Coconut Wells

We are getting into a holiday routine. Catch a sunrise, breakfast, birding walk, photo editing and siesta, another birding outing, dinner and photo editing. This afternoon's outing was to Cocunut Wells. We took the Cape Leveque Road almost to the end of the bitumen where there was a dam on the right-hand side of the road. A large group of red tailed black cockatoos called from high in distant trees. Great bowerbirds and diamond doves came down to drink and bathe, but there was no shade close to the water, and it was too hot to wait in the sun so we turned back to the Coconut Wells turnoff.

The huge lagoon was dry, it apparently only fills on king tides at which time birds gather in throngs. Today there were only kids on quad bikes to be seen. But the bushes along the raod to the beach were fruiting attracting silvereyes and mistletoe birds. Brown honeyeaters were scolding from the scrub, male variegated fairywren offered teasing glimpses of their breeding plumage while the duller females posed, and a flycatcher sang grom a perch on a grass stalk.

Returning to the carpark we got talking to a guy fixing the railing fence, who said if we continued on the sandy track, past the round about we'd come to a packed limestoney trail through saltmarsh, and if we followed it for, well, a couple of Ks we'd see a big group of brolgas. "You'd make it in that, OK" he said, nodding at our rental Rav 4. Well say no more, we were on our way. It was a little hair-raising at times, I'd have liked a  little more clearance in some deeply rutted sections, but oncoming vehicles kindly left the single track to let us by, and we managed a few deep sand sections without a problem. And we were rewarded with brolgas. A group of fourteen birds strolling in the late afternoon sun.

Kimberley Coast

We spent the morning on a whale watching trip which offered distant views of lesser frigate birds, wilson's storm petrel and brown boobys and close-ups of silver gulls. We came across a mass of fish which were being herded by dolphin, and a mother humpback whale and calf idly resting on the surface of the water. No spy hops, breaching or tail slaps, but I did capture a fin slap and it was great to watch them just relaxing.

Cable Beach

A walk along Cable Beach after breakfast provided some relief from the heat. There were half a dozen different species of wader in groups of twos and threes amongst the rocks, which provided a less than truly comfortable perch to sit and wait for them to come within camera distance.

The stints kept chasing each other, the red-capped plovers darting along the sand chasing something unseen, the pacific golden plovers washined their tit-bits in the rock pools before eating, and the sandplovers went about their foraging in an orderly manner.

Gantheaume Point

We wandered out to Gantheaume Point at first light to capture the early sun on the red rocks. At the communication tower a pair of Osprey were ignoring the cry of two fledged chicks, though this bird looked as though it was drying off after a recent fishing trip.

On the road out a collared sparrow hawk watched the scrub from the powerlines.

Derby Sewage Overflow

Stopping at roadside spots which promised good birding, and coming across birds at unexpected places took up quite some time, so our two hour drive to Derby ended up occupying most of the day. We had directions to the Sewage Ponds and a report that freshwater waders were abundant, and an observation tower at the sewage plant made for ease of access. However we looked in vain for the tower, and were later told it was no longer there - comforting, because even with my hazy navigation skills I thought I'd be able  to loacte a tower on a floodplain.

The overflow was a series of ponds edged by deep reedbanks. Golden-headed cisticola serenaded from the reeds, and red-backed fairywrens and double-barred finches sheltered from the heat in dense low shrubs. We found a spot under a paperbark that gave good views of the waders, though they stayed on the far bank with its shelter of reeds.

We went to the mangroves near the export facilitity where a dozen black kite wheeled overhead, and a couple of small waders fossicked at the waters edge but the mud was thick and sticky and the temperature had reached 40 C, so we decided any birds in the mangroves would remain unobserved.

On the way out of town we drove past the airport where someone had reported seeing 10,000 oriental pratincoles some years ago. We didn't see 10,000 pratincoles - actually we didn't see a single bird.

Roebuck Roadhouse

Driving up to Derby for the day, we stopped at the Roebuck Roadhouse around 30km north of Broome and found a group of around thirty long-tailed finches drinking at a dripping tap beside the driveway.

These guys are popular with caged bird enthusiasts, but it was wonderful to see such a large group in the wild. They are also called the Blackheart finch, but that seems too dark a name to these happy little fellows.

Broome Settlement Ponds

We'd heard that the water corporation had closed access to the sewage ponds, and the birds could now only be viewed from behind the eight foot fence - which wasn't much good for photography - but we thought we'd drive out for a look. When we arrived, the gate was open and noone was around so we ambled in and set oursevles up on the edge of the first pond.

There were literally hundreds of plumed whistling ducks, plus good numbers of pacific black duck and grey teal, and australian pelican. There were around twenty white-headed stilt, included three very young babies at the waters edge at our feet, which was probably why the stilt were chasing any black kite that came too close to the ponds.

Whiskered tern flew across the surface of the water, and common sandpiper foraged at the waters edge.

We were just  settling in for a couple of hours of productive photography, when a voice asked "Do you have permission to be in here?" We confessed, and were told we had to seek permission at the water corp office, though it was highly unlikely that permission would be given. Sure enough, all our rational explanations and emotional pleadings counted for little. Access was denied on the grounds of OHS concerns. This is one of my (many) gripes - the misuse of "occupational health and safety". We don't work there so how can OHS be an issue - if you mean public liability then say so. The end result however was that any future birding at the ponds would be done through the chain link fence.