Perth 10-17Jun11

From JS

My family enjoyed a fantastic time with the giant mammals from the south. We covered Perth (King's Park), Albany (Porongurup National Park, Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve, Torndirrup National Park and Whale-watching), Augusta (Lighthouse, Jewel Cave and Whale-watching Cruise), Margaret River (Hamelin Bay, Wineries and local produce), Dunsborough (Lighthouse, Sugarloaf Rock and Canal Rock), Busselton (Busselton Jetty) and Mandurah (Harbour Cruise and Miniature Village). The latter 2 towns were last minute itinerary. Since it was a family holiday and our focus was on the whales, we didn't do much birding, minus the poorly-planned trip to Two Peoples Bay. Thus, we only recorded 103++ sp and 9 out of the 13 Southwest Australia endemics. With more intent and more bird-friendly weather, the list could have been longer - unfortunately.

Pelagic-wise, we sighted 4 albatross sp (Royal of sanfordi race, Yellow-nosed of bassi race, Black-browed and Shy of salvini race), >3 Skuas, Wilson's storm petrel and plentiful of gannets. Out in the oceans, only the whales' number (>10) could match the gannets, which I must say were the hays in the haystack. Unfortunately, we dipped on the shearwaters, petrels and prions. From the land, we saw 1 fluttering/hutton's shearwater and 1 diving petrel, so I guess the opportunistic land-based seabirding more than make it up for the missing families of seabirds.

Full report at travellingbirder.com, which unfortunately has been shut down.