A week in South West Australia seeking skulkers!

Matt and i decided that we would go to South Australia to see if we could catch up with three impossible to see birds!
Noisy Scrub bird
Western Bristlebird
Western Whipbird

Matt had already left the obs so i flew down to Perth to meet him and joined up at Perry and Alma Reberia's to borrow their camper van and drive South down the Albany highway to Cheynes beach camp site.

Soon after settling in with a cup of tea at Cheynes Beach, we heard Noisy Scrub bird singing in the scrub not just on the other side of the camp sire boundary ! A quick dash and we could pin point where it was singing but could we see the bird??!! it took over half an hour before Matt caught a glimpse and another quarter hour before the bird in question hopped across the track into the low open branches of a young eucalyptus give reasonable views. Great one of the three under our belt within a couple of hours of arriving, the others must surely fall tomorrow!

Was i wrong! despite hearing many singing both bristlebird and whipbird remain invisible in the dense heathland and scrubby area. Chasing them didn't help they just moved low in the scrub to a new position and sang at us !

While waiting not all was lost, we saw Southern Emu Wren with incredibly long fluffy tails, Red Winged Fairy Wren, Spotted and Swamp Harrier, tons of White-Cheeked and New Holland Honeyeater, Purple-Crowned Lorikeet but not a flick of a wing of the target species!

Finally, after two days listening to scrub singing, we left and went to Little beach car park at Two Peoples Bay which is where Noisy Scrub bird was rediscovered after it was thought to be extinct in the late 1800's. We didn't see scrub bird here but we did manage to get Western Bristlebird after a struggle in rain and wind, one eventually obliged by half flying flopping across the road to the traffic island, sang on one side and flopped across to the scrub again. So that was that, we decided we wouldn't get better views and decided to give up on whipbird as the weather was deteriorating and we were due to drive up to Dryandra National Park which would be a good few hours away with a detour to see Western Corrella.

White-cheeked Honeyeater

Driving out of Cheynes Beach up onto the plateau, the scene is open heath with these strange Tree ferns/sedges?

Another stunning flower but no idea what it is yet !

Southern Bandicoot visited us in the campsite and showed no fear at all as it rooted through our rubbish and almost ran up my leg !

Another common marsupial, Western Grey Kangaroo where in the coastal heath and also around the campsites.

Arriving at Dryandra National Park, we camped at the official campsite and found we had parked up under a Brush tailed possum nest. Two climbed down the tree at dusk and wandered around us looking for food.

Another night creature came to visit, a Short-beaked Echidna, which as soon as approached either run away or roll up so you can't see a thing of them apart from spines !

These engaging birds were literally everywhere and a favorite of mine - Rufous Treecreeper, more like a Nuthatch in behaviour but they were quite happy foraging on the ground as well as on dead fallen tree trunks as well as upright trees.

This is the kind of forest that occurs at Dryandra, but there are also plantations of trees for tanin, but when the market fell out of tanin the plantations were just left to mature and now provide a reasonable habitat in the total forest area.

A fantastic flower in the forest, but again not identification.

From dryandra we drove back up to Perry and Alma to join then for an Australia Day BBQ with Elanor Rowley and a neighbour.

Had a great time food and drink what more could you want !

Alma tending the lamb chops !

Throw yet another shrimp on the Barbie !

Some more photos of wildlife

As I'm not a moth expert, i don't know the names of these moths but don't they look pretty ??!!

Lightning at night from the myhouse

Agile Wallaby from my house

White Gaped Honeyeater

Female Variagated Fairy Wren

Male Variegated Fairy Wren

Mangrove Gerygone

..and the tail feather with that clear white band which Dusky Gerygone don't have.

Frill Neck Lizard unfortunatley not showing its frills !

Yellow wagtail race simillima

Mangroves and Martins

The mangroves at Crab Creek have provide a few good birds over the months we have been carrying out the Constant effort Site there. One morning having seen only the one Kimberley Flycatcher at Entrance Point an adult and a juvenile turned up in the netting area and were instantly attracted to the tape by the net once turned on !

Kimberley Flycatcher a juvenile showing pale tips to the coverts and also moulting out the streaky juv plumage in the mantle and underparts.

Kimberley Flycatcher a beautifully subtle adult showing the olive grey mantle, restricted white in the outer web of the outer tail feathers. The bird was very worn and going through post breeding moult.

The Brown Honeyeater by its name is quite dull but they are beginning to attain breeding plumage and this lovely male has a silvery grey head and black gape line and spot behind the eye. Can you see its tongue? feathery at the tip to get the nectar from flowers.

Flowering Grey Mangrove Avicennia marina provides a good feed for honeyeaters and Yellow white eye and the insects attracted will keep the flycatchers, gerygone and fantails happy !


During December the Tree Martin roost in the mangroves increased to an estimate of 200,000 birds an incredible sight and many hundred Barn Swallow were involved too. This was too good an opportunity to miss and so we tried tape luring, but windy conditions really didn't help and we could have caught more in the van than in the nets !

Martins around the van

Tree Martin showing the pale off white rump.

Tree martin and adult showing the streaked throat and in need of moulting out its flight feathers !


a juvenile Tree Martin in active moult, presumable to return to breeding grounds in goo condition.

A by-catch while waiting for the martins to come in were a few brilliantly coloured Rainbow bee eater. This fresh juvenile was a real treat to be able to handle. It has no long central tail spike which adults have even if very worn.

Rainbow Bee eater

Cyclone weather photos and good birding

Tropical Cyclone Laurence narrowly missed Broome in December 2009, by passing about 150km North of Broome sweeping out to sea, gathering speed and heading down the coast and coming in some 250km south of Broome. Having seen the devastation it caused when it came back in, i think we were rather lucky to have been spared. There was major flooding events around the 80 Mile beach area, which considering the area has had little rain in the last few years, wasn't such a bad thing, except that over a 1000 cattle died in the floods, mainly from walking into the wind and out to sea and getting trapped in the mudbanks.

We had 150mm of rain over two days which was torrential at times and left the road closed with some major puddles ! 4 wheel driving skills came in again as we had to forge the long lakes of water on the road many knee deep often coming over the bonnet of the Landcruiser to get in and out of Broome.

Normally the sea off Broome is calm, however the rain and winds made for a choppy sea although looking at the photos now it looks nothing worse than a heavy sea in UK, ideal for a sea watch ! We did see a good number of Brown Booby, Bridled Tern (20), a Pomarine Jaeger (skua) and a Common Noddy.

Brown booby's sat on a rock.

and a close up of a Brown Booby

Entrance point early on the 21st December was a bit of a birding highlight. It was the first time i felt like i was at a top migration spot in UK anticipating a good find and we weren't disappointed. The first bird I looked at was a swiftlet!!!!!!!!!! Great excitement!! Small short winged swift with stiff wing beats. All dark brown above except for a narrow rump band and a dusky pale belly. Short tail square when closed but notch very noticeable when tail opened slightly. They are notoriously difficult to identify with the choice coming down between Black nest-swiftlet and Edible nest-swiftlet, the former being favorite on the narrow pale rump band and pale collar, and dusky belly. However, it will probably just have to go down as a swiftlet in the end. Never the less an exciting morning with back up birds including a beautiful male Crimson chat, a dozen White winged triller (mostly all males and normally in wooded bush) three Black honeyeater (2 male, 1 female) 3 Fork Tailed Swift, 50+ Rufous Throated Honeyeater and a host of Brown Honeyeater.

The next day we went back for more, but only found the chat, a few trillers, but also a bird we have not been able to get to grips with a Kimberley Flycatcher! normally found in the mangroves and reputed by locals to be 'everywhere' we had trouble finding them. They are in fact a sub-species/race of Lemon Bellied Flycatcher and you may note that they don't have a Lemon Belly which separates the



Kimberley Flycatcher an adult identified by the plain dull features with no blotching or tipping to greater or median coverts.

A shot of Entrance Point habitat. This place would be crawling with birders in the UK spring and autumn. Migrants are moving down teh coast and end up here as it a big rocky/sand dune outcrop where the land then turns west into Roebuck Bay. the birds reach the end of the land effectivley and have to re-orientate to find where to go next.

Male Crimson Chat

Male White Winged Triller