Bird lovers can join the bird life WA twitchathon, one of the state’s biggest bird watching events, this Saturday.
Individuals or teams of two to five record sightings of birds over 12 or 24 hours.
An armchair twitchathon will also run over eight hours with competitors selecting a spot and finding as many birds as they can within 500 metres.
Teams record their sightings so the competition is based on honesty.
WA twitchathon coordinator Wes Bancroft said while it did get competitive it was a fun day to get out and see the state.
“It’s just for fun really, just a good fun competition to get people out and I guess appreciating birds and getting active,” he said.
“There’s a couple of teams that take it quite seriously and are quite competitive, one year a team drove from Port Hedland down to Perth in the 24 hours and birded the whole way.”
Mr Bancroft said with the Canning river at its doorstep the City of Canning was excellent for bird spotters to notch up sightings.
“Near the river you will see some of the wading bird species, some of the herons, you’d certainly get all of the cormorants, they’re pretty cosmopolitan but you would get them on the river too,” he said.
He said with the Darling scarp nearby, residents could also spot some endemic hills species such as red winged fairy wrens, red eared fire tail finches, white breasted robins and any of the cockatoo species.
For more information or to register contact Stewart Ford on stewartford@hotmail.com or Mr Bancroft at wesbancroft@gmail.com or 0428 343 838.
