January 2018 Wrap-up

Already one month into 2018! January has been a good start to the year overall. Aside from work, I've the time to head out and do some birding at various locations, including Byards Road Wetland, Tolderol, Laratinga Wetlands, Monarto, Belair NP, and Cox Scrub CP. So far this year I've seen 126 species, including 4 lifers, without going too far away from home. I've been keeping a closer eye on the changes occuring at my local wetland on Byards Road and helped form a "Friends group" for the site. I've seen some nice birds around, including my favourite Rainbow Bee-eaters, and FINALLY a Southern Boobook again - hadn't seen one for a few years! Here are some shots from January :-) 

I don't know if it's just me, but it seems that there are a lot more Long-billed Corellas in my area than there have been in recent years. Previously I have noticed large groups of Little Corellas, and a few Long-billed in a small group or mixed in with the Littles, but lately I have been seeing large groups of both species. 

Long-billed Corellas, Byards Rd Wetland, SA

Grey Currawong, Byards Rd Wetland, SA

Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo, Cox Scrub CP, SA

 One day I took my sister Erin for a walk in Cox Scrub CP to look for birds and geo-caches. We took the wrong trail and ended up walking a lot further than we meant to, and it was quite a hot day, but at least I saw a lifer - Brush Bronzewing!

Brush Bronzewing, Cox Scrub CP, SA

 Later that same day, I took Erin to see a Tawny Frogmouth family at McLaren Vale - the same family from my earlier January post. They were a bit less accommodating this time, on a branch hidden behind some foliage, but they were just as cute as ever!

Tawny Frogmouths, McLaren Vale, SA

 More recently, my dad and I went up to Browns Rd, Monarto for a look around. There are quite a few species there that I don't see closer to home, so it's a great area to visit. I saw my first Rainbow Bee-eaters for the year, and added quite a few year ticks that day!

Rainbow Bee-eater, Browns Rd, Monarto, SA

Red-capped Robin (immature), Browns Rd, Monarto, SA

 A few days later I revisited Browns Rd in darkness with Teresa. We were quickly rewarded for our drive out there with a sighting of a Southern Boobook. Later we also saw a few Tawny Frogmouths and a couple of Barn Owls, and Teresa heard an Owlet-nightjar. We couldn't find him though, so I will have to find one another day!

Southern Boobook, Browns Rd, Monarto, SA

Tawny Frogmouth, Monarto, SA

January 7

After a long and satisfying day out birding yesterday, I wasn't really expecting to do as much today, but it happened anyway! I was up bright and early to meet a group of like-minded birders (Joy, Teresa, Rosemary and Gary) to discuss planned tree removal at my local wetland at Byards Road. The removal of introduced pine trees will affect Nankeen Night-herons, a rather special resident of our little wetland, which nest and roost in the trees. Following our meeting, most of us hung around to check out the birdlife present. We were treated to an amusing display by this pelican, and I saw many other species, including the night-heron in the tree, ending up with a total of 42 species for the morning - probably my biggest ever list for a single session there. It shows just how many different species are using this wetland, which was transformed from an empty paddock just a few years ago!

Australian Pelicans, Byards Wetland, SA

Australian Pelicans, Byards Wetland, SA

Australian Pelicans, Byards Wetland, SA

Nankeen Night-heron, Byards Wetland, SA

Black-fronted Dotterel, Byards Wetland, SA

After our session at Byards I went out for a nice family lunch to celebrate my Grandma's 89th birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!! <3), and that afternoon I headed out again with my sister Erin, for a spot of Geocaching, and, of course, more birding. We headed to Mark Oliphant Conservation Park, where she had seen a few Geocaches on the map and thought it might be a nice spot for birding too. She was right! Barely out of sight of the car (Loftia Track) and I had seen my first Striated Thornbills, White-throated Treecreeper, Red-browed Finches, Yellow-faced Honeyeaters, and Eastern Spinebills for 2018. We successfully found the geocaches we were looking for, and moved around to the other side of the park (Nioka Track). We parked across from the gate and straight away Erin spotted a ring-tailed possum in a tree. I then pointed out that there was also a koala almost directly above her head. Then we spotted a kangaroo nearby - all 3 species within easy sight of the entrance! We found another 2 geocaches and I picked up Crescent Honeyeater for my year list. We stopped off at Belair NP for a few more geocaches, but nothing out of the ordinary was seen or photographed there. Another fun and successful day out!

 

Eastern Spinebill, Mark Oliphant CP, SA

Ring-tailed Possum, Mark Oliphant CP, SA

Koala, Mark Oliphant CP, SA

Skippy, Mark Oliphant CP, 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

New Year, New Birds

I've been getting more and more into birding over the last few years, and 2017 was a great year for me. I set myself the target of 200 species in SA, and beat it ending up with 202 - 31 of which were new species for me. I also spent almost a month in Ecuador, a fantastic country for birding, and thanks to my lovely friends taking me all over the place, I saw over 150 species there - most of which were lifers too!

As the year ended, I started thinking about what I wanted to achieve in 2018, and realised I just want to keep birding as much as possible, learn more about all of these wonderful species, and add to my life list. I'm going to set my 2018 goals at 250 species in SA, and 350 Australia-wide, but hopefully I will be able to absolutely smash that goal and see many more! With several interstate trips planned for this year, I'm excited for the opportunities awaiting me to see some birds I've never been close to before. I'm also hoping to go on a pelagic trip to see some seabirds during 2018, so I'm going to be studying up on those!

I decided on a quiet New Years Eve at home, so that my dad and I could be up and away early on New Years Day to kick start my 2018 bird list! The plan was to go to Tolderol Game Reserve, but on the way we stopped at Strathalbyn to look for a bird that had eluded me last year with Teresa - a Little Eagle. It flew away from us last time, but this time it stayed put on a branch and allowed me to snap away. The first lifer of the year and it was only 8:30AM! I hoped that this was a sign of a good year ahead! 

Little Eagle, Strathalbyn, SA

Heading into Tolderol we saw quite a few raptors, including black-shouldered kite, a large dark one that got away before I could ID, and EDITED *** a bird I thought was an Australian Hobby and got excited about, but actually turned out to be a Brown Falcon***.

Black-shouldered Kite, on road into Tolderol, SA 

Brown Falcon, just outside Tolderol, SA

 Once in Tolderol the main targets for the day were Pectoral Sandpiper and Oriental Pratincole which had both been seen there recently. There were plenty of Sharp-tailed Sandpipers around doing their best to confuse me into thinking they could be Pectorals, but in the end I dipped on that species. 

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Tolderol Game Reserve, SA

  After being there for a few hours we revisited the pond where the pratincole had previously been sighted, and found some other birders there who told us it was there but had flown across the pond out of sight. We looked for probably about an hour, and were just giving up and heading back to the car when we ran into the reserve manager, and were having a chat with him, and just as I was walking off he called me back and said he saw it fly across the other side again! I hurried around there, and managed to find it! Not easy - these little birds are very good at camouflage! As I was watching it, I was trying to attract the attention of another birder, Winston, about 100 metres away to let him know it was there. Eventually he came over just as it flew away, but he had been trying to catch my attention, because he had one in his scope the whole time! I walked back with him and it was still sitting there in the same spot, so there were two!! Lifer 2 for 2018!

Oriental Pratincole between two Red-kneed Dotterels, Tolderol Game Reserve, SA

After Tolderol we had a look at the Goolwa Barrage and Nangawooka Flora Reserve and saw a few new species for the year list, ending up on 58 species for the day/year so far, including 2 lifers.