Today, Erin and I headed out early to do some birding and geocaching around Laratinga Wetlands at Mount Barker. We arrived at 9am, and the first birds I spotted were a group of Crested Shriketits - one of my main targets for the day, and one of my favourite species. The shadows didn’t allow for great photos, but it was fantastic to watch these little cuties hopping about among the branches, searching for food.
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| Crested Shriketit |
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| Crimson Rosella (Adelaide) |
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| Grey Teals |
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| Hardhead |
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Australasian Grebe
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It wasn’t long before we came across the second main target for the day - A Great Crested Grebe. This single bird had been sighted at Laratinga by many local birders over the last few days, and I was hoping to find it myself. I had only seen this species once before, from a distance, on the Coorong. We found it exactly where it had been reported the day before - what an obliging bird. Although it wouldn’t come any closer for a better photo!
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| Great Crested Grebe |
One of the rather friendly and always seen species of Laratinga are the Superb Fairywrens. They seem to be a bit more willing to stick around for photos here than at other locations, probably due to being used to many people passing through everyday!
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| Superb Fairywren |
We saw plenty of birds along the path, including a friendly Common Bronzewing, and a few Little Wattlebirds. We headed down to the water treatment plant, hoping to see some of the special ducks that Laratinga attracts. We spotted Pink-eared Ducks and Australasian Shovelers, but dipped on the Blue-billed Duck that had been seen by others.
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| Common Bronzewing |
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| Little Wattlebird |
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| Dusky Moorhen |
We kept walking to another lonely little pond past the treatment ponds, mainly to find a geocache down there, but while Erin was retrieving the geocache, I spotted a little bird skulking by the edge of the reeds - a Spotless Crake!
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| Spotless Crake |
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| Black-fronted Dotterel |
By this time it was nearly midday and it was getting warm, so we headed back to the beginning. I revisited the pond where I had seen the Great Crested Grebe earlier, hoping it might be a bit closer to the edge. Well it wasn’t much closer, but the light did seem a bit better for photos.
We went and had some lunch, and then found a few more geocaches nearby, before heading home. We found a total of 12 geocaches including 9 at the wetlands, 1 at Littlehampton and 2 at Blakiston. We visited the Blakiston St James Anglican Church which is the oldest existing and still used Anglican Church in SA (Built in 1847).
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| St James Anglican Church, Blakiston |
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| Bell Tower, St James Anglican Church, Blakiston |
I ended up with 42 species recorded, including 13 additions to my year list, bringing it to a total of 83 species (I picked up Sacred Kingfisher and Eastern Spinebill yesterday, not blogged). While I’m not really “going hard” I would like to try and beat my previous best of 202 species in SA for the year. Interestingly, my 202nd bird record in that year (2017) was a Crested Shrike-tit at Laratinga in November!
SPECIES LIST
- Australian Wood Duck
- Australasian Shoveler
- Pacific Black Duck
- Grey Teal
- Chestnut Teal
- Pink-eared Duck
- Hardhead
- Australasian Grebe
- Hoary-headed Grebe
- Great Crested Grebe
- Spotted Dove
- Common Bronzewing
- Crested Pigeon
- Australian Spotted Crake
- Dusky Moorhen
- Eurasian Coot
- Australasian Swamphen
- Spotless Crake
- Masked Lapwing
- Black-fronted Dotterel
- Silver Gull
- Little Pied Cormorant
- Australian White Ibis
- Royal Spoonbill
- Yellow Spoonbill
- Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo
- Galah
- Crimson Rosella (Adelaide)
- Superb Fairywren
- Little Wattlebird
- Red Wattlebird
- White-plumed Honeyeater
- New Holland Honeyeater
- Black-faced Cuckooshrike
- Crested Shrike-tit
- Grey Shrikethrush
- Australian Magpie
- Willie Wagtail
- Magpie-lark
- Australian Reed Warbler
- Welcome Swallow
- Common Blackbird
