It was a superb spring day when I took Alexandre birdwatching well east of Perth! I picked him up in South Perth where the city views over the river were gorgeous! He was working in Perth for a few weeks and it was his first time to Western Australia.

Alexandre had already enjoyed a 5 hour “maximum birds” tour with Perth Birds and Bush and had seen 66 species on that tour.  He discussed having a full day tour to see some more bird species but to get further out of Perth to see a different landscape. We decided together to travel east visiting a few Wandoo sites and a Wheatbelt Town on the Avon River – Brookton.

With the long distance to travel we only stopped at four birdwatching sites. The first was a one hour drive east of Perth and we were lucky to see some super birds including: Painted Button-Quail, Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo, Western Rosella, Rufous Treecreeper, and the gorgeous Blue-breasted Fairy-Wren. We were also lucky to see some Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo’s on our way to the reserve and able to stop and enjoy good views of this endangered species.

Next stop was a small park in Brookton it was a good spot for  honeyeaters but unfortunately the Brown-headed Honeyeaters were darting around too quickly for Alexandre to get good views of them.

We bought lunch at a local café and then went to the river to eat and have a walk along the river to look for some birds! We saw a quite a few but the best was a number of Western Corella’s and a young Rufous Treecreeper.

We then went to a very large nature reserve called Boyagin Rock. This is a great patch of Wandoo tucked away among the large wheat, sheep and canola farms. On the way to the rock we were lucky to notice a farm with several Australasian Pipits and White-winged Trillers feeding. But this was especially lucky as when we stopped to look at them, we were able to watch a Brown Falcon flying low over the farm! It made several sweeping flights while we watched.

At Boyagin Rock Nature Reserve we saw quiet a few bird species. Even though it was a warm afternoon the birds were still busy calling and feeding. Alexandre was very taken with the Red-capped Robins. Who wouldn’t be? But he also liked the Crested Pigeons, Red-capped Parrots, Galahs. Australian Ringnecks, Splendid Fairy-Wrens, and Scarlet Robins.

It had been a long day and time to return to Perth. We had seen a total of 59 species during the day and had added 23 new bird species to Alexandre’s bird list. Including a majestic Wedge-tailed Eagle on the return journey!

Happy Birding!