Intro to Perth

October 9^th

Landed in the coastal city Perth this morning, the capital of Western Australia, where I’ll be roughly based for at least the next two months. Nigel Jackett picked me up… and what did we do? We went birding. Here are a couple photo highlights of our afternoon walk around Herdsmen Lake in Perth. 

Possibly the first photograph of a *swimming* Black-tailed Native-hen???

Ahh that's more like it. These dryland cousins of swamphens, moorhens, and coots (which  there were plenty of here), typically stick to the interior, but lately there have been four hanging aroun this small lake in Perth. 

My first Yellow-billed Spoonbill of the trip!

Damn invasives... this Rainbow Lorikeet, a common garden bird throughout eastern Australia, is now an established introduction to the Perth area... Well--better than house sparrows or starlings, which believe it or not--
there are NONE of in Perth!

October 10th--Hello Indian Ocean

Spent most of today picking up gear I'll be needing for some upcoming bird surveys I'll be doing in the native woodlands around Kalgoorlie and Esperance.

Later on in the afternoon, Nigel and I headed to the beach where I copped my first peek at the Indian Ocean, as well as this Crested Tern.

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Heading out into the bush for a week, so I'll talk to you all after that. I'm sure I'll have a few tales to tell.

Until next time!

RC