The week back home

We've been back for about a week now and been cracking on at the new house. Currently in the middle of a heat wave so the moth trapping is very good with over 100 species of over 300 individuals in recent nights including a nice little haul of migrants. On over 210 species of moth already for the new garden. Irecord has gone down recently so not sure on the exact number. 

I did Ferry and Church Norton yesterday morning the highlights being a sweet little collection of waders on Ferry including Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, 3 Green Sandpiper, 3 Common Sandpiper, 2 Little Ringed Plover, 7 Dunlin, 3 Avocet, 3 Lapwing and 35 Black-tailed Godwit. Nice to come back just as autumn wader migration is picking up. Will focus on waders for the next few weeks round here. Also had one Redshank and 2 Whimbrel fly over the garden yesterday morning.

Also discovered a nice little wader spot at Snowshill Marsh by West Wittering beach when we took the kids out yesterday- there was an adult Yellow-legged Gull there too. 

The new garden office is going up this week so hopefully will set up the bird book library again in the next week or two. 

Adult moulting Spotted Redshank (above and below) 

Vagrant Piercer- this was top draw stuff when I was in Oxfordshire and now I'm getting four or five a night. Not sure if migrants or a coastal resident population round here. Other suspected migrants (again there might be local populations)  include Silver-Y, Diamond-back Moth, Rush Veneer, Olive-tree Pearl (below), Four-spotted Footman (below that), Plumed Fan-foot (below that, a lifer I think) and Radford's Flame Shoulder (below that too). Encouraging that there does seem to be a good back ground level of migrants so hopefully might get something rare in the future. 

Brown-veined Wainscot- had two of these this morning - a lifer 

Drinker- always a treat to see

Pinion-streaked Snout

Found a couple of dead mammals on the estate recently including this Shrew sp (above) and Mole (below) 110824 Update- Pygmy Shrew due to tail length/body length ratio (thanks Dingers for id!) 

The moth tray scene- pretty impressive. 

The new garden office going up 

Western Australia Round-up

Back home now and gone through the trip photos and tidied up the trip report HERE and all the trip photos HERE. While going through the photos I found a new trip species (and lifer); Banded Lapwing which takes the final trip bird list (not including Singapore) to 215 species.  There were so many highlights, the Black Cockatoos species were my favourites and the other parrot species too, the honeyeaters were interesting to work through and Western Spinebill is an absolute gem, the Pardalotes were top of the wish list and did not disappoint and the Whistlers and Australian Robins were wonderful to meet. Australia is simply epic and I can't wait to start planning a longer trip. 

On the mammal front the trip list was 18 species including Western Grey Kangaroo, Western Brush Wallaby, Tammar Wallaby, Agile Wallaby, Echidna, Honey Possum, Quenda, Woylie, Quokka, Common Brush-tail Possum, Dugong, Indopacific Bottlenose Dolphin, Humpback Whale, Australian Sea Lion and non-native Red Fox and Rabbit. Also had a Bat sp flying around Cheynes Beach while looking for the Honey Possums. Also another lifer found while going through the trip photos of what appears to be the diagnostic blow of Southern Right Whale (image below), taken at Cheynes Beach where they were reported too. 

I did have the travel LED moth trap out a couple of nights but not much and nothing exciting looking, the nights were too cool (in Broome it would have been better but I left the trap behind but had quite a few moths in the camp lights). Also the mid-winter period when we visited was too cool for herps (didn't see a single snake) but did have a few reptiles and amphibians (will post separate on them). 

Overall one of my favourite foreign trips ever, more so because it was a family trip too combined with the uniqueness of Australian birds and mammals. Obviously could have seen a bit more if it was just a focused birding trip - didn't get the SW endemics Western Corella or Western Shrike-tit, so that will be one of the objectives of our return trip. At the moment we are playing with the idea of taking a year out of the matrix in 2029 (after Jacob finishes primary school) home schooling the boys and touring round the whole of Australia.

Australian Ringneck (Twenty-eight)- the SWA mascot 

Carnaby's Black Cockatoos over Arpenteur Nature Reserve with Stirling Range in the distance 

The large V shaped blow is supposed to be diagnostic of Southern Right Whale- another lifer

Honey Possum in the thermal scope at Cheynes Beach- has to be mammal of the trip 

Singapore Return Stopover

Sadly our trip to WA has come to an end and so we headed back to UK via a quick stopover for one night in Singapore. We took the kids to Singapore Zoo which is part of a huge area of various wildlife attractions in the Mandai Wildlife Reserve. 

Very few wild birds in what appears like decent habitat in which the zoo is situated but presumably due to the time of day we were there and the disturbance. Ebird list HERE. A few photo highlights below. 

Green Crested Lizard- a bonus herp lifer

Common Fruit Bat - there's a small population of these roosting in one of the public areas 

Olive-winged Bulbul

Asian Glossy Starlings 

Western Australia Days Twenty one to twenty two and twenty five to twenty nine, Perth and arounds

Apart from a couple of days on Rottnest, the last week of our WA trip has been family based at Mitch and Arthur's in Barragup by the Black Lake. I managed to pop out a few times to local sites including Victoria Dam, Bibra Lake, Thompson Lake, Lake Clifton, Yangebup Lake and walks from the house around Black Lake too. 

Family days out while being based here have included trips to Perth Zoo, the Red Zoo, Hillary's Aquarium, the Reptile Centre at Armadale, the Thrombolites at Clifton Lake and while Jacob and I were in Broome we visited the Crocodile park there too so there's been plenty of wildlife stuff for the kids too. The animal collections are interestingly Australia based too so we've so loads of endemic animals in the collections too including Bilbies, Dibblers, Wombats, Devils and Dugites. 

Have added a few more species to the trip list. Ebird trip report HERE.

Back to Singapore tomorrow and already planning a return trip to Oz, hopefully a year long trip which is what is needed to explore properly out here. It's been a nice little introduction though but only scratched the surface of this mind blowing continent.  

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (male) 

The closest I've got to Baudin's Black Cockatoos are these at Victoria Dam. Couldn't quite see the bills on them as these cockatoos often fluff their feathers up round their bills in colder conditions but a local birder said they were calling like Baudin's and they had been reported in this area a few days before too. 

Australian ducks at Lake Bibra- got Pink-eared Duck here which was on the wish list

Whistling Kite at Mitch and Arthur's

Red Wattlebird

Black Swans on Black Lake

Going to miss the Australian Ringnecks aka Twenty-eights (above) and the Galahs (below) 

Really going to miss the backdrop of Western Grey Kangaroos 

Flipped over an iron sheet at Mitch and Arthur's and found this hibernating Bobtail - great to see as we have had very little herp action as it's mid-winter here

The Thrombolites at Lake Clifton- one of the most prehistoric life forms still living on the planet

Jacob (above) and Isaac (below) at the zoos 

The biggest dip of the trip was Numbat- here's one at Perth Zoo. The top reason to plan another trip back to Oz- next time for much longer. Feels like we've barely even started exploring round here and also there is loads more at different times of year. 

Western Australia, Days Twenty-three to Twenty-four, Rottnest Island

We did a family two day trip to Rottness Island, offshore from Perth this week, primarily to see the Quokkas (Short-tailed Scrub Wallaby) that are abundant on the island (having become very rare on the mainland). Rottness Island is predator free and the Quokkas are thriving there with a population of over 10,000. 

The island is only a few miles off Perth but has a subtly different micro-climate influenced by a warm sea current and there are a few bird species there which are also not common on the nearby mainland including Red-capped Robin and White-fronted Chat. During the summer months (our winter) there are several decent wader species present on the salt lakes and Fairy terns are around (but unfortunately not this time of year). 

There are also Australian Sea Lions and New Zealand Fur Seals on the island and the island is also important for reptiles. The only species we saw was King's Skink as we are mid-winter here and there are not many reptiles around anywhere at the moment. 

Updated Trip Report HERE. Now on 210 bird species and still about 20 or 30 regular SWA species to target in the last week including three endemics- Baudin's Black Cockatoo, Western Shrike-tit and Western Corella but running out of time now and lots of family commitments in our last week but hoping to sneak in a bit more targeted birding. 

Quokkas (above) 

Australian Sea Lions- one of the rarest sea lions in the world. Another mammal lifer on this trip. Had a pretty good haul of Oz mammals over the last few weeks including Western Grey Kangaroo, Western Brush Wallaby, Tammar Wallaby, Agile Wallaby, Echidna, Honey Possum,  Quenda, Woylie, Quokka, Common Brush-tail Possum, Dugong, Indopacific Bottlenose Dolphin and Humpback Whale.   

Female Red-capped Robin 

White-fronted Chat

Indopacific Bottlenose Dolphin- in addition to several pods of 'Bottlenose Dolphins' (I'm assuming the small ones we have seen in the Swan River and in the Mandurah estuary are Indopacific but not sure if the ones offshore Rottness are too- presumably Common and Indopacific Bottlenose occur further offshore?)  we also had several Hump-backed Whales far off shore. I must have seen well over 50 Hump-backs on this trip as they are seemingly off shore anywhere round here but most were down south gathering in the bay at Cheyne Beach. 

Little Pied (above) and Pied Cormorant (below) 

Crested Tern

Red-capped Plover 

Pied Stilt on the Salt Lakes 

Western Australia, Days Thirteen to Twenty, Broome and the Dampier Peninsula

 Back from an epic 'holiday within a holiday' to Broome and the Dampier Peninsula in NW Australia with Jacob.

We stayed at Broome Gateway Caravan Park which is about 20 minutes out of town and explored the local area including Broome Bird Observatory, the Mangroves and the coastline. The main objective of the trip was to take Jacob to see the dinosaur footprints which the area is famed for, we took a tour for that.

We also took an outback drive to the tip of the Dampier Peninsula and overnighted at the Cygnet Bay Pearl Farm. 

Updated Ebird trip report HERE. Now on over 200 species for the trip and over 150 lifers. 

A few photo highlights below: 

Australian Bustard- the farmer next to the caravan park was ploughing the field which attracted up to 21 Australian Bustards in addition to over 300 Little Corellas and a load of Agile Wallabies. 

Mangrove Gerygone- the mangroves in the Broome area host several mangrove specialists. Dusky Gerygone (below) is a northwest endemic. 

Female Black-tailed Whistler (above) and male White-breasted Whistler (below)- both northwest mangrove specialists 

Mangrove Robin 

White-gaped (above) and Red-headed Honeyeaters (below) 

Lemon-bellied Flyrobin

Broad-billed Flycatcher 

Double-barred Finches 

Gouldian Finches (above) at the Water Treatment Plant at One Arm Point 

Yellow-tinted Honeyeater

Hooded Robin - had this while waiting for a traffic light to change on the outback road on the way back to Broome- a bonus lifer

Rainbow Bee-eaters

White-breasted Wood Swallow 

Pied Butcherbird 

Red-collared Lorikeet

Little Corellas

Brown Falcon

Female Red-tailed Black Cockatoo- numerous in the area 

Bar-shouldered Dove 

Great Bowerbird 

Dark phase Pacific Reef Egret 

Although in the austral mid-winter there were still several thousand shorebirds in Roebuck Bay from the Broome Bird Observatory. Mainly young birds that are not ready to breed yet or possibly old birds too. Most of the waders on the eastern flyway are currently in high Siberia. Eastern Curlews (above)

Spot the Asiatic Dowitcher in with the Great Knots and Bar and Black-tailed Godwits

Terek and Marsh Sand with Greenshank, Grey-tailed Tattler and Australian and Gull-billed Terns 

How many species in here? 

Terek Sandpipers, Grey-tailed Tattler and Turnstone 

Agile Wallaby- common in the area around Broome 

Dugong- had a few of these 'seacows' in the bay 

Presumably a Green Turtle- there was tens of these in Cygnet Bay 

Ray sp from the Town jetty 

Highlight of the trip was this Estuarine Crocodile out in the bay from the Jetty (above and below). After visiting the Crocodile Park that hosts captured Estuarine and Freshwater Crocodiles which have become public nuisances it was great to actually find a local croc in the wild. 

Green Tree Frog- we found this in our accommodation toilet. 

Jacob standing in a Brachiosaurus footprint  (above and below) and examining a theropod footprint (below that)- some kind of Megalasaurus