What a stunner and what a great start to my latest trip to Aus! Banded Lapwing. It's taken a few visits for me to finally see one but it was worth the wait. Today I saw three on a grassy verge at the side if the road as I was leaving town to head for Cape Leeuwin. I pulled over, put the window down and watched as three birds fed in a flower filled grassy area. The bird in the photo walked towards me right up to the edge of the road and then actually walked across the tarmac and behind my car and onto the grass on the other side! Fortunately this was just a side road and traffic was very light and hopefully it wont do that in rush hour! Talking of flower filled meadows, there are lots of flowers at the moment so I'm putting together a rolling blog post of those I see and will post it here soon 😀.
Black-faced woodswallow.
Laughing kookaburra.
Australian ringneck, sub species semitorquatas, know locally as Twenty-eight parrot. This race only occurs south of Perth but it's a widespread species which I have seen before. Port Lincoln parrot which I saw last year is a different sub species of Australian ringneck.
Western whistler, now split from golden whistler. My recording of one on Rottnest Island last year was the first ever recording of the species on the website https://www.xeno-canto.org. Amazingly, while I'm writing this blog I can hear one outside my window!
This is my hotel for the next few days, a beautiful building, built in 1896. The trees in the grounds support a few western ringtail possums which are a rare species in Australia, and Busselton is the best place to see them.
With a torch, ideally a head torch, they are quite easy to pick out in the trees!
Busselton's famous jetty.
Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, built the year before my hotel!
Three ospreys fished this bay!
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