Last Friday my wife had a medical appointment in Adelaide. It was an early morning appointment which meant that we had most of the day to do other things. Instead of taking the quick way home via the south eastern freeway we took a far more interesting route home. We drove up through the Adelaide Hills (part of the Mt Lofty Ranges) via Gorge Road. Along the way we stopped for an extended cup of tea and delicious scones at the Big Rocking Horse at Gumeracha.

I was about to grab my camera to take some photos of the world’s largest rocking horse and some of the local bird life when I realised I had left my camera at home. I had remembered my note book and a pen to record what I saw, I had remembered my binoculars and a field guide resides permanently in the car so I don’t have to remember it. But no camera. Doh.

Oh well, I just had to be content with doing some birding via the naked eye. (Can one say “naked eye” when I do have the assistance of glasses?) Still, birding without either a camera or binoculars is good for honing one’s observation skills. I had also left the binoculars in the car while we sat in the warm restaurant having morning tea. The large picture windows make viewing the nearby landscape extremely easy and delightful.

So, without the help of any visual aids I managed to following list of birds:

• Common Blackbird
• New Holland Honeyeater
• Galah
• Little Raven
• Crimson Rosella (Adelaide Rosella)
• White Ibis
• Rainbow Lorikeet
• Australian Magpie
• Sulphur-crested Cockatoo.
• Australian Wood Duck

That’s not a great list but the conditions were difficult for the following reasons:

• It was very cold and not many birds were active
• The weather was heavily overcast and gloomy
• The scones were delicious and needed my full attention
• My wife an I were in deep conversation for over an hour discussing an important life decision I need to make shortly.

Happy birding.

Trevor