Birds on golf courses
No Comments »23rd November, 2007; Category: Good Birding Sites
I don’t play much golf these days. I used to play socially quite often some years ago but not so much in recent years.
Golf courses in Australia are often excellent places to do some casual birding on the side. For example, our local golf course features many native Australian trees and bushes and these attract quite a range of native birds. This course also includes a number of water features as a part of the hazards players have to negotiate. These water features attract a variety of ducks and other water birds. The grassy fairways are favourite feeding spots of a number of species of birds. In some places it is far easier to hit a “birdie” of the feathered kind rather than of the golfing kind.
A golfing course in Sydney was in trouble last week when they had a massive problem with too many Australian Wood Ducks on their course. The ducks were allegedly causing massive damage to the fairways and greens, so the club gained permission to have a cull of the birds. This shooting did not go down well with some locals.
On a more positive note, one golf course in the Adelaide Hills here in South Australia has published a list of birds found on the course. The Mt Lofty Golf Course website features a list of birds that have been recorded there along with several fine photos of birds. They should be congratulated on this positive move. More golf courses could follow their fine example. So could local councils with their parks, gardens, ovals and reserves.
Links:
Masked Lapwings are a common species of bird found on many golf courses and parks throughout Australia. Watch out for them swooping when they are nesting.
Masked Lapwing
Good bird photo site: Canberra Ornithologists Group
There are some wonderful bird photographers who are prepared to show off their photos to the world. One such group of photographers is the Canberra Ornithologists Group (COG) in our nation’s capital city.
It is well worth a visit.
Links:
- Canberra Ornithologists Group Photo Gallery
- Canberra Ornithologists Group – their home page
- Birds of Canberra Gardens – a useful guide
- Trevor’s Photo Gallery – don’t forget to visit my photo gallery – and I invite you to give the photos a rating.
Crested Pigeon
Just one of many hundreds of photos in my gallery.
Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
A Great Bird Photo site
I enjoy looking at photos of birds on the internet. It is a great way to learn about birds from all over the world, many of them species one cannot hope to see in the flesh in one lifetime. Of course, looking at photos can be time-consuming.
One such site is called the Green Backed Heron: bird photography and identification (sorry – that link no longer works). It is well worth a visit – but give yourself some time to look at all the wonderful photos.
When you come back you might like to visit my photo gallery here (sorry – my photo gallery has been removed). It contains not only photos of birds, but animals, native Australian flowers, scenery shots of Australia, Nepal and Thailand and much more.
Here is a sample photo: click on the image to enlarge.
Budgerigars, Cleland Wildlife Park
Updated 18th February 2017
The Birds of Granite Island, Victor Harbor
Granite Island, Victor Harbor
Granite Island lies a short distance off the coast from Victor Harbor, South Australia. The island is one of several in Encounter Bay. It is possible to walk the short distance from the town to the island via a wooden causeway. It is also possible to take a ride on the historic horse drawn tram that operates every twenty minutes every day.
Pacific Gull
When I checked my birding database I was surprised that I don’t have any records specifically confined to the island. This could just reflect the way I have the database set up. Being an island there are quite a few sea birds one can see on a visit to the island. Just a quick list of the sea birds I have seen – and this is from memory:
- Little Penguin
- Silver Gull
- Pacific Gull
- Little Pied Cormorant
- Little Black Cormorant
- Great Cormorant
- White-faced Heron
- Sooty Oystercatcher
- Pied Oystercatcher
- Caspian Tern
- Crested Tern
- Red-capped Plover
- Australian Pelican
A few other species of birds can be seen on the island itself. There are a few trees and large expanses of grass on the top of the island. Here I have seen:
- Australian Magpie
- Little Raven
- Masked Lapwing
- Crested Pigeon
- Galah
- Spotted Turtledove
- Welcome Swallow
- Willie Wagtail
- Singing Honeyeater
- Magpie Lark
- Common Starling
This is far from an exhaustive list and has been done from memory – a dangerous thing to do.
Little Pied Cormorants on Granite Island
Good birding sites
Here is another collection of good birding sites that are worth a visit:
- Birding Kuwait – very strong on excellent photos with only minimal text. (Rating 9/10)
- Oygarden Birding – about birding in Norway with plenty of photos and some explanatory text. It has two drawbacks in my opinion: the photos only enlarge slightly and the black background makes reading the text difficult (it hurts my eyes). Still worth a visit. Rating 5/10)
- African Bird Club – an excellent resource for birding anywhere in Africa. The photo gallery has nearly 7000 photos of over 1500 African bird species. Every African country has a section devoted to it, including a map. There is also a section giving advice on what books and CDs to buy. Rating 9/10.
- Brdpics – yes – I spelled it correctly – he has a matching number plate on his car – Bill Schmoker’s Birding Blog from Colorado. Many excellent photos, some cartoons and some amazing animated GIFs of birds. And if you ever suffer from a bad hair day, you won’t want to look at this amazing duck! Worth a good look. Rating 8/10.
Stay tuned for more good birding links in coming weeks.
In the meantime – can you recommend any?