Alysse's Travel and Birding Adventures: Byards Rd Wetlands

Showing posts with label Byards Rd Wetlands. Show all posts

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

Wednesday, 20 January 2021

Byards Rd Wetland - January 2021

Despite living around the corner, I hadn’t been for a walk around Byards Rd Wetland for quite a while - until this morning! I got a later start than I should have, and it was already getting hot. Several of the ponds were completely dry, while others had plenty of water. I quickly started seeing the usual wetland species. It was nice to see a pair of Royal Spoonbills feeding in Pond 9, and a couple of Silvereyes flitting about, one of which seemed to be feeding the other. A group of magpies surrounded me at one point, but they seemed friendly.. I think people might feed them and they were hoping for a snack. A group of wood ducks approached me at the edge of Pond 9, possibly with the same idea.

I hadn’t visited for a while, but the last few times I did was when a family of Tawny Frogmouths were hanging out just outside of the wetlands. I wandered out to the road, not really expecting them to be there, but there was 3 of them roosting in the exact tree I remember seeing them in last, probably over a year ago! I ended up with a total of 29 species, including 7 new additions to my year list.

Grey Teal

Little Pied Cormorant

Silvereye

Australian Magpie

Australian White Ibis

White-faced Heron

Australian Magpie

Pacific Black Duck

Noisy Miner

Royal Spoonbill

Australian Wood Duck

Long-billed Corella

Tawny Frogmouth

SPECIES LIST

1. Australian Wood Duck

2. Pacific Black Duck

3. Grey Teal

4. Spotted Dove

5. Common Bronzewing

6. Crested Pigeon

7. Tawny Frogmouth

8. Dusky Moorhen

9. Eurasian Coot

10. Australasian Swamphen

11. Masked Lapwing

12. Black-fronted Dotterel

13. Little Pied Cormorant

14. White-faced Heron

15. Australian White Ibis

16. Royal Spoonbill

17. Galah

18. Long-billed Corella

19. Crimson Rosella

20. Rainbow Lorikeet

21. Superb Fairywren

22. Noisy Miner

23. White-plumed Honeyeater

24. Australian Magpie

25. Willie Wagtail

26. Magpie-lark

27. Little Raven

28. Australian Reed Warbler

29. Silvereye

Monday, 20 May 2019

Byards Road Wetland (Fleurieu Birding)

This morning I visited my local wetlands for the first time in a couple of months. It was nice to see that the previously dry ponds have filled with water again.

View of Pond 7, Byards Road Wetland

Pacific Black Ducks

I came across a very friendly magpie, that walked up to me within a metre and stood around for a while. It was not afraid of me at all, I suspect it knows that humans sometimes equal food!

Australian Magpie

White-plumed Honeyeater

I timed my visit perfectly and was lucky to see a flock of Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos fly over. They landed in the trees on the northern side of the wetland, and eventually took off again and headed west.

Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo

Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos

I checked on the resident family of Tawny Frogmouths, and found them right where I had seen them last! Unfortunately the sun was behind them, but I still managed to get some passable shots.

Tawny Frogmouths

I spent about an hour at the wetland and saw 23 species. The weather remained OK while I was there - overcast but mild and not too windy.

New Holland Honeyeater

For regular updates on this wetland, and species sightings, join our Friends of Byards Road Wetland group on Facebook :-) Thanks for Reading!

Grey Teal

Bird List:

1. Pacific Black Duck

2. Grey Teal

3. Hoary-headed Grebe

4. Rock Dove

5. Spotted Dove

6. Common Bronzewing

7. Crested Pigeon

8. Tawny Frogmouth

9. Dusky Moorhen

10. Eurasian Coot

11. Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo

12. Eastern Rosella

13. Rainbow Lorikeet

14. Noisy Miner

15. Red Wattlebird

16. White-plumed Honeyeater

17. New Holland Honeyeater

18. Australian Magpie

19. Willie Wagtail

20. Magpie-Lark

21. Little Raven

22. Welcome Swallow

23. Silvereye

Sunday, 6 January 2019

The Birds of Byards Road Wetlands, Jan 2019

Last year was a good year for birding for me, with brief trips to Melbourne and Brisbane, and a longer trip through outback NSW, QLD and SA. I ended up seeing 170 species in SA, and 222 Australia-wide, including quite a few new species. This year is set to be an exciting one for me, with an upcoming trip to Sri Lanka in March (One place still remaining on my tour! - full details at http://craiggreer.com/sri-lanka-untamed-itinerary). I also plan to get out and about around SA as much as I can.

This is my first post for 2019, and also my first since getting my new camera! I now have a Canon 80D with a 100-400mm lens, and I am over the moon!

I have only been birding in one location so far this year - my local spot, Byards Road Wetland in Reynella East, SA. On the 2nd of Jan I spotted a Nankeen Night-Heron, and have seen it again each evening I have visited since. This species is now a regular summer visitor to our wetland, and last year a pair bred here, so it is exciting to see them return and hopefully they will breed again! As the name suggests, they come out fairly late - I don't think I've seen it any earlier than 8pm, but they can also be seen first thing in the morning.

Nankeen Night-Heron, Byards Road Wetland, SA

Nankeen Night-Heron, Byards Road Wetland, SA

Nankeen Night-Heron, Byards Road Wetlands, SA

On these visits I have also kept records of all the other birds there, and have seen 40 species so far this year. It has been great to see much larger numbers of Hardheads than ever before, and six Black-tailed Native-hens (last year we had four). My first addition for the year to my personal location list was a Great Cormorant. Below is a selection of recent Byards Wetland bird pics, highlighting just a few of the great species found here.