Peaceful Doves
Peaceful Dove, Cleland Wildlife Park
One of the most beautiful birds found in Australia would have to be the Peaceful Dove. At first glance it appears to be a dull grey colour all over. On closer inspection, however, the delicate markings make this bird stand out from many others.
The Peaceful Dove is found throughout eastern, central and northern Australia and the northern parts of Western Australia. Here in Murray Bridge, South Australia, they are widespread but not particularly common anywhere. The one exception is an area several kilometres west of our home. On my walks through the nearby hills I have often heard their soft, musical doodle-doo calls echoing through the mallee scrub. It is a peaceful, soothing call, one that I love hearing.
From time to time we hear or see them in the mallee scrub at the back of our house garden. Yesterday, while having lunch, we were delighted to hear one calling just a few metres from the front door. By the time I raced outside with the camera, it had gone. Trying to get a good photo of this species in the wild has been a long, frustrating journey over the last twelve months. I haven’t succeeded – yet.
The photo above is of a captive bird. It was taken in the walk through aviary at Cleland Wildlife Park a few days ago.
Related article:
Updated November 2013.
Updated August 2015.
Favourite Birding Spot # 6 Cleland Wildlife Park
Entrance to Cleland Wildlife Park, South Australia
I love travelling so I can go birding in a new area. Last week I visited Cleland Wildlife Park in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. This park is run by the National Parks and Wildlife of South Australia. It is a small part of the Cleland Conservation Park.
It has been quite a while since my last visit. In another life I had taken many groups of primary school children to this wonderful park. On quite a few of these occasions the visit was a part of a school camp at the nearby Woodhouse Scout Camp.
Southern Brown Bandicoot, Cleland Wildlife Park
The beauty of this wildlife park is that one gets a very close up look at many of the birds and animals native to Australia. These include a range of different species, including kangaroo, wallaby, wombat, echidna, bandicoots, potoroos and bettongs. In one spot you can have your photo taken with a koala. A feature of my recent visit was the absolutely gorgeous four dingo pups. They were about four weeks old.
Dingo pup, Cleland Wildlife Park
The main attraction of Cleland for me is the birdlife. The area is well wooded and so there are many native birds resident in and around the park. There are two walk through aviaries which enable one to get up close to many bird species. This is just great for photography. There is also a large wetlands area for all the water birds.
Over coming weeks I will feature some of the photos I took of the birds there. If you are impatient you might want to visit my photo gallery (sorry this gallery has been removed). I took over 200 photos that day, so you will have plenty to look at!
Happy Birding.
Trevor
This article was updated in August 2015.