The status of birds on Peron Peninsula and Dirk Hartog Island, Shark Bay, WA

Abstract

Details of observations made during a field excursion by the Western Australian Group of the RAOU to Peron Peninsula and Dirk Hartog Island are given and comuared with other reuorts on the birds of the area, which has not been greatlyhisturbed, except round enh ham and near sheefstations. Permanent water has been provided for stock. A few species have not been recorded recently, notably the Rock Parrot (from Peron and Dirk Hartog) and the Western Grass-wren (from Dirk Hartog), but some others seem to have arrived in the last fifty years. The ornithology of the area is well documented and can provide an interest- ing study of changes in distribution and abundance of species related to development by Europeans.