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

Night time ringing

At an undisclosed site somewhere in the vacinity of Broome, we decided to try to catch the snipe that have been lurking between there and the sewage works !

A motly crew gathered to put nets up around a small sludgy pool and waited for dusk.




In the mean time the Masked lapwings threw themselves in the nets depsite being clear as day, perhaps they have bad eye sight ??!!



However as night fell, a Little curlew; one of the few left in Broome as ther rest have headed out to the plains after the rains, was taken out of a net and duly fitted with a metal band and an engraved yellow flag, signifying that it was part of the NW Australian Wader study group project.

The biggest surprise of the night went to the Buff Breasted Rail, three of which were dazzled and caught a hand net. No one had any idea that they occurred there and so it was a nice surprise ! especially as they are such beautiful birds and not much data has been collected on them for the Kimberley area.

Ah, one of the species we were trying to ring. There are potentially three species of snipe that can occur in Oz all of which are extremely difficult to identify unless you have them in the hand or have close detailed views. This snipe turned out to be Swinhoe's Snipe, the commonest of the three and most likely to occur. The other two are Pin-tailed and Latham's snipe neither of which we caught ! All three are migrants to Australia and will return to Arctic/ Boreal Russia / East Japanese breeding grounds. the tail pattern is diagnostic between the species.







A nice surpise also was a Pectoral Sandpiper which had been seen a few days earlier as again, not many have been ringed in the NW Australia.

The photo below shows the distinctly mottled breast which cuts off so distinctly giving way to the white belly and underparts.

I think the biggest surprise was supplied by this small wader, a Little Stint ! Given away by an odd moult taking pace in the primaries, which Red-necked Stint shouldn't be doing at that time of year. Also the 1st primary pattern was good for Little stint.

Aerial shots from Broome to Perth

Take off at Broome airport

Just off the ground


Roebuck Bay, part of it at least


Dampier Creek that runs behind China Town, Broome

Clouds over teh Great Sandy Desert

Clay pans in a sea of regulated land divides

You think our land scape is bad but this is so regulated! Just like the middle of England I suppose after the 18th Centuray Enclosure Act

There is some water here, but mostly in dams the further South you travel down teh Western side of Oz. The North West is supploed by under ground aquifers and although may appear very dry above ground, below its a different story, with vast stores of water.

Arrival at Perth and i managed to catch this image of a Ray of light shining up from the Perth Central Business District ! OK it was a reflection on the window !!

Cuckoo bonanza!

Just after the cyclone there seemed to be a lot of cuckoos around probably a response by the birds moving out of the way of the worst of the weather. Up to 50 Horsfield's bronze cuckoo were reported at the recreation grounds in Broome and there were several Black eared cuckoo, Little bronze cuckoo and Brush cuckoo around the general area s well.

One morning at the observatory, we decided to do some mist netting and to try to lure some cuckoos in by playing recordings of thier songs underneath the nets.

It worked very well and we were soon we were changing the recordings from one species to the next. Unfortunatley the only species that didn't respond was Little bronze cuckoo but they are still around so chances are on for another day!

This is an immature Brush cuckoo , they have this incredible manic call which rises and is incessant !

The next species to come to the tape was an immature and an adult Horsefield's bronze cuckoo
Note the immature has no dullgrey eye and the adult with a darker reddish brown eye. Also the adult has strong barring on teh underparts whereas the immature does not.

Immature Horsefiled's bronze cuckoo above, below An adult with nice chestnut outer tail feathers.

Finally came the Black eared cuckoo again immatures although there was a slendid adult around we didn't ring it.

Although we didn't ring them we also saw Pallid cuckoo at several places, and Oriental cuckoo at the sewage works and at One Tree, and while we were ringing a Channel billed cuckoo went by honking chased by a Torresian crow one of its preferred species to target.

Oriental cuckoo above

Little bronze cuckoo female above and male below note red eye ring and open face pattern. This male was collecting food and feeding the female.

An very immature Pallid cucko