Recently a few lists from other birders visiting Brookfield Conservation Park inspired me to make a trip up there. We decided to make it an overnight trip to spend more time in the park, and stayed in nearby Blanchetown. We slowly drove our way around the tracks in the park, stopping to walk around whenever we saw some movement in the trees. There wasn't quite as much activity as I had expected, perhaps because it was cold! However we still managed to see 36 species in the park, including 2 lifers for me: chestnut-crowned babbler and white-fronted honeyeater (no decent pics of these unfortunately - next time!). I also got to see a few species that I hadn't seen for a while, including white-eared honeyeater, yellow-plumed honeyeater and mulga parrot. We were lucky to have a nice interaction with a friendly little weebill who seemed pretty interested in checking us out!
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| Weebill, Brookfield Conservation Park |
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| White-eared Honeyeater, Brookfield Conservation Park |
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| Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Brookfield Conservation Park |
We also had a look around Blanchetown and the surrounding area, and found some whistling kites putting on a show.
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| Whistling Kite, near Blanchetown, SA |
On the way home we stopped in at Laratinga Wetlands at Mount Barker. We rushed around much more quickly than usual trying to beat the rain! We got nice views of a few Spotted Crakes, which I have previously found to be a bit shy, but today they were out in the open, not fussed about me clicking away! And then we saw what I had been hoping to see - a Spotless Crake!! Another lifer for me :-) It was a fairly quick glimpse as it ran for cover, too quick for a photo but enough to determine which species it was. I watched for a while and got another glimpse of it as it moved around under the cover of reeds.
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| Australian Spotted Crake, Laratinga Wetlands |
Altogether on the trip I saw 77 different species and added 16 species to my year list, including 3 lifers!
