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

Port Clinton Shorebird Weekend

Last weekend my sister Erin and I travelled to Port Clinton on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia. I attended a Craig Greer Photography Workshop to get some instruction on shorebird photography. The session was a lot of fun, involving getting down and dirty in the wet sand to stealthily approach these birds. Craig explained the different settings used to get good quality photos, and I got a lot of practice, taking nearly 2,000 photos on continuous shooting mode! While we were on the beach an Osprey flew over - my first for the year and only my second sighting ever! There were good numbers of Curlew Sandpipers, Red-necked Stints, Red-capped Plovers, Pied Oystercatchers, and a couple of Sooty Oystercatchers, my first of the year. 

The next morning I walked back along the beach to where we did the workshop and spent a couple of hours photographing birds. There was also a couple there doing a Shorebird 2020 count. I spoke to them for a while and they helped to identify Greater Sand Plovers and Red Knots, two lifers for me! We saw a group of Bar-tailed Godwits. 

On the way back to Adelaide, Erin and I took some back roads to find some geocaches, and along the way I picked up my first Dusky Woodswallows and Tree Martins for the year. These sightings brought my SA 2018 total up to 139 species and Aus life total up to 305 species. 

Red-necked Stint, Port Clinton, SA

Pacific Gull, Port Clinton, SA

Crested Tern and Silver Gulls, Port Clinton, SA

Pied Oystercatchers, Port Clinton, SA

Ruddy Turnstone, Port Clinton, SA

Port Clinton, SA

Pied Oystercatcher, Port Clinton, SA

Red-necked Stint, Port Clinton, SA

Curlew Sandpiper, Port Clinton, SA

Curlew Sandpipers, Port Clinton, SA

Red-capped Plover, Port Clinton, SA

Red-capped Plover, Port Clinton, SA

Grey Plover, Port Clinton, SA

Greater Sand Plover, Port Clinton, SA

Greater Sand Plover, Port Clinton, SA

Greater Sand Plover, Port Clinton, SA

Bar-tailed Godwits, Port Clinton, SA

Red Knot,  Port Clinton, SA

Tree Martin,  Port Clinton, SA

Tree Martin,  Port Clinton, SA

Tawny's and more - one hot day

With hot weather forecast for this Saturday, Teresa and I originally planned to head down to Tolderol for another look. In the end we decided not to risk the snakes and potential grass fires from the hot car, so we went to visit a few of her (and my!) favourites. First we headed to McLaren Vale to check on a few of her known Tawny Frogmouth families. We found 3 lots altogether, including one family of 4, a single dad on a new nest, and a pair of adults. We revisited the family of 4 later in the day for better lighting for photos!

Tawny Frogmouths, McLaren Vale, SA

Tawny Frogmouths, McLaren Vale, SA

Tawny Frogmouth (juvenile), McLaren Vale, SA

Tawny Frogmouths, McLaren Vale, SA

Tawny Frogmouth (juvenile), McLaren Vale, SA

Tawny Frogmouths (male) on nest, McLaren Vale, SA

Tawny Frogmouth, McLaren Vale, SA

Tawny Frogmouth, McLaren Vale, SA

At the first Tawny site I also saw my first European Goldfinches for 2018.

European Goldfinch, McLaren Vale, SA

Next we headed down to Blockers Road at Myponga to see if we could find a Latham's Snipe that has been residing there. If I didn't know where to look I would've missed it, but luckily I had the snipe whisperer with me and we found it fairly quickly!

Latham's Snipe, Myponga, SA

From there we headed on to Dunn's Lagoon at Finniss to look for a White-necked Heron, but sipped on that one. We went on to Beacon 19 at Goolwa and found a few waders including my first Curlew Sandpiper and Common Greenshank of 2018, bringing me to 83 species for the year so far. It was a great day out, I think we managed to avoid getting (more) sunburned, and the highlight was seeing those young Tawnys - so gorgeous!

Curlew Sandpiper, Goolwa, SA