This year we visited family in Perth for Christmas. I managed to do a little birding while I was there, and added two "lifers" (bird species seen for the first time). It was very warm there, with every day over 30C (86F) and a couple of days over 40C (104F), so birding wasn't easy. I had made contact with a couple of local birders through a birdwatching e-mail list so I had some local spots to try.
One of the most common birds around Perth's northern suburbs is the local variant of the Australian Ringneck, "Twenty-eight Parrot". These were seen in the garden everyday
The local park was also "birdy" with many common species. They are also used to people so gave good opportunities to get close. Australian White Ibis and Pacific Black Duck were plentiful, and tucked in amongst them was a Female Musk Duck.
Further along the lake edge were some Little Black Cormorants, Maned duck, lots of Little Corellas and Straw-necked Ibis.
One of my target species was Western Wattlebird, but every Wattlebird I got my binoculars on to was a Red Wattlebird.
I had a day trip out with a local birder, but it was very hot and tough going. At one little waterhole we did find a couple of endemic Baudin's Cockatoos, along with some Red-tailed Black Cockatoos.
One spot I wanted to try was Victoria Dam. It held two of my target species, as well as two other endemic species. There were a few gum trees in blossom, and both Singing and Brown Honeyeaters took full advantage. The local Golden Whistler was in good voice letting everyone know he was there.
Splendid Fairywren is by far the most common of the fairywrens here, I even saw them in a reserve only metres from dense housing. At Victoria Dam I was almost tripping over them! While photographing them, I saw a small movement out of the corner of my eye, and got a nice surprise! A Western Rosella, my first lifer of the trip.
Other common birds here were Yellow-rumped Thornbill and Laughing Dove. While checking through the fairywrens and thornbills I almost missed lifer number two, Red-eared Firetail.
all in all a great trip, and a lovely finish to 2015.
On Sunday, with some friends, we made an early start and headed up through the Clare Valley to the Mid North, and Jamestown for their triennial airshow. There was a fierce crosswind blowing that meant some displays were cancelled, but that did not phase the wing-walker whose display had us all holding our breath! (almost)
The airshow programme was a great mix of aircraft. There were vintage planes of all shapes and sizes from the luxurious Stinson of the 1930s to the giant russian Antonov An2 built from the late 40s.
There were aerobatics from high performance stunt planes like the Giles G-202 and the Extra 300, but Paul Bennet in his Pitts Special stole the show with his amazing display, and then his crazy stunt involving a motorbike jumping over him.
There were jets in the air, (L139 Albatross and Aermacci S211) and on the ground were the jet car powered by an engine from a Sabreliner executive jet showed it acceleration. (The pyrotechnics also started a fire and kept the local CFS busy
But everyone had really come to see the warbirds, vintage military aircraft. WW1 was represented by a replica Nieuport 11. I didn't realise they had GPS in WW1!
The Trojan, from the Korean and Vietnam eras is one of my favourites, as is the CAC Boomerang which saw service in WW2
The P40 Kittyhawk always give a good show, and the kids love those sharksteeth!
The real highlight for me though was the Grumman TBM Avenger, a huge beast of a plane with a 14 cylinder engine that powered around the skies.
It's not often that we manage to get away for a long weekend. Last weekend we went to Port Victoria on the Yorke Peninsula. With a population around 350, Port Victoria boasts a hotel, a general store and a kiosk/post office. In it's heyday, it was a thriving port for the bagged cereal trade, where bags of wheat and barley were manually loaded onto small boats at the jetty, before being transferred to ships anchored offshore. Being on the west coast of the peninsula it also has some beautiful sunsets.
I didn't have far to go to see some birds, with a pair of inquisitive Singing Honeyeaters coming close, closer, and sometimes too close.
There was also a regular Nankeen Kestrel hunting between us and the beach
On the boat ramp there were the usual pelicans and Silver Gulls, and on the local beach, Pacific Gulls and a single Hooded Plover.
