Tomato Lake, King’s Park, and Other Stuff

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Now having more or less adjusted to Western Australia time I was able to get up for an early morning walk in the bushland and rural housing in the local area where I was staying in Kalamunda. This started with a pair of White-cheeked Honeyeaters signing prominently in a plant with spikey leaves and yellow flowers that I have been told is called parrot brush.

This plant is very popular with honeyeaters and I was able to find all four of the species that are commonly found in Perth in the clumps of these plants which are New Holland, Singing, Brown, and White-cheeked Honeyeaters.
There were also quite a few Common Bronzewing Pigeons sitting on the paths as we went past. We soon left the bushland area and walked along a suburban road where, much to my surprise, I saw large numbers of Red-capped Parrots in many gardens.

Also around were other interesting species like Grey Butcherbirds and loads of New Holland Honeyeaters and many other common species like Laughing Kookaburras and wattlebirds as well as both Carnaby’s and Red-tailed Black Cockatoos. I was also very pleased with the picture that I got of a New Holland Honeyeater with the yellow on the wing matching the yellow of the wattle flowers.


We then had breakfast and went to a location called Tomato Lake which is surprisingly good for birds despite how urban it is and how much human activity there is around the lake. Although not as well known as other, better, birding sites in Perth for waterfowl such as Herdsman lake, this allows very good views of lots of waterfowl that is very used to human activity including things like the South Western Australian Purple Swamphen,

Australasian Grebe, Blue-billed Duck, Pink-eared Duck and others that are very numerous, with smaller numbers of species such as Australian Shoveler, Grey Teal, and Yellow-billed Spoonbill. There is also a massive and very noisy breeding colony of White Ibis which often has some Nankeen Night Herons hidden amongst them, though I didn’t see any that time. I also saw one bird that I wasn’t expecting, a female Mistletoebird.

From Tomato Lake I was then picked up by a different aunt who lives in Perth to stay with her for the next two nights to do some birding around her part of Perth. So we went to King’s Park which is quite central in the city but has quite a large area of natural bush. There were lots of Striated Paradlotes around as well as kookaburras and galahs. Also along the sides of the paths were diggings in the ground made by Southern Brown Bandicoots which I was really hoping to see however apparently they are very rarely seen. We then walked along a path by the swan river but at a fair height above it and looking down I could see Crested Terns, Silver Gulls and various cormorants and darter. Also along the path were lots of Silvereyes and various honeyeaters too as well as large numbers of wattlebirds (Western and Red) and loads of bandicoot diggings. Suddenly as we were walking along I noticed something rustling in the bushes next to the path, on closer inspection it proved to be a bandicoot! It just sat fairly calmly by the side of the path digging in the ground for about 30 seconds before going off into the undergrowth. Although the vegetation was very dense I was able to get a few pictures.


After a bit more birding and walking around we headed back and went to a small lake very near to my aunt’s house. The waterbirds here were all common species and for many years in the past there was a resident Australian Hobby that lived around there however apparently it disappeared a couple of months ago which was a bit sad. However there were lots of Little Corellas around and at a viewing deck there were two very large mossy Oblong Turtles in the water below.

Before sunset we went to one final birding site which is a large cemetery where a huge colony of over 100 Carnaby's Cockatoos comes in every evening to roost in the surrounding trees. It doesn't seem like ideal habitat for cockatoos with trees that overhang the road but it was pretty cool to see all of the cockatoos come in and sit on graves and drinking water that had collected in the urns before flying up into the trees. A researcher/scientist was there too counting the size of the colony and monitoring changes in the number of birds. Although it soon got too dark to take pictures, I was able to take some pictures of the earlier birds.


After dinner I went back to that same small lake that I had been to earlier after dark where there were two Nankeen Night-herons that were very active which was quite a cool thing to see.

New Birds seen:
White-cheeked Honeyeater
Brown Honeyeater
Grey Butcherbird
Dusky Moorhen
Pacific Black Duck
Purple Swamphen
Tree Martin
Pink-eared Duck
Brown Falcon
Welcome Swallow
Blue-bill Duck
Australian Shoveler
Grey Teal
Yellow-billed Spoonbill
Mistletoebird
Crested Tern
Little Pied Cormorant
Silver Gull
Silvereye
Black Swan
Australian Shelduck
Little Corella
Nankeen Night Heron

Mammal:
Southern Brown Bandicoot

Reptile:
Oblong Turtle

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