WILSON'S PROM: COTTERS BEACH TRACK

To try and find southern emu-wrens, we walked the Cotters Beach Track. Reports had said the middle area of this 2 kilometre track was good for emu-wrens, and that flowering trees near the carpark held crescent honeyeaters. Though we didn't see evidence of the first part, the second part was proven true.

The track turned out to be pretty good for seeing these emus

The first main bird was seen before even hitting the track, walking across the road: one of the emus that  was descended from the birds that had been re-introduced to the park in the 1900s. In the carpark and first section of the track there was little activity, with just superb fairy-wrens, grey fantails, white-browed scrubwrens, New Holland honeyeaters, brown thornbills and red-browed finches. As the forested section of the track lead into a more grassy area, birds became a little better, with the appearance of many white-fronted chats, a single grey shrike-thrush and a few more emus. A pond near the track held some chestnut teals, and at the beach some silvergulls and a Pacific gull were present, but nothing else was to be seen.

I managed to get several good shots of these white-fronted chats

A distant emu walking on a sand dune

However the birds didn't really change until we returned to the carpark, where we found several crescent honeyeaters in flowering trees. A bit of a disappointment in terms of seeing the wren, but good in that I managed an OK picture of a crescent honeyeater.

As hard as it may be to tell, the bird is in fact a crescent honeyeater

SPECIES SEEN:
1. Emu
2. Chestnut Teal
3. Silvergull
4. Pacific Gull
5. Superb Fairy-Wren
6. White-Browed Scrubwren
7. Brown Thornbill
8. Red Wattlebird
9. Crescent Honeyeater
10. White-Fronted Chat
11. Grey Shrike-Thrush
12. Forest Raven
13. Australian Magpie
14. Magpie-Lark
15. Grey Fantail
16. Red-Browed Finch
TOTAL: 16
LIFERS: None