Prelude to the IOTs
Way back in 2019, I applied for Richard Baxter’s “Young Birder Scholarship”. The idea behind it was to enable a young lass or lad to get over to the Indian Ocean Territories with Richard for two weeks of vagrant hunting. I put the e-pen to the e-paper and poured my heart into my submission… and I was ultimately selected to join the 2020 / 2021 trip over to the islands.
Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, that first trip was aborted on arrival! After travelling all the way to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands from Brisbane, the Queensland contingent were met on the plane by a very apologetic federal policeman and placed into house arrest on West Island.
About 48 hours after leaving home, I walked back in through my front door. They’d been seriously hellacious circumstances which I wouldn’t have wished on my worst birding enemy. A year later, however, it was time for vindication. Glen and I saddled up again in Brissy, nervously eyeing off the cyclone sitting over Cocos. By the time we had landed in Perth, though, the forecast was looking good. Spirits were high 🙂
We rolled in to the Sanno again, slightly bemused by the room we’d been allocated. It was almost literally the furthest one away from the entrance and our front door opened on to the beautiful sight of the roadworks being conducted 3m away on the edge of the freeway. They obviously wanted to keep the riff-raff out of sight! After dropping my stuff I headed across the river for a little walk, more to stretch the legs than anything. I ended up finding a massive off-leash dog park bordered by the Avon River which was pretty awesome. I rang J and had a chat then headed back to the Sanno and crashed out.
I was up at sparrows, and jumped straight into an Uber to head down to Wungong Dam, where I had been told I could find a few WA specialities. Straight out of the car I was on to my first LIFER for the morning – a small mixed flock supported some Red-winged Fairy-wrens moulting into alternate plumage. Some Inland Thornbills and other sundries were kicking around and I picked up some ticklets before three mid-sized parrots ripped overhead and settled in a dead tree. I got the bins on them and my brain melted as I saw the ‘bastard red-heads’ for the first time. Apparently, Gould had thought the young bird was so dissimilar to its parents that it must have been an illegitimate item…
I recovered slightly before almost tripping over some Spotted Scrubwrens… a real birders bird. A semi-recent split that got the heart pounding. The LIFERs were coming thick and fast! Things went a bit quiet after this and I moved further downhill towards the dam outflow. On the way I heard the prssch prssch of a Gilbert’s Honeyeater and quickly tracked it down as it moved through the treetops. I crossed a little causeway and started to wonder about getting back to the motel… I had about an hour left before I needed to grab an Uber back, and I’d just noticed that I had no reception down in the gulch. A little squeak up the hill distracted me as it revealed the presence of White-breasted Robin. Xe came in to my pishing immediately but didn’t like what xe saw and continued on into the scrub after a brief sticky-beak. I connected with some more Red-caps and 28’s before some workers started to arrive and I turned around and started trudging up the hill back along the entrance road.
Scratching through some fallen timber by the side of the track I rumbled Hemiergis initialis (thinking of you DASH). Near the top of the hill I heard something similar to Buff-rumped Thornbill and was onto Western Thornbill shortly after. The drabbest bird in Australia warmed my heart and was my last (boned) lifer of the morning. Some intriguing leps and plants kept me interested until I reached the top of the hill and met my ride back to the motel.
Checking in to our flight, Glen and I met up with some of the other punters heading over to the IOTs. Yet another delayed flight did little to dampen our enthusiasm… the wait was almost over. Once we boarded the plane I started to relax a bit, though not completely. Errant clouds blowing in over the runway could still scupper the flight! Shortly, the captain’s weather brief dispelled these concerns (thank Beelzebub). I ended up doing some homework on the way over, entering some 1’s into various spreadsheets. Leaving the mainland I was on 680. Not too shabby.
Stay tuned for the next instalment, featuring crabs, birds, bats, the Indian Ocean, a gecko, MEGAs and Christmas on Christmas Island!