I spent this morning driving the back roads between Lower Light and Hamley Bridge looking for raptors.
Within 200m of Port Wakefield Road I saw the first of many Spotted Harriers. This one came and checked me out and at one point was too close to photograph.
In the same area were a pair of Black Kites, and one shot was photo-bombed by a Black-shouldered Kite which then thermaled with the other birds.
Other common birds were Australian Kestrel and Brown Falcon
The other day, I went for a drive through the area ravaged by the Pinery bushfire in late 2015. The area is regenerating well, and is looking great at the moment. Following a bumper cropping season, there is also a mouse plague in the area, and consequently an influx of birds of prey.
I had heard there was a pair of Letter-winged Kites, a rare irruptive species in this part of South Australia. The plan for the morning was to search these out, and then look for any other raptors before an approaching storm hit the area.
A couple of birding friends were also out that way, and I soon had a message to say that they had located them, only one road away from where I was looking.
As I arrived, one of the kites was flying around. It soon settled in a tree, with a mouse in its talons. after a while the other bird also flew in and settled close to its mate.
By this time it was getting late, so I made a quick tour around some of the nearby roads, where I saw a juvenile Spotted Harrier from a fair distance. I managed a few shots, but they are heavily cropped.
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!!
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.
