It has been a long time since my last post here, life got in the way! I recently visited Oaklands Road Wetland and Brodie Road Wetland and took a few photos. It was nice to see a Royal Spoonbill and several other birds.
Monday, 24 April 2023
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!?
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| Little Pied Cormorant |
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| Australian Wood Duck |
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| 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
Monday, 1 February 2021
Laratinga January 2021 - Crested Critters and more
Today, Erin and I headed out early to do some birding and geocaching around Laratinga Wetlands at Mount Barker. We arrived at 9am, and the first birds I spotted were a group of Crested Shriketits - one of my main targets for the day, and one of my favourite species. The shadows didn’t allow for great photos, but it was fantastic to watch these little cuties hopping about among the branches, searching for food.
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| Crested Shriketit |
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| Crimson Rosella (Adelaide) |
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| Grey Teals |
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| Hardhead |
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| Australasian Grebe |
It wasn’t long before we came across the second main target for the day - A Great Crested Grebe. This single bird had been sighted at Laratinga by many local birders over the last few days, and I was hoping to find it myself. I had only seen this species once before, from a distance, on the Coorong. We found it exactly where it had been reported the day before - what an obliging bird. Although it wouldn’t come any closer for a better photo!
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| Great Crested Grebe |
One of the rather friendly and always seen species of Laratinga are the Superb Fairywrens. They seem to be a bit more willing to stick around for photos here than at other locations, probably due to being used to many people passing through everyday!
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| Superb Fairywren |
We saw plenty of birds along the path, including a friendly Common Bronzewing, and a few Little Wattlebirds. We headed down to the water treatment plant, hoping to see some of the special ducks that Laratinga attracts. We spotted Pink-eared Ducks and Australasian Shovelers, but dipped on the Blue-billed Duck that had been seen by others.
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| Common Bronzewing |
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| Little Wattlebird |
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| Dusky Moorhen |
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| Spotless Crake |
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| Black-fronted Dotterel |
By this time it was nearly midday and it was getting warm, so we headed back to the beginning. I revisited the pond where I had seen the Great Crested Grebe earlier, hoping it might be a bit closer to the edge. Well it wasn’t much closer, but the light did seem a bit better for photos.
We went and had some lunch, and then found a few more geocaches nearby, before heading home. We found a total of 12 geocaches including 9 at the wetlands, 1 at Littlehampton and 2 at Blakiston. We visited the Blakiston St James Anglican Church which is the oldest existing and still used Anglican Church in SA (Built in 1847).
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| St James Anglican Church, Blakiston |
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| Bell Tower, St James Anglican Church, Blakiston |
I ended up with 42 species recorded, including 13 additions to my year list, bringing it to a total of 83 species (I picked up Sacred Kingfisher and Eastern Spinebill yesterday, not blogged). While I’m not really “going hard” I would like to try and beat my previous best of 202 species in SA for the year. Interestingly, my 202nd bird record in that year (2017) was a Crested Shrike-tit at Laratinga in November!
SPECIES LIST
- Australian Wood Duck
- Australasian Shoveler
- Pacific Black Duck
- Grey Teal
- Chestnut Teal
- Pink-eared Duck
- Hardhead
- Australasian Grebe
- Hoary-headed Grebe
- Great Crested Grebe
- Spotted Dove
- Common Bronzewing
- Crested Pigeon
- Australian Spotted Crake
- Dusky Moorhen
- Eurasian Coot
- Australasian Swamphen
- Spotless Crake
- Masked Lapwing
- Black-fronted Dotterel
- Silver Gull
- Little Pied Cormorant
- Australian White Ibis
- Royal Spoonbill
- Yellow Spoonbill
- Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo
- Galah
- Crimson Rosella (Adelaide)
- Superb Fairywren
- Little Wattlebird
- Red Wattlebird
- White-plumed Honeyeater
- New Holland Honeyeater
- Black-faced Cuckooshrike
- Crested Shrike-tit
- Grey Shrikethrush
- Australian Magpie
- Willie Wagtail
- Magpie-lark
- Australian Reed Warbler
- Welcome Swallow
- Common Blackbird
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.
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| Grey Teal |
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| Little Pied Cormorant |
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| Silvereye |
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| Australian Magpie |
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| Australian White Ibis |
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| White-faced Heron |
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| Australian Magpie |
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| Pacific Black Duck |
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| Noisy Miner |
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| Royal Spoonbill |
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| Australian Wood Duck |
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| Long-billed Corella |
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| 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
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