January 2018 Wrap-up

Already one month into 2018! January has been a good start to the year overall. Aside from work, I've the time to head out and do some birding at various locations, including Byards Road Wetland, Tolderol, Laratinga Wetlands, Monarto, Belair NP, and Cox Scrub CP. So far this year I've seen 126 species, including 4 lifers, without going too far away from home. I've been keeping a closer eye on the changes occuring at my local wetland on Byards Road and helped form a "Friends group" for the site. I've seen some nice birds around, including my favourite Rainbow Bee-eaters, and FINALLY a Southern Boobook again - hadn't seen one for a few years! Here are some shots from January :-) 

I don't know if it's just me, but it seems that there are a lot more Long-billed Corellas in my area than there have been in recent years. Previously I have noticed large groups of Little Corellas, and a few Long-billed in a small group or mixed in with the Littles, but lately I have been seeing large groups of both species. 

Long-billed Corellas, Byards Rd Wetland, SA

Grey Currawong, Byards Rd Wetland, SA

Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo, Cox Scrub CP, SA

 One day I took my sister Erin for a walk in Cox Scrub CP to look for birds and geo-caches. We took the wrong trail and ended up walking a lot further than we meant to, and it was quite a hot day, but at least I saw a lifer - Brush Bronzewing!

Brush Bronzewing, Cox Scrub CP, SA

 Later that same day, I took Erin to see a Tawny Frogmouth family at McLaren Vale - the same family from my earlier January post. They were a bit less accommodating this time, on a branch hidden behind some foliage, but they were just as cute as ever!

Tawny Frogmouths, McLaren Vale, SA

 More recently, my dad and I went up to Browns Rd, Monarto for a look around. There are quite a few species there that I don't see closer to home, so it's a great area to visit. I saw my first Rainbow Bee-eaters for the year, and added quite a few year ticks that day!

Rainbow Bee-eater, Browns Rd, Monarto, SA

Red-capped Robin (immature), Browns Rd, Monarto, SA

 A few days later I revisited Browns Rd in darkness with Teresa. We were quickly rewarded for our drive out there with a sighting of a Southern Boobook. Later we also saw a few Tawny Frogmouths and a couple of Barn Owls, and Teresa heard an Owlet-nightjar. We couldn't find him though, so I will have to find one another day!

Southern Boobook, Browns Rd, Monarto, SA

Tawny Frogmouth, Monarto, SA

Cox Scrub Conservation Park

This morning I took advantage of the only sunny day forecast for the week and visited a park I haven't been to before - Cox Scrub. I chose the Stringybark Hike (4km) as I wanted to leave plenty of time to visit the Murray Mouth later in the day to try out my new fieldscope! Just inside the gate from the main car park on Bull Creek Road there is a large pond, surrounded by thick vegetation, a nice haven for birds. I was able to spot a few black ducks in there, but anything else that may have been in there was well hidden. The trail is sandy and winds around, gently uphill. The vegetation is fairly low, with not too many tall trees - quite good for spotting birds without straining my neck looking upwards! There were a lot of New Holland and Crescent Honeyeaters, as well as a few Tawny-crowned and Brown-headed Honeyeaters (year tick!). 

Crescent Honeyeater, Cox Scrub CP

In the middle of my walk, I came across a little bird hopping around in a shrub right next to the track - a Chestnut-rumped Heathwren - a lifer for me! I spent a while watching it and trying to get a photo, to be sure that it wasn't the similar looking Shy Heathwren that I haven't seen either. Later I realised that they aren't on the list for that area anyway, and they look a bit more different from each other than I thought.

Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, Cox Scrub CP

Other birds seen today included some Elegant Parrots, one of which posed nicely for me, not too far away from where I was standing, Dusky Woodswallows, Striated Thornbills, Purple-crowned Lorikeets (I only ticked them off my year list last week!), and two glimpses of what I think may have been a Brush Bronzewing, which I haven't seen before and didn't see well enough on this occasion to tick off. 

Elegant Parrot, Cox Scrub CP

After Cox Scrub I headed to Goolwa, where I checked out the barrage, but there wasn't a lot there in the middle of the day, just the usual cormorants, pelicans, coots etc. I set up my fieldscope anyway, just to have a look. Then I headed around to the Murray Mouth where I last visited only 2 weeks ago, but I wanted to see what a difference my scope made to viewing those birds, and wow what a difference! I spent a while there watching Pied Oystercatchers, Crested, Caspian and Fairy Terns, Pelicans, Great Cormorants, Red-necked Stints, and Red-capped Plovers. I tried taking a few photos through the scope, first using a small camera, then with my camera. Neither worked particularly well, but I wasn't using any digi-scoping attachment, so perhaps I might look into that.

All in all, a successful day - 1 lifer and 1 year tick, and lovely long walks on a beautiful sunny day!