Main Club

The weekend trip started on Friday afternoon when we travelled from Sunset Beach in Geraldton to the Chapman Valley Regional Park. We walked the trail between the sandbank at the Chapman River estuary and the Chapman road bridge (near Sunset Beach) and saw an Osprey close-up, Little Pied Cormorants and Singing Honey-eaters. In the late afternoon our six-member group got together to discuss the next day exploration in the area north of Geraldton.

Ellendale Pool (Marilyn)

On Saturday morning, we covered approximately 200km on a circular route through different sections of the Chapman River Trails. There are four separate trails: Brown, Yellow, Green and Blue. We headed north on the North West Coastal Highway from our accommodation at Drummond Cove, turning east onto the Nanson-Howatharra Road which was to take us through the Moresby Ranges and into the Chapman Valley. We had our first stop near the beginning of this road, as we were pleasantly surprised to see hills covered in dense vegetation on both sides. Our next stop was at Bella Vista NR where we watched Red-capped Robins who gave a colourful display as they flitted amongst the trees and piles of dead bush very close to the road. Banksia menziesii and Banksia prionotes were in flower. We had another stop after going through a dip in the road (indicating flood levels in the area) and saw a Little Egret in the small creek, looking for its breakfast as we drove past. Needless to say, the Egret had disappeared when we went back to have a closer look. We decided to have morning tea at this spot, amongst the eucalypts, as it was off the beaten track.

We wended our way through farmlands and stopped for lunch at East Yuna Nature Reserve. We found a very dried-up river bed (in need of rain) and saw two Emus. After driving through more farmland we ended up at the Wicherina Water Reserve and saw more Red-capped Robins. We backtracked to the main road and made our way to Mills Park Lookout which gave us an eagle’s view of the surrounding farmland and Moresby Ranges and this is where we had afternoon tea. It was a lovely, dry, sunny June day with the temperature around 24°C.
At 9am on Sunday morning the group set off to drive to the Greenough Nature Walking Trail for a short walk along the river. We heard plenty of birds but saw few, except for those on the water—mainly Pelicans and Little Black Cormorants. After morning tea we went to the foreshore area at Cape Burney where we walked to the sandbar that separates the Indian Ocean from the Greenough River.

We saw one Red-capped Plover (above, Marilyn) and plenty of Crested Terns and people enjoying 4WD-ing over the sand dunes. Next we visited Devlin Pool where we spotted Silver-eyes, Singing Honey-eaters, a Black-winged Stilt, Little Grebes and Pacific Black Ducks. We had lunch at Ellendale Pool where we saw our first Variegated Fairy-wren and Mistletoe Bird. After lunch we travelled through the Kojarena Range.

The weather was perfect over the weekend and we parted on Monday morning to go our different ways into the oncoming stormy weather. Our leader was excellent, well prepared and gave precise directions to our capable driver for the day. Overall we managed to see 38 bird species (see website for full list).

Johanna Notley and Jolanda Keeble