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.