Month September 2018

Swanview Tunnel & John Forrest National Park

wildlifewatchingaustralia 5 Comments

It was the end of school third term and I took the holidays off to spend time with the family.  My wife Mel works & daughter Sienna goes to daycare respectively 2 days a week so Liam & I dropped the girls off and then headed for the hills!

Our first idea was to look for bats in the Swanview tunnel that can be found in John Forrest National Park.  We brought our torches and a packed morning tea.  The parking can be found here.  See below for the map of the tunnel site.  The tunnel opened in 1896 and the track has been preserved as a John Forrest heritage trail.

We headed for the tunnel taking the old railpath which is used by walkers, mountain bikers and lots of mums with prams & bubs! There was some water in the tunnel but the torches kept us of of trouble.  Unfortunately no bats were seen.

Liam in socks!
Liam checking out the workers testing the tunnel for something!
Torches are fun!
Tree roots coming in through the roof

Once through the tunnel we walked past the site of an old train crash in 1896 – see below pic for the story.

We really enjoyed our snacks after working up quite an appetite.

Food time

Lots of birds were seen on our walk as below.
28 Parrots @ John Forrest NP
Grey butcherbird @ John Forrest NP
Galah @ John Forrest NP
Yellow thornbill @ John Forrest NP

We enjoyed some close views of Red-tailed black cockatoos eating gumnuts.

Red-tailed black cockatoo @ John Forrest NP
Red-tailed black cockatoo @ John Forrest NP
Red-tailed black cockatoo @ John Forrest NP

We then headed back through the tunnel once more checking out the water.

 

After the tunnel we saw a distant rainbow bee-eater harassing a Little eagle!

Little eagle @ John Forrest NP
Little eagle @ John Forrest NP
Little eagle @ John Forrest NP
Little eagle buzzed by Rainbow bee-eaters! @ John Forrest NP

We had had a lovely morning walk and recommend this walk – lovely for kids and the tunnel is something very different.

View towards from the hills.

Stroll through Kings Park

wildlifewatchingaustralia 3 Comments

My beautiful wife and I try to get some date time each fortnight.  This fortnight Mel had the brilliant idea to drop the kids off with their Grandies and go for a walk in Kings Park next to Perth CBD.  Kings Park is Perth’s botanical gardens, combined with lovely parks, play areas and two thirds of it bush in a 400 hectare reserve very close to the CBD.

It was feeling like spring weather and we headed to the park planning to walk through the botanical gardens which should be full of flowers this time of year.  I also wanted to walk down “Law walk” as I had heard on facebook that someone had seen 12 Quenda (Isoodon fusciventer) during the daytime on a walk recently.  It’s surmised that an unauthorised release of Quenda occurred in the park as their genetics indicate they come from the Bibra lake region and the staff both love and detest them – they are digging away, do what bandicoots do, but can’t read the signs to keep out of the immaculately tended botanic gardens full of rare plants!

It was really busy and we found it tough to get a park but immediately felt at peace once we started walking through the gardens.

Once we headed down to Law walk I saw what I think were possibly bandicoot diggings but didn’t see an actual Quenda.

Suspected quenda diggings @ Kings park
Suspected quenda diggings @ Kings park

As we headed down the path a little further we saw a bounce of a bird that was unmistakably a Fairy-wren.  It settled on the fence and we could see the blue of an eclipse non-dominant male.

Purple-backed fairy-wren @ Kings Park

We then caught a glimpse of a brilliantly coloured bird with a couple of other drab cross the path in front of us.

Purple-backed fairy-wren @ Kings Park
Purple-backed fairy-wren @ Kings Park
Purple-backed fairy-wren @ Kings Park

It was the dominant male and I had a suspicion it was a Variegated fairy-wren (there are many species in the wider Perth region).  I checked with the brains trust (WA Birds fb group) and they confirmed it was this species but also advised it had been recently split from the widely distributed Variegated fairy-wren and now was known as the Purple-backed fairy-wren! (Malurus assimilis).  It is also possible to determine which species the female belongs to with this imaginative titled Birdlife Australia article ‘50 shades of brown!‘ see a photo of a female below.

Purple-backed fairy-wren @ Kings park
Purple-backed fairy-wren @ Kings park

We followed the flock and I saw one other new species for me – a Varied sittella (Daphoenositta chrysoptera).  Not a great shot but was able to tell the species from underneath.

Varied sittella @ Kings Park

A lovely walk with great company (wife without kids!) on a beautiful Spring day – the warmer weather is coming!