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Visited: end of the dry season
Recommendation: This is a popular but small stretch of beach and is worth checking out if you are in Broome. Seabirds, shorebirds and the occasional snake can be found here.
This lookout point is at the southernmost tip of the Broome peninsula, adjacent to the Port of Broome. There are 2 small patches of sand either side of a small boat ramp. There are a couple of rocky islets just offshore. The end of the road becomes a car park and there is an area of scrub to the right. There were people here swimming, walking and exercising their dogs but despite that, there was a good number of birds around.
In the scrub were honeyeaters, fairywrens and some dragons. It was too thick to walk into and everything was a bit shy so the Singing Honeyeater was all I could catch. A pair of Osprey were more obliging but only because they were sitting up, far away!
Singing Honeyeater (Lichenostomus virescens)
Australasian Osprey (Pandion haliaetus cristatus)
Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)
Common Tern (Sterna hirundo)
On the beach were a pair of Common Sandpiper with their familiar bobbing motion making them obvious from a distance. There were lots of Common Tern sitting on one of the rocks across the water and a single bird came over and sat nicely for me.
A walker on the beach showed me a sea snake, which was fascinating. Highly venomous, I stayed well clear of it but it didn't look well at all and should not have been out of the water. The walker knew of a wildlife care specializing in snakes and rang them to come out and rescue it. Hopefully they did.
Short-nosed Sea Snake (Aipysurus apraefrontalis)
The small rocky island was right at the reach of my lens and so my photos aren't great. I could see a variety of birds out there though. A large group of Common Terns sat highest up with turnstones, sand plovers and sandpipers lower down. A Pacific Reef-Heron was fishing from the lowest rocks.
Mixed waders
Pacific Reef-Heron (Egretta sacra)
Regularly flying past were Brown Boobys. Their wide range covers the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. They are common visitors to the seas off northern and eastern Australia and will often come close to shore. There were also several of them resting on a buoy offshore. I enjoyed visiting this area as part of a coastal loop from Broome, including Gantheaume Beach. It is the type of spot where anything might turn up so checking it regularly when in the area is a good tactic.
Brown Booby (Sula leucogaster)
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