Beecroft Weapons Range

Visited: Autumn

Recommendation: Access to the range is restricted so dates you can visit are unpredictable. If you are in the area and they are open, then just go. The highlight is undoubtedly the Ground Parrots, but they are not present all the time. If you miss them, there are still other tricky birds to see as you explore. 

On the northern headland of Jervis Bay is the Beecroft Peninsula and part of this area is a Department of Defence Weapons Range. The best thing about bird watching (after the birds of course) is the strange and wonderful places it takes you. 

And so, we found ourselves wandering around the weapons range looking for Ground Parrots. It was quite a surreal experience. The range is only open at certain times of the year, namely school holidays and some weekend days. Luckily, we were in the area at the start of a set of school holidays and we knew there had been recent sightings of the birds. 

Eastern Ground Parrot (Pezoporus wallicus)

The Eastern Ground Parrot is only found in heath lands across New South Wales and Victoria coastal areas. There is a tiny population that is holding on in south east Queensland. They are classed on eBird as Least Concern but are recognised as uncommon and due to their habitat and shy nature, rarely seen. 

I didn't have much hope we would find them but was buoyed by sightings the day before and the ranger at the entrance said they were around. We drove down to the end of the main road through the range (there were lots of unexploded ordnance warnings on adjacent areas). 

Long story short, we saw up to 6 birds that morning, some on the access road and some on the tracks. They were stunning creatures and shot to the top of my favourite bird list. Even better was that one of them let us watch it feeding for around 40 minutes. 

They were quite small parrots and the green plumage helped them be well camouflaged in the grass where they were feeding. The long tail was speckled with yellow and looked stunning in the sunlight. 

After the thrill of seeing the parrots, we went back up to Point Perpendicular which gave us great views of the old lighthouse and the southern part of the Jervis Bay where we visited the day before. No skinks were around but on the way out we did find a family of Brown Quail. These are the largest of the quails in Australia and the van gave us great cover to view and photograph them.

Our last good sighting was of the Tawny-crowned Honeyeater, a very attractive bird with a melodic call. I have not seen them in New South Wales before so it was a real treat. A stunning Eastern Spinebill completed our wonderful, if somewhat unusual, trip to the weapons range!