gryllosblog   Gryllo's (aka Ian Lewis') blog. All things to do with travel, wildlife especially birds, history, architecture and anything else that interests me.

The flight from Perth to Broome took us over some amazing desert scenery which helped pass the time.

We arrived at Broome mid morning ….

…. and after collecting the 4×4 cars and meeting Stuart who was to be be second leader and second driver on this section of the tour, we made a quick visit to the hotel to drop off our gear ….

….. and headed down to a jetty in the mangroves.

…. a site of local historic importance as the pearl lugger fleet used to disembark and unload here.

There were plenty of Fiddler Crabs on the mud below us but the birds tended to be elusive in the 35 degree late morning heat.

However at a nearby overflow pipe Red-headed Myzomelas, a tiny species of honeyeater, arrived for a drink.

Magpie-larks were common throughout the town ….

….and we had a real treat when we scanned a cricket pitch in the town centre, a group of eight Oriental Plovers fresh in from Mongolia were giving excellent views.

This enigmatic species can be hard to find but I have been lucky to see this species on two previous trips (Java and Australia’s Northern Territory) and saw it at three locations on this trip, but I have never encountered it in its gorgeous breeding plumage. However I will be visiting Mongolia in May this year so should catch up with that plumage at long last.

Also on the pitch were a number of resident Masked Lapwings.

We spent some time at the water treatment works where an elevated platform had been erected to let you watch the birds. There were many species here, ducks, waders, terns and these Australian Pelicans.

Among the many birds we saw were Royal Spoonbill ….

…. and Australasian Grebe.

Later that afternoon we visited nearby mangroves and walked along the sandy beach ….

…. and admired the rocks carved into bizarre shapes by wind and water.

Our main target here was the ‘Kimberley Flyrobin’, a very plain race of Lemon-bellied Flyrobin that was once treated as a separate species. The two subspecies group look different, occupy different habitats and are allopatric so there is no gene flow between them. The Handbook of the Birds of the World ‘Illustrated Checklist’ treats them as full species, its a shame IOC doesn’t as well.

Other mangrove species we saw in the area were Mangrove Fantail ….

…. White-breasted Whistler ….

…. and Dusky Gerygone, a species of Australian warbler.

We were back in a nearby area the following morning but our main targets were now waders (or shorebirds as they are known in North America).

A few White-headed Stilts were seen along the tide line. This species/race is found throughout Australasia. If we exclude the very different Banded Stilt of southern Australia and the similar but all-black Black Stilt of New Zealand, we are left, worldwide, with four stilt ‘species’; White-headed, White-backed, Black-winged and Black-headed, all of which differ only in the exact distribution of black and white on the head, neck and back. In the contrary situation to the Kimberley Flyrobin, IOC splits them all and HBW lumps them all. Obviously I like the idea of having the extra life birds on my list, but in reality I think the days of having four ‘pied stilt’ species are numbered.

The vast majority of the waders (or shorebirds if you are from North America) were very distant but as the tide rose we headed back along the track ….

…. to a number of lookouts where we could scope them (note the wader flocks along the shoreline, especially behind the grass).

…. although any attempt to get closer just resulted in flushing them. In this photo a few Black-tailed Godwits, tattlers and others can be seen in flight but the majority are Great Knots with a few Red-necked Stints in the foreground.

However in a few locations we could at least photograph the flock, if not individual birds.  Great Knots predominate in this photo as well. There is one still in partial summer plumage at about 10 o’clock to the centre. Like many of the species present, Great Knots breed on the tundra of eastern Siberia and winter in Australia.

This photo shows mainly Red-necked Stints, plus a few Curlew Sandpipers and sand plovers.

And there’s more! Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers, Curlew Sandpipers, Red-necked Stints and a few Terek Sandpipers are illustrated here.

A lot of Grey-tailed Tattlers, plus a few Black-tailed Godwits and Turnstones were roosting on the rocks, and a Pacific Reef Egret is taking shelter from the ferocious sun ….

…. as was this Great Egret.

On this sand spit smaller waders are joined by the odd Whimbrel, Greenshank and Bar-tailed Godwit. Also in the photo are a number of Gull-billed (or gullible as I like to call them) Terns. These are interesting, as the HBW Illustrated Checklist treats the Australian population macrotarsa as a separate species based on its larger size, differently shaped bill and nomadic and kleptoparasitic behaviour.

Also in the high tide roosts were a number of Crested Terns, Silver Gulls ….

…. and the odd White-faced Heron.

Back at the hotel for lunch and a chance to scan over the mangroves and see birds like

…. Brahiminy Kite ….

…. and White-bellied Sea-eagle.

During the afternoon we watched a number of roadside pools which was surprisingly successful with a nice range of species like Red-winged Parrot ….

…. Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (the red panel in the tail can just be seen on the foremost bird) ….

…. and Great Bowerbird, although this individual looks more interested in collecting pebbles to decorate its bower than coming for a drink).

Dabbling around the edge around was a trio of Pink-eared Ducks. You have to look hard to see the ‘pink ears’ but can just make out a small pink area behind the dark surround to the eye.

On the 21st we packed up and left Broome and drove towards Derby (a town that is presumably named after the British city where I spent much of my teenage years.). On route we saw our only flock of Budgies.

Seeing wild Budgerigars is always a high on the wish-list of any birder visiting Australia, but the species is nomadic, travelling from one area that has had rainfall to the next and the flocks are restless and not prone to posing for photos.

Whistling Kites were quite common (primary moult in this individual gives it an unusual outline) ….

…. and at a river crossing we saw the magnificent Black-necked Stork ….

…. the equally magnificent Australian Bustard ….

…. and the more mundane Intermediate Egret.

Other species seen on route included the delightful and diminutive Diamond Dove ….

…. the ubiquitous Magpie-lark (a relative of the monarch flycatchers and not either a magpie or a lark) ….

…. and another common bird, Torresian Crow, which replaces Australian Raven, Little Raven and Little Crow in the north.

Yellow-throated Miners (a species of honeyeater) ….

…. and Little Corellas also kept us company.

In due course we reached Derby, had a very late breakfast and then headed west along the Gibb River Road. We weren’t far out of the town when we ran out of tarmac.

We wouldn’t see a paved road again (apart from a few short stretches over bridges) until we were almost at Kununurra in three days time. It was a given, especially for those in the second vehicle, to be enveloped in dust at all times. Note the radio aerial on the left of the bonnet has snapped of from all the vibration.

Our drive across the Kimberley region will be the subject of the next post, however I like to end with an eye-catching shot (mainly because Facebook has stopped selecting a photo at random and now choses the last one to head up a post). This sunset was photographed at the rocky beach at Broome where we visited the on the first day to look for Kimberley Flyrobin.