SW WA Trip Part 2: Cheynes Beach area

We left Tony's early the next morning and headed east into the drier parts of the region. The birding was pretty slow during the drive and we dipped on our one target species, Western Corella. We did see Swamp Harrier, Square-tailed Kite, Scarlet Robin, White-breasted Robin, White-naped Honeyeater and Western Wattlebird (another tick). We stopped in Albany for lunch and a look around, nice place but few birds. Blue-billed and Musk Duck were added to the list and we scored more Red-winged Fairy-wrens.
The wind of previous days was still blowing strongly which made birding impossible around Two Peoples Bay. The scenery around this part of the world is breathtaking, and we stopped to take some nice landscape pics. Flesh-footed Shearwaters were seen in the bay.
Heading back to the highway an unusual parrot was spotted and we quickly found several Red-caps feeding quietly in the low eucalypts. Unfortunetly no male wasn't seen.
A little further up the road and we spotted some more parrots, this time Elegants. We watched a male and 3 uncoloured birds for some time before they flew off never to be seen again. The yellow on the belly really stood out in the late afternoon light.

Arriving at Cheynes Beach we were greeted by a mass of honeyeaters in the surrounding heath. New Hollands, White-cheeked, Western Wattlebird and Western Spinebill were all common. This turned out to be our last birding for the day and we settled into our cabin for the night.
Another early start saw us standing on the main road in the gloom waiting for the scrub-bird to appear. According to the information provided too us by the caravan park, the Noisy Scrub-bird has a set routine every morning and can be seen crossing the road at certain times during the day.....which it did....but only for me. I saw the bird twice that morning and Dave missed it both times.

We headed back to the caravan park and found Brush Bronzewing, White-breasted Robin, Red-capped Parrots and a juvenile Red-eared Firetail among the campers. We then spent a conciderable amount of time chasing Western Whipbirds through the heath to no avail. Damn birds!!!
The afternoon was spent snapping away in the caravan park. The birds were very approachable and excellent shots of Brush Bronzewing, Western White-browed Scrubwren and Western Spinebill were obtained, much too the amusement of the park residents.

Our last morning at Cheynes was spent chasing rarities. We headed back to the Scrub-bird spot and within 5min had a male hopping across the road in front of us, stopping briefly in the middle to check us out. He would have been roughly 5m away from us and Dave scored a reasonable record shot.
Up into the heath behind the caravan park again and another scrub-bird was spotted crossing the track. These guys were pretty common once the call was learnt. Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters were fairly common but kept out of sight of the cameras, unlike the stunning male Red-eared Firetail who couldn't resist our charms.
A Western Bristlebird was heard several times but failed to come out into the open. So frustrating! This turned out to be our second endemic dip for the trip. However, hearing and then flushing a Western Whipbird from besides the track certainly made up for this and we left Cheynes very happy with our efforts.