Visited: late dry season
Recommendation: This is a wonderful campground that gives access to a stunning bay and coastline. The area supports a wide range of reptiles, birds and animals. It is one to visit for sure.
Sandy Cape Recreational Area is undoubtedly stunning. The views of the coastline are absolutely wonderful and there is a very nice campsite here. On arrival, I parked up in the late afternoon sunshine and there was plenty of sort of generic twittering going on in the bush behind me, but nothing was really sitting up. Swallows and martins were wheeling over ahead, and every now and again I could hear the caw of a Red Wattlebird. But it was quite quiet.
Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena)
In the morning I walked along the beach to the lookout. Here, there were lots of Welcome Swallows who just seemed to be loving the windy conditions. Out on the water were several Pied Cormorants being followed relentlessly by Silver Gulls. A Pied Oystercatcher flew past at one point, and as I sat in the lookout there were easily eight Spotted Scrubwren in the shrub, along with some fairywren. It was a bit blowy for the fairywren, but the more hardy scrubwren sat up, and I got a few shots of them and they went about their noisy morning business.
Spotted Scrubwren (Sericornis maculatus)
Back in the campsite, there were Laughing Turtle-Doves scratching at the ground and they looked absolutely beautiful in the early morning sunlight.
Laughing Turtle-Dove (Streptopelia senegalensis)
All in all, I didn't see too much here, but it is a known spot for Rock Parrots and Sea Lions, so it's definitely worth investigating. On the way out I spotted a Reticulated Whipsnake on the road. It was an absolutely stunning pale turquoisey colour, but as whipsnakes do, it vanished in about three seconds of being spotted. Disappointingly, again there was photograph of this amazing creature.
I had to settle for a quick shot of a Brown Falcon. That's nature photography for you!
Brown Falcon (Falco berigora)