Francois Peron National Park

Visited: early wet season

Recommendation: This is a wonderful part of the world. Planning is required as the area is all sandy track. It is stunning and the access to wildlife is exceptional. 

If you make it as far as Denham, then going to Francois Peron National Park is an absolute must. If you don't have a four-wheel drive vehicle like me, then you can visit the homestead and then further up the peninsula with a local tour operator. This is a fantastic way to see the area in comfort. 

The first stop on the organised tour was the homestead, and that was to let the tyres down in the vehicle in preparation for the sandy tracks ahead. Then we headed up to Guichenault Point and it was just absolutely stunning. The tide was out and the water shallow water for a  kilometre or so. We were able to walk out towards the sea until we got to about knee deep. I'd already seen some shorebirds out there - green shank, godwits, stints, oystercatchers and so on. 

As we walked, we looked for any marine life and it was there. Shovel-nosed Sharks, rays, turtles and other little sharks were swimming around us. We stayed out there because we saw a Green Turtle swimming towards us. The guide said that at some point it would put its head up, see us and then swim very quickly away. I trained my camera on him and we made our way slowly towards him until he did poke his head out of the water and I got this shot. Then he did exactly what the guide said and shot out away from us. I don't know why, but it was very funny.

As I continued walking around the homestead there were lots of signs detailing the history of the station. I saw something through the trees and found a young Brown Goshawk. It took off into the trees but as I rounded another one of the buildings I found it sitting up with another juvenile. I had a great time photographing them. It was really, really cool to watch them calling to each other and synchronising their movements.

Brown Goshawk (Accipiter fasciatus) 

On my last visit to the homestead, the wind, which had been pretty much howling in the ten days since I'd arrived in Shark Bay, had finally subsided. It was much warmer and there was a lot more activity. Unfortunately, the Brown Goshawk juveniles were hanging around and making a lot of noise and putting a real damper on proceedings. I walked up to the bird hide and there were good numbers of Zebra Finches wanting to come down and drink. But there was a goshawk on one side of the water and a goshawk on the other side. We all had to wait for them to take off and look elsewhere. When that happened, all the bush birds came out. All around the hot tub, in the bushes, there were Silvereye, thornbill, scrubwrens and, of course, the finches. It was then a case of shoot quickly before the goshawks returned and inevitably they did. I don't feel that I got the most out of the homestead, it would be definitely a good place to return to and explore a bit more.