Almost a year ago, I did a post on using Esperance as a gateway to the southern coast of Western Australia and Cape Arid National Park.  A couple of months ago I finally had a chance to visit and try my luck at finding Rock Parrots.  There are several places they are known to be found as shown on the map below.  The Twilight Beach area is to the west of Esperance and a prime habitat.  In the past, they have been seen near the pier right in town, but unfortunately at the time of my visit there was construction going on and the whole area was blocked for safety reasons.  Then there is the Bandy Creek area to the east of Esperance which is the yellow highlighted section that has the red dot.

Esperance Rock Parrots

The scenery was gorgeous and we did see a few honey-eaters but no Rock Parrots.  I had hoped the water around the windmill would have attracted some but no luck.

The next morning it was time to try Bandy Creek.  This map has a bit more detail.  You can see where the road ends, there is a car park there and a few trails heading off into the dunes that have the kind of bushes Rock Parrots would be attracted to.

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This is a popular place for locals to go fishing and walk their dogs so there were a few people around.  I went down to the beach, then walked back up to find a rock I could sit on and watch and listen.  After about 20 minutes, I saw a flash of green as two small Rock Parrots (which I recognized as being similar in size to Elegant Parrots) shot out of a bush and flew over a sand dune.  I attempted to follow but there is just no way I had the physical fitness to clamber up and down sand dunes and they escaped un-photographed much to my frustration!  I waited a while longer hoping they would return but they didn’t.  You can’t win ’em all!