Hardy's Scrub, Onkaparinga River National Park (Fleurieu Birding)

Today I took advantage of a morning off and headed to Hardy's Scrub in the Onkaparinga River National Park. I had been to this part of the National Park a couple of times before - the last time was two years ago - and I wanted to revisit it. I drove out through Clarendon, and parked at Gate 19 on Chapel Hill Road. I arrived at 8:30am and stayed for nearly 2 hours. I got a few nice little bush bird species, most of which were too quick or too obscured by vegetation for a photo, but here are a few I did managed to photograph. 

Golden Whistler, Hardy's Scrub

Golden Whistler,  Hardy's Scrub

 Hardy's Scrub

Yellow-faced Honeyeater,  Hardy's Scrub

 Hardy's Scrub

Crescent Honeyeater,  Hardy's Scrub

Crescent Honeyeater,  Hardy's Scrub

While I was away in the South East I decided that I would like to dedicate more time to exploring and birding on the Fleurieu Peninsula, and this morning's outing was my first effort towards this. I don't have any specific goals, just to have a good time and hopefully see some great birds and get some photos :-)

Hardy's Scrub Hike Bird Species List:

1. Galah

2. Adelaide Rosella

3. Red-rumped Parrot

4. Musk Lorikeet 

5. Rainbow Lorikeet 

6. Superb Fairywren

7. Eastern Spinebill

8. Yellow-faced Honeyeater

9. Red Wattlebird

10. Crescent Honeyeater

11. New Holland Honeyeater

12. Striated Pardalote

13. White-browed Scrubwren

14. Brown Thornbill

15. White-browed Babbler 

16. Australian Magpie

17. Grey Currawong

18. Grey Shrikethrush

19. Golden Whistler

20. Grey Fantail

21. Little Raven

22. Silvereye 

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!