Local Birding

This morning I was planning to head up onto the Adelaide Plains, looking for raptors taking advantage of the current mouse plague. but I called into the Gawler River on the way and got sidetracked by the Red-kneed Dotterels and Slender-billed Thornbills.  Before I knew it, it was time to head home!

Red-kneed Dotterels are pretty common, but usually wary.  These were happy to keep on feeding while I watched from the car.

Slender-billed Thornbills are very localised to the samphire salt marsh, and were posing in the sun, albeit at a distance.

There were also a few egrets around, both Great and Little.

Oh well, I guess I'll go looking for raptors another day!!

Gulf St. Vincent

Today is the Queen's Birthday public holiday in Australia, so I got to go birding again!! As one of Adelaide's best birdwatching sites, the St. Kilda saltfields, is currently closed to birdwatchers, I decided to go birding around the same local area. I covered the area from St. Kilda to Port Gawler along the coastal plain just North of adelaide on Gulf St Vincent. Most of the area inland of the coast is agricultural land, predominantly cropped for food. Again, there is a lot of water around, and this spreads the birds out. Paradoxically, a roadside pool that I know which usually has water (and therefore birds) in the height of summer was dry!! This section of coast is mainly mangroves though we have none of the mangrove speciality birds seen in other parts of Australia.

Behind the mangroves is an area of tidal Samphire flats that hold another South Australian endemic the rosinae race of Slender-billed Thornbill There were plenty of herons around, with White-faced Heron and Great Egret in equal numbers.

Cormorants were also well represented. This one, with it's vivid green eye, is Little Black cormorant.

The most common parrot today was Red-rumped, a delightful grass parrot. Of course, Magpies were everywhere.

As were Silver gulls.

As I was making my way home from Port Gawler, the road was being swamped by the incoming tide which was moving at a great rate of knots!!