Hi, my name is Ben. About a month ago I stayed at the Broome Bird Observatory and Ben, the Assistant Warden, suggested that I send in some cool bird sightings from my trip around Australia. Here’s my first one:

I was sitting in the shade house at Broome Bird Observatory where you can see a series of bird baths. Small birds such as the Australian White-eye, Double-barred Finch and the Peaceful Dove come down to have a drink as well as having a bath.

While I was sitting there a White -eye came down for a bath. Thirty seconds later a Collared Sparrowhawk pounced on it and killed it and then it flew back into the tree thirteen meters away from me. I grabbed the binoculars and as soon as I put them to my eyes I saw the feathers floating down as the sparrowhawk feasted on its flesh.

Another story I’m going to tell you is about the shorebird tour and here it is.

Bumping down the dirt road in the early morning on the way to a great shorebird tour with Ben. The tide was still coming in so we drove up and down the red cliffs until the tide came in and we could focus the telescope on the birds.

It was my first time watching shorebirds so there were heaps of new species to discover. In the shorebird tour we saw Bar-tailed Godwits , Black-tailed Godwits , a Common Gull-billed Tern , Lesser Crested Terns , Greater Crested Terns , a Greater Sand Plover , Pied Stilts , Eastern Curlews , Red Knots , Great Knots , Whimbrels , Ospreys and many others that I can’t remember the names of them all. Ben showed me exactly how to tell the very tiny difference between the Lesser Crested Tern and the Greater Crested Tern.

My favourite birds in the shorebird tour were the Ruddy Turnstones and the Red-necked Avocets. I got a Ruddy Turnstone badge for my hat.

Ben (Aged 10)

Ben at the BBO