Windy Spring Morning

I'm on leave this week and was hoping for some good weather to get some birding in. No such luck as Monday starts with a severe weather warning for most of South Australia.  Still, I ventured out for a few hours, hoping to find somewhere sheltered

I headed northeast from Adelaide, and planned to call into a couple of different spots. First call, a small reserve near Roseworthy.  It was very windy, and no birds to be seen until the miners started with their alarm calls as a large raptor flew over.  It was silhouetted against the sky, but some post processing revealed an adult Spotted Harrier

Next call was Altona, still windy, but once I got below the ridge it wasn't too bad. I noticed that a few orchids were starting to show. Purple Cockatoo is very common.

The problem with looking at flowers while birding is that they are at opposite ends on the focusing range!  I missed a couple of shots that way.  Luckily this Grey Currawong was on a fallen branch that was too big to be blown around. Not so the White-naped Honeyeater. He was being blown all over the place. Not the best photo, but you can still make out his awesome red gape.

Then some more flowers. Not sure of the ID of the first two, but the rest are Common Donkey Orchid, Spreading Night-phlox and Pink Fairies

Then it's back to the birds with White-winged Chough, Red-capped Robin, (they seem to be everywhere this year) and astern Spinebill.

Finally, on the way home I saw a marker for a historic grave site, so I went to see who it was.  It was William Jacob, assistant to Colonel Light (who first surveyed Adelaide in the 1830's) and the founder of Jacob's Creek winery. Cheers William!!