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.

Denmark & Walpole

Saturday in Denmark & the beautiful weather had deserted us. We awoke to overcast skies & light drizzle. No matter, we set off toward Walpole to the West of Denmark. It's such a nice drive through the tall lush forests. A little twisty in parts, but that's half the fun.


Our first stop that morning would be the Tree Top Walk a few kilometres short of Walpole. They've built a steel walkway in the tree tops. You don't even climb too high because it's built on quite a steep valley so you walk out into the tree tops rather than up. Handy for those tourists that aren't as fit as they should be.
The Tree Top walk has a second part to it. They call it the Ancient Empire. Instead of walking around the tree tops, you wander around a different area at ground level. Many of the trees have been through a forest fire many years ago & you can see where the internal part of the tree have been burnt out and the living part (the bark) has continued regenerating around the outside.

A little way closer to Walpole there's a dirt road that leads into the heart of the forest and to the giant Tingle Tree (Right). This tree was hit by fire many years ago leaving a massive void at the base. The tree is very much alive & they estimate it to be 400 years old depending on who you talk to.

Further up the one way dirt road (and some fun rally driving entertainment I might add) you come to Circular pool. I'd have to say that the beautiful lakes in Canada have spoiled us for just about every other lake in the world, but Circular pool was pretty nice all the same. We had the place to ourselves & it was a nice tranquil place to chill out for a while.
We manged to find some awesome burgers for lunch at the road house in Walpole which was a fantastic change compared to the very average food options we'd experienced in Denmark. From there we did some exploring around the Walpole area but it seems to be more interesting from a boat which we didn't have. Having done what we could to explore Walpole we made tracks back to Denmark. We stopped in briefly at the Mead winery where we sample endless types of delicious honey & checked out a bee hive they have in the shop that is effectively sandwiched between two sheets of glass so you can see how they go about their busy little lives.

The weather was starting to turn nasty after a bit of a reprieve, but we pushed on. We stopped at a couple of little beaches near Denmark including Waterfall Beach (right). None were in the same game as Little Beach from the day before. Maybe the weather had something to do with it...

Green's Pool was the final stop for the day. The weather was nice enough to leave a patch of blue sky for us so we could appreciate the place. It's very popular with tourists & locals alike. I can see why. Oddly, once we headed back toward the main road, the weather turned wet on us & put pay to anything else we thought we would do.