After a couple months away from Broome we were on our way back to begin our new role as Wardens at the BBO! Our Last stop driving back was at Sandfire Roadhouse. The mercury was in the forties and our cars aircon had given up a few weeks ago. So, first thing on the agenda at Sandfire was an ice cream and some time in the airconditioned roadhouse. After filling up with fuel we decided to have a quick bird throughout the watered gardens on either side of the Roadhouse before continuing on our way.

It began with Brown Honeyeaters galore, Rainbow Bee Eaters and a Spotted Harrier cruising overhead. A group of four white winged trillers had our attention for a short while before we moved to the other side of the roadhouse and began looking around the mango orchard. After spending a little time trying to photograph one of the numerous Brown Goshawks moving throughout, we noticed a small brown bird moving between a sprinkler and perch on one of the mango trees.

We immediately knew it was something unusual! There was an inkling it may have been some type of vagrant Flycatcher however, at that stage could not say for sure. While photographing this unknown (at the time) flycatcher, something else caught our eye! Another small ‘brown bird’! Sitting very still among the leaf litter, it was hard to distinguish but once sure we had sufficient ‘ID’ photos of the flycatcher we turned our attention to the new unknown bird.

Narcissus Flycatcher - when is was first seen 13th of January 2022.
Photo by Olivia Garcey

For Wardens of a bird observatory, you’d like to hope there weren’t so many unknown birds! However, rest assured these did end up being unusual visitors to Australia, which after some more time were identified.

We again photographed it to help with later identification, before quickly making our way back to the car and checking our trusty bird guide hoping for enlightenment on what we’d just seen.
After a few minutes, we recognised it could only have be a Narcissus Flycatcher we had first seen! Up until then there had been no confirmed records of Narcissus Flycatcher on mainland Australia so this was a big call.
The next bird we recognised as an arctic-type warbler. Another rare vagrant to Australia, however, cannot be ID’d to species level without hearing/recording of a call.
By this point we were bursting with excitement and could almost not believe what we had come across. We wanted to be absolutely sure so sent a few photos of each bird to some members of our committee who has experience with these species.

Kamchatka Leaf Warbler - when is was first seen 13th of January 2022.
Photo by Olivia Garcey

With an almost immediate call back we knew that we were onto something! IT WAS CONFIRMED!

The last few hours of driving into Broome flew by as we recounted what we had just seen.

The possibility of not just one but two vagrant species at the one location prompted birders from both Broome and Perth in to making the journey to Sandfire. Through which a recording of the arctic-type warbler was collected. It was analysed and came back confirmed as a Kamchatka Leaf Warbler!

The discovery of these two species, Kamchatka Leaf Warbler and Narcissus Flycatcher were the perfect way to kick of the new year and our time as Wardens.

Narcissus Flycatcher - seen 25th January 2022 with incoming adult plumage
Photo by Adrien Boyle

Ben and Olivia.

SANDFIRE STRIKES AGAIN! - January 2022