Spirit of the Coorong Cruise November 2020

Last Wednesday my dad and I went out on the Spirit of the Coorong cruise for the day. Departing from the wharf next to the Hindmarsh Island bridge, we passed through the Goolwa Barrage, where we saw many cormorants and pelicans, and a couple of Long-nosed Fur Seals. We travelled through the Coorong National Park, stopping at Barker’s Knoll, where we went for a walk through the sand dunes to the ocean beach. We sampled local Goolwa Pipis, and enjoyed a lunch Of cold meat and salads on board the boat. Throughout the cruise, the excellent guides identified birds they spotted, and told us about the history of the area, pointing out significant sites along the way. We learned about the Ngarrindjeri - the traditional owners of this whole area, the early European explorers and settlers, and the filming of the movie Storm Boy, both the original movie and the recent remake.

We travelled as far as “Cattle Point”, where about half of the tour group departed the boat again to go for another walk in the dunes and watch our guide find fresh water in the dunes. We opted to stay on the boat as it was quite hot and the dunes here were quite steep! After this second shore excursion, we headed back towards Goolwa. We really enjoyed the cruise, the guides were excellent - very well informed and good story tellers, and kept everyone calm and everything running smoothly when the news about the SA lockdown hit and a few people started getting anxious. Would highly recommend this company and this cruise! Bird list at the bottom after photos.

Black-faced Cormorant 

Fairy Tern 

Cape Barren Geese 

Cape Barren Geese 

Red-necked Stint (bottom left), Great Cormorant, blurry Black Swan and Sandpiper 

Black-faced Cormorant 

Australian Pelican 

 Coorong Emu

Walk to the ocean beach at Barker’s Knoll

Our cruise boat 

Trying the Goolwa Pipis

Australian Shelduck 

Delicious and filling lunch provided onboard 

Emu

Pelicans 

Australian Pied Oystercatcher

Crested Tern 

Whiskered Tern 

Emu

Kangaroo with Joey in pouch 

Long-nosed Fur Seal hanging out on the Goolwa Barrage 

BIRD LIST:

1. Emu

2. Cape Barren Goose

3. Black Swan 

4. Australian Shelduck 

5. Grey Teal 

6. Chestnut Teal 

7. Red-necked Avocet 

8. Australian Pied Oystercatcher

9. Masked Lapwing 

10. Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

11. Red-necked Stint

12. Common Greenshank

13. Silver Gull 

14. Pacific Gull 

15. Fairy Tern 

16. Caspian Tern 

17. Whiskered Tern 

18. Crested Tern 

19. Little Pied Cormorant 

20. Great Cormorant 

21. Little Black Cormorant 

22. Pied Cormorant 

23. Black-faced Cormorant 

24. Australian Pelican 

25. Great Egret 

26. Australian White Ibis 

27. Straw-necked Ibis 

28. Royal Spoonbill 

29. Little Raven 

30. Welcome Swallow 

Whyalla Trip 2020 featuring Redbanks CP

Cockatiel, Redbanks CP, SA 

This week my dad and I finally headed to Whyalla to catch up with my friend Maggie, who I travelled around Sri Lanka with in 2019. We spent two nights at the foreshore caravan park, had dinner with Maggie and her husband Peter at their beautiful home both nights, and spent all day on Wednesday out seeing the sights and doing a bit of birding and geocaching. 

Point Lowly, SA

Maggie took us for a drive along the coast, where we checked out the lighthouse at Point Lowly, and several other scenic spots around Fitzgerald Bay. 

With Maggie near Fitzgerald Bay, SA

Then we headed to Whyalla Conservation Park. There was an abundance of fairywrens about, and we saw Variegated, Splendid, and White-winged Fairywrens. We had a picnic lunch at Wild Dog Hill, and looked for some more birds around the area. 

Bearded Dragon, SA 

Purple-backed (Variegated) Fairywren, Whyalla CP, SA 

White-winged Fairywren, Whyalla, SA

Australasian Pipit, Whyalla, SA

Red-capped Plover, Whyalla, SA

Maggie and Leo, Whyalla, SA

The next morning we left Whyalla. We had intended to head to Gluepot Reserve in the Riverland for a couple of days, but I had read online that the entry road had flooded recently, so we decided to give it a miss. Maggie recommended camping at World’s End Reserve and visiting Red Banks Conservation Park, which was less out of the way for us anyway, so that’s what we ended up doing!

 

We arrived at Red Banks in the early afternoon, and spent a couple of hours birding. As soon as we got there we could hear bee-eaters and budgies flying around. We didn’t get a close look at any Rainbow Bee-eaters, but we did see plenty of Budgerigars feeding in the grass, perching in trees, ducking into hollow, and flying around screeching. We also were delighted to see a pair of Cockatiels flying about and going into a hollow. 

Redbanks CP 

Budgerigars, Redbanks CP, SA

White-winged Triller, Redbanks CP, SA

The only Rainbow Bee-eater photo I managed to capture! Redbanks CP, SA

Cockatiel, Redbanks CP, SA

Mulga Parrot, Redbanks CP, SA 

Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater

After our exciting session at Redbanks, we headed to World’s End to set up camp in the late afternoon. I went for a short walk from our campsite and spotted a White-winged Chough hanging around a nest. I thought maybe it was working on the nest, but then a baby popped it’s head up! I got a few quick snaps from a distance before retreating. 

White-winged Chough, Worlds End, SA

Galah, Worlds End, SA

View from our campsite - a huge old gum used by many birds

View from the other side of the camp site

We intended to return to Redbanks CP in the morning for another look at the birds, and camp another night, but it ended up being so wet in the morning that we packed up and headed home. We have since heard that there was a lot more rain after we left so I think we made the right decision! 

I would love to return to all of the places visited on this trip and no doubt will do so in the future! 

It has been about a year since my last post on this blog, obviously like everyone else I have had several travel plans cancelled this year, and I did kind of lose interest in birding for a little while too, but I am happy to be getting back into it! We didn’t spend a huge amount of time birding on this trip, and I didn’t even think to keep a list until the last day, so I may have forgotten a few species! 

TRIP SPECIES LIST 

1. Pied Stilt

2. Red-capped Plover

3. Silver Gull

4. Pacific Gull

5. Crested Tern

6. Pied Cormorant 

7. Wedge-tailed Eagle

8. Black Kite 

9. Rainbow Bee-eater

10. Nankeen Kestrel

11. Galah 

12. Little Corella 

13. Cockatiel 

14. Australian Ringneck 

15. Crimson Rosella 

16. Mulga Parrot 

17. Budgerigar 

18. Brown Treecreeper

19. Purple-backed Fairywren 

20. Splendid Fairywren 

21. White-winged Fairywren

22. Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater 

23. Red Wattlebird 

24. Singing Honeyeater

25. White-plumed Honeyeater 

26. New Holland Honeyeater 

27. Yellow-rumpled Thornbill 

28. White-winged Triller

29. Black-faced Woodswallow

30. Australian Magpie

31. Willie Wagtail 

32. Magpie-lark

33. White-winged Chough 

34. Common Starling 

35. Common Blackbird 

36. Australasian Pipit