A Magpie comes to lunch
Australian Magpie near the Whispering Wall reservoir, South Australia
Yesterday I wrote about the birds I saw while having a picnic lunch on our way to a short holiday on Yorke Peninsula last week. We stopped at the Whispering Wall, the retaining dam of the Barossa Reservoir between Williamstown and Gawler in the Barossa Valley.While we were eating our lunch a male Australian Magpie came up quite close to us. I guess it was used to getting a free lunch from people using the picnic grounds. It was out of luck with us, however.
Australian Magpie near the Whispering Wall reservoir, South Australia
The Barossa Reservoir, South Australia
Birds at the Whispering Wall, Barossa Reservoir
Rock Dove at the Barossa Reservoir, South Australia
On our trip to the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia last week we stopped briefly to have lunch at the Whispering Wall. This popular name for the wall of the Barossa Reservoir between Williamstown and Gawler was built between 1899 and 1902. The retaining wall (see photo below) is parabolic in shape which has a unique property. Visitors can stand at one end of the wall, speak softly and can be heard quite clearly by others 140 metres away at the other end.
I was much more interested in the birds in the picnic ground, on the reservoir and in the nearby bushland. A large group of Eurasian Coots could be seen on the water but I didn’t see any other water birds (see photo below). A small number of Rock Doves were haning around the installation along the wall (see photo above) and dozens of Welcome Swallows swooped low over the water and came to rest on the railings. I tried to get close enough to photograph them but they flew off over the water again.
In the picnic area I recorded a number of bush birds, including:
- Red Wattlebird
- Noisy Miner
- Australian Magpie
- Rainbow and Musk Lorikeets
- Striated Pardalote
- Galah
- Adelaide Rosella
- Laughing Kookaburra
- White-plumed Honeyeater
- Willie wagtail
- Grey Fantail
- Magpie Lark
- Little Raven
This is not a long list, but we were only there for about 20 minutes and I didn’t search out other species in the surrounding bush. I was more interested in eating – and getting on with our journey.
Whispering Wall, Barossa Reservoir, South Australia
Eurasian Coots on the Barossa Reservoir, South Australia