Sunday 31 January 2010

Birds of the Great Southern

There is more to Southern WA than the scenery. The abundant bird life is quite incredible.

The Stirling Ranges were home to a healthy population of Wedge Tailed Eagles (below) that sored over the grasslands. The coast near Albany had the usual suspects (Seagulls & Pelicans) but we also saw Petrels (below).Denmark was home to all manner of birds large & small. The Wedge tails were there but there were also smaller raptors like the Brown Goshawk (right) that swooped down past me trying to catch the small finches & wrens I was trying to photograph.
The Denmark area has many small birds such as the white breasted Robin (above) and the Splendid Wrens (below). The bright blue one is the male & the white, the female.The garden of our B&B was full of flowers that attracted all manner of small birds including the splendid wrens, Firetails (above), and New Holland Honey-eaters (below).
The garden also attracted Western Rosellas. They were mainly juveniles (above) but I did see one adult male (below).
The garden also attracted the larger parrots like Twenty-Eights (Australian Ringnecks). There were lots of them at the Berry Farm 'Sampling' the local produce. I think they're my favourite parrot. We do see them around Perth but I haven't manage to catch them with the camera. I love the photo below because they have the red berry juice all over their beaks. Caught in the act!

It was sad to pack up the car & head back to Perth on the Sunday. I'm sure we'll be back to visit soon enough.