Life at Broome Bird Observatory

A Glimpse of Life at the BBO from Assistant Warden Caitlin:

Imagine waking up to the sound of Brush Cuckoos, enjoying a morning walk in the coolness of the morning air, wandering in what feels like a bird oasis. After the morning chorus fades, you know your day is set to begin! We set off to explore the wonders of the mangroves on a morning tour, sharing your excitement with guests at the bird species we encounter. Muddy boots are an inevitable part of the Mangrove Tour so we end at the mud wash station, washing of the mud and then share the joys of Double Barred Finches, Greater Bower Birds and Brown Goshawks at the bird baths.

As the midday heat passes, your off to do some trail maintenance before heading into the Discovery Center for the afternoon, helping visitors connect with the birdlife and landscapes we’ve come to love. This is the magical reality of our life out here as the 2025 Assistant Wardens at the Broome Bird Observatory.

Migration Watch:

Arriving just at the end of wet season, I was lucky enough to see the last few weeks one of the worlds greatest specticals – shorebird migration. Having Roebuck Bay, one of the most diverse places for shorebirds in Australia, at our doorstep has meant we have seen many departures for the month of April and start of May. Almost every evening during this time I would head down to the bay to help conduct ‘Migration Watch’. We head down with scopes, binoculars and data sheets in hand to monitor the evenings movements.

Here we counted departing birds by species, tracking their numbers and flight paths, tracking them from the moment we spotted them on the horizon to the moment they pass overhead. When multiple flocks began to make formation and be seen in the horizon it would cause chaos amoungst us on the beach, with some of us calling directions using clouds as reference points, others glued to their scopes, frantically trying to ID individuals before they flew over the cliffs behind us. The thrill never wore off. There’s truly nothing that compares to the energy and anticipation of those migration surveys.

New Assistant Wardens:

By the end of the migration period for these shorebirds we welcomed a new Assistant Warden Caitlin (AKA Cait) to the BBO team. Cait has some great birding skills and is great at identifying birds of prey and is a wizard in Excel. As a Marine Biologist she also has a lot of insite to add to our tours. As assistant wardens myself and Cait work alongside Jamie and Sebastian with the smooth running of the BBO and its research programs. Our roles include everything from leading tours (the Mangrove Tour still holds the top spot for me), to conducting point counts and working in the Discovery Centre; all while sharing our passion and enthusiasm for birds and the ecosystems they inhabit both here and abroad. We are both enjoying our time here at the Broome Bird Observatory and look forward to learning more from the incredible diversity that surrounds us.

Fun Fact: 40% of the 2025 BBO team is made up of Caitlins