Returning to the bitumen via the ‘back way’ always yields a surprise.  It was a covey of Stubble Quail last time, Flock Bronzewing many times during the Dry, a Rosy Starling one year, and this time - multitudes of Oriental Pratincole .  In the past week large flocks have been sighted all around the area and one can’t help but suspect a repeat of the ‘boom’ numbers recorded in 2004.

Flock of Oriental Pratincoles

All in all a successful and enjoyable day.  The following days have seen more rain fall in the area and a bevy of unusual sightings - a Red-backed Kingfisher at the Obs, four Black-shouldered Kites in a tree together, a flock of Eastern Yellow Wagtail at One Tree (with at least one Green-headed Wagtail ), Whiskered Tern flocks after insects over the Obs, and a solitary bird on the town ovals - an Australian Hobby .  In orientating Shane and Deolinda we find ourselves often saying, "Hmmm… that’s unusual".  Watch this space!

Sunset over the plains

Well, we’ve loved our year at the BBO and are very sorry to be leaving, but sometimes the best time to leave a party is at its height.

Glen and Sarah

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Green buds on trees, the occasional snake creeping out expectantly (or perhaps they’re after the impatient frogs that have become a little more conversational in their echo chambers of drain-pipes and cistern?), surely it’s going to rain soon? 

Barking Owl waiting in town for the Wet

If anything has characterised the final months of the year at the BBO, it’s been new life.  After seeing Bar-shouldered Dove chicks disappear from their nest (after many weeks of patience tending by the parents), and Restless Flycatchers abandoning their nests twice - we were a bit despondent.  And when the same flycatchers started again almost within head-bumping distance of the toilet block we weren’t hopeful.  But what do we know?  First there were eggs (of course) and then three healthy hungry hatchlings.  Before too long they were making sorties away from the nest with their attentive parents, leaving a disappointed-looking Little Bronze Cuckoo peering into the empty nest.  The fledglings hung around for an unexpectedly long time.  Only when the parents began yet another (!) nest did they head off to find their own cartwheeling grounds.  The parents meanwhile are now in the company of a pair of Rufous-throated Honeyeaters who are nesting an arm’s length away.

Mumma Restless Flycatcher

Meanwhile, up the path, the Brown Goshawks were roosting on eggs for what seemed like an age before three fluffy chicks appeared in the nest, quickly filling it up as they grew.  They too have now fledged, with one returning whenever it rained a bit.

Clearly there’s something in the water up this way because…we too must soon head off to feather our nest in expectation of a little one!

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If you’d asked any keen birder a fortnight ago what vagrant bird species they expect to turn up next in Australia, no-one would have said Hoopoe.  It’s only just up the likelihood list from Flamingo.  With the funky scientific name Upupa epops , the closest a Hoopoe (pronounced ‘Hoo-poo’) usually gets to Australia is Singapore, a couple of thousand kilometres away. 

That is why it is mind-boggling that this bird - unmistakable with its punk crest, bold striped wings and long down-curved bill - has been pecking away at the lawns of Roebuck Plains Roadhouse for the past few weeks.

Although it migrates widely across other continents, this is the first Hoopoe to turn up in Australia.   Why it’s chosen this particular roadhouse and how it got there is anyone’s guess.  Some suggest it may have hitched a ride on a ship - however its regular habitat requirements all but discount that theory.  Could it be an escaped pet?  Again, this is unlikely, given that insectivores such as Hoopoes don’t make good pets.  In all probability this bird has simply strayed from its usual pecking grounds… a very long way!

Rivalling this Hoopoe’s travels were the twitchers - birders constantly on the look-out for new a species to add to their list - who, within hours of the bird being spotted, were clocking up their kilometres in flights from all around the country in order to ‘tick’ it.  For most of them, it has obliged - indeed, one carload of twitchers who drove up from Perth we able to pull up right alongside it!

How long it will stay, nobody knows.  Hoopoes are notoriously nomadic, so get a glimpse before it has flown the… errr… roadhouse!

First seen by Kim Onton!

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Mud-sampling Maurice

Although human visitors are few and far between, the regular vagrant (if such is possible) Semi-palmated Plover is back at its usual haunts.  However, undoubtedly the biggest birding surprise this year in Broome, if not all of Australia, was the appearance of a Eurasian Hoopoe .  It was about as expected as a flamingo or hoatzin.  It’s so exciting we’ve devoted a separate blog entry to it!

Semi-palmated Plover on Demco Beach (pic by Claire Morton)

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A fairly constant sea breeze had the shorebirds on edge this month but also kept temperatures down and led to plenty of Lesser Frigatebird sightings in the bay and over the Obs.  This is of course the season the migratory shorebirds arrive from their breeding grounds; some for their very first time (you can almost still see the down!). Their punctuality continues to astound - a flagged Ruddy Turnstone on its way to King Island has stopped into Broome for three consecutive years in the same spot on the same day of September. 

Lesser Frigatebird

The Australasian Waders Study Group spent around two weeks in September cannon-netting for Greater Sand Plovers - but not just any old ones.  Their target was the 30 individuals that had been fitted with geo-locators in Feb/March this year.  With 20,000+ GSPs in the bay, they had set themselves a difficult task.  But recover some they did.  No doubt once the data from the geolocators has been uploaded and analysed more questions will be answered (and, most likely, new ones raised).

Our first Birds of Broome Region course was a great success - 144 species, including all the shorebirds possible at this time of year (Common Redshank on the last day clinched that) and rarities such as Yellow Wagtail and Barn Swallow.

A highlight for the month was an overnight mist-netting session at a very chilly Taylor’s Lagoon.   A variety of species were caught including Long-toed Stint and Baillon’s Crake , as well as Stubble Quail .  It seems this latter species has well and truly moved in for the time being, with a number of sightings across various locations this month.

Long-toed Stint

A couple of Snubfin Dolphin researchers based themselves at the BBO for a few weeks.  Not described as a separate species until a few years ago, Roebuck Bay is a stronghold for this species in north-west Australia.

SIGHTINGS

Although Flock Bronzewing continue to be found on the plains, the discovery of a flock-less Bronzewing at Taylor’s Lagoon was unusual.  Midway through the month the Oriental Plover began to populate the plains, followed by Little Curlew .  It seems fences cause problems for some of these birds: a few with damaged wings have been seen next to fences, including one we nursed back to health over a few weeks.

'Orrie P'

Undoubtedly the sighting highlight for September was a Little Bittern at Nimilaica Claypan - only the third or so sighting in the area.  A young bird, the stripes on the chest caused a stir to begin with since most field guides only show this feature on the Yellow Bittern - an über-rarity.

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 It’s not just that we’ve too busy to blog, the last two months really did blend in together with daily tours, myriad day visitors, and a full to overflowing campground.  The most popular tour became the Bush and Plains Tour, which included the spectacular Kidneybean Claypan once the track had dried enough for access.  On the drive there we’d encounter groups of Brolga striding and dancing in the long dry grass.  Between grass and claypan are swathes of sampfire which is Yellow Chat territory.  A twitcher’s delight, these have been seen on every tour, with the largest flock numbering more than 300!  The claypan itself was home to multitudes of Black Swan and cygnets, 50+ Pelicans, up to 8 Black-necked Storks, and more Australian Pratincoles, Red-capped Plovers, Masked Lapwing, ducks and ibis  than one can poke a scope at. 

Yellow Chat (Photo by Ray Turnball)

With eighteen species of raptor spotted during these months - all bar one more than once - Broome must be close to being the Raptor Capital of Australia as well as the Shorebird Capital.  Once the centre of Australia dries out we’ll be on the look-out for Grey Falcon and Letter-winged Kites as well.

Speaking of shorebirds, there have been six cannon-netting sessions.  These have been consistently attended by enthusiastic volunteers - locals, day visitors and guests - some of the latter extending their stay by a week or more so as to be involved in the next session.  The catches included rarely caught birds such as Black-tailed Godwit and Gull-billed Terns (one of which was first banded 20 years ago!). 

Cannon-netting - off with a bang!

Broome sewerage works - famous for the vagrants that turn up there - is where many of the Plumed Whistling-Duck have settled as the plains have dried up.  Joining them have been a solitary Cattle Egret and a Radjah Shelduck, the latter right on the boundaries of its known distribution.  Similarly wayward are the now 50+ Green Pygmy-Geese and the handful of Comb-crested Jacana on the lakes.

Although more often seen in the Wet, the night birds have maintained their vigil over the Dry.  Spotlighting at Tagarana Bore yielded plenty of calling Owlet-Nightjar (albeit only one seen!). Southern Boobook remain regular along the road, Barking Owls have expensive taste - spending their time at the luxury resorts in town, Tawny Frogmouth remain occassional on our trails and the Bush Stone-Curlew has shared nought but its eerie call with us.   

Finally, with the nights warming up, the reptiles are out - most notably the Common Blue-tongued Lizards, their distinctive tracks criss-crossing the Obs.

SIGHTINGS

Generally confined to the mudflats of our Mangrove Tour, the semi-resident Redshanks have been seen out and about on Shorebird Tours - often first spotted by a Northern Hemisphere guest who casually remarks ‘oh there’s a Redshank’.  While our scopes whip in that direction, theirs continue searching earnestly for Great Knot! 

Ozzie the Beach-stone Curlew, who regularly wandered the bay last year, has been notably absent (to the disappointment of those who’ve asked after him).  In fact, this species has only been sighted twice this entire year within our 70km Bird Log radius.

Flock Bronzewing were spotted by a guest on the highway near the Obs, and have since been seen a number of times in the same cattle-grazed vicinity.  Another keen-eyed guest found Varied Sitella - an uncommon bird in our neck of the woods.  On our Lakes Tour, the generally hard-to-find Black-eared Cuckoo has been seen thrice, and also once a Square-tailed Kite. 

Even the cattle seem impressed by Flock Bronzewing

Causing much excitement on the plains were the Welcome Swallow and a Stubble Quail.  Both well out of their official distribution, they show how much we are yet to learn about the movements of Australian birds.

Stubble Quail

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*** STOP THE PRESS - see feature article in the West Australian on the BBO ***

We could almost see the dust trail as the 4WDs, caravans and grey nomads began their annual migration north from their southern ’summering’ grounds.  And, as Broome filled to the seams, we began to get busy too.  Many nights all ten of our bush-setting campsites have been occupied, we’ve had at least one tour daily, a steady stream of inquisitive day visitors, and on some evenings the Shadehouse has been full to overflowing for Bird Log.  Of course, we only have to drive into town and wait at a roundabout for 10 minutes to appreciate that our ‘busy’ is still pretty relaxed in the scheme of things.

Agile Wallabies inspecting our solar panels

As the plains dried up - much to the delight of the Bustards and Brolgas - the tracks to the lakes improved and we can now access all three lakes.  Tours out there have regularly had 80+ species - including 10 species of ducks and grebes (Green Pygmy-goose a highlight), Comb-crested Jacana , Australian Pratincole and White-necked Heron .  On occasion Square-tailed Kite, Little Eagle, Red-chested Button-quail and Mangrove Gerygone (yes… miles from mangroves!) have graced us with their presence.

Despite it being the time that many shorebirds are breeding on the other side of the globe, there are still 20,000+ birds in the bay.  A few of these are in their breeding plumage and consequently stick out like sore thumbs.  Whether these birds got all dressed up only to miss the bus, or else were like teenagers practicing getting dressed for the prom, it’s hard to tell.  Either way it does make spotting a Red Knot easier!

School-kids mudskipper spotting

Four uncommon visitors to the pindan - Grey Fantail, Broad-billed Flycatcher, White-gaped Honeyeater and juvenile Red-headed Honeyeater - have all made semi-regular appearances at the bird-baths.

Resident Great Bowerbird housekeeping

Without a doubt the bird highlight for this month was coming across 5 Painted Snipe on the plains whilst on tour.  We re-visited the site the next day and saw more than ten Painted Snipe , a Yellow Chat , Australian Spotted Crake and Buff-banded Rail .  For all the staff, that equated to at least one tick each, and for some of us, four!

Painted Snipe - 1 of 10!

Finally, a request for anyone interested in being a Campground Host in September - we have a vacancy.  In exchange for your help in keeping the Obs clean and tidy we provide you with a free powered site and access to our tours.  Please let us know ASAP.

Roebuck Plains

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The newly cleared Spinifex Trail

In between getting the place spruced-up, fire-safe and ship-shape, we started to ramp up on our tours.  A dust bowl last year, the rain-soaked Roebuck Plains (aka ‘the BBO paddock’) this year are alive with birds.  No sooner have we left the Pindan behind when Horsfield’s Bushlark, Brown Songlark and Australasian Pipit are flitting alongside or in front of the car.  Occasionally there is an explosion of flight as a covey of Brown Quail, Little Button-quail or Red-chested Button-quail are flushed.  We are soon distracted, however, by the apparent silver glitter in the sky over the floodplains.  Shorebirds… in the thousands!  At high tide they have been foregoing the beach (often beset with fisher-folk) and resting ‘out the back’.  Black-necked Stork, Black-winged Stilts, Red-kneed Dotterels (in their hundreds), Black-fronted Dotterels, all three ibis, and the occasional Brolga keep them company.  If we’re really lucky, there’ll be Flock Bronzewing wheeling around overhead. 

Australian Bustard

We continue along the fence - more often than not disturbing some Australian Bustard - until eventually we can drive no further as the ground is still soaked.  Before us are vast swathes of high grass, and constantly appearing above them are flocks of whistling duck and ibis, often flushed by Swamp Harriers.  This apparent grassland is actually dotted with large pools of water - how many, who knows?  Whiskered and Gull-billed Terns are having a field day above the grass; Purple Swamphen and Magpie Geese within.

Roebuck Plains... err, Lakes? (masses of Whistling Ducks)

And that’s just the plains.  We’ve finally been able to get out to Taylor’s Lagoon and Lake Campion, and what were muddy puddles (at their best) last year are wetlands, the likes of which one would normally associate with Kakadu.  Ducks, ducks and more ducks, not to mention stilts and terns (with plenty of young).  And there, out in the middle amongst the reeds, a Comb-crested Jacana is causally meandering along.  Another species out of its range - Green Pygmy-Geese - eight of them!  What next?  Baillon’s Crake, actually! 

Lake Campion (Photo: Sjouke Scholten)

Finally, mist-netting in both the mangroves and around the Obs has proven very fruitful, even if the Yellow White-eye do dominate the catches!

White-breasted Whistler

Sarah Katz and Glen Ewers

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Birds we have been so used to seeing over the Wet are now few and far between - Pheasant Coucal used be seen daily on the road or in town, Dollarbirds too; Red-tailed Black Cockatoos visited us three times in our first fortnight here and haven’t been seen since; territorial Red-backed Fairy-wrens have gone to ground; and Singing Bush-larks are much more shy.

On the flipside, there seems to have been a changing of the guards, with other birds now much more common.  At the bird-bath Double-barred and Long-tailed Finches have muscled in alongside the Brown and Rufous-throated Honey-eaters; Willie Wagtails now make spotting Restless Flycatchers more problematic; Brown Songlarks have become the largest of the ‘brown birds’ on the plains; and Whistling and Black Kites, as well as Brown Falcons dominate the sky.  On the mudflats Silver Gulls and Black-winged Stilt are filling the niches left behind by the migrating shorebirds.

April has been a ‘getting stuff done’ month.  Unexpectedly we were very quiet over the Easter period, and this allowed the Assistant Wardens and our Campground Hosts - Robyn and Dave - (organised through a DEC program) the chance to tackle the 5 page lists of things that needed fixing, replacing and building.  Meanwhile we Wardens have been more office-bound as we endeavour to streamline the administrative side of things.  Tours have picked up, however, and we’ve begun mist-netting again, so it’s not all work!

Yellow White-eye from Mangrove mist-netting

Since native title determinations were settled last year, a joint management initiative is being developed by the Yawuru Park Council and early indications are that the bay, the road and the BBO will all benefit from the new conservation focused arrangements.  These are promising times with many aspects of Roebuck Bay looking forward to sophisticated conservation management.

Last of the Wet (taken on a Bush and Plains tour)

SIGHTINGS

Flock Pigeons over the mangroves were an unexpected sighting this month.  With so much water on the plains, the bird -life is phenomenal.  Black, grey and white birds dominate - Whiskered Terns, White-winged Black Terns, all three Ibis species, Magpie Geese, Black-winged Stilts and Black-necked Storks abound, with Brolga, Australian Pratincole and the occasional Bustard adding some colour.  Finally, more than fifty Golden Plover - many in partial breeding plumage - was a surprise on town oval; mustering, it seems, before flying north together.

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Not long after AWSG left, our Wave the Waders Goodbye courses began and the GFN Red Knot satellite tagging crew arrived - there’s never a dull moment at the BBO! 

So that's why the bird baths have been so quiet! (Photo: Joop van Eerbeek)

Rain continued to fall quite late this Wet, causing whole swathes of country to be inundated, as well as delaying the arrival of our Assistant Wardens - Margot and Ray - who were holed up in Kununurra for a week.  Having been here last year, and both tireless enthusiastic workers, their arrival was a god-send. 

Highest tide in years - 10.56 metres!

Migration Watch

This inspiring phenomenon coincided with our two very successful Wave the Waders Goodbye courses in which participants honed their ID skills, learnt about the ecology of migratory shorebirds, and birded a variety of different habitats.  Concomitant with the first course was an expedition of researchers at the BBO satellite-tagging Red Knots.  Course participants benefited greatly from seeing birds up-close, as well as from evening lectures by the researchers.  Given the pressure on the Yellow Sea ‘re-fuelling’ mudflats in our flyway (see www.globalflywaynetwork.com.au) the monitoring of shorebird movements in response to habitat destruction is critical.  Preliminary data from the tagging has already revealed some interesting movements of birds during high tide.

SIGHTINGS

There has been a swag of notable bird sightings this month.  White-throated Gerygones were very vocal for a few weeks around the grounds, although getting a good look at one proved difficult.  After not seeing any thus far this year Common Redshank were again spotted in front of the Crab Creek mangroves.  The sewerage works yielded two different Snipe species and we’ll let you decide which one this is.

Snipe... species

A Crimson Chat (believe it or not, an unusual bird for the Broome area) was seen near Ganthaume Point, and on more than one occasion some Buttonquail that aren’t Little’s have been flushed on the plains and demand need closer scrutiny.  We’re certainly looking forward to exploring the surrounding lakes and lagoons once the flooded areas have receded a bit more.

Sarah and Glen

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