In Broome, some of the dependable locations to watch Royal Spoonbills is from the Broome Poo Ponds Barndarlmada Hut. The Royal Spoonbills roost contained in the fence when they aren’t feeding on the mudflats of Roebuck Bay. For a part of the yr we will not entry the native ephemeral lakes because of the land being flooded, however now we will go to them it’s at all times rewarding to see what’s there.
Final weekend we arrived at an ephemeral lake near the freeway to find a big flock of Royal Spoonbills. Effectively, that was our preliminary impression as we pulled as much as observe them via our binoculars. Not solely was it one of many largest flocks of Royal Spoonbills that we’ve got seen round Broome lately, however they weren’t all Royal Spoonbills. As we counted the Royal Spoonbills we realized that there have been truly two Yellow-billed Spoonbills in amongst the flock.
There have been a complete of 69 Royal Spoonbills and a couple of Yellow-billed Spoonbills, however you needed to look fastidiously to see the 2 completely different species. fortunately if the invoice was hidden that they had completely different coloured legs too! We had encountered a Yellow-billed Spoonbill within the space final yr that appeared to have a stick embedded in its breast, however we don’t know if this is without doubt one of the birds now current. We all know that Yellow-billed Spoonbills breed additional south and little doubt begin to roam round as soon as they depart the breeding colony.
We at all times go bush-walking after we can and circumnavigating this expanse of water produced an awesome number of birds. The stand-out hen species for the day was positively the big flock of Royal Spoonbills, although. We selected to not try to get too shut, however give them loads of area. They had been nevertheless simply disturbed and moved across the lake.
Flock of Spoonbills
Yellow-billed Spoonbills left and middle
Royal Spoonbills and Yellow-billed Spoonbills
Spoonbills in flight
The Royal Spoonbills and Yellow-billed Spoonbills then landed amongst White Ibis, Shiny Ibis and Egretsso then it was not as straightforward to rely them!
Feeding on the ephemeral lake
In case you might be questioning in regards to the pink hue in most of those pictures it’s our native flowers that thrive after good moist season rains. The primary picture reveals a sort of sundew. These native flowers seem to have the ability to thrive within the poorest soil, however make for some good colour in what can be an in any other case barren panorama.
Native flowers
The land will proceed to dry out over coming months and increasingly more birds will seek for water. I’ve noticed hundreds of Plumed Whistling-Geese heading to the Poo Ponds this week. It continues to be chilly and typically foggy in a single day and our socks are getting a run for his or her cash this yr!
