It isn't the Thick-billed Grasswren that I was hoping to be able to post today, but Ihadn't photographed a Little Crow before so I am not complaining. I ended up having a not too productive morning this morning as I wandered around the Monkey Mia carpark at sunrise looking for the grasswrens. I saw several but they seemed totally adverse to sitting in the sunlight. Rarely did they get out in the open and I never saw one spend any time in the open in sunlight which was what I was hoping for. As a consolation prize, I started photographing the Little Crows all around the carpark.
Eventually, I headed down to the beach and got to see the dolphins as they were coming in to be fed. I have had several up close and personal experiences with dolphins, much wilder than these, back home so while it was nice to see a different species, I didn't hang around too long. It was quite cool to see so many people quite excited about the opportunity to see the amazing animals up close. After a nice walk on the beach where I saw some distant waders but didn't have my long lens or field guide with me, I got back on the road.
The distances in Australia, particularly Western Australia, continue to astound me even after Ihave been driving around for nine months. Once again, I spent most of the day on the road eventually arriving in Exmouth just before 5:00. To my surprise, all 13 (yes, thirteen!) camgrounds in the national park were full on a Monday night! Fortunately, I found a caravan park just outside the park that had plenty of vacant sites.
I dashed into the park just before sunset and found quite a lot of bird life at my one stop. I didn't get any photos but I will be back in the morning to see what I can get. I did manage to pick up two new birds, a Mangrove Gray Fantail and Dusky Gerygone. When I got back to the campsite and was doing my daily checklist I realized that the Dusky Gerygone was my 550th bird for the year. At one point I was hoping to get to 600 for the year without traveling off the mainland and Tasmania and really not flying around much (only one trip and that wasn't really a birding trip). Looking over the remainig birds I could see it will be close but I probably will end up on the 590s if I see everything I am hoping too as well as a couple of the more difficult birds. Ultimately, I didn't get on enough pelagics and I did miss a few species. Oh well, Isure can't complain! To put this in perspective a little, in all probability, I will leave Australia having photographed more species of birds in Australia in one year than I have seen in North America in over 15 years of birding!
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