The elephant seal that has been resting at Sorrento Beach in the past few days has returned to shore after swimming out to sea in the early hours of this morning. The Department of Parks and Wildlife today advised that the seal returned at around 11am this morning. Department staff and Surf Life Saving volunteers have cordoned off an area around the seal to ensure public safety and allow the animal to rest without any interference. Parks and Wildlife Senior Officer Rick Dawson said the department was asking people not to use camera flash and torches within the vicinity of the seal after 10pm at night. “We have noticed that the seal does not react well to bright lights at night as it is possibly…

Thousands of banded stilts (a small nomadic wading bird) have abandoned wetlands around the WA coast and flocked to Lake Ballard in the Goldfields, about 150km north of Kalgoorlie, after heavy downpours in the region resulted in some areas receiving their entire annual rainfall in just a few days. Department of Parks and Wildlife Goldfields regional manager Ian Kealley said the recent rains had created a rare opportunity for researchers to tag the stilts with satellite trackers to monitor their breeding patterns. “We recently assisted researchers from Deakin University on a flyover of Lake Ballard and this revealed thousands of stilts, many of which are nesting,” he said. “In the past few weeks 12 adult stilts have been fitted with trackers as part of ongoing…