Category Archives: Bird watching

Birding Mandurah, Western Australia

Posted on by

0

When: February 2026 Weather: Warm 27C

OM1mk2 150-400mmzuiko Pro

Having lost two precious morning birding sessions to Qantas delaying our flights, this third day was our first full day….we decided to head south to Mandurah where we had been reliably informed that we might find fairy wrens, one of our target birds….It was just over an hour’s drive from the airport hotel to the Seba’s Giant Statue car park in Mandurah.

This is the called Seba’s Song in Mandurah….the last car park and the gravel trail to the statue was where we did all the birding….as we parked and hopped out heading to the toilets, we were waylaid….quite a few little wrens were hopping all over the place!
a female fairy wren checked us out
male and female fairy wrens
magnificently coloured male fairy wren
side view
close up
female on a pedestal
in flight
hopping
contrasting colours
posing
sandpiper
silver gull
new holland honeyeater
new holland honeyeater in flight
inland thornbill
inland thornbill
singing honeyeater
singing honeyeater with the yellow marking under the eye
singing honeyeater in flight
brown honeyeater
after the fairy wrens got all the attention, it was the turn of the spotted scrub wren…charming
scrubwren
and final bird of the morning was this tiny fellow way up high, blocked by twigs and hence blurry…but could just see enough to identify it as a spotted pardalote….what a beauty!

This location was a gem; full of activity, easy to get to and lots on interesting birds. Highly recommended

Birding Margaret River, Busselton, Bunbury

Posted on by

0

When: February 2026 Weather: Hot 32C

OM1 mk2 150-400mmZuiko Pro

After we were done Mandurah, we stopped at Bunbury for lunch and shelter from the unrelenting western australia sunshine….as we had the whole afternoon ahead, we drove down to the Margaret River area, targeting the Malbup Hide and Wonnerup area near Busselton.

First port of call was the Malbup Hide, just a short walk from the main road…it overlooked a water body with a number of water birds around
a white faced heron from afar
white faced heron in flight
a brown honeyeater buzzing a fantail
white faced heron in the bushes
along the Layman Road further in, this Nankeen Kestrel posed
great crested tern in flight
Swamp harrier
we then arrived at Bunbury to visit the Big Swamp Parkland Viewing Platform where a lovely Pacific Black Duck welcomed us in the early evening light
a mother coot was feeding her baby
coot junior
shelducks
and as the evening wore on , a kindly local birder brought us to see another tawny forgmouth!
a lovely common bronzewing
common bronze wing
ringneck
new holland honeyeater
shelduck
Little corellas were everywhere
and as the sun set, the black fronted Dotterel made an appearance
such a pretty bird
pair of dotterels
finally the sun set over the big swamp

Birding Busselton and Bunbury did not yield many new birds but that was probably due to it being the hot 2-4pm time.

Overall still an interesting drive.

Marina Grove Birding (3)

Posted on by

1

When: Christmas Day 2025 Weather: Cool 23C and perfectly overcast OM1mk2 Zuiko 150-400mm Pro Having been tweaking our OM1 mk 2s to try and optimise our exposure combinations, we headed back to the unexpectedly lovely Marina Grove pond to put … Continue reading →