Ellendale Pool

Visited: early wet season

Recommendation: This is a very nice free campsite set along a creek with plenty of trees and bush with walking tracks throughout. There is a lot of potential for wildlife here at all times of the year.

Ellendale Pool is only about 35km south east of Geraldton. It's a free campsite, relatively small but very well provided for with toilets, barbecues, bins, picnic tables, even a little playground. I can imagine it's very popular during the holidays in the summer. There were a few people here when I visited but it was still pretty quiet. As you drive into the area you can see cliffs on the other side of the creek and they make for quite nice viewing with the water in the foreground. You can swim in the pool itself, although the signs for warning about amoebic meningitis are quite off-putting. I did not swim. 

I nearly didn't put it in this blog, because although I did see and hear a lot of wildlife, most of it was obscured, far away, or just flying by. That made it a bit difficult to record what I saw, it was just so busy and difficult. But, like I say, it's a lovely place to camp, especially when it's off-peak. 

In the morning I was up and out early looking for the wildlife. My first stop was to look at a hole where I had heard an odd hissing noise. I couldn't tell whether it was birds or insects. The noise was still there and incessant. There was a Sacred Kingfisher hanging about, but I thought that the hole was probably too big for a kingfisher to nest in. Next thing I knew, it had flown in with a small lizard and took it to the hole. I got  a brief glimpse of 2 chicks.  

Sacred Kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus) 

I walked down to the water and immediately heard the clack clack clack of the Reed Warbler. There was quite a number of them bouncing around. I think they must have been nesting down there and it was nice to see them flying low on the water to and from either side of the creek. From this vantage point you can get a good look at the cliffs and then you can either walk upstream or downstream. There's a short track going one way and a longer one going upstream, which follows the line of the cliffs and right along the edge of the creek. It goes through some woodland and it was very pleasant. 

Purple-backed Fairywren (Malurus assimilis) 

And it was while I was doing that that I got a flash of dark and white go past me along the creek and I realised there were White-backed Swallows here which I've been chasing for a good long time now so they were a definite target. Again, they were too fast and too far away. As I continued to walk the noises quietened down and I started seeing less and less. Suddenly, there was an almighty shriek and something flew very close to me squawking away and then down to the ground. I think I must have walked too close to a Grey Shrikethrush nest and the occupier came down to let me know. I've never seen them act defensively or aggressively before. They are normally confiding and sweet birds but this one was very angry with me and so I made haste and left it alone. 

Back at the camp, a family of Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike sat up high, calling away. I always like to see them and this young bird on the right was chattering away to the adults.

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike (Coracina novaehollandiae)