Birds of Monarto Conservation Park
Last Saturday my wife and I visited Monarto Conservation Park. This park is about 15 minutes drive from our home here in Murray Bridge South Australia. The park is some 65 km south east of Adelaide. The park consists of a variety of habitats but is predominantly mallee. From a slight rise part way along the only walking trail one can look over a sea of mallee trees.
Plants of the Park
In between thick stands of mallee trees (Eucalyptus diversifolia) there are open heath like patches of vegetation. It is like a natural garden and when the plants are in flower it is really delightful. There is a wide variety of plants present including Daisies, Correas, Acacias, Astrolomas, Baeckia, Leucopogons, Boronias and several types of native orchids. The park promises to be absolutely filled with flowers later in the year. (For more information on the plants check my wife’s blog by clicking here.)
Birds of the Park
Over the years our visits have shown a great variation in the birdlife. Sometimes there is hardly a whisper of birdsong and one has to work hard to list even 15 different species. At other times, usually when the plants are in flower, the chorus of birds is – well, not quite deafening, but noisy – and birds seem to be everywhere. My total species list is around the 50 mark which is quite good for this type of country.
Quiet Day
Saturday as one of those quiet days, despite many plants being in flower. I saw or heard a total of 19 species, with some notable dips. Not seeing a Southern Scrub Robin was the major dip.
Here is a list of the species I recorded, in the order of seeing or hearing them:
- Yellow-rumped Thornbill,
- Little Raven,
- Grey Currawong,
- Red Wattlebird,
- Spotted Pardalote,
- Australian Magpie,
- White-browed Babbler,
- Welcome Swallow,
- Purple-crowned Lorikeet,
- Nankeen Kestrel,
- Weebill,
- Grey Shrike-thrush,
- Mallee Ringneck Parrot,
- Brown-headed Honeyeater,
- Striated Pardalote,
- Willie Wagtail,
- Red-rumped Parrot
- Peaceful Dove.
Hi Trevor, glad to hear you are enjoying the birds in both of the Parks, better enjoy them while we can, once the Council put the Bdouble freight route through there I can’t see many surviving. I had a tawny frogmouth in my garden on the weekend, beautiful, he won’t survive the truck traffic at night. Regards. Pam
Hi there Pam,
Thanks for your comments. You have reminded me that it has been quite a while since our last visit to the parks. We must rectify that as soon as the cooler weather comes – or take advantage of a cool change.
I detect in your comments a sense of frustration and apprehension about the imminent changes to the road. Let us hope your predictions are not forthcoming. Still – the reality is that vehicles and birds don’t mix.
Last night I had occasion to drive down to Tailem Bend. As I left our driveway – I was only doing about 20kmh at that point – a Barn Owl swooped down in front of me and picked something off the road. Beautiful. This bird – and many others – have survived our busy road which carries hundreds of trucks daily to Mobilong Prison and the Murray Bridge quarry.
Getting back to your situation, the species most at risk in my opinion would be the Mallee fowl. Let us hope that there is little road kill on the new road.
[…] Birds of Monarto Conservation Park – this park is about 5km north of Ferries McDonald CP […]