Day 1 - Monday 28 August
On the first day of our latest adventure, a week travelling around the Eyre Peninsula, we left home in darkness at 5:50am. On the way, we stopped
for breakfast at Bolivar, then after a delay due to a nasty road accident, we were
on our way again. We decided to visit Bald Hill Beach near Port Wakefield, as the road was closed when we had attempted to visit there recently. We were in luck
today and found it open, and spent a while looking along the beach, where we saw more White-faced Herons and Great Egrets flying around than I have ever seen in one place, as well as the typical beach birds - cormorants, pelicans, etc. On the way out we got a nice look at a Nankeen Kestrel.
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| Nankeen Kestrel, Bald Hill Beach, SA |
We kept heading north toward Port Augusta, where we would be staying for the night. On the outskirts of Port Augusta we turned off to go along Yorkey’s Crossing Road. We drove along slowly until we spotted some bird activity, then stopped and had a bit of a wander around. Although there were not a lot of different species in this patch, I found eight that were year ticks, including 1 lifer – the Redthroat. I also had a much better look of some Chirruping Wedgebills than I had last year when I first saw this species, I couldn't believe how many there were and how visible!
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| Redthroat, Yorkeys Crossing Road, Port Augusta |
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| Chirruping Wedgebills. Yorkeys Crossing Road, Port Augusta |
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| Black-faced Woodswallow, Yorkeys Crossing Road, Port Augusta |
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| Some kind of Lizard, Yorkeys Crossing Road, Port Augusta |
Day 2 - Tuesday 29 August
This morning we headed south
to Whyalla on the Eyre Peninusla. We went to the Whyalla Conservation Park,
about 10km north of Whyalla itself. Within a few minutes of entering the park,
I had spotted my main target for the park – a Western Grasswren! The only photo I got of this latest lifer was blurry with vegetation in the way, but I had a good view through the binos. We stayed in the park for a few hours, and I added Splendid
Fairywren to my year list, and got good views of Crested Bellbirds and Greater
Bluebonnets, both of which I only saw for the first time last year, so they are
still newish and exciting for me.
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| Greater Bluebonnets, Whyalla Conservation Park, SA |
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| Crested Bellbird, Whyalla Conservation Park, SA |
We headed to the far end of the park to Wild Dog Hill, a natural geographical feature in the park, named from the Aboriginal history of the area. According to the legend, a boy was attacked by a pair of dingoes, and the local medicine man caught the dingoes and threw them from the top of the rocks to kill them. Some marks on the rocks are said to be the claw marks of the dingoes trying to save themselves. There is a walking trail going around and up onto the rock formation, which visitors are encouraged to do.
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| Wild Dog Hill, Whyalla Conservation Park, SA |
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| Wild Dog Hill, Whyalla Conservation Park, SA |
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| Me and my Dad! Whyalla Conservation Park, SA |
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| View from Wild Dog Hill, Whyalla Conservation Park, SA |
We stayed and had lunch in the picnic area, before heading into Whyalla to check out the wetlands. The wetlands were not quite what I expected, at least not what I think of when I think of a wetland. They are very landscaped, with vast lawns and islands with palm trees, and a playground, so very nice and family friendly. There weren't many different types of birds around, but the stand out was the huge number of Black-tailed Native Hens! This is a species I was excited about when a pair turned up at my local wetland, and Whyalla wetland had maybe 80 or more!
On the way to Port Lincoln, we stopped at Arno Bay to check out the mangrove boardwalk, and I’m so glad we did! We went along the boardwalk to the left of the carpark, which headed toward the beach. We saw a few birds on our way along, including a quick glimpse of one I had been looking for… At the beach we saw a few Pelicans, a pair of Pied Oystercatchers, a small group of Shelducks, and a Caspian and Crested Tern. On our way back along the boardwalk I was keeping an eye out for that bird again, when suddenly something flew out of the mangroves and landed on the railing – a Sacred Kingfisher! My first one for this year. It kept flitting about from perch to perch, across the creek and back again, finally staying in one spot long enough for me to get some snaps. I was very happy with that, and we turned to head back to the car when a movement on the other side of the boardwalk caught my eye. I rushed to have a look, and there, making it’s way through rocks and mangrove roots along a shallow creek bed off of the main creek, was a Buff-banded Rail! Another year tick for me, and another one I don’t see very often. I have only ever seen this species once before in SA (Granite Island), and in abundance on Green Island in Queensland, where they are worse than Silver Gulls or Ibises when it comes to scabbing food from tourists!
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| Sacred Kingfisher, Arno Bay Mangrove Boardwalk, SA |
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| Arno Bay Mangrove Boardwalk, SA |
Day 3 - Wednesday 30 August
Today we planned to spend most of the day looking around
Lincoln National Park, then check out some other local spots as we were
over-nighting again in Port Lincoln and didn’t have to cover a lot of km’s,
unlike yesterday! We had paid the park entry fee of $11 online the night
before, so we were all set just to head in there. After determining that most of the roads traversing the national park
are unsealed and looked a bit rough for our Rav 4, we decided to stick
to the main sealed road and have a look at the walking trails and lookouts
along there. We will take the 4WD next time
to check out some of the other tracks! First we did an easy walking trail
towards Woodcutters Beach. There were a lot of New Holland Honeyeaters around –
a common species back home, but the first ones I’d seen on this trip. Perhaps
the Port Augusta and Whyalla areas are too dry for them?
Suddenly I saw a flash of grey and yellow, as a Western
Yellow Robin appeared! My first lifer of the day, and what a sweet little bird
it was. A few minutes later we heard some fairy-wrens, and
then saw them racing around. I couldn’t make out whether they were Variegated
or Blue-breasted Fairy-wrens, but managed to get a photo of the male. Later that
night I posted the photo on South Aussie Birding on Facebook calling it a
Variegated Fairy-wren but that I was unsure, and happily enough several people
jumped on and told me it actually was a Blue-breasted Fairy-wren, so yay another
lifer for me! On our way back along the track, I spotted a pair of thornbills,
and was excited to realize that they were Inland Thornbills, the last thornbill
species present in southern SA that I had yet to see. We checked out a couple
of other coves accessible by the sealed road, and at one I saw a huge number of
galahs.
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| Western Yellow Robin, Lincoln National Park, SA |
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| Blue-breasted Fairy-wren, Lincoln National Park, SA |
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| Lincoln National Park, SA |
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| Galahs, Lincoln National Park, SA |
After spending a few hours in the national park, we decided
to head down to Sleaford Bay on a tip off from the cashier that served us at
Coles the previous night. She had been down that day and seen a group of five
whales including a calf! We got there and immediately could see one, very close
to shore. We never saw any of the others, but got a decent view of this one.
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| Southern Right Whale, Sleaford Bay, SA |
It was still only the middle of the day and we had some free
time we hadn’t planned on, so we thought we might as well head for Coffin Bay
National Park, which we had intended to wait until Thursday to visit. I quickly
paid the park entry fee of $10 on my phone on the way there. I had been looking
forward to visiting Coffin Bay as one of my most wanted species on my list of
hopefuls for the trip was the Osprey, and they are known to hang out there.
Again we were sticking to the sealed roads, but I had seen an Osprey record at
Point Avoid, so we headed there first. It was an excellent view of the
coastline and cliffs, but no Osprey. We went a short distance around to the
next lookout, the Golden Island Lookout. I wandered along to the right of the
parking area, glimpsing over side while trying not to get too close to the edge
of the cliff and scare my poor old Dad too much! And there it was – sitting in
all its glory on top of its stick nest, on a rock out in the water – an Osprey!
I watched it for a few minutes, took a few fuzzy photos from too great a
distance, then turned to head back to the car to getting my field scope, when
it took flight. I got a few blurry flight photos, before it disappeared. We
looked a while later but it hadn’t returned to its nest.
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| Osprey (that white thing in the middle with a dark wing), Coffin Bay NP, SA |
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| Osprey, Coffin Bay NP, SA |
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| Coffin Bay NP, SA |
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| Golden Island, Coffin Bay NP, SA |
After that we headed down to Yangie Bay, the only other spot
we could get to on the sealed road. I was still hoping to see some Rock Parrots
in the National Park, as others had seen them recently, but I think they must
be hanging out in the 4WD only part because we managed to miss them! At Yangie
Bay we spotted an Eastern Reef Egret, a year tick, and a first in SA for me,
having only seen them in QLD previously. By that point it was getting late into
the afternoon, so we decided to call it a day and headed back to Port Lincoln
before roos on the road became a problem!
Day 4 - Thursday 31 August
After yesterday’s success, we decided to start the day with
another visit to Lincoln National Park. We headed back the same spot we saw the
three lifers yesterday, but took the trail to the right instead. Unfortunately
it was quite windy and overcast and we didn’t see much except for singing and purple-gaped
honeyeaters. After that we thought we’d go to Kellidie Bay Conservation Park, a
smaller reserve next to Coffin Bay that we didn’t have time to check out the
day before. It was still windy there as well, and saw a few species but nothing
new, but at least had a nice walk! There is a walking trail where we stopped at
the corner of Coffin Bay road and Airport Lane.
From there we went to Elliston, where we stayed for the
night. We got there a bit early to check into the caravan park straight away,
so we went for a drive and checkout out some lookouts and did the cliff top
drive. It was so windy there that the few birds we did see, mainly swallows and
Pacific Gulls, looked like they were getting blown backwards.
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| Elliston, SA |
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| Sculptures on Clifftop Drive, Elliston, SA |
Day 5 Friday 1 September
If we had have gone a couple of weeks earlier, this probably
would have been the most exciting day of the trip! On the way to Streaky is
Venus Bay, where for over a year, a rare vagrant Laughing Gull has resided in
the caravan park, where he has been hanging out with Silver Gulls and scoffing
down offerings of fish from the locals and visitors. Unfortunately, he
disappeared during some strong winds about a week before we left for our trip.
And he was nowhere to be seen today.
We did see a lot of Pacific Gulls, and had nice close views of both Pied and
Sooty Oystercatchers. We stopped for lunch there before heading off again. Next stop was Port Kenny, just to check if
Chuckles the Laughing Gull had just moved along the coast a few kilometres. No
sign of him there either, but from the jetty I could see some Red-capped
Plovers, a single Red-kneed Dotterel, and a bunch of Great Egrets. After that
we went around the corner into the Venus Bay Conservation Park. We didn’t go in
too far because the road was pretty bumpy and there wasn’t a lot of bird
activity. It was getting very overcast and raining a little by then.
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| White-faced Heron, Venus Bay, SA |
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| Australian Pelicans, Venus Bay, SA |
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| Sooty Oystercatcher, Venus Bay, SA |
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| Australian Pied Oystercatcher, Venus Bay, SA |
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| Australian Pied Oystercatchers, Venus Bay, SA |
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| Red-capped Plovers, Port Kenny, SA |
Our final stop before Streaky Bay was Murphy’s Haystacks, a
group of Inselbergs rock formations. Entry to the site is a $2 honesty donation
per person or $5 for a family, which is fair enough as the site looks well
looked after with a picnic area and toilets, and a walking trail with
information boards about the formations. They were quite spectacular to look
at, and there were more there than we expected.
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| Murphy's Haystacks, SA |
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| Murphy's Haystacks, SA |
On the way out we were just leaving a note in the visitor’s book and buying a jar of “Haystacks Honey” at the exit, when I heard the sound of lapwings. Now I’m no expert on birdcalls, but I thought they sounded a little different from the ones we have near home, so I went to investigate. I saw two adults flying, appearing to be chasing off a raven, so I watched to see where they landed, and followed to check them out. And sure enough, they were different – Banded Lapwings, another lifer! The pair had three chicks with them, so I watched from a distance, and got a few slightly fuzzy photos, but good enough for me! After missing out on Chuckles, it was great to finish off the day with another life tick. We got to Streaky Bay before the rain hit too hard, and checked into our accommodation, our first stay in an Airbnb property!
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| Banded Lapwing, Murphy's Haystacks, SA |
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| Banded Lapwing, Murphy's Haystacks, SA |
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| Banded Lapwing, Murphy's Haystacks, SA |
Day 6 - Saturday 2 September
Today we headed from Streaky Bay across to Kimba. Our main stop along the way was to Pildappa Rock near
Minnipa.
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| Pildappa Rock, SA |
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| Pildappa Rock, SA |
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| Pildappa Rock, SA |
We arrived to Kimba in the afternoon, and went on to Lake Gilles CP. It was quite windy, and we saw a few raptors - Wedge-tailed Eagle, Nankeen Kestrel, Black Kite and Brown Falcon. We saw a few other birds including Mulga Parrots and some honeyeaters, plus my first Jacky Winter of the year.
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| Jacky Winter, Lake Gilles CP, SA |
In Kimba I got to
see a very special bird – the Big Galah! The galah stands about 8m tall, and is
at the roadhouse which marks the halfway point between the eastern most and
western most points of Australia.
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| Big Galah, Kimba, SA |
Day 7 - Sunday 3 September
We had another early start today as we wanted to check out
Lake Gilles again. It was nice and sunny, but a bit cold and quite windy. I had
nice views of some Mulga Parrots, Dusky Woodswallows and Yellow-plumed
Honeyeaters, but again no new ones. A while later we arrived in Port Augusta,
where we popped into the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens. It was the middle of the
day, so not the best time to go birding, and quite windy there as well. There
were quite a lot of birds flying around, but only Singing and Spiny-cheeked
Honeyeaters, Red Wattlebirds and Crested Pigeons. There was a noisy group of
White-browed Babblers hopping around too.
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| Mulga Parrot, Lake Gilles CP, SA |
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| Dusky Woodswallow, Lake Gilles CP, SA |
We decided to have a look along the
Yorkey’s Crossing Road again, as it was quite successful for me back on the
first day of the trip. We pulled up at the same spot we had on the previous
visit – under a shady yellowish looking tree, which made a good landmark for
where the car was after my wanderings! I could see a few little bird running
around on the edge of the road up ahead, so I followed them to find out what
they were. They went off down a track to the left, and I could see they were
White-fronted Chats, but with them were a couple that looked yellow. I moved a
bit closer, and eventually they moved closer to me and I could see them much
better – Orange Chats! A lifer! There was a pair of them, hanging out with a
much larger group of White-fronted Chats. This was one of my most-wanted birds
that I missed on our NT trip last year, so catching up with it here was lovely. I managed a few photos that were a bit too far away to be too clear, and took some editing to get to an even semi-presentable state, but here they are anyway!
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| Orange Chat, Yorkeys Crossing Road, Port Augusta, SA |
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| Orange Chat, Yorkeys Crossing Road, Port Augusta, SA |
Sunday night we stayed in the Caravan Park at Crystal Brook,
which was nice except there is nowhere in town open to get a meal! Luckily the
supermarket was still open and we got some food to cook up in our cabin.
Day 8 - Monday 4 September
Monday morning we headed to Bowman Park in Crystal Brook. I
had checked out this spot briefly last year on our way up to Alice Springs, but
cut my walk short due to rain. This time the weather was cold but sunny, and we
both went for a walk. No lifers or year ticks, but we spent some time watching
some Red-rumped Parrots, and Purple-crowned Lorikeets.
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| Red-rumped Parrots, Bowman Park, Crystal Brook, SA |
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| Bowman Park, Crystal Brook, SA |
We planned to stop and
look around at Port Wakefield again on the way home, but the weather was
terrible so we continued on home! Our kitties were very happy to see us!
After 7 nights away, I recorded 100 species, including 20
year ticks, of which 9 were SA lifers.
Trip List! (*) means lifer.
1. Emu
2. Black Swan
3. Australian Shelduck
4. Grey Teal
5. Hoary-headed Grebe
6. Little Pied Cormorant
7. Little Black Cormorant
8. Pied Cormorant
9. Black-faced Cormorant
10. Australian Pelican
11. Great Egret
12. White-faced Haron
13. Little Egret
14. Eastern Reef Egret*
15. Osprey*
16. Australian White Ibis
17. Wedge-tailed Eagle
18. Black-shouldered Kite
19. Black Kite
20. Whistling Kite
21. Buff-banded Rail
22. Black-tailed Nativehen
23. Eurasian Coot
24. Australian Pied
Oystercatcher
25. Sooty Oystercatcher
26. Banded Lapwing*
27. Masked Lapwing
28. Red-capped Plover
29. Red-kneed Dotterel
30. Silver Gull
31. Pacific Gull
32. Caspian Tern
33. Crested Tern
34. Rock Dove
35. Peaceful Dove
36. Common Bronzewing
37. Crested Pigeon
38. Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo
39. Pallid Cuckoo
40. Sacred Kingfisher
41. Nankeen Kestrel
42. Brown Falcon
43. Galah
44. Australian Ringneck
45. Greater Bluebonnet
46. Mulga Parrot
47. Adelaide Rosella
48. Red-rumped Parrot
49. Purple-crowned Lorikeet
50. Western Grasswren*
51. Blue-breasted Fairywren*
52. Variegated Fairywren
53. Splendid Fairywren
54. Superb Fairywren
55. White-winged Fairywren
56. Purple-gaped Honeyeater
57. Yellow-throated Miner
58. Noisy Miner
59. Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
60. Red Wattlebird
61. Singing Honeyeater
62. New Holland Honeyeater
63. Yellow-plumed Honeyeater
64. White-plumed Honeyeater
65. Orange Chat*
66. White-fronted Chat
67. White-eared Honeyeater
68. Striated Pardalote
69. White-browed Scrubwren
70. Redthroat*
71. Inland Thornbill*
72. Yellow-rumped Thornbill
73. Chestnut-rumped Thornbill
74. Weebill
75. White-browed Babbler
76. Chirruping Wedgebill
77. Black-faced Woodswallow
78. Dusky Woodswallow
79. Grey Butcherbird
80. Australian Magpie
81. Grey Currawong
82. Black-faced Cuckooshrike
83. Grey Shrikethrush
84. Crested Bellbird
85. Willie Wagtail
86. Magpie-lark
87. Australian Raven
88. Little Raven
89. Jacky Winter
90. Red-capped Robin
91. Western Yellow Robin*
92. Welcome Swallow
93. Tree Martin
94. White-backed Swallow
95. Common Blackbird
96. Common Starling
97. Silvereye
98. Mistletoebird
99. Australasian Pipit
100. House Sparrow
