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2026/08/25: Cheynes Beach, WA
A long day on foot, walking over 5 miles, primarily in soft sand, and standing motionless for long periods while trying to entice Noisy Scrub-birds and Western Bristlebirds into view. [These species are some of the hardest to see in the world, living on the ground in dense coastal heath and almost never coming into the open.] Followed the progress of one scrub-bird for 45 minutes as it investigated our Bluetooth speaker but it never showed. Another sang and called spontaneously for several minutes from just five feet away, but did not reveal itself. Heard the bristlebird well from perhaps 30 feet. These are both new families for us! [We will, on rare occasions, count birds on our life lists that are heard but not seen. They must be heard multiple times, very clearly; be positively identifiable by sound by us (not just a tour leader); and be memorable, so that we could identify them if we heard them again. Only about 15 species on our life lists, of over 5000, are heard-only.] During the day we carefully checked many hundreds of red-and-white-striped Banksia coccinea inflorescences for Honey Possum, and repeated the exercise after dark with a thermal imager, but to no avail.
2026/08/26: Cheynes Beach, WA
For the first time in a long time, lost an entire day to rain. Drove around a bit at mid-day and saw nice flowers at Waychinicup. Had a calling Brown Quail in our site.
2026/08/27: Cheynes Beach, WA
Rain in the morning and strong, cold winds all day. Walked 4.5mi with only one sighting of note: I saw a scrub-bird run across a two-track, which took it an estimated 1.5sec. Have heard at least 9 different scrub-birds in the ca 4km of trails covered.
2026/08/28: To Stirling Range NP, WA
The morning taken up with shopping and other chores. Had lunch in Porongorup NP, where we saw outlier Karri and Jarrah-Marri Forests. Got to Stirling Range Retreat around 3 pm and took a quick drive up Bluff Knoll Road. When we got back, I walked around the campground, finding several handsome Banded Plovers. Even in therms, down, and fleece, recording bats was a frigid experience.
2026/08/29: Stirling Range NP, WA
A gloomy day, though not much actual rain, just a constant threat. Joined a bird walk through the campground led by Bill from Perth and got helpful info, particularly the location of a tree with a resident Australian Owlet-Nightjar. There was never enough sun during the day for it to poke its head out, so we staked it out at dusk and got great scope views 15 minutes after sunset, seeing every rictal bristle clearly! I did not expect this fairly common, very widespread life bird to take so long to find on this trip. Otherwise, flowers were the stars of the show today. Visited three very interesting saline lakes and saw our first Heathy Mallee habitat, but could not get a satisfactory photo due to the weather. A drive after dark yielded only one native mammal, an unidentified macropod.
2026/08/30: Stirling Range NP, WA
The forecast was for a gorgeous day, and it finally happened around noon. I hiked the Mt. Trio Road, and heard a couple of Western Whipbirds. This is the third member of the triumvirate of southwestern skulkers, the others being Noisy Scrub-bird and Western Bristlebird. I feel pretty good about having seen one and heard all three. After lunch, we hiked farther at Salt Lake than yesterday, and finally found our target, Western Fieldwren. When we returned to camp, the Owlet-nightjar was soaking up the late afternoon sun.
2026/08/31: Corackerup Preserve to Esperance, WA
A long day of driving with 75 minutes of birding at Corackerup Preserve, an extensive mallee site, where we had great looks at Purple-gaped Honeyeater; and 45 minutes at the end of the day at Pink Lake, where a superb pogonia-like orchid, Caladenia longicauda, was the highlight. Got take-out Indian for dinner and finally had enough signal to get the blog off.
2026/09/01: Esperance to Cocklebiddy, WA
A quick check of the north shore of Pink Lake, which we did not get to last evening, revealed 86 Black Swans and two hoped-for Hooded Plovers! It was great to see this elegant shorebird on its saline lake breeding grounds. Started the long ( ca 7-hr) drive at 9 a. m. and saw a nice selection of habitats, including Yilgarn Mixed Woodland (a favorite) and unexpected Temperate Tussock Grassland, our 50th native habitat.
We ate lunch a bit early because Rte 1, the only significant road in the region, was clogged up with wide loads. We caught back up to the worst offender late in the afternoon; it stretched 3/4 of the way across the entire highway, forcing even road trains coming in the opposite direction to go completely off the pavement. It traveled at about 60% of the speed limit and we were behind it for over an hour, causing us to fall half an hour behind schedule, and arrive at our campsite after dark. Truly obnoxious and unsafe as a few “brave” vehicles passed it.
Today we left the endemic-rich southwest corner of Western Australia as we passed beyond Cape Arid. About 15 species of birds occur nowhere else, and we found all of them, though one was only heard. During this 22-day period, another 27 life birds were seen in this region, and 9 life mammals were logged.
2026/09/02: Koonalda Road, Nullarbor Plain, SA
Crossed out of Western Australia and into South Australia late this morning. An Australian Bustard flew by while we were driving, only our second sighting this trip. The road to Koonalda Homesite and the cave beyond was very slow, and had rather few birds other than Australian Pipit, though Rufous Fieldwren and Southern Whiteface were each nice second sightings.
2026/09/03: Koonalda Road, Nullarbor Plain, SA
Of all the amazing coincidences, I was chatting with some other campers at Koonalda Homesite, and they turned out to be the parents of Nigel, who was so kind to us at Broome! They directed us to a recent sighting of the narrow endemic Nullarbor Quail-Thrush, which I managed to see. While looking for it, we encountered the remarkable burrow systems of Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat, our other chief target in the region. From there the day went to hell. Roads we had hoped to take near Nullarbor Roadhouse for wombats were either marked private or were too rough. We ate at the roadhouse, and using their wifi, learned that Cruisin would not reimburse our oil change because they claimed the wrong oil was used, and they want it changed again. We had begged them to change the oil when we stopped at their depot in Cairns, giving us an extra 6000 km of range and perhaps getting us back to Sydney, but they refused, assuring us it would make it. To finish the day, we made a mad dash for another wombat site, but an unpassable road train delayed us enough that we arrived after dark, and so lost the chance to do recon.
2026/09/04: Cohens Old School Site, Rte 1, SA
We spent the entire day staking out active wombat burrows and were rewarded with a brief but excellent sighting at 3:30 pm and two animals emerging around 6:15 pm, 15 minutes before sunset, and then foraging. In addition to the burrows, we saw their narrow trackways between complexes, and plenty of scat. This was a highly desired life species and genus. Spent a second night as well at this unplanned stop. Will have to get back on schedule tomorrow.
2026/09/05: Lake Gilles, SA
Decided to skip the Eyre Peninsula due to there being few targets there; being a bit behind schedule; and having suboptimal weather for coastal birding and camping. Got to Lake Gilles late but took a walk along the lakeshore and back to the mallee.
2026/09/06: Lake Gilles, SA
Walked 4.5mi in 4.5hr in search of Copperback Quail-thrush, but to no avail. Probably heard one give a single song. But a beautiful day in attractive mallee habitat and had some other nice birds, a total of about 22 spp, including lifer Brown-headed Honeyeater; trip birds White-cheeked Honeyeater and Crested Bellbird; and other favorites such as Red-capped Robin. Night in caravan park in Whyalla.
2026/09/07: Australian Arid Lands Botanic Gardens, Port Augusta, SA
Took a nice hike over and around Wild Dog Hill NW of Whyalla, but wind made it hard to bird. However, flowers and scenery were good. Then drove to Port Augusta to seek Chirruping Wedgebill at the Botanic Gardens. Spent about 3 hours hiking around, primarily in the Myall trees on the sand dunes. Surprisingly, we first found a more difficult species, Redthroat, a male seen well. More remarkably, I next noticed a bird bury itself in foliage at the top of a tree, and searched for it with the scope, finally getting a look at the head — Black-eared Cuckoo! It eventually worked its way into the open and even sang, a great sighting of a challenging species. As the sun headed for the horizon, made one final attempt for the wedgebill and at last were successful with this considerably less difficult bird. Three fine lifers, all scope views and singing, made this a very memorable afternoon.
We’ve now been in Australia for 18 weeks. The bird list is at 427 spp; Eileen has 140 lifers and I have 130. The mammal list is 80 spp; Eileen has 64 lifers and I have 67.
Loved your trip photos of the birds and flowers, be safe, Gary