South East Trip, Day 3 & 4

On Monday morning we paid another visit to the Portland Gannet colony, which was far less populated than the previous afternoon as most of the birds were out fishing, and then headed back towards South Australia. We stopped off at Nelson, and were able to add a few birds to our trip list around the jetty area. We drove around to Simpson's Landing, where Teresa spotted a Musk Duck on the river, and we found another obliging Eastern Yellow Robin. Then, a Rufous Bristlebird appeared on the track! Teresa saw it first, and could see me photographing something, so assumed I had also seen it. But I hadn't - I had been photographing the robin! We staked it out for a while, and eventually it reappeared! We followed it up the track for a while, and got some great views of it crossing the path several times. This was a fantastic lifer for me, as this species can be tricky to find and photograph.

Rufous Bristlebird, Nelson, VIC

Rufous Bristlebird, Nelson, VIC

Eastern Yellow Robin, Nelson, VIC

Musk Duck, Nelson, VIC

White-necked Heron, VIC

We left Nelson, crossed back into South Australia, and visited Piccaninnie Ponds and Pick Swamp - an area I had heard good things about but had never visited. We saw another Rufous Bristlebird briefly perched on top of a tree, and saw a couple of groups of Magpie Geese.

Magpie Goose, Piccaninnie Ponds, SA

Magpie Geese, Piccaninnie Ponds, SA

Magpie Geese, Piccaninnie Ponds, SA

Magpie Goose, Piccaninnie Ponds, SA

After spending a while staking out Pick Swamp (I didn't see much and dozed off, Teresa saw more than I did), we headed to the Eight Mile Creek area, and nearby beaches.

Danger Point, SA

At French Point we saw a large group of Double-banded Plovers - another lifer for me! They were joined by large numbers of Masked Lapwings and Chestnut Teal and a few other birds.

Double-banded Plovers, French Point, SA

Double-banded Plovers, French Point, SA

Double-banded Plover, French Point, SA

Double-banded Plovers, French Point, SA

Double-banded Plovers, French Point, SA

Double-banded Plover, French Point, SA

Double-banded Plovers, French Point, SA

Day Three was another great day, with two new lifers for me, as well as the addition of Cattle Egret to my Australia list - I've never confirmed that one of those white birds out in a paddock was a Cattle Egret over anything else - but I did see a large colony of them recently in Sri Lanka. Although the plovers were beautiful, nothing could beat the experience of finding and getting great views of that Rufous Bristlebird, so that wins bird of the day, if not of the whole trip! 

UPDATE

I didn't take enough photos on Day 4 to make another blog post, so I'll just add a couple here plus our total trip list. We spent some time right on the SA/VIC border in the morning and got some nice views of Eurasian Skylarks. 

Eurasian Skylark

We stopped at Keith on the way home, hoping to find some Blue-faced Honeyeaters that had been seen there previously, but had no luck. We travelled home via the punt at Wellington, and got our last species for the trip in the dark on that road - a pair of Barn Owls! That brought my total for the trip to   105 species - Teresa saw a few I missed, including a Bittern off in the distance while I was dozing - and her total ended up being 111 species. We arrived back to my place just before 7:30pm, and Teresa had to make the long drive home to her place! It was a fantastic trip, I had a great time, got some amazing birds, and I am very grateful to Teresa for organizing everything and driving, and for sharing her wisdom and bird spots with me! 

Bird Species List 

1.       Emu

2.       Hoary-headed Grebe

3.       Australasian Grebe

4.       Australian Pelican

5.       Australasian Gannet

6.       Australasian Darter

7.       Black-faced Cormorant

8.       Great Cormorant

9.       Pied Cormorant

10.   Little Black Cormorant

11.   Little Pied Cormorant

12.   White-necked Heron

13.   White-faced Heron

14.   Great Egret

15.   Cattle Egret

16.   Australian White Ibis

17.   Straw-necked Ibis

18.   Royal Spoonbill

19.   Yellow-billed Spoonbill

20.   Magpie Goose

21.   Black Swan

22.   Australian Shelduck

23.   Pacific Black Duck

24.   Grey Teal

25.   Chestnut Teal

26.   Australasian Shoveler

27.   Pink-eared Duck

28.   Australian Wood Duck

29.   Musk Duck

30.   Black-shouldered Kite

31.   Whistling Kite

32.   White-bellied Sea-Eagle

33.   Wedge-tailed Eagle

34.   Spotted Harrier

35.   Swamp Harrier

36.   Black Falcon

37.   Brown Falcon

38.   Nankeen Kestrel

39.   Black-tailed Native-hen

40.   Dusky Moorhen

41.   Purple Swamphen

42.   Eurasian Coot

43.   Sooty Oystercatcher

44.   Pied Oystercatcher

45.   Masked Lapwing

46.   Double-banded Plover

47.   Red-necked Avocet

48.   Silver Gull

49.   Pacific Gull

50.   Kelp Gull

51.   Whiskered Tern

52.   Crested Tern

53.   Rock Dove

54.   Spotted Dove

55.   Peaceful Dove

56.   Crested Pigeon

57.   Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

58.   Galah

59.   Long-billed Corella

60.   Little Corella

61.   Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

62.   Rainbow Lorikeet

63.   Musk Lorikeet

64.   Crimson Rosella

65.   Red-rumped Parrot

66.   Barn Owl

67.   Laughing Kookaburra

68.   Eurasian Skylark

69.   Welcome Swallow

70.   Australasian Pipit

71.   Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

72.   Blackbird

73.   Scarlet Robin

74.   Eastern Yellow Robin

75.   Grey Fantail

76.   Willie Wagtail

77.   Golden-headed Cisticola

78.   Superb Fairywren

79.   Southern Emuwren

80.   Rufous Bristlebird

81.   White-browed Scrubwren

82.   Brown Thornbill

83.   Yellow-rumped Thornbill

84.   White-throated Treecreeper

85.   Red Wattlebird

86.   Little Wattlebird

87.   Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater

88.   Noisy Miner

89.   Singing Honeyeater

90.   White-eared Honeyeater

91.   White-plumed Honeyeater

92.   New Holland Honeyeater

93.   Silvereye

94.   European Goldfinch

95.   House Sparrow

96.   Red-browed Firetail

97.   Beautiful Firetail

98.   Common Starling

99.   Magpie-lark

100.  Australian Magpie

101.  Grey Currawong

102.  Pied Currawong

103.  Australian Raven

104.  Forest Raven

105. Little Raven

Whistling Kite