Wednesday, Oct 22 - Exploring Fitzgerald River National Park

Pics: Royal Hakea, Bremer Bay

Up early at six. Clearing and warm. After breakfast we drove out to explore the Fitzgerald River National Park, a World Biosphere Reserve, due to the great number of plant species. We drove through low scrub stopping to bird and admire the variety, although subtle, of plants. Much of the park has been burned in the last few years and other parts have been affected by “Die Off” Phytopthera, a fungus similar to the Sudden Oak Death Syndrome in California, which is killing off much of the vegetation. Much of the park has been closed off to entry and in other places hikers have to wash their shoes before entering to reduce the spread of the fungus. We saw several kangaroos bounding off into the bush and two beautiful yellow and blue-black Tiger snakes (highly venomous) sunning in the road…Mark did everything but pick one of them up in his enthusiasm to photograph it!

We stopped at Point Ann and climbed up to an overlook where we could see miles of white sand beaches, turquoise water where we hoped to see Southern Right Whales and their calves, but instead we watched a meter-long monitor lizard walk along the cliff tops grabbing insects out of the air.

We continued north through the park to Highway 1 and turned west to the town of Jerramungup where we stopped at a gas station/café for diesel and ordered and tried to eat the worst hotdog/chili chicken burger/grilled cheese sandwich possible, but fortunately were able to finish up with Magnum Classico ice cream bars so drove away happy.
We returned to Bremer Bay and left Mark who had cleverly taken his computer along, at the public library where there is fast wireless.

Bob and I shopped for food, picked up Mark and drove to the estuary to look for shorebirds. As we parked we spotted a Red-capped Parrot eating grass seeds. This parrot has a red head, purple breast, green wings and is just amazing! We spotted beautiful pelicans, terns and other birds until it got too dark. We returned to the cottage and Mark and Bob took over the barbeque chores for the t-bones and I cooked pasta and carrots. Good dinner, TV ( 2 ½ Men and Simpsons), and then the three of us sat around the dining room table to write up our notes….RRZ has seen 126 species!