Masked Lapwings, Lake Roberts, Lameroo
Masked Lapwings, Lake Roberts, Lameroo, South Australia
Sydney Trip Report June 2011
As I wrote yesterday, we stopped at Lameroo on the first morning of our trip to Sydney earlier this year. Lake Roberts on the eastern edge of town is a good birding spot with a mixture of bush birds and water birds inhabiting this artificial wetland area. On most of my visits I have seen at least two Masked Lapwings. They feed on the grassed area around the lake and picnic area. Behind me where I took these photos is the small caravan park which is also a grassed area. Last year we saw several chicks in the caravan park, running after the adults.
We stayed at this spot for about 20 minutes while we had a cuppa and morning tea. The following is a list of birds observed during that time:
- Black-shouldered Kite
- Brown Falcon
- Nankeen Kestrel
- Little Pied Cormorant
- Muscovy Duck (introduced species)
- Masked Lapwing
- Rock Dove (introduced species)
- Crested Pigeon
- Galah
- Variegated Fairy-wren
- Red Wattlebird
- Magpie Lark
- Australian Magpie (both Black-backed and White-backed)
- Little Raven
- White-winged Chough
- Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
Some of these were seen in the town or on the road leading into town and not at the lake.
Lake Roberts, Lameroo, South Australia
Masked Lapwings, Lake Roberts, Lameroo, South Australia
Masked Lapwings, Lake Roberts, Lameroo, South Australia
Spring is on the way
I went for a half hour walk this morning. There was just the right amount of briskness in the air, no wind, no frost and a few foggy early morning clouds off in the distance. I set off just as the sun was peeking over the horizon. I felt good.
I didn’t take my camera but just used my eyes and ears to do some birding as I went along. Just the usual suspects:
- House Sparrows (common)
- Common Starlings (common)
- Australian Magpies (common)
- Magpie Larks (about 6)
- Crested Pigeons (4)
- Spotted Turtledoves (2)
- Red Wattlebirds (common)
- New Holland Honeyeaters (common)
- White-winged Choughs (6)
- Willie Wagtail (2)
- Masked Lapwing (4)
- Galahs (about 20)
- Nankeen Kestrels (2)
The most interesting species was a Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo calling. It is usually about this time of the year, as spring approaches, that the various cuckoos head towards southern Australia for the breeding season. There are also signs of much activity in our garden and surrounding areas indicating that many species are preparing for nesting, or have already started. Just the right conditions for the cuckoos to come in secretly and parasitize the nests of other species.
Good birding.
Red-rumped parrots and the morning paper
3 Comments »21st July, 2011; Category: Bush birds, Garden birds, Murray Bridge, Parrots and Lorikeets
Red-rumped parrot (male)
This morning I walked down our long driveway to collect the newspaper. I heard a twittering in the tree above me and I was delighted to see two Red-rumped Parrots. A male and female with the male perched in the early morning sunshine lighting up the beautiful colours.
This is a common and widespread species in our region, the lower Murray River district of South Australia. Despite being common in our area, we rarely have them visit our garden and five acre block. I find this both strange and disapppointing; strange that I can’t account for them not visiting, and disappointing because they are such beautiful birds.
Of course, I didn’t have my camera with me, and they didn’t hang around long enough for me to race inside, fire up the camera, and chase them down. You get that.
So… I’ve included in this post some photos I prepared earlier. I took these on a recent visit to Riverglades, a wetland over the other side of the Murray River from our home.
They are beautiful birds, especially the colourful male. The female is much duller.
Good birding.
Red-rumped parrot (male)
Red-rumped parrots (male on left, female on right)
An afternoon walk in Monarto Conservation Park
Monarto Conservation Park, South Australia
A few Saturdays ago I took my elderly mother-in-law on a short drive to Monarto Conservation Park. This park is about 20 minutes by car from our home in Murray Bridge, South Australia. The open range Monarto Zoo is just north of the park. This area is one of our favourite places to see native Australian plants.
The park preserves a large parcel of remnant mallee scrub between the lower reaches of the Murray River to the east, and the Mt Lofty Ranges to the west. The park has several mallee forms of eucalypt (eg Eucalyptus dumosa), native pines (Callitris preissii) and a variety of understory plants like correas, native orchids and a many others.
There is one established walking trail through the north eastern corner of the park starting and ending at the car park. This easy 45 minute walk takes the visitor through a range of plant habitats giving a good overview of the vegetation native to this area. When in flower in winter and spring this is a delightful walk with much to interest keen botanists.
In my experience of many visits to this park over the last three decades the birding can be fickle, largely dependent on what is flowering. Many of our honeyeater species, for example, are highly nomadic, moving quickly to areas of abundant food sources. On this recent visit the birding was rather poor.
The following list is a poor representation of the bird life present in this area:
- Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike: 5 seen, an unusually high number together
- Grey Currawong: several heard and one seen
- New Holland Honeyeater: often present in large numbers, perhaps only 4 or 5 seen this time.
- Red Wattlebird: one seen and several more heard calling
- Little Raven: heard calling from adjacent farmland
- Welcome Swallow: several seen swooping low over the treetops
- Adelaide Rosella: two disturbed from a tree as we walked along the path
- Australian Magpie: many seen in nearby farmland
- Weebill: a small flock heard nearby
As we were driving home via a different route we had fabulous views of two Wedge-tailed Eagles gliding low over the scrub in front of us. Nice end to a slow birding day.
This article was updated in July 2015.
Monarto Conservation Park, South Australia
Monarto Conservation Park, South Australia
A cold, almost non-birding experience
White-throated Treecreeper, Hale Conservation Park
On the last leg of our recent holiday to Yorke Peninsula we stopped briefly at the Hale Conservation Park between Williamstown and Mt Pleasant in the Adelaide Hills. It was late afternoon, cloudy, occasional showers and bitterly cold. We stopped for a quick snack and a cup of tea – to warm us up.
As we pulled up and emerged from the car, the surrounding bushland was quiet – too quiet. I not only couldn’t see any birds, there seemed to be a total silence from the resident bird life. I’ve only ever experienced this on one of two occasions before. I’ve found that almost anywhere one stops on rural roads in Australia, there will be at least some birds to be seen and/or heard. One one memorable occasion some years ago when I was gathering data for the Atlas of Australian Birds I had to submit a blank sheet; no birds in a 20 minute period. Mind you, it rained heavily during the period concerned so I was pushing the limits.
After a few frustrating – and cold – minutes waiting for something to call or appear, a small group of White-throated Treecreepers came into the car park and starting searching the bark on surrounding trees in their normal behaviour. Treecreepers and Sittellas always fascinate me with their ability to hop up and down and even underneath the trunks and branches of trees. Why don’t they sometimes fall off??
I had my camera ready, but the poor light conditions so late on a cloudy day meant I was pushing the limits trying to get photos. I would like to have used the flash, but they were too far away for that. The photos are not brilliant; they are the best I could achieve in the conditions.
White-throated Treecreeper, Hale Conservation Park
White-throated Treecreeper, Hale Conservation Park