and I have no clue how the few that I managed before turned out. Oh well. Maybe I’ll go back sometime in the distant future to try again, but I won’t have time on this trip and I think I’ve been stuck there long enough for now. And I also wanna say a big thank you to all the staff there (who will probably never read this) who’ve gone above and beyond helping me find the damn thing. Animals seen (finally): Marl Boodie Woylie Quenda Mala Dalgite Common Brushtail Possum
On Thursday I went back to Perth as I was meeting a fellow mammal-watcher (R.) there in the evening (he was the one who’d told me where to find the Western Ringtails). But first I joined a Birdlife WA group on a walk around Little Rush Lake in the morning, where I finally found my Western Gerygone and Western Wattlebird. Annoyingly I missed out on Reed-warbler and Sparrowhawk which were seen by some of the others. Animals seen: Spotted Turtle-dove Western Wattlebird Western Gerygone Australian Shelduck Pacific Black Duck Black Swan White-faced Heron Musk Duck White-browed Scrubwren Galah Rainbow Lorikeet Australian Raven Weebill Spotted Pardalote Rufous Whistler Grey Fantail Splendid Fairy-wren Laughing Dove Australian White Ibis Silvereye Grey Teal Eurasian Coot Dusky Moorhen Magpie-lark Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike Red Wattlebird Long-billed Corella Fan-tailed Cuckoo New Holland Honeyeater Red-capped Parrot Straw-necked Ibis Great Cormorant After I went with two of the others to Bibra Lake which is close by and we added a couple more species to the days list. Animals seen: Quenda Australian Grebe Australian Shelduck Splendid Fairy-wren Musk Duck Singing Honeyeater Grey Dantail New Holland Honeyeater Red-tailed Black Cockatoo Purple Swamphen Pacific Black Duck Australian Magpie Australian Raven Rainbow Lorikeet Grey Butcherbird Willie Wagtail Laughing Kookaburra Australian White Ibis Eurasian Coot Red Wattlebird Blue-billed Duck Hoary-headed Grebe Magpie-lark Australian Shoveler Black Swan Silver Gull Australian Woodduck Grey Teal Galah Because of the rain in the evening R. and I decided to go look for some frogs. We only found three individuals of the same species. He also brought some mammal guides so I could confirm my Gilbert’s Dunnart ID from earlier. Animals seen: Quacking Frog Next up: My favourite marsupial so far (any guesses?)
Friday I drove out to Narembeen to visit Wadderin Sanctuary and see their Banded Hare-wallabies. On the way I passed by a lake full of Banded Stilts. The Sanctuary has two fenced off areas: one just for the Hare-wallabies and another one for everything else plus a couple Hare-wallabies in there too. I got a couple glimpses of the animals in the smaller enclosure before it got dark. Then we had a look at Red-tailed Phascogales in their nestboxes (sightings should pretty much be guaranteed here) and Woylies and Quendas in the bigger enclosure before moving back to the other enclosure to try and get some pictures. We got a couple of very good shots.* On the way out we disturbed a Southern Boobook that was sitting in the middle of the dirt road. So mystery solved: new favourite marsupial is Banded Hare-wallaby. Animals seen: Mernine Red-tailed Phascogale Quenda Woylie Southern Boobook Banded Stilt —————————— *In saying that, I’m having a bit of a scare at the moment because when I tried to retrieve and copy all the pictures from the camera earlier everything but the Honey Possum pictures seems to have disappeared (Barred Bandicoot, Banded Hare-wallaby, Phascogale, Black-footed Rock-wallaby, as well as my zoo-visits to the Netherlands and U.A.E.). Which would be an absolute disaster because I don’t have the time to try again.
On Saturday I got up early and drove out to Mt Caroline which is about an 1h away to go looking for Rock-wallabies. You have to trek through a bit of forest but once you get there they are easy to see because they are everywhere. In normal Rock-wallaby fashion they don’t let you get too close but they weren’t overly skittish either. There was also a couple of Common Wallaroos around. Birdwise the place wasn’t too exciting but I think I saw three species of Thornbill (not 100% sure about Inland). There was also some Bronzewings and Corellas around but couldn’t get close enough to ID them. IDing the Cuckatoos around here is super annoying anyway since you have to get close enough to see half a centimetre difference in bill length (both with the Corellas and Black Cockatoos ). Animals seen: Warru Euro Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater Chestnut-rumped Thornbill Yellow-rumped Thornbill Grey Fantail Pied Butcherbird Austr. Ringneck Yellow-throated Miner After I had a quick afternoon nap in my car before I drove to Merredin to chase another bird. Of course after running around for an hour I found it back at the car park where I’d started... Animals seen: Redthroat Galah Red-tailed Black Cockatoo Crested Pigeon
