A Western Australian Big Year 2015

A Big year on a small budget (Part 1)

If you haven't heard of a "Big Year" then search around in the bargain bin in the local DVD shop and find the "The Big Year" starring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson. I think it just about covers it all, although being an American Big Year, it doesn't have any crocodiles!

A Big Year in birding terms, is trying to see as many bird species as you can in a single calendar year. The area you cover is up to you, some people do World Big Years, others do countries and I chose my home state of Western Australia (even though it's only a state, it is larger than many countries and twice as hot).

Why, you ask??? Well, why not! Birders talk about doing things and sometimes just never get around to it and that had been the case with a WA Big Year since Archaeopteryx decided to take to the wing. I was going to be the first, which has positives and negatives.........first you've bound to get the record but on the other hand you have no benchmark to aim for.  I pored over the maps and books and came up with a rough target. I reckoned a birder with bottomless pockets and all the time in the world could get 450+  (probably closer to 460) in WA, those with either limited time or money could get 435 and those less fortunate could get 420.........so 420 it was! I decided on a couple of rules, to only includes birds I saw and identified myself (no heard only records) and to not use "playback". Living in Perth, the southwest of WA would be where I would have to find the majority of the species. A rough calculation produced a figure of around 300 species within a days drive of Perth, added to that I had a total of 4 weeks holiday when I could venture further afield.

New Year's Day came around and before the crack of dawn I was ready at Lake McLarty (RIP) to try to start the year with some waders. Luckily for me the lake had one more day left before it baked dry, the birding gods were smiling on me and I managed to see a good selection of waders including Pectoral Sandpiper, Marsh Sandpiper and Long-toed Stint with the bonus of a Ruff at a nearby wetland. I spent the rest of the day racing around to various habitats and by nightfall I had a total of 110 species, a good start to a very very long race. The rest of January was spent gradually picking off the relatively easy species and by the months end the total was up to 175. February held the exciting prospect of adding some seabirds to the list with pelagics scheduled in Albany (on the south coast of WA).

Black-browed Albatross - Albany pelagic 8th Feb 2015

WA State Checklists

Frustrated by the lack of a regularly updated and published checklist of Western Australian birds, we here at Leeuwin Current Birding have decided to create our own. We will aim to keep this updated at least annually via this post to account for new vagrants, and also for taxonomic changes according to the latest IOC checklist.

The 'official' State list (at least for legislative purposes) is maintained by the WA Museum as part of their official "Checklist of Terrestrial Vertebrate Fauna", but their list differs from ours in including Ashmore Reef, and also in applying its own rather unique taxonomic decisions (which, for example, recognises Western Whistler as a full species, but not Western Yellow Robin). 

Our WA list includes island and sea-based records from Australian waters out to 200 nautical miles from the mainland, unless closer to another country. That last clause excludes Ashmore and Cartier Reefs, which are not only much closer to Timor than Australia, but are also explicitly excised from Western Australia geopolitically as External Territories. However the vagrant-rich Browse Island is much closer to WA and also gazetted as a state nature reserve, so is included.

Download the latest LCB WA State Checklist here:

       WA State Checklist IOC 14.1 2024

The many 'Westerns' of Western Australia. From top left: Western Corella, Western Rosella, Western Spinebill, Western Thornbill, Western Whistler (no longer endemic), Western Wattlebird. 

We also maintain a handy checklist of the endemic (and 'almost endemic') bird taxa of WA, including endemic subspecies:

     Checklist of WA endemics 2024

or see our previous blogs on the topic:

     WA Endemic subspecies:
     Part 1: Southwest
     Part 2: Pilbara and arid zone
     Part 3: Kimberley

Western Australia Birder's Totals

There has been much talk in the birding community in WA over the years about replicating the very popular Australian Birding Totals run by Tony Palliser, based on WA alone. Western Australian birders are becoming more focused on their state lists than ever before with the run of extreme rarities in WA in recent years (Hoopoe, Eurasian Hobby, Kamchatka Leaf Warbler).

So I decided to get the ball rolling and set up a state list for birders, the only qualification is that you've seen 300 species or more within WA (see definition below). Just send me your total and I'll add you to the list. When you see a new species, just leave a message on the blog, message me on Facebook or drop me an email (alaninoz@iinet.net.au) with the details and I will update the list. Remember it's just a bit of fun and I am not going to go through your WA list with a fine-toothed comb. Trust is the name of the game!


Definitions

1) All birds must be seen and clearly identified within the boundaries of Western Australia. That included offshore islands (Browse, Barrow etc) but not those outside WA jurisdiction, so sorry but no records from Ashmore & Cartier Reefs, Christmas Island and Cocos Island!

2) Records of birds at sea are acceptable within a 200NM limit of the WA coast.

3) Taxonomy will follow the latest IOC list

Western Australia Totals (IOC 2019)

Name                                       Total                Recent additions to list

Frank O'Connor                         513                Brown-streaked Flycatcher
George Swann                          497                 Eurasian Teal, Sooty Albatross
Nigel Jackett                             480                 Common Cicadabird
Alan Collins                               471                 Collared Pratincole, Cory's Shearwater
Adrian Boyle                              469                 Night Parrot

Sue Abbotts                              469                  Tawny Grassbird, Dusky Honeyeater
Rohan Clarke                            460                  Shy Albatross, Black-browed Albatross
Stewart Ford                             451                  Grey-faced Petrel
John Graff                                 450                  Red-chested Button-quail
Peter Taylor                              441                  Tahiti Petrel, Streaked Shearwater

Bruce Greatwich                       437                  Chestnut-backed Button-quail

Chris Young                              431                  Nordmann's Greenshank, Grey Wagtail
Mark Newman                           427                 Grey-headed Albatross
Nathan Waugh                          426                  Eurasian Hobby
Bill Rutherford                           426                  Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross
Nick Brown                                425                 Grey-headed Albatross, Spinifexbird

Martin Cake                               423                  Kelp Gull, Collared Pratincole

Geoff Groom                             414                  Little Shearwater, Long-tailed Skua
Rose Ferrell                              411
Xenia Dennett                           404                  Collared Pratincole, Sabine's Gull

Robyn Pickering                        385                 Collared Pratincole, Sabine's Gull
Ross Jones                               349                  Ground Cuckoo-shrike, Roseate Tern

Keith Wilcox                              342                  Marsh Sandpiper
Carolyn Turnbull                        320                  Ground Cuckoo-shrike, Inland Dotterel
Lachlan Newman                      320                   Roseate Tern, Painted Button-Quail
Sean Van Alphen                      314 
Jenny Knox                               312                  Red-necked Phalarope, Gilbert's Whistler

The naming of Gilbert's Honeyeater

“If you have not already honoured my poor name in your works, I know of no species that would delight me more than … this beautiful bird”, wrote John Gilbert to the famous ornithologist John Gould in 1844. Gould rebuffed him, “…as I have lately named a Pachycephala after you I cannot with propriety add your name to this new bird”. The beautiful new bird discussed was the now-extinct Paradise Parrot, one of Gilbert’s most famous discoveries, and the Pachycephala was of course Gilbert’s Whistler. However Gould had erred, not realising he had already described the whistler a few years earlier. Thus the honorific was relegated to the western subspecies P. inornata gilbertii, and it is only by chance that the English name of an Australian bird still honours his faithful collector John Gilbert.

More than 170 years later, the influential IOC World Bird List [1] did what Gould found so difficult, when on 23rd April 2015 they quietly renamed Melithreptus chloropsis as Gilbert’s Honeyeater. The same English name was adopted when the species was finally split on the eBird/Clements checklist in August 2015. The background to this name change reveals an interesting story of a Western Australian ornithological pioneers, and of modern-day debates about taxonomy and nomenclature.

Gilbert's Honeyeater Melithreptus chloropsis (subadult). Donnelley River, WA

Albany Pelagic Trip Report - 24 May 2015

Summary: A second good trip for the weekend, again with 13 tubenose species recorded, though the species mix varied a little from the Saturday trip. The highlights included an Arctic Tern, several Black-bellied Storm-Petrels, and a brief visit by a small group of Orcas.

Arctic Tern. Photo courtesy Dan Mantle.

Albany Pelagic Trip Report - 23 May 2015

Summary: This was a good trip, with a good variety of seabirds seen (including 13 tubenose species). However, we didn't see anything different as a result of travelling further offshore to deeper water. The highlights were at least one South Polar Skua, an intermediate-type Soft-plumaged Petrel, better-than-usual views of a number of Little Shearwater, several Wandering-type Albatross, and a pair of Sperm Whales.

South Polar Skua off Albany. Recent observations indicate the species is a regular, moderately common passage visitor along the southern WA coast through April and May, and this was the fifth consecutive May pelagic off Albany where they have been recorded. Photo courtesy Plaxy Barratt

Cheynes Beach: Twitching in a skulkers paradise

Cheynes Beach is a superb birding location, best known for its opportunities to encounter the ‘Big Three’ endemic skulkers of the south-west: Noisy Scrub-bird, Western Bristlebird, and nominate race Western Whipbird. Prime target for most birders is the scrub-bird, which is generally a little easier to see here than at nearby Two Peoples Bay, as the birds here are more habituated to humans (note that’s easIER, not easy). However there are many other treats hidden in the scenic, botanically-rich heaths, and nature-lovers shouldn’t leave disappointed even if they don’t manage to glimpse one or more of the famous skulkers - which is certainly a possibility!

The track to Back Beach (Loop Track), with Baxter's Banksia (Banksia baxteri). NSB habitat to the left (dense cover and reeds), bristlebird habitat to the right (long-burnt low open heath). 

Albany Pelagic Trip Report - 8 February 2015

Summary: This was also an interesting trip, with a reasonable variety of seabirds, though most species were the same as the previous day’s trip. 11 tubenose species were recorded, along with several skua and tern species. The highlights were more Sooty Terns and Short-tailed Shearwaters, and several close passes from a Wandering-type Albatross.

Wandering-type Albatross, suspected Gibson’s D. [e.] [antipodensis] gibsoni. Photo courtesy Plaxy Barratt.