A bird that had been conspicuously absent from my list was the Chestnut Teal.  Or so I thought.  I recently purchased Apple’s Aperture application and imported in all of my digital photographs (nearly 7,300 photographs from the Canon 350D alone).  I was cycling through the old photos and something caught my eye.  A Chestnut Teal.  Full plumage male no less.  Refer to the photograph below…

The worst bit is I remember the day I took the photograph clearly, I was looking for Hoary-headed Grebes at a lake in Joondalup and thought this particular bird was a manky farm duck.  So the Chestnut Teal becomes bird number 266 on my list.

The recent Hillarys Pelagic netted me three new birds for my list:

• Streaked Shearwater (many seen, easily the highlight of the trip);
• Wilson’s Storm Petrel (a brilliant little bird but almost impossible to photograph);
• Bridled Tern (great views near the boat).

These two birds are the latest additions to my life list, taking it to 262:

• 261: White Wagtail (Lake Joondalup, WA, 23/03/2012);
• 262: Red-browed Finch (Carmel, WA, 24/03/2012).

Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata, Karratha, WA, Australia).  Successfully framed inside the mesh fence (and cropped).

At the prompting of Alan, here is a list of the birds that I am looking for at the moment.  I have included some species that are possible if I go to site with my new job.

• Freckled Duck (Stictonetta naevosa);
• Chestnut Teal (Anas castanea), I’m still checking all the Grey Teals I see;
• Royal Spoonbill (Platalea regia), beginning to think these are fictitious;
• Terek Sandpiper (Xenus cinereus);
• Bridled Tern (Onychoprion anaethetus);
• Roseate Tern (Sterna dougallii);
• Mulga Parrot (Psephotus varius);
• Shining Bronze-Cuckoo (Chalcites lucidus), not sure how I’ve managed to avoid this one;
• Southern Emu-wren (Stipiturus malachurus);
• Redthroat (Pyrrholaemus brunneus);
• Gilbert’s Whistler (Pachycephala inornata);
• Little Grassbird (Megalurus gramineus), a somewhat embarrassing hole in my list;
• Red-browed Finch (Neochmia temporalis), got to go check out that feral population in the hills…

Hooded Plover (Thinornis rubricollis, Lake Pollard, WA, Australia).  Image has been cropped and sharpened.

Thanks to the expert guidance of John Graff I finally caught up with a pair of these fantastic little birds – Hooded Plovers.  The 6km (round trip) walk to Lake Pollard was well worth the effort.  Also of note were the incredible numbers of Australian Shelduck (2500+) and Black Swans (1500+) on Lake Pollard.  These Hooded Plovers take my bird life list to 258.

Intermediate Egret (Ardea intermedia, Lake Joondalup, Western Australia).  Photograph has been cropped.

After attempting (and failing) to twitch the White Wagtail at Lake Gwelup, Alan Collins and myself checked out Lake Joondalup for the Intermediate Egret that was reported there.  We found the bird relatively easily as it moved about on a large patch of weed/grass.  This takes my life list to 257!  Interestingly, in the last fortnight or so I have doubled the number of egret species I have seen (*).

* I had actually seen three egrets prior to adding the Cattle Egret and Intermediate Egret (I had forgotten about the Eastern Reef Egret).  Thanks Alan!

Here are a few recent (and one not-so-recent) sightings:

• Eastern Cattle Egret (finally at Lake Richmond, I have been looking for one of these for a while);
• Broad-billed Sandpiper (in a flock of Red-necked Stint at Nairns);
• Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (a member of the long-established feral posse at Lake McLarty, not a very satisfying tick but a tick nonetheless);
• Red Knot at Nairns (have seen these before but this was a fantastic view alongside Great Knot);
• Gull-billed Tern at Karratha (seen a few years back but finally ID’d by photo).

The first four birds were seen on a Lake McLarty/Nairns area trip with Alan Collins and John Graff.  This takes my life list (Western Australia & Australia) to 256 species.  A nice, neat number for a nerd like me…

Brown Songlark (Cincloramphus cruralis, near Wongan Hills, WA, Australia).

With the sighting of a Common Tern at Cape Lambert (identified by John Graff and Alan Collins via a series of photographs) and many Brown Songlarks at Wongan Hills I have finally passed the 250 bird mark for my Western Australia list.  I am now on 251.

There are a few anomalies in my birding list.  I’m referring to families or groups of birds where I have seen a member that is rare (or difficult to find) yet I am missing “straightforward” members.  Here are a few: