Australian Ringneck (photo by Gail Bryant)
We flew to Perth on October 21 for two weeks of birding in the SW of WA and a week of veterans cricket in Perth in November. We had a list of about 20 species that we thought would be possible to video and photograph. What a wonderful part of Australia! We saw whales breaching, magnificent timber, wonderful scenery and many lovely birds and we met many helpful people. In the end I was able to obtain video of 14 new species and improved video of many species. Gail photographed many new species and thoroughly enjoyed the region.
The new species were:
Western Rosella
Yellow-plumed Honeyeater
Laughing Dove
Red-capped Parrot
Western Golden Whistler
Gilbert’s Honeyeater
Western Yellow Robin
White-breasted Robin
Elegant Parrot
Red-eared Firetail
Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo
Rufous Treecreeper
Red-winged Fairy-Wren
Baudin’s Black-Cockatoo
Major improvements were made to:
Long-billed Corella
Australian Shelduck
Blue-billed Duck
Brush Bronzewing
The biggest dips were: Western Spinebill, Western Wattlebird, Western Corella, Rock Parrot and Fairy Tern.
The total number of species on the DVDs is now 456. Will I ever get to 500?
All in all a very successful trip. The cricket was a different story – we lost the final!