Birding Rottnest Island

As usual, a Perth trip (nearly) always include a trip across the water out to Rottnest Island and in similar consistent fashion it never disappoint. Well to be absolutely honest, I would have been happy to finally bag a Rock Parrot, but following the usual logic it would be sad to deplete such a nice area and bring into question the need to visit it again. ;-)

I have seen Common Pheasant (top photo) in Australia before - at least 3 times - but every sighting have been brief and on Rottnest, this time I managed to get a photo which qualified for the blog. This introduced bird has, very much like the Mute Swan in Northam, only managed to establish a foothold in a few select places - all of them islands.

Another old Rottnest friend is the White-fronted Chat. Last time I managed to get a less than impressive photo of a WFT darting across the path, this time we were truly in for a treat with a little family of not less than 10 feeding at the salt lakes in the middle of the island.


The salt lakes are normally a fantastic bird spot, but this time - end of April - there was very little to see, apart from the White-fronted Chats we only managed to see a couple of other waders; Red-necked Avocet and Red-capped Plover above.

Guess there is a season for everything, no Banded Stilts at the salt lakes this time, but instead we were treated with a little Osprey family living in one of the gigantic nests placed on reefs just of the coast. Every year there are 2 to 4 Osprey families nesting around Rottnest, instead of starting from scratch they will reuse one of the up to 70 year old nest "towers" which through generations have grown to abnormal size. Those of you that know the size of an Osprey - 50 to 65cm - will be able to judge the magnitude of the construction in the photo above.


All good! Rottnest was firing on all cylinders. No new ticks, unless one of my tern-knowledgeable readers can create a bit of excitement by naming the tern in the picture below, I would not mind if someone told me that it was a Common Tern race hirundo? But if someone insist on it being a young-but-not-juvenile Antarctic Tern, then it would be very exciting! ;-) These were the bird, but I will return shortly with a underwater and probably a miscellaneous report.

Perth WA - Another Sneaky Long Weekend Escape

Back in Perth WA! The land of good walks, great nature and fantastic food :-) When first you get into the sneaky long weekend mood it is hard not to be tempted by the possibility of spending a long weekend around Perth in the western end of Australia. Only just having arrived back from far north Queensland we were off again, managing to clock up 5 days around Perth for the price of only 2 days of annual leave - that is a truly good value investment!

We took advantage of some family relations and managed to get ourselves signed up for a good solid walk. Aiming for Point Walter we were brought through some of the more picturesque parts of Perth. The fast walking and fast talking locals guides managed to tell an amazing collection of Perth stories while keeping a speed that made yours truly happy that I should just concentrate on listening. Maybe all the driving up in far north Queensland had made me lazy?

It all got very exciting at Point Walter! Despite of a high tide we decided to explore the sand spit reaching out into the river. Boots off and into the wild :-) What a great addition to the trip, being the first party to cross the water and get onto the sandy spit after the high tide, meant that we had excellent views of a good collection of WA waders and seabirds.


The bird above was a bit of excitement. First impression was that it had a shape and size similar to a Pacific Golden Plover, but nothing golden about it at all - rather grey instead. So if anyone out there can confirm that it looks like a Grey Plover, I will be very happy :-) There should be another photo in the Picasa album.



Funny how it is always the exciting bird that is shy? Black swan, Pied Oystercatcher and even Red-capped Plover were happily posing in front of the lens. Good stuff, the sand spit at Point walter is definitely worth a trip. My guess is that best time for a visit is just around high tide when the majority of the spit is isolated by the rising water.

The area along the river is in general a quite nice place! :-) You do not get the feeling of having all those other Perthians - 1,659,000 - crowding around you. Good place for watching a bit of real estate as well, unfortunately others seem to have taken an interest, so a water views will cost you $$$ ;-) Nothing beats a good walk - except maybe a good walk follow by good food. As is evident from the picture below we had nothing to complain about - a cauldron of deliciousness and we were fueled with energy for the days to come.