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.