The Cuckoo's Nest: Esperance in December

On a recent trip to Esperance on Western Australia's south coast, I was able to spend a bit of time birding. We went via Kalgoorlie to break up the nine hour drive and stayed a night there. In the early hours of the morning I drove out of Kal to the Kurrawang Nature Reserve. This yielded very little - just a couple of White-fronted Honeyeaters.

Nearby is Lake Douglas and I decided to try my luck there. On the way through some beautiful scrub there was a flurry of activity so I stopped and hopped out. There were many little birds - Chestnut-rumped Thornbills, Redthroats and Fairywrens. I managed a clear shot of the illusive little Redthroat. A quick walk around the high side of Lake Douglas yielded Spiny-cheeked and Yellow-gaped Honeyeaters. There were only three water birds there - a lone Yellow Spoonbill on the island and a couple of bedraggled domestic ducks.

We set off for Esperance and saw first-hand the extent of the recent fires. Large sections of the drive were through blackened landscapes - farms and bushland. We would see more of this devastation on our drive to Cape LeGrand.

Driving into Esperance on the Norseman Road takes you past the golf course. A quick glance down the driveway revealed some Cape Barren Geese which I had failed to see on my last trip. We stopped and the geese tolerated the photo shoot. It was great to see them again two days later on the islands in the Recherche Archipelago.

There was not much around the main bay that afternoon so I visited Lake Warden. Here I saw at least 60 Hooded Plovers - many were juveniles - and a flock of about 30 Red-necked Avocets.

On our last day, we took the Woody Island cruise which is a must. We sailed past three different Sea-eagle nests and a nesting colony of Black-faced Cormorants. The island itself has plenty of birds and no real predators so the birds aren't particularly wary of people. The Rock Parrots and Western Whistlers were almost tame. I didn't see the Brown Quail which was a pity. Next time, I'll camp there and spend more time looking around.