Following our stay in the WA
south coast town of Esperance (see last post) we headed east 120 km to Cape
Arid National Park, a vast wilderness of heathlands, shrubby woodlands and
rugged coastline. Cape Arid is the eastern-most distributional limit of many
south-west WA animals and plants, notably the endangered Western Ground Parrot,
which of course I intended to search for.
I had been advised by the Albany
regional office of National Parks to camp near the mouth of Thomas River
because our vehicle, towing a camper trailer, would not be able to reach the
camping ground at Seal Creek. My Subaru is all-wheel, not 4-wheel, and I was
told that road conditions to reach Seal Creek required 4-wheel. This was a shame
because Seal Creek is much closer to Poison Creek Road - the main area for the
Western Ground Parrot – and I would have been able to listen for the birds at
dusk and dawn, therefore being able to possibly pinpoint their whereabouts.
(Thomas River, much closer to Esperance, is a long drive of 55km along dirt roads to the area.) As I learned later, this advice was rubbish.
We could easily have been able to get to Seal Creek on roads that were quite
good. I mention this for the benefit of anyone wanting to go there looking for the bird. (By contrast, the people in the Esperance office of National Parks were very helpful.)
There is the option of two
camping grounds at Thomas River - one run by National Parks
and one by the local Shire. We opted for the National Parks one because of its
abundance of flowering banksia, with the potential for seeing Honey Possum (none were seen).
There were loads of honeyeaters about, mainly New Holland Honeyeater and
Western Wattlebird - the latter far more common here than further west – and a
few Western Spinebills.
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| New Holland Honeyeater & Banksia |
We left early on our first
morning to drive to Poison Creek Road, which runs south to Seal Creek through a
large area of low heathland. I had been given details for two sites where birds
were seen or heard recently and found the sites easily enough. Despite several
hours of trudging through the heath, however, no parrots were flushed. Compared
to Eastern Ground Parrot habitat in Queensland, the heath here was quite low
and open – relatively easy to walk through.
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| Moi in Poison Creek Road heath |
It was the proverbial needle in
the haystack – a total of 120 parrots living over such a large area; I had no
real expectations, but it’s worth a shot.
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| Lots of wildflowers but no parrots - Poison Creek Road heathland |
The wildflowers put on a superb
show. This is the first site on our trip, other than the mulga lands much
further north, where the flowers were in full display with their dazzling array
of colours and forms.
It was nice to see plenty of
Rufous (Western) Fieldwrens in the heath; I had previously had only poor views
earlier in the trip near Cervantes. This was the commonest bird species in the heath,
followed closely by Tawny-crowned Honeyeater. A Wedge-tailed Eagle provided
surprisingly tame while a Spotted Harrier flew over.
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| Tawny-crowned Honeyeater |
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| Wedge-tailed Eagle |
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| Western (Rufous) Fieldwren |
On the way back, several
Shinglebacks were crossing the road. Other herps seen in the area included
Carpet Snake, Heath Monitor Varanus rosenbergi, Mallee Tree-Dragon Amphibolurus norrisi, Marbled Gecko Christinus marmoratus and Spotted-thighed Frog Litoria cyclorhyncha and a dragon, a monitor, a gecko and a frog - all to be identified when
I get home.
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| Mallee Tree-Dragon |
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| Spotted-thighed Frog |
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| Marbled Gecko |
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| Heath Monitor |
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| Shingleback |
Other birds about the camping
ground included Rock Parrot, White-browed (Spotted) Scrubwren, Shining
Bronze-Cuckoo and Horsfield’s Bronze Cuckoo.
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| Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo |
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| Rock Parrot |
%2Bscrubwren.JPG) |
| White-browed (Spotted) Scrubwren |
On our second morning, we checked
out some of the local walking tracks, including to Belinup Hill and Dolphin Cove. The
highlight was a female Southern Right Whale with her calf at Dolphin Cove, just
off the rocks. These majestic, huge animals were less than 50 metres from us
they swam about, the youngster clearly more interested in a frolic than its
mother. On one occasion, the calf swam towards the beach shore near the rocks; the adult quickly herded it back into deeper water. We could see the calf suckling at one point.
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| Southern Right Whale - calf can be seen suckling in this image |
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| Adult female Southern Right Whale |
We returned to the cove in the
afternoon and the two whales were in the same spot. They had been joined by a
second adult.
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| Southern Right Whale - mother and calf |
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| Southern Right Whale - mother and calf |
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