Sunday, 23 February 2020
Sunday, 5 January 2020
Herdsman Lake 5th Jan 2020: Hunt for the Little Bittern
News had filtered out that a pair of Australian Little Bitterns (Black-backed Bittern) had bred at Herdsman Lake. Whilst the species isn't rare, it is usually very difficult to see due to it's secretive nature amongst it's favoured dense vegetation. I drove down to the lake and arrived at 5:15am and began searching for the bird. I had a rough idea where to look but in the semi-darkness it was no easy task. After about 45 minutes, I spotted some movement in the typha (reeds) and sure enough a juvenile Little Bittern came creeping out. It stood looking at the open water for about 5 minutes and then decided it wasn't in the mood for fishing and promptly disappeared back into the vegetation and didn't come out again (well at least for the further hour I waited there).
Having seen the target species, I decided to spend a bit more time birding to southern end of the lake and was rewarded with excellent views of both Freckled Duck and Nankeen Night-heron.
My ebird list
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| Australian Little Bittern |
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| Freckled Duck |
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| Nankeen Night-heron |
My ebird list
Saturday, 4 January 2020
Wearne Road 4th Jan 2020
Having had a tip off from Robyn Pickering yesterday that a couple of species of nomadic honeyeaters were present at Wearne road, I decided to pay it an early morning visit. It's about an hour and a half's drive from my house so an early start was in order and I arrived there just after dawn.
Robyn had not been wrong the whole place was heaving with birds. Hundreds and hundreds of diminutive Purple-crowned Lorikeets were flying around the area, a cacophony of buzzing as the flocks wheeled around.
It wasn't long before I saw the first of my target species, the small but beautiful Black Honeyeater. These birds are usually found much further north and inland from Perth, nectar feeders, they follow the flowering of various trees and shrubs around the interior of WA. Very rarely they turn up around Perth, usually when there is a good breeding year followed by very little rainfall in their traditional areas. I spotted a number of immatures and females at first before a stunning male flew into the tree in front of me.
Other honeyeaters were also in abundance with the normally uncommon Tawny-crowned HE present in very good numbers and at one point I counted 6 honeyeater species in one tree (Tawny-crowned, Black, Brown, Gilbert's, Brown-headed and Yellow-plumed).
I flushed a Painted Button-quail from virtually under my feet as I continued my search, Elegant Parrots were flitting about, with the much larger Red-tailed and Baudin's Cockatoos occasionally flying through the trees.
After a couple of hours I was still looking for the 2nd nomad honeyeater species: Pied Honeyeater. The sheer number of honeyeaters present made it seem like looking for a needle in a haystack but then a stunning male landed in on a branch just above me, over the next half an hour I saw at least 15 of this species. No idea why they weren't active at dawn like the other honeyeater species as I was just glad to see them.
Having succeeded in my honeyeater hunt, I drove the 20 minutes back along the back-breaking corrugated track to the main road. I decided to call in at another nearby birding spot and was rewarded by two more species of honeyeater, the resident White-eared HE and another nomandic species rarely seen around Perth: White-fronted HE. A really memorable morning's birding with 11 species of honeyeater!
My ebird list
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| Wearne Road |
Robyn had not been wrong the whole place was heaving with birds. Hundreds and hundreds of diminutive Purple-crowned Lorikeets were flying around the area, a cacophony of buzzing as the flocks wheeled around.
 |
| Purple-crowned Lorikeet |
It wasn't long before I saw the first of my target species, the small but beautiful Black Honeyeater. These birds are usually found much further north and inland from Perth, nectar feeders, they follow the flowering of various trees and shrubs around the interior of WA. Very rarely they turn up around Perth, usually when there is a good breeding year followed by very little rainfall in their traditional areas. I spotted a number of immatures and females at first before a stunning male flew into the tree in front of me.
 |
| Black Honeyeater |
Other honeyeaters were also in abundance with the normally uncommon Tawny-crowned HE present in very good numbers and at one point I counted 6 honeyeater species in one tree (Tawny-crowned, Black, Brown, Gilbert's, Brown-headed and Yellow-plumed).
I flushed a Painted Button-quail from virtually under my feet as I continued my search, Elegant Parrots were flitting about, with the much larger Red-tailed and Baudin's Cockatoos occasionally flying through the trees.
After a couple of hours I was still looking for the 2nd nomad honeyeater species: Pied Honeyeater. The sheer number of honeyeaters present made it seem like looking for a needle in a haystack but then a stunning male landed in on a branch just above me, over the next half an hour I saw at least 15 of this species. No idea why they weren't active at dawn like the other honeyeater species as I was just glad to see them.
 |
| Pied Honeyeaters |
Having succeeded in my honeyeater hunt, I drove the 20 minutes back along the back-breaking corrugated track to the main road. I decided to call in at another nearby birding spot and was rewarded by two more species of honeyeater, the resident White-eared HE and another nomandic species rarely seen around Perth: White-fronted HE. A really memorable morning's birding with 11 species of honeyeater!
My ebird list
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