Musk Duck - another lifer

This morning I went to Hart Road Wetland at Aldinga, my first visit to this site. I counted a total of 24 species in around 30 - 40 minutes, including a new species for me - A Musk Duck! There were some other people there feeding the Pacific Black ducks and Grey Teals, but this guy wasn't interested, and was just floating around by himself. 

This is a rather strange looking duck, the males - like the one pictured - have a lobe of skin hanging down under their bill, which can be inflated to impress the ladies during mating season. They also have stiff tail feathers that can be fanned out, also used in the mating display. The male Musk Duck is the largest of Australia's ducks. 

Musk Ducks are endemic to Australia. Their conservation status is considered to be "secure" nationally, but they are rare in South Australia (where this one is). 

At the wetland I also found several White-faced Herons, Black-winged Stilts (my first for the year!), Neophema Parrots (didn't get close enough to determine which species!), and other usual wetland/urban birds.

Also went for a short walk in the adjacent Aldinga Scrub Conservation Park, but didn't see a whole lot except some red-browed finches, and another pair of Neophema Parrots that I couldn't get close enough to identify. 

Source: Birdlife Australia (2016), Musk Duck, accessed 17 March 2016, <www.birdlife.org.au/bird-profile/musk-duck>

Looking for something... found something else!

I purposely arrived at (Flinders) uni  4 hours early today so that I could go for a walk around campus to make a list of the birds, and was especially looking for a Tawny Frogmouth as I've seen them around the uni in the past. I was hoping that if I looked for long enough I might happen across one. But, as often happens, I didn't find what I was looking for, but instead saw something else.

Walking along the lake path, near the Earth Sciences building, I saw a flash of grey land in a nearby tree. I hurried over, thinking that perhaps a sleeping Frogmouth had been harassed out of a nearby tree and had chosen to land here. But it wasn't a Tawny, it was....

-

Juvenile Collared Sparrowhawk, Flinders University, March 2016

A Collared Sparrowhawk! This isn't a lifer for me, but I always enjoy seeing raptors, especially when I can get this close to them. For my non-birder friends, you can tell that it's a juvenile by the pattern of the barring on it's front. The juveniles have these dark brown "V" markings, with dark brown streaks continuing right up the neck. Adults have finer, pale rufous bars.

Collared Sparrowhawks are very similar in appearance to Brown Goshawks, the main differences being size (CS measures 29-39cm, BG measures 40-50cm), tail tip shape (CS has a square-shaped tail, BG has a rounded tail), and lastly, and most interesting to me, is that the Brown Goshawk has a "heavier hooded brow", which makes it appear to have an evil glare, whereas the CS lacks the brow ridge and merely looks "fierce"(Morcombe 2004). I don't think I would want to mess with either of them!

Reference:
Morcombe, M (2004), Field Guide to Australian Birds, complete compact edition, Steve Parish Publishing, Archerfield, pp. 90-91.

First 3 "lifers" of 2016

For those non-birders, lifers are species that I've never seen before, so a sighting means an addition to my life list - but that's probably fairly obvious!

So far this year I've seen 3 lifers:

The Pied Butcherbird and Nankeen Night Heron were seen on a trip to the Riverland with my dad.

Pied Butcherbird, Waikerie, February 2016

Nankeen Night Heron, Murray River, Loch Luna Cruises, February 2016

This Latham's Snipe was seen at the Laratinga Wetlands at Mount Barker. Not great pics, as it was far out, and it moved when I got a bit closer, but definitely enough to ID it.

Latham's Snipe, Laratinga Wetlands, March 2016

Latham's Snipe, Laratinga Wetlands, March 2016

 I was pretty stoked with all three of these new additions to my life life, and hope to add many more this year, as well as seeing some species that I haven't seen for a while, such as some of the smaller bush birds, and some migratory shore birds that I missed seeing this summer, I'll see them when they return!

New birding blog!

I've decided to set up this little blog to share some of my bird photos and birding adventures with friends, family, and anyone else who is interested beyond the usual brief highlights I post on Facebook. 

I'm intending to do a lot of birding this year, despite having a lot on my plate with my final year of uni! In July I'm heading up to Uluru and Alice Springs for the first time, and I'm really excited to see the different birds up there. Aside from that, I'll be getting around southern SA as much as possible, hopefully doing a bit of camping and hiking. 

I'd like to attempt to tick off all of the birds that are regulars on the Fleurieu Peninsula, where I live. I've got the "Fleurieu Birds" book by Peter Gower, which has helped me a lot previously in tracking down species I want to see, as well as finding new places to go birding, with great descriptions of parks and reserves on the Fleurieu, and the birds that have been recorded there. I also refer a lot to eBird.org, where I also post my own bird lists.

This year I'm keeping a year list, as well as (hopefully!) adding to my life list. The only year I've previously kept a year list was 2014, when I ended up with 155 species. I didn't exactly "go hard", but I did get around 50 lifers that year, as I was working on my ID skills a lot, and was able to add quite a few shore birds, my first sighting of my beloved Rainbow Bee-eater, as well as a lot of QLD species from a brief trip to Cairns. 

Rainbow Bee-Eater, Lower Light, November 2014

So far this year I'm up to 91 species. Not too bad considering it's only mid-March and I didn't keep any records for the first six weeks of the year. However now that most of the common, easy to find birds have been ticked off, adding more will be more difficult. Of course my NT trip will definitely help with that!