Our first KRMB meeting for 2016 was a members’ night, with two members presenting.

First up was Chris Punter who presented a number of photographs taken during a visit to the Cocos Islands in 2015. He set the scene with an opening photograph of a tropical beach on Direction Island. Then followed some photos of a Brown Booby chick that Chris baby sat for a week during his stay while its full-time carer was away. Other photos included coral fish, a Chinese Pond Heron (a vagrant species), Green Jungle Fowl (an introduced species, also known as Native Chicken), a white Reef Heron, Hermit Crabs, a White-fronted Waterhen, tropical plants, a Black-tipped Reef Shark and large Clams that were being commercially bred for aquariums. Chris’s photos plus his commentary about the Cocos Islands and their laid back lifestyle certainly made us pencil them in as a place to consider for a future vacation.

The next presenter was Colin Prickett who presented a selection of photographs taken over the summer months. The first two showed a Motorbike Frog he found in his garden that had unusual colour patterns. Then followed a series showing a range of pollinators on Rottnest Island Daisies (Trachymene coerula) that were flowering in Paganoni Swamp reserve and also at Lake Walyungup. The next series of photos showed birds around the Peel-Harvey Estuary that included  Osprey, Common Greenshank, Great Knot, Black-winged Stilt, Red-necked Stint, Bar-tailed Godwit, Little Egret, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Red-capped Plover and Grey Plover. Colin stated that although the results of the annual bird count for the Peel-Harvey Ramsar Site had not been collated, there was evidence of a decline in wader numbers around the estuary compared to other years despite normal numbers of migratory wader numbers arriving at Broome early in the season. The hot conditions during spring together with the low winter rainfall resulted in important wader sites such as Lake McLarty drying out very early, which appears to have sent the birds further south. It is planned to have the results of

the bird count presented to KRMB at a later date. Colin then finished off his presentation with a series of photographs of Terns as a preview of what our upcoming excursion to Penguin Island would offer. He started with a number of shots of Crested Terns, then Bridled Terns, A Common Tern, Fairy Terns and finished off with the unfortunate sight of a Crested Tern with a fish hook in its beak.

The audience thanked both presenters for sharing their photographs.

Colin Prickett