SW WA Inland Forest - Shannon National Park Area

Still a bit behind with the blog, but I have had a few weeks of holiday and a fair bit of photo selection and editing has been going on. So once again, I will dare to say that there should be more (old) news arriving at these pages fairly soon. I will look into the possibility of being much more ruthless and cut closer to the bone when publishing my ramblings, so who knows, I might catch up at some point in the next few years. Inland the south western corner of WA is not too shabby either! Great rain fall and protected from the wind, it feels like you can grow anything there in great volumes. We had some close encounters with a wonderful tightly packed walnut tree full of fresh nuts. Very different in taste from the dried version, which I have consumed during long dark Christmas nights in Denmark - A little search on the internet reveals that it should be fairly simple to grow a walnut tree in Denmark ... slightly harder to make it bear fruit, but probably worth a try(?) Going into winter is not the optimal time for birding the inland forest of SW WA. However, trees are much more reliable than the feathered inhabits and of all places, this probably the best place to see many of the hugely impressive eucalyptus species at their finest, in particular the Karri, Eucalyptus diversicolor, native to the area. A few birds were around though and they seemed fairly relaxed about my presence. I am particular happy with the bird in flight shot of the (White-tailed) Black-Cockatoo and the close up of the Scarlet Robin.

South-West of Western Australia - All The Rest - Wildlife

I have never been to WA without seeing a snake. After dipping on Rottnest I was getting afraid that this trip would end that record streak, however that scare only lasted until the little cutie above crossed our path - literally! :-) Western Crowned Snake Elapognathus coronatus, good tick I have never seen that one before. There is a great blog entry about the WCS here.

The coastal woodlands down south of WA proved excellent habitat for spotting reptiles. Despite only using little time we also managed to bag another Shingleback Tiliqua rugosa or as the locals call it "bobtail".

Our time down south was running out, it had been absolutely fantastic to see this very different end of Australia. Before heading home to Perth we still had half a day so why not make something of it? We started very very early in the morning with a walk into the Shannon National Park just around the corner from our base.

Great stuff, getting out of bed just before sunrise is very rewarding, just as the sun hit the 50-70m high trees a flock of parrots came flying in. I once again have to thank the Bigma for helping to identify a leaf colored, less than 20cm long bird, jumping around approximately 60m up in some equally leafy colored trees - giving me the 10th tick of the trip ... and probably little G.'s 25th.
Purple-crowned Lorikeet

Frogs are hard to see, I have seen many more snakes during my time in Australia than frogs. Dad spotted the one above, it had just started raining and it had probably decided to use the moist conditions to see if it could find a new home. Super colors and great camouflage my best guess is that it is a so-called Motorbike Frog Litoria moorei. Trying to identify it I stumbled upon this FrogWatch homepage, which is fantastically well made and if you follow the link you can even hear why the little friend above is called a Motorbike Frog :-)

All done! Time to leave for Perth and give the (wild) sheep some tranquility. Lots of fantastic nature down in the south west corner of WA, very different from other parts of Australia that I have visited. Unfortunately we did not see all of it so I am afraid I will have to go again .. ;-)