Esperance

Visited: all year round

Recommendation: Esperance is a great base to explore the Goldfields region but it has some fabulous wildlife accessible within the town itself. Don't zip past on your way west or east. A visit is a must.

Esperance is on of my favourite towns in Australia. Located in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, it can boast some stunning coastal landscapes. It is also famous for its pristine white-sand beaches and turquoise waters, often considered some of the most beautiful in Australia.

I have visited several times with the draw of the Pink Lake, lagoons and walking trails within easy distance of the town. I was quite disappointed with a lot of these places. The Pink Lake is pink no more but still very salty and I saw little wildlife. Lake Warden and the trails within the Woody Lake Nature Reserve were also quite and disappointing. A lot of Black Swans and New Holland Honeyeaters but not much else. 

However, I did find that staying at the older, more rural caravan parks brought wonderful birding opportunities. At one location, I was parked up on a lawn with sprinklers going. The climate is pretty changeable in Esperance and on one day, a break in the cloudy, cooler weather brought the sunshine and the temperature shot up. I spent a very peaceful and delightful afternoon watching a procession of birds either on the ground or in the nearby bushes cooling off.

In Western Australia, the Western Wattlebird is dominant so there are only a few Red Wattlebirds around. Interesting that the Western Wattlebird doesn't have any wattles. Apparently, it still shares enough characteristics with its wattled cousins to be in the same classification. 

My favourite part of the day was watching a group of Common Bronzewings on the grass enjoying the free shower. I am never sure whether they get their name from the shiny bronze patches on the wings or the brown underwing. Either way, it was very interesting to see both. 

Common Bronzewing (Phaps chalcoptera)

At another caravan park, there were regular visits by Carnaby's Black-Cockatoo and Red-capped Parrots. The Carnaby's would fly over frequently in the mornings and afternoons and sometimes up to 50 of them were zooming about. Occasionally, they would sit in the pine trees, calling loudly. 

Carnaby's black cockatoo (Zanda latirostris)

My best sighting, however, were the Red-capped Parrots which visited most afternoons and sat on top of a fence close to me. I had been chasing them since north of Perth but they are very shy and skittish. This was the first time that I was able to get close to them. The star of the show was the male, of course, with his full red cap. The female (below right) also has a red cap but very muted tones. The juveniles (bottom left) were fabulous as they seemed to rule the roost. They would regularly chase around the adults and their squabbling between each other was wonderful to watch. 

Red-capped Parrot (Purpureicephalus spurius)