Birds of the Roebuck Plains

The town of Broome in Western Australia is a well-known birding destination. The tidal mudflats of Roebuck Bay play host to large numbers of migratory waders and it is on these shores that the Birdlife Australia Broome Bird Observatory is located. The observatory provides information, walking trails, bird hides and camping accommodation. It also offers tours and it was a tour called the Lakes Tour that I joined on 24 August 2012.

The trusty vehicle our guide had grown to love, Roebuck Plains

The tour gives access to land owned by the Roebuck Plains Cattle station. It is my understanding that the Roebuck Plains area was originally the massive delta of the Fitzroy River - a large river system that now flows into the King Sound. In "the wet" the plains are awash and impassable. The tour runs in the dry season and visits three residual shallow lakes as they dry out.

Our guide Theresa, a visiting Spanish ornithologist, was a gun at bird ID. This is Lake Campion. We are viewing birds on the other side of the lake.

I was impressed by the Google earth image showing a striking difference in the topography between the plains and the surrounding West Kimberley bush. This is not really appreciable as you zip along Highway One!

This was classic long-range birding using scopes and binoculars. Up close photographic opportunities were few but many species were identified including several lifers.

"Is there a particular bird you would like to see?" asked Theresa
"I have never seen Australian bustard." Sure enough we had our tick within the hour.

Four of a group of seven Australian bustard wandering away from the track

Our first stop was at Lake Eda - we were met with fine views of a White-bellied sea eagle. Brolga were readily seen around the area. Taken through the tinted windscreen of a slowly-moving car these photos are particularly poor but I am amused by the pictures of this bird descending with its landing gear down.

White-bellied sea eagle, Lake Eda

White-bellied sea eagle

Brolga descent and then grazing near Lake Eda

Lake Eda was followed by Lake Campion and then Taylor's Lagoon. At each lake I practiced trying to differentiate between the different waders present (Wood and Marsh sandpiper principally). I enjoyed my first ever sighting of Cockatiel (albeit at a great distance). Australian pratincole paraded obligingly.

Australian pratincole, Lake Eda

An across-the-lake view of a group of Cockatiel, Lake Eda

Not my kit .... unfortunately! Yes I was "out-lensed", Taylor's Lagoon

Red-backed kingfisher

Rainbow bee-eaters

Black-winged stilt

We had a few Zebra finch encounters (above) but my favourite photo opportunity of the day would have to be the Long-tailed finch that came down to drink near a magnificently placed branch!

Long-tailed finch, Taylor's Lagoon

77 species were seen in all including many ducks and other water fowl, budgerigar, raptors. You can see the entire list here (Eremaea website).

Sharing with Wild Bird Wednesday

Bird on!

Parry Creek Lagoons - 1st visit

(The bones of this post were lifted from shanleylife blog featuring our family holiday!)

Those of you “in the know” would have been very surprised if there was not a blog entry about Parry Creek Reserve. I don’t like to disappoint so…

Our trip to Parry’s was a late afternoon day trip from Kununurra. We mucked around determining the best track in from the Great Northern Highway. We wound up getting too close to Wyndham and came in from the north. We had two sightings of brolga in the surrounding bush as we approached. 

After leaving the bitumen, the track cuts through flat grassland where we saw our first Australian pratincole. Nankeen kestrel and kites also featured.

Australian pratincole from the car

The remaining pictures are taken at Marlgu Billabong which has boardwalks and a viewing platform. There was a steady trickle of visitors – at any time there was one or two other cars with us.

Fancy not having enough binoculars to go around! Ellen is clearly disappointed! Well not everyone can have a huge camera lens and a funny hat!

Birding highlights were seeing pied heron and pygmy goose for the first time among several other “lifers”. Four lifers in four seconds without even turning the car engine off doesn’t happen often!

This handsome pelican fed right in front of us – getting down low then dipping his whole top half under the water then sorting out the muck from the dinner. Jacanas looked great walking around on the lily pads.

Comb-crested jacana

 A sheepish looking Magpie goose mixed up with the Plumed whistling-ducks

There was a huge flock of plumed whistling-duck as well. After Marlgu we explored locally looking for the other Parry Creek lagoons but these turned out to be dry.

The trip was also punctuated by some close range experience of the Kimberley on fire. This shot taken from the car window as we drove along the highway north-west of Kununurra. The impression was of a controlled “cool burn” but there was no overt supervision. When we returned to Kununurra it was dark and the rows of flame made for a dramatic scene.

We were treated to a typical east Kimberley sunset as we drove past the ruins of a telegraph station near Marlgu Billabong. 

Another memorable afternoon!

Bird on!