Scarlet Robin Fledglings

It's December and the start of summer in Perth, Western Australia. The last of spring's Scarlet Robin nestlings have fledged and the parents are busy finding enough food.

This is a video I took of some fledglings in the Wandoo woodlands to the east of Perth.

Australian Spotted Crakes

Heavy late spring rains in Perth have kept the water levels in the local lakes up and have created excellent crake habitats. Thomsons Lake, normally with only a large patch of water in the middle and dry reedbeds all around, has about 2 inches of water throughout most of the reeds, a perfect crake environment. After reading the numerous birder emails going backwards and forwards about 'Crake Heaven' at Thomsons, it was time to visit the lake myself!

It's certainly is 'crake heaven' at the moment! I have never seen so many Australian Spotted Crakes in one area before, maybe a dozen or more. Normally you can see or hear the dark Spotless Crakes at Thomsons Lake fairly easily, but this time we only managed to see one, the area has been taken over by the Spotteds!

This area is usually dry mud and reeds by now, but it's looking pretty good this year.

The Spotted Crakes were not too concerned about us and approached unusally close, more interested in catching the small invertebrates on and under the water.

The south-east section of Thomsons Lake in probably the most ideal crake habitat at the moment.

The beautiful little Baillon's Crakes were also making an appearance, but in lower numbers. These little guys are my favourite crake species I think!

It was a wonderful morning spent watching all 3 local crake species at the one spot, normally quite a challenge.

The weather forecast looks windy and a little stormy for this week in Perth, but if there's a chance, it may be time to drag the big video camera there and try to get some crake footage!

Western Glossy Swamp Skink

The name of this skink is a bit of a mouthful, a generally shy, secretive and fast-moving skink, it will be gone before you call out it's name! The Western Glossy Swamp Skink (Lissolepis luctuosa) until recently (2008) belonged to the genus Egernia, but now belongs Lissolepis which is represented in Australia by 2 species. These semi-aquatic skinks are related to the similar Egernia skinks, but are solitary and very shy.

Around Lake Seppings at Albany, where this photo was taken, they tend to be more easily seen, especially when sunning themselves in the open sunny patches on the lake's edge. They may be more use to seeing people here, but they still don't stray far from thick vegetaion and if you come too close, they're gone at lightening speed into the reeds, even diving into the water.

Perth is about the northern limit of their distribution, but they are  more commonly found at the swamps, lakes and creeks along the south coast as far as Cheynes Beach, east of Albany. Around Perth the Swamp Skink is disappearing, mainly due to urban development and wetland habitat destruction.

The Glossy Swamp Skinks are sometimes confused with the larger King Skinks (Egernia kingii), which also occur in these southern coastal areas. As the name suggests, the Glossy Swamp Skinks are more glossy, have a different pattern and only grow to 34 cm.
The other Lissopelis skink, the Swamp Skink (Lissopelis coventryi) is found only along the southern edge of Victoria. These two skink species populations were probably once connected, but are now separated by almost 2000 kilometres, due to the drier climatic conditions and environment in southern Australia.

I'm looking forward to my next trip to Albany and seeing these beautiful skinks again, and hopefully getting some good video!

Down to Albany

It's the start of Perth's long hot summer, but you wouldn't know it yesterday, as there were huge thunderstorms and heavy rain all day long! Perth seemed to have thunder and lightening all day, even the airports were closed.

It's the quiet time of year for my fauna work, so we decided that a few days in Albany on the south coast would be a nice break, wonderful scenery and cool weather, what more can you ask for! Another reason for heading to Albany was to see if it could be a good place for a future home, as Perth is only getting drier and hotter as the years go by, and the future doesn't look too bright with a rapidly increasing population and shortages of water and power.

One of the many beautiful old buildings in Albany, the Church of Saint John (1841), the oldest consecrated church in Western Australia.

The Rectory next to the church, built in 1850. Looks like a place that might have a few ghosts?

The old gun emplacements along King Geogre Sound, built to defend Albany during the war.

The scenic walk from the town to Emu Point.

The old Lighthouse Keeper's Home.

The coastal heathlands provide great habitat for many of the southwest honeyeaters.

Beautiful swimming areas near Emu Point.

The calm waters of Oyster Harbour at Emu Point.

Big eucalpyts line Emu Point.

The circular walk around Lake Seppings is an excellent place to see local birds and wildlife, including Western Glossy Swamp Skinks, a reptile species that I hadn't seen before and is becoming rare around the lakes near Perth. I'll have some info about them in the next blog post.

Many of the local birds at this time of year are moulting or are young birds, here a scruffy-looking Grey Fantail appeared to wish us goodbye.