My friend, Helen, was keen to add all the south-west endemics to her list, and planned a trip with Louis Masarei from Birding South West. Just for fun, I invited myself along too. Helen and I were scheduled to fly to Perth on Sunday, 27 September 2026. Before we left, we had time to check out the Channel-billed Cuckoo in Yarra Bend Park close to home. A propitious start to our trip, I thought. We had an uneventful flight and spent the night in Perth. Louis picked us up at 6.30 the next morning and we set off immediately for Wandoo. There we saw Rufous Treecreepers, Western Yellow Robins, and, best of all, both male and female Western Shriketits. We spent the night at Cocklebiddy and set off early again on Tuesday morning. First stop was Lake Douglas, where we had magnificent views of a Copperback Quail-thrush. He sat up in a bush singing to us, showing off his beautiful black throat. Then he turned around just to ensure we admired his lovely copper-coloured back as well. The birding really was very good. We had Gilbert's Whistler, Crested Bellbird, Chestnut-rumped Thornbills, Redthroats, Bee-eaters, Mulga Parrots and Spiny-cheeked, Brown-headed and Grey-fronted Honeyeaters. How good is that! On Wednesday we visited the Eyre Bird Observatory, which is closed. It was sad to see the starling trap abandoned and overgrown. Having had such great views of the Copperback Quail-thrush yesterday, today we had excellent sightings of the Nullarbor Quail-thrush. This photo is by Louis Masarei (who, of course, also took the photo of the Pink Cockatoo above).
We spent the night at the Nullarbor Roadhouse, who were exceedingly proud of their use of diesel. The information brochure informed us: 'We are 100% self-powered. Have you ever taken the luxurious 25-day cruise from LA to Sydney? Our generators use more diesel in a week than a cruise liner taking this journey. We could even stop via Bora Bora and New Zealand on the way.' Extraordinary! On Thursday we were disappointed in how many rabbits we saw. We also saw three dingoes, and, much more important, lots of quail-thrush. As soon as we'd had a good look at a Nullarbor Quail-thrush, we turned our attention to looking for Naretha Bluebonnets. Look as we might, all we could see were quail-thrush! There had been recent rain. The country was blooming and there were lots of puddles. But we had difficulty finding any bluebonnets. The weather was not kind. It was cloudy and windy, but we were entertained by babblers and honeyeaters (Singing, Spiny-cheeked and Yellow-throated Miners). We also saw Crimson Chats, Slender-billed Thornbills and a few Rufous Fieldwrens. We saw a layer of fog over the bight that Louis told us was a Marine Layer. As we saw the end of the layer, it did look odd.
We had to wait until Friday to get a reasonable view of bluebonnets. These birds are not easy. The weather improved sufficiently for us to admire a snake. Helen was keen to see an Inland Dotterel, but alas, there'd been too much rain. There were no bare patches of ground where Inland Dotterels like to play. As compensation, she admired Western Wattlebirds in the banksia, her 500th Australian bird. (The same day, we saw Cape Barren Geese, which were Louis' 500th bird for the year!) On Sunday, we drove to Cheynes Beach, admiring superb wildflowers in Fitzgerald National Park along the way.
We had lunch on the porch of Louis' cabin while a Spotted Scrubwren picked up crumbs by our feet. We enjoyed a pleasant walk, although it was a bit windy. We saw Red-winged Fairywrens and Gilbert's Honeyeaters. With Louis as our guide, we had good views of the three skulkers of course, but, more remarkable was the vocalisation of a Southern Right Whale. It was very loud and sounded like a foghorn. A Common Bronzewing (Brush are just as numerous here) sat on a rock and called, its call echoing across the valley. Later, Helen was delighted to add Malleefowl to her list (especially after I'd told her not to get her hopes up). At the Porongorups, we saw over 100 Baudin's Black Cockatoos. On Wednesday, I was the one who was delighted to add a new subspecies of Little Grassbird to my lifelist at Lake Seppings. At Lake Muir, we saw the local spider orchids (also an unwelcome, wild, very healthy, horse). We started Thursday morning with a very pleasant walk around Big Brook Dam at Pemberton. There were lots of White-breasted Robins and Western Rosellas, and a Musk Duck displaying very noisily. That evening, we failed to see Masked Owls, but did manage some Western Ringtails. The highlight on Friday was a numbat at Dryandra. We returned to Dryandra the next morning and saw two young numbats. I'd never seen numbats before. What beautiful creatures they are! And what elegant tails they have!
This lovely photo of a gorgeous Red-capped Parrot was taken by Louis. On our last day, after admiring the young numbats, we visited Pumphrey's Bridge and added two of my favourite birds to our birdlist: Red-capped Robin and Jacky Winter. Louis showed Helen some Mute Swans at Northam, and they looked very healthy. Last time I'd seen them, their wings appeared to be deformed, which I thought was due to inbreeding, but now I'm told that their wings had been pinned. Louis was hoping for one last bird to add to his list, to bring the total to 200: not bad for 12 days' birding. On Sunday, Helen and I flew home, with many great memories. I can report that Helen was not disappointed with all her new lifers. Thank you, Louis, for a wonderful trip.
