WA Big Year 2024: Better Late Than Never
I’ve had a very busy year of work so far. It has been a wonderful start to taking over Birding Southwest and guiding on as much of a full-time schedule as is possible. I’ve just about covered the entirety of the huge state of Western Australia during this year so far and have seen a huge majority of the states birds including all its endemic species. I’ve been extremely lucky to have had the privilege to share those sightings with enthusiastic guests.
It's put me in a position where I am currently very close to breaking the record for the most birds seen in WA during a calendar year – the WA big year record. It’s currently held by Geoffrey Groom. Funnily enough, he lived next door to my dad. We grew up in the same suburb. As did one of WA’s resident and certified bird wizards, WA 500+ club member, John Graff. Something in the water (or trees) perhaps. Nigel Jackett, another of WA’s resident and certified bird wizards, despite blowing in from over east, had a brief stint in the next suburb over. As a contribution to his WA 500+, he saw a Letter-winged Kite fly over his house while living there. Gripping.
During Geoffrey’s big year, my brother and I came across him at Punamii-Uunpuu (Mitchell Falls and Plateau), camera pointed at a calling Spangled Drongo. That was just one of his 430 or 421 as he officially retracted a few plastics, recently introduced and heard only birds. I’ll aim to beat that and I’ll include all plastics, recently introduced and heard only birds of which hopefully there won’t be many. We saw Geoff down at Drysdale River Station on our way back from the Plateau. He’d missed a few important birds before taking a break down at the relative comfort of the station and with some encouragement from our sightings and recent spots for those birds he headed back up and saw them with ease. It felt good to be a small part of it at the time.
There are still a fair few birds to find across WA that I haven’t had and won’t this year have the privilege to guide people onto. All of which will contribute to breaking the record. All of which are in the more remote parts of the state and in some cases are very difficult to find when you get there. Until now, I haven’t had much time to be out birding without a keen group of guests trailing behind me. There have been short windows for a few very successful sea-watches off of the ever productive Cape Naturaliste and some extra-curricular, post tour twitches in the Kimberley. But, most notably a trip out to see Princess Parrots is easily the biggest detour from what is now regular life that I’ve made to try and achieve this goal.
They’re out in the middle of nowhere. Probably under normal circumstances, you’d take a couple of weeks out there but Janey and I did the round trip from Fremantle in 7 dust filled days. We chanced upon a few flyovers before a storm passed directly over Jupiter Well and made for a desert experience like no other. Lightning strikes brightening the dunes and desert oaks – the core habitat of the Princess Parrot. As an indication of the length of that journey, we picked up Dusky Grasswrens in the ranges north of Warakurna as well as the subspecies of Splendid Fairywren local to the area (a hopeful future split) and a rogue Pacific Swift not far out of Punmu. 5000ish km. I’d do it again to see those Princess Parrots perched and take a few snaps.
Princess Parrot Country
There are a few other trips that I want to squeeze in before December 31st now that I’m returning from my last trip over east for the year. First off, up to Ashmore Reef via some of our wonderful Kimberley coast’s largest seabird roosts. Hoping for everything from all the Boobies to all the Noddies. Not too much to ask. There’ll be a few recent additions to the seasonal Broome migrants cohort and the very slim possibility I’ll be able to line up trips for Black Butcherbirds out of Whydham and get up to the vine thickets housing those species that can only be found there within the boundaries of WA (ironically the same birds that Geoff almost missed himself!).
Following that, I’ll be on board every day that Naturaliste Charters head out to the Bremer Canyon for birdwatching purposes in December and tracking through Esperance to visit the geese and the cormorants on my way out to the Nullarbor. Way out into the habitat of another unique Australian parrot, the Naretha Bluebonnet. These are certainly worth the trip and I’ll be using that solo adventure as a reccy for visiting them with clients in the near future! I’ll probably have a quick look around Broome again before the year is out and be keeping my finger on the pulse for any vagrants around the Southwest, especially any of the crested penguins.
I’m already exhausted thinking about the end of the year but given the work opportunities I’ve been provided with, it just wouldn’t feel right to not keep on plugging away. Now that I’ve sort of made it official (better late than never), I’ll try and keep regular updates going on this blog and my social media. Otherwise, check these pages on eBird to see where I’m at!
(P.S. I will do something about the obscene amount of carbon I’ve contributed to burning via offsets and most definitely staying a bit more still next year. If you’ve got any ideas for offsets, get in touch.)
Taking clients to see Hooded Plovers - A great way to break records!
