Monday, February 20, 2017

Oaklands Wetlands

This morning, I had a quick look around Oaklands Wetlands a few kilometers southwest of Adelaide CBD.

It is a nice place, but I imagine it gets very busy at weekends. The birds here are used to people so it was pretty easy to get some nice photos.

There were only common birds there, but I  enjoyed getting up close and personal with some of them.

The only ducks were Pacific Black and Maned ducks


Other waterbirds included Common Coot and Australian Little Grebe


Of course, Pelicans made use of the water, as did a Royal Spoonbill, whilst the Little Pied Cormorants used the not so natural perches



Finally, I was checking the nest boxes for possums etc, but this was the only one that was occupied

Friday, February 3, 2017

Laratinga Wetlands

Yesterday I had a very enjoyable walk at Laratinga Wetlands in Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills.  The water levels are just starting to recede following record breaking rain in January.

All of the usual ducks were there including Grey Teal, Maned duck and Pacific Black Duck.



Coots and Purple Swamphens were a plenty as well.


As usual, Superb Fairywrens were pretty easy to spot, and unusually, the Australian Reed Warblers were also co-operating.


There were a few muddy margins, so the Black-fronted Dotterels were back, and a few Australian Spotted Crakes were darting from cover to cover. 


This is a well grown juvenile Australian Spotted Crake just starting to get his/her colour.

In the last photo are about seven Australian Reed Warblers letting the Swamphen know he is not welcome. They were extremely agitated, behaviour I have not seen before.