Southern Whiteface, Peterborough, South Australia
No Comments »14th June, 2012; Category: Bush birds
Southern Whiteface, Peterborough, South Australia
Over the Easter weekend earlier this year we were staying with our daughter in Clare in the mid-north of South Australia. While there we took a day trip to Peterborough just over an hour north of Clare. This was to visit family living there.
On the northern outskirts of the town we visited the ruins of the first house my wife lived in when she was a little girl. Near to ruins I wandered through some of the nearby scrub, an area I did extensive birding in many years ago. I was delighted to get close-up views of several Southern Whitefaces (shown in the photos today).
Southern Whitefaces are widespread in the more arid regions of the southern half of Australia. They are widespread and can be locally common in some areas of suitable habitat.
Southern Whiteface, Peterborough, South Australia
Birding in Hale Conservation Park, Williamstown
Hale Conservation Park, South Australia
Last Saturday I had a meeting in Gawler which is just over an hour’s drive from home. I had a little time on my way home, so I stopped for a hour at Hale Conservation Park near Williamstown in the Mt Lofty Ranges. We often drive past this park going to or from our daughter’s home in Clare, but we’ve only ever stopped a couple of times. This time I had a hour of birding on a lovely sunny winter’s afternoon.
The birding was a little slow with only a handful of species obvious, mostly calling. A few days ago I showed a photo of a Scarlet Robin (click here) that obligingly posed near me. I saw quite a few Yellow-faced Honeyeaters flitting around in the tree tops, but none settled close enough for a decent photo. The best of a poor set of photos is shown below. This is the best photo I have of this species, which probably means that I need to get out birding more often seeing it is quite a common species.
The final photo on today’s post is a close-up of some of the wildflowers growing in the park. I must visit again in the springtime when plenty of native plants will be in flower.
Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Hale Conservation Park, South Australia
Hale Conservation Park, South Australia
A nice welcome home
Male Superb Fairy-wren
I’ve been a little quiet here over the last seven weeks. I’ve been overseas on a wonderful holiday. Stay tuned for plenty of wonderful photos of the birds of Ethiopia, Morocco and Spain in the coming months. In each country I saw about 30 species that I’d never seen before. The actual number is a bit rubbery as I’ve yet to identify some of the birds I photographed. Some long hours of interesting research ahead for me.
After a direct and very tedious journey home via Madrid, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne, we arrived at Adelaide Airport at 8am on Wednesday. Due to the blurriness of jet lag the rest of day was basically survival mode.
Thursday morning (yesterday) was a different matter. At breakfast time we had two Superb Fairy-wrens feeding in our garden, a male as shown in the photos, and a female. This species is widespread and common in our district here in South Australia, but this is the first time we’ve seen it in our garden in nearly 30 years living here. (On 5 occasions we have had Variegated Fairy-wrens visit over the same time period, the last being over 10 years ago.)
So, not only were we greeted with these lovely birds on our first day home, I was able to add a new species to our “home list”. Very nice.
Even better: they were around again this morning. I hope they find our garden enticing and decide to take up residence.
I managed only 2 photos of the male; the female was a little on the shy side and wouldn’t sit still long enough in the open for a shot.
Male Superb Fairy-wren
Common Bronzewing Pigeon
Common Bronzewing Pigeon near Murray Bridge
Bronzewing pigeons are flighty birds. As such they are easily disturbed and fly away rapidly at any human interference. I was therefore rather surprised to find that this bird stayed on the stones on the roadside long enough for several quick photos. The one above is the best of them.
This photo was taken about 20km SW of Murray Bridge on a Sunday drive out bush a few weeks ago.
Happy Bird-day to me
Yes, that’s right.
It’s my birthday today, so to treat all my faithful readers I’m going to share some of my favourite photos.
Oh, and if you’d like to write some birthday messages in the comments section, I’d be mighty chuffed too.
Male Flame Robin, Mt. Macedon, Victoria
Cattle Egret in walk through aviary at Adelaide Zoo
Crested Pigeon
Male Gang-gang Cockatoo, Botanic Gardens, Canberra
Red Wattlebird