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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Bearded Dragon, SA |
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| Purple-backed (Variegated) Fairywren, Whyalla CP, SA |
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| White-winged Fairywren, Whyalla, SA |
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| Australasian Pipit, Whyalla, SA |
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| Red-capped Plover, Whyalla, SA |
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| 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.
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| Redbanks CP |
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| Budgerigars, Redbanks CP, SA |
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| White-winged Triller, Redbanks CP, SA |
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| The only Rainbow Bee-eater photo I managed to capture! Redbanks CP, SA |
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| Cockatiel, Redbanks CP, SA |
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| Mulga Parrot, Redbanks CP, SA |
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| 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.
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| White-winged Chough, Worlds End, SA |
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| Galah, Worlds End, SA |
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| View from our campsite - a huge old gum used by many birds |
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| 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
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