Parry Creek Lagoons - Visit 2

Circumstances landed us back near Parry Creek Lagoons about a week after our first visit so we took the opportunity to have another look. The flat grassland on either side of the dry-season dirt road had become more familiar - I love it! Again pratincole were a regular sighting.

A cooperative Rainbow bee-eater provided one of the highlights.

When one can tear one's self away from the water birds there are other species to be seen in the surrounding vegetation including Rainbow bee-eater and White-gaped honeyeater. Buff-sided robin was also seen (good views, poor photo)!

Pied heron once again afforded good views but it was the close viewing of a few brolga that had us most excited ....

Brolga were readily seen on this visit.

Comb-crested jacana were a family-favourite once again and featured in the educational signage (photo by Ellen).

The higher you are, the more you see! Magpie goose and Plumed whistling-duck at Marlgu Billabong, Parry Creek Lagoons.

Intermediate egret

Nankeen night-heron

Gorgeous close-ups of Australasian grebe were possible from the viewing platform.

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!

Waterbirds of Lilypad Lagoon, Kununurra

By early August we had crossed the border and were staying at Kununurra in northern WA . We were ready for a powered site but the caravan park staff were only able to offer us an unpowered site in the overflow section:

Compared to the powered site gridlock this was brilliant and we happily went without power for another few nights!

The Comb-crested jacana were a family favourite. We loved watching them walk on top of the lily-pads and other vegetation of the lake.

This Intermediate egret hunted near our van quite happily. 

Intermediate egret

Straw-necked ibis 

Here are a few shots showing the acrobatics of Australian reed-warbler:

Masked lapwing - this northern (nominate) race has considerable variation from the race we have down south (which was previously commonly known as Spur-winged plover) 

Whiskered tern

Buff-banded rail (seen while searching for better views of the lifer, White-browed crake, below) 

White-browed crake - there were several of these in our corner of the lake

Great egret contemplating his claws

This water lizard (?Merton's monitor) was lazing within metres of our caravan.

Lily-pad Lagoon, Kununurra

A bit of filter fun on a photo of my brother's campsite

 Bird on!