Birding Bowra Part 1 – Road To Homestead Area

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Tara

Since there are so many places to see birds, I am breaking this down into several parts. The first area to explore is the part where you first enter Bowra Station at the letterbox and drive the main road to the homestead – about 5 or 6 km. This is a fantastic area for parrots, as you can see from the photos below we saw many species just in this area such as Cockatiels, Mallee Ringecks, Galahs, Major Mitchell Cockatoos, Mulga Parrots and various Honey-eaters, an Emu and of course lots of kangaroos! I also saw a Bluebonnet flying away at the speed of light near the gate.

Bring boots as sometimes you have to walk through the bush!

Easy Birding At Yanchep National Park

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Tara

In my last post, I talked about Yanchep as a destination. The nice thing about Yanchep is you can be as active or as lazy as you want and you will STILL see lots of birds! I’m in the lazy camp. I did do one hike around the small lake opposite Yanchep Inn but mostly I just kicked back at a picnic table or my room’s porch. Eremaea has a good bird list to give you an idea what to expect. Here’s some of the birds I saw.

Lots of Waterbirds

Cheeky Galahs

Carnaby’s Cockatoos

Black Swans

Australian Ringnecks

Laughing Kookaburras (they will try to steal your food!)

Purple Swamphens

Scarlet Robins

Brown Honeyeater

Splendid Fairy-wrens (vivid males and duller females)

Australian Wood Ducks (I think)

Australian Magpie

Red Wattlebird

Australian Wood Ducks (I think)

Red Wattlebird

Australian Wood Duck

Red Wattlebird

Welcome Swallows

Meet The Parrots – Nallan Station, Western Australia

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Tara

There are so many avian delights at Nallan Station, I will need to break them up into several posts. Let’s start off with my favourites – the parrots!

BOURKES PARROTS

Seen mostly by Judas Well. I have a profile on them here.

MULGA PARROTS

Also seen at Judas Well and in surrounding trees. Note the brightly coloured male vs the duller female.

AUSTRALIAN RINGNECK

Found flocking with these Mulga Parrots.

GALAHS

Seen near the shearing shed. They weren’t the least bit afraid of the workers who were using some pretty noise machinery!

See my post on Cue for more information on how to get here and Western Australia to learn how I organized this trip.

The Birds Of Stirling Range – Pictorial

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Tara

I’ve already blogged about the Stirling Range National Park but it got too long so I saved the bird photos for this post. Just as a reminder, here are the bird lists that have been recorded here:

Frank O’Connor

Eremaea

Birdlife (has pictures)

Since we have the long Easter weekend coming up, over the next 4 days, I will get caught up on some bird profiles and then move on to the next stop which was Two People’s Bay. So for now, just enjoy some of these beautiful birds!

Regent Parrot

Galah

Elegant Parrot

Dusky Wood Swallows (I think)

Owlet Nightjar

Honey-eater

Elegant Parrot

Singing Honey-eater

Elegant Parrot

Splendid Fairy-wren

Elegant Parrot

Australian Ringneck

Regent Parrots

Western Rosella

Elegant Parrot

Elegant Parrot

Elegant Parrot

Australian Owlet Nightjar

Birding Foxes Lair, Narrogin, Western Australia

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Tara

Foxes Lair is a small reserve on the outskirts of Narrogin, Western Australia. It makes a perfect complement to nearby Dryandra Woodland, especially for parrot watchers.

Google Maps don’t show it but it is where I have made the yellow highlights.

Foxes Lair

It’s well worth planning both a morning visit and an afternoon visit here as you can get different birds. I saw more Carnaby’s Cockatoos & Galahs in the morning and in the afternoon, I got my first look at Red Capped Parrots and Regent Parrots and of course more Port Lincoln Ringnecks.

Here’s a few pics of the birds I saw over 2 days. Sorry about the silhouettes of the Carnaby’s Cockatoos, it was around 5:30am-ish! You can see birds both on the side of the road near the caravan park opposite Foxes Lair and then drive into the reserve where there is a car park and a few trails you can follow.

You can stay in Narrogin where there are several options such as Bella’s Country Place (where we stayed-my review), Albert Facey Motel & Narrogin Motel.

Dryandra Woodland, Western Australia

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Tara

Dryandra Woodland offers amazing birding only a couple hours drive from Perth! Use your miles to get here and then hire a car so you can explore this beautiful park on your own.

Although you could visit Dryandra Woodland as a day trip from Perth, I highly recommend staying a night or two here so you can visit all the water holes and birding areas. You can stay either in the park or in Narrogin, about a half hour’s drive from Dryandra.

The Lion’s Dryandra Village has the advantage of being right inside the park so no commuting and you can easily do the night tour at Barna Mia. You do need to be completely self-sufficient and bring your own food and bed linens.

Otherwise you can stay in the closest town of Narrogin where there are several options such as Bella’s Country Place (where we stayed-my review), Albert Facey Motel & Narrogin Motel.

The official park website has a brochure you can download. I have marked some prime birding location in yellow on the screenshot below. The Old Mill Dam was the best place, I personally saw several Western Rosellas, Australian Ringnecks, Rainbow Bee-eaters and more (see bird list links below).

Dryandra birding spots

The bird list is very impressive and Frank O’Connor’s website has some great location details complete with co-ordinates for your GPS. Eremaea also has a bird list for Dryandra Woodland.

Here are some photos I took at Dryandra Woodlands.

Australian Ringneck

Common Bronzewing

Scarlet Robin wants a bath

Some New Holland Honey-eaters join in.

TBD

Western Rosellas wait for the chance to drink. I was really happy to see them after I saw a video that they were disappearing.

Although this Ringneck didn’t approach too close to the Rosellas, they still flew off when he was joined by others. It’s clear the Ringneck is the dominating species.

The Kookaburra wasn’t fazed by the Ringnecks at all or vice-versa.

Rainbow Bee-eaters put on a great show diving down for a drink and quick bath.

Willie Wagtails were everywhere!

A few kangaroos came down for a drink.

More Bee-eaters

Australian Magpies were also everywhere!

More Australian Ringnecks

Australian Ringneck Parrots

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Tara

Australian Ringneck Parrots have been divided in to 4 subspecies. The best way to tell them apart in the wild is by the colour of the hood and where you are in Australia. Port Lincoln Parrots and Twenty-eight Parrots both have the darker blue hood but the Port Lincoln has more yellow on their bellies whereas the Twenty-eight’s belly is green. You are most likely to see them in Western Australia where they are very common, you can even see them in King’s Park, Perth! The Mallee & Cloncurry Ringnecks have the light blue-ish green hoods and the Cloncurry’s belly is yellow and they don’t have a red band over their beak.

Port Lincoln Parrot

Port Lincoln Parrot (Barnardius z. zonarius) – Found from Port Lincoln in the south east to Alice Springs in the north east, and from the Karri and Tingle forests of South Western Australia up to the Pilbara district.