Alysse's Travel and Birding Adventures: Australian birding

Showing posts with label Australian birding. Show all posts

Monday, 13 January 2025

Whicker Road Wetlands and Thompsons Beach - Jan 2025

In the first two weeks of January 2025 I have seen 74 species, across five different LGAs in South Australia. I have been a bit held back by an injury, but I am keen to see as much as I can without walking too far. Next weekend I will be off on my first trip of the year, down to the southeast of the state.

I have had a couple of nice local-ish birding sessions already this year - one at Whicker Road Wetlands in Gillman, and another at Thompson Beach in the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary at Dublin.

I was elated to come across Great Crested Grebe and White-winged Fairywren at Whicker Road, and Elegant Parrot, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew Sandpiper, and both Pied and Sooty Oystercatchers at Thompson Beach, among other species.

Looking forward to seeing what else I can find!

Australian Pelican and Black Swan

Great Crested Grebe

White-winged Fairywren

Elegant Parrot

Red-knees Dotterels

Red-capped Plover

Pacific Gull

Mostly Little Pied Cormorants, a few Pied, and a Sooty Oystercatcher

Bar-tailed Godwits

Curlew Sandpiper

Crested Terns

Sunday, 5 September 2021

Byards Road Wetlands - Early Spring 2021

The weather is starting to get a bit warmer, and the days a bit longer. There is still plenty of water filling the ponds. The birds were out and active today, with flocks of Lorikeets and Galahs flying around, and New Holland Honeyeaters and Noisy Miners were aggressively defending their territories, and perhaps nests!?

Little Pied Cormorant

Australian Wood Duck

Grey Currawong

21 bird species today:

Australian Wood Duck

Pacific Black Duck

Grey Teal

Australasian Grebe

Spotted Dove

Dusky Moorhen

Eurasian Coot

Australasian Swamphen

Little Pied Cormorant

White-faced Heron

Galah

Musk Lorikeet

Rainbow Lorikeet

Noisy Miner

Red Wattlebird

New Holland Honeyeater

Australian Magpie

Grey Currawong

Magpie-lark

Australian Reed Warbler

Welcome Swallow

Tuesday, 5 January 2021

Boobooks and Kookaburras: Oaklands Wetland and Reserve Jan 2021

This morning I made a quick visit to Oaklands Wetland and Reserve on my way to work. I had seen on Facebook that people were reporting seeing a family of Southern Boobooks residing in the park. Upon arriving, I quickly found a pair of roosting Boobooks, and another solo one in a different tree. Excellent year tick for me as I haven’t seen these very often previously. This one had a peek at me, but didn’t seem fussed by my presence.

Southern Boobook, Oaklands Wetland Reserve

After admiring the owls for a short while, I wandered off to see what else I could spot. I could hear a kookaburra somewhere nearby, and I soon found them. A pair of adults were taking turns to feed their rather large baby. A kind local lady was there feeding the birds, and had some insectivore mix which the Kookas seemed to enjoy.

Laughing Kookaburras (Juvenile on left), Oaklands Wetland Reserve

Other birds present at the wetlands included the usual magpies, swamphens, moorhens, and a slightly less common sighting for me - 3 Little Black Cormorants. Altogether I saw 18 species, and possibly would have seen more if I had not had to rush off to work! I will definitely revisit this place soon.

Australian Magpies, Oaklands Wetland

Australasian Swamphens, Oaklands Wetland Reserve

Dusky Moorhen, Oaklands Wetland Reserve

Little Black Cormorant, Oaklands Wetland Reserve

Year to date total: 18 species (this was my first list of the year!)

Day total: 18 species

Birds seen today:

1. Australian Wood Duck

2. Pacific Black Duck

3. Crested Pigeon

4. Dusky Moorhen

5. Eurasian Coot

6. Australasian Swamphen

7. Masked Lapwing

8. Silver Gull

9. Little Black Cormorant

10. Southern Boobook

11. Laughing Kookaburra

12. Galah

13. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

14. Rainbow Lorikeet

15. Noisy Miner

16. Red Wattlebird

17. Australian Magpie

18. Magpie-lark

Monday, 23 November 2020

Spirit of the Coorong Cruise November 2020

Last Wednesday my dad and I went out on the Spirit of the Coorong cruise for the day. Departing from the wharf next to the Hindmarsh Island bridge, we passed through the Goolwa Barrage, where we saw many cormorants and pelicans, and a couple of Long-nosed Fur Seals. We travelled through the Coorong National Park, stopping at Barker’s Knoll, where we went for a walk through the sand dunes to the ocean beach. We sampled local Goolwa Pipis, and enjoyed a lunch Of cold meat and salads on board the boat. Throughout the cruise, the excellent guides identified birds they spotted, and told us about the history of the area, pointing out significant sites along the way. We learned about the Ngarrindjeri - the traditional owners of this whole area, the early European explorers and settlers, and the filming of the movie Storm Boy, both the original movie and the recent remake.

We travelled as far as “Cattle Point”, where about half of the tour group departed the boat again to go for another walk in the dunes and watch our guide find fresh water in the dunes. We opted to stay on the boat as it was quite hot and the dunes here were quite steep! After this second shore excursion, we headed back towards Goolwa. We really enjoyed the cruise, the guides were excellent - very well informed and good story tellers, and kept everyone calm and everything running smoothly when the news about the SA lockdown hit and a few people started getting anxious. Would highly recommend this company and this cruise! Bird list at the bottom after photos.