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| Rock Parrot |
Following our visit to Margaret River (see last post)
we continued southwards along the scenic Caves Road to Cape Leeuwin, the
south-western most point of the Australian mainland, where the Great Southern
Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. It was here that, in 1801, Matthew Flinders began
charting the continent of Australia.
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| Cape Leeuwin |
Of more immediate interest was a party of 8 Rock Parrots on
the lawns of the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse. A visit to the nearby historic
waterwheel was also interesting.
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| Rock Parrot |
We turned eastwards for the first time in our around-Oz
journey, driving through extensive areas of jarrah-marri forest, with plenty of
shrubs in flower.
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| Jarrah-Marri forest near Pemberton |
Our destination was the Walpole Nornalup National Park; we
camped in the nicely bushy setting of the Coalmine Beach Caravan Park. The
views of Nornalup Inlet from the caravan park and a nearby circuit track-road were stunning.
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| Nornalup Inlet |
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| Nornalup Inlet |
In thick vegetation near the camping ground, plenty of Red-winged
Fairy-wrens were about. More Baudin’s Cockatoo and Western
White-naped Honeyeater were seen. I had a brief roadside view of a Quokka; we
had seen earlier a road-killed Quokka.
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| Red-winged Fairy-wren |
We
had a full day driving around the Walpole-Nornalup National Park area, visiting the Valley of the Giants -
with its monstrous red tingle and karri trees.
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| Karri and Tingle trees - Valley of the Giants |
I was surprised to find good numbers of Red-eared Firetails feeding roadside in the early morning - I saw at least 20 - and at the carpark for the Tree Top Walk. This was an impressive canopy walk through
the tree tops, 40m above the ground. Red-winged Fairy-wrens were also common at the carpark; they had learned to pick insects from vehicle bumper bars.
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| Red-eared Firetail |
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| Red-eared Firetail |
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| Tree Top Walk, Walpole Nornalup National Park |
We also visited various parts of Walpole Nornalup National Park including Peaceful Bay, and Conspicuous Bay and
Lookout (I saw an Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross off here) – spectacular coastal scenery. We then visited the aptly named Giant
Tingle Tree, and the beautiful and unusual Circular Pool.
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| Circular Pool |
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| Conspicuous Bay |
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| Giant Tingle Tree |
Southern Short-nosed Bandicoot and Tawny Frogmouth were about the camp at night.
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| Tawny Frogmouth |
On our last morning, I walked the circuit road near the caravan park again. I was pleased to find a pair of Crested Shrike-tit - the distinctive western race and a future potential split. I had missed this bird when I lived in Perth and looked unsuccessfully for it during our recent trip to Dryandra. I noticed that its call was somewhat different from our eastern bird.
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| Crested (Western) Shrike-tit |
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| Crested (Western) Shrike-tit |
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