Pengilly Scrub - almost 2 years on

Today I made a quick visit to Pengilly Scrub on the Adelaide Plains about 20 minutes drive from home.  Pengilly Scrub  was devastated in the 2015 Pinery Bushfire.  Whilst the understory is recovering well, the bigger trees still have a way to go.

The first bird to play was a Dusky Woodswallow, who perched about 15 metres away just above eye level.

There were plenty of Neophema parrots there, but they were very flighty, and I couldn't get very close to them.  There were groups of both Blue-winged and Elegant Parrots, and some young ones. The third pic is a young Neophema, and from the amount of yellow on its face I think it is most likely a juvenile Blue-winged Parrot.

Whilst wandering I came across this very agitated Willie Wagtail, and it didn't take much fieldcraft to find his nest complete with a clutch of three eggs. 

On the fence line nearby were plenty of Singing Bushlarks.

Pengilly Scrub- after the bushfire

Pengilly Scrub is a small reserve to the north of Adelaide. It was almost totally burned out in the Pinery bushfire in November 2015. Over seven days the Pinery bushfire burned over 65,000 Hectares (210,000 Acres). Adelaide has had exceptional rainfall this winter so I decided to go and see how Pengilly was recovering after the fire.

The understory was growing well, and there were signs of the gum trees sprouting new leaves, but many of the larger trees were down.

There were plenty of birds though, and two Western Grey Kangaroos.

The most common bird by far was the Rainbow Bee-eater, a summer visitor to South Australia. I found a favoured perch and this chap was happy to keep returning until I had enough photos.

There were also plenty of Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters, Red-rumped Parrots, and, of course, Willy Wagtails.

 

I did notice that there were very few small birds, no finches or thornbills, and only a single pair of Dusky Woodswallows.

The only raptor was a distant Brown Falcon.

I'll try to get back there in a few weeks time to see how things are going.

Pengilly Scrub and from the garden

Last weekend I managed a couple of hours birding at Pengilly Scrub, near Gawler.  I get there a little later than I wanted, so most of the birds had quietened down.  One of the first birds I spotted was this male Spotted Harrier which I disturbed from a tree with a large nest.   Is it the harriers nest?  I'm not sure, but the bird was hanging around the whole time I was there

Birds were busy collecting food, so it has obviously been a great breeding season this year.   Brown Treecreepers were common and there were woodswallows everywhere. most common in the air were Masked Woodswallow, but busiest, feeding young on almost every available branch were Dusky Woodswallow

Finally When I got home, I heard this RAAF C-17 Globemaster on a visit to nearby Edinburgh Airbase from it's usual home in Queensland.

Pengilly Scrub

I had a couple of hours free the other morning so I decided to go to Pengilly Scrub near Gawler. A fellow blogger has visited this spot a number of times and it looked very interesting.

I was only 2 minutes from home when I spotted this Great Egret. There were also a couple of Grey Teal at the pool.

On the way, I also saw this lone Galah. Always difficult to resist against a blue sky. There were lots of Red Wattlebirds chasing each other around.

At Pengilly, I heard an Owlet Nightjar from the gate, but couldn't find it. There were lots of birds calling. Rainbow Bee-eaters were plentiful, and whilst I was watching some, this Singing Honeyeater came so close I struggled to focus on him. There were White-browed Woodswallows everywhere, always lovely to see.

This flower was plentiful, but remains unidentified.

Finally, I noticed this White-plumed Honeyeater catching what looked like caterpillars, and banging them in a branch.