AUSTRALIA: WESTERN AUSTRALIA, Perth to Pemberton

Oct 2: The main part of our Australian birding tour ended in the wee hours of the morning, when we said good-bye to Lisa, Janis and Vicki, and boarded a plane in Darwin to fly to Perth, to begin our tour extension in the western part of the country.

Herdsman Lake

After a brief, two-hour flight, we arrived in Perth, collected our baggage along with packed lunches, and headed a short distance into the northern suburbs to Herdsman Lake Wildlife Center. Outside the nature center was a lovely coastal dune lake surrounded by cattails and stands of Melaleuca.  It provided a lovely setting to enjoy our picnic lunches, and we were not deterred by signs warning of Tiger Snakes!

Being birders, we had sandwiches in one hand, and binoculars in the other, so we wouldn’t miss any avian activity over lunch.  We observed eight species of ducks, including new Australian Shelduck, Australasian Shoveler and Blue-billed Duck, a member of the stiff-tails and closely related to Ruddy Duck.  We had already been aquatinted with Pacific Black Duck and Eurasian Coot  and now got closer views of Grey Teal and Hardhead.  There was one more stiff-tail, the perculiar looking Musk Duck, with a leathery chin lobe. It was fascinating to watch the courting behavior of Great Crested Grebes, where the mates faced each other with necks erect, and shook their heads in unison.  A pair of Black Swans rounded-out our waterfowl list.  We were delighted to come face-to-face with a Yellow-billed Spoonbill resting on the railing of the boardwalk trail.

Continuing south down the coastal road, Barry pulled the van over to the side of the road to show us a stand of Kangaroo Paws, a gorgeous native perennial found in the south-western part of Western Australia.

We next visited Coodanup Foreshore Reserve, on the shore of Peel Inlet, near Mandurah.  There, we found a large group of Red-capped Plovers on wet, muddy patches, as well as a handful of Common Greenshanks feeding in a small shallow pond.  Barry gave us a wonderful surprise, showing us a Tawny Frogmouth roosting in a friend’s garden. It’s amazing that such a large bird can perch comfortably out in the open, and blend in perfectly, eluding detection!

We had embarked on one of our longest drives of the trip, heading southeast to Pemberton. We passed through coastal woodlands of melaleuca and eucalyptus, which changed to expanses of Marri eucalyptus interspersed with taller Karri forests, as we neared Pemberton. In contrast to the Northern Territory, this landscape was a lot greener!

We drove through Donnybrook, 200 kms south of Perth, home of the Granny Smith apple, and center of apple production in Western Australia.  Around this time, Barry spotted a Square-tailed Kite circling above the road. We stopped to watch the raptor overhead, as well as a Red Wattlebird in someone’s garden.

Finally we arrived in Pemberton, and checked into the Gloucester Motel for the evening.  We looked forward to exploring this new part of the country and adding additional species to our ever-growing list of Australian birds.
all photos © adrian binns