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| Blue-breasted Fairywren |
In case you missed it:
Western Australia - The Wheatbelt
Western Australia - The South Coast
Western Australia - The West Coast
After 25 days on our own wandering around Western Australia (on the wrong side of the road!), we were happy to be chauffeured for the rest of the trip. We were back in Perth and met up with our good friends Bob and Dianna, and our wonderful tour chaperons Philip and Patricia Maher of Australian Ornithological Services. This was to be our third tour with them having done Tasmania and the Central Desert in 2017. Philip is one of the top guides in all of Australia and Patricia expertly handles all our logistical needs including cooking most of our delicious meals along the way. And best of all, they are both wonderful folks to be with.
Our route would be an abbreviated version of what we had just done on our own with locations selected to find all of the endemic and near endemic species for WA. Right up front, yes we got them all - even the very rare and/or super skulky ones (I'm thinking of you Noisy Scrub-bird). There are 18 endemic species, many endemic subspecies and near endemics, and lots of other great birds to see in this part of the world. The image below will give you a rough idea of where we went over the course of 9 birding days.
The total haul was 136 species summarized in the link below: eBird Trip Report
And don't think we quit looking at flowers or animals - no way. It had been a couple of weeks since we'd been through each of these areas, so there were new species to look at. I didn't put as many in iNaturalist, but there were some including a few megas which I'll discuss.
iNaturalist list
We started out southwest of Perth at the Victoria Dam for some warm up birding. Ticking some great endemics right off the bat was pretty cool, including Western Wattlebird, Red-capped Parrot, Red-winged Fairywren, and Western Spinebill.
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| We weren't in Perth, but you could see it from here |
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| Red-winged Fairywren |
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| New Holland Honeyeater |
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| Australian Ringneck, semitorquatus subspecies |
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| Western Spinebill |
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| Red-capped Parrot |
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| Blue Lady Orchid (Thelymitra crinita) |
Some driving got us east to Dryandra Woodland National Park where we had been a few weeks before (it was cold and rainy then). A couple hours of late afternoon birding netted some excellent stuff, including endemic Western Thornbill and near endemics Rufous Treecreeper.
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| Rufous Treecreeper |
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| Western Thornbill |
We spent the entire following day in Dryandra, and what a day it was. The morning birding was excellent and we cleaned up on some great birds. Endemics included Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo and Western Shrike-Tit, and near endemic Blue-breasted Fairywren.  |
| Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo |
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| Regent Parrot |
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| Blue-breasted Fairywren |
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| Western Shrike-Tit |
We spent some time in the afternoon hunting a really rare marsupial. This was the one we missed on our previous trip because it was too cold for this insectivorous mammal to find its primary food of termites. This time around, after some serious searching of the forest, one of the little squirrel-sized Numbats let us have a look. Numbats were once widely distributed across southern Australia. Habitat loss and feral predators nearly wiped them out by the late 1970s, and remained with less than 1000 animals in just two small locations - Dryandra and one other site. Intense research and conservation has stabilized the population with perhaps a slight increase in recent years.
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| Numbat |
On the way back from our successful Numbat hunt we turned up a few more birds and one of the raresest orchids we saw for our entire time in WA - the incredible Wandoo Beard Orchid.
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| Rainbow Bee-eater |
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| Wandoo Beard Orchid (Calochilus stramenicola) |
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| Wandoo Beard Orchid (Calochilus stramenicola) |
After a delicious outdoor grilled salmon dinner that Patricia masterfully created, an Australian Boobook gave us great looks (life bird all around for us tourists).
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| Australian Boobook |
Next up was Stirling Range National Park, an area if you remember we went on an amazing orchid tour. This time we were in search of a few really good birds, and anything else that might turn up. We birded the mountain slopes and salt lake flats. It was quite excellent. Great birds included skulky Western Whipbird and the endemic Western Fieldwren.
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| Western Whipbird |
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| Western Fieldwren |
At the base of the mountains to the northwest are the Pink Salt Lakes, remnant salt lakes along the path of an ancient waterway. Birding here can turn up some great shorebirds, including the localized Banded Stilt which primarily breed in these inland salt lakes.
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| Banded Stilt |
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| Red-capped Plover |
An evening outing produced great looks at Australias smallest nocturnal bird, the Australian Owlet-Nightjar.
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| Australian Owlet-Nightjar |
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| Western Spotted Frog |
From Stirling Range we moved south to the coast at Cheynes Beach where we would spend several days hunting for a couple of the most difficult birds in WA - Noisy Scrub-bird and Western Bristlebird. Both are endangered species, highly localized to select patches of coastal scrub, and rarely seen. We spent much time trying to get good looks at the scrub-bird, several times being within a few FEET of a singing male in the densest of scrub, and still only got the briefest of glimpses. We did better with the Bristlebird, managing to sneak a look at a singing male amongst the bushes. There were other great birds to see there and we ejoyed our time at the beach.
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| Scallop Hakea (Hakea cucullata) |
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| A sleepy Southwestern Carpet Python |
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| Endemic Red-eared Firetail |
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| Endemic Red-winged Fairywren |
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| Silvereye |
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| Gray Fantail |
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| Endemic White-breasted Robin |
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| Inland Thornbill |
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| Brown Quail |
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| Western Bristlebird |
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| Splendid Fairywren |
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| Splendid Fairywren |
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| Western Whipbird |
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| Western Bristlebird |
We were getting close to the end of the tour and didn't have many remaining endemics to find. One of the toughest was the critically endangered Baudin's Black Cockatoo, which look remarkably similar to the more widespread Carnaby's. This species however inhabits exclusively moist eucalyptus forests in the southwest corner of WA (a vanishing habitat) where they feed on large eucalypt seeds. Their bill is longer and more pointed for eating these seeds. As we drove along a flock of Black Cockatoos was spotted and good looks were had. We were able to see the bill shape well and discern the slight call difference. Tick, another in the bag.
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| Baudin's Black Cockatoo |
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| Baudin's Black Cockatoo |
A couple of other stops as we traveled west turned up the endemic Western Corella and another rare and beautiful orchid - Pink Spider Orchid.  |
| Western Corella |
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| Western Corella |
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| Varied Sittella |
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| Pink Spider Orchid (Caladenia harringtoniae) |
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| Pink Spider Orchid (Caladenia harringtoniae) |
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| Pink Spider Orchid (Caladenia harringtoniae) |
One more day, one more special bird. We still needed near endemic Rock Parrot, a tricky one that nests on offshore islands but comes to the mainland to feed. Catching one along the miles of beaches can be problematic, but recent reports of a few visiting the Cape Leeuwin beach would be our best bet. Sure enough, as we arrived at the lighthouse for opening, so did two parrots. Mission accomplished.
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| Philip and Susan are relaxing after great Rock Parrot looks |
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| Rock Parrot |
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| Spotted Scrubwren |
A special thanks to our friends Bob and Dianna for the great company. See you soon in Japan! And to Philip and Patricia, the tour was outstanding as always, and we appreciate you both very much.  |
| One more amazing Patricia meal |
And with 18 hours of flying and countless more sitting in airports, we were home. Around the world in 51 days. So many amazing birds, flowers, and vistas. Western Australia was all we hope for and more.
