Clayheads on Tour - South Australia 25th Jan – 14th Feb 2016

  

To put a trip like this into a short blog is very very difficult; most birds are new with daft names and it sounds like another world never mind the bottom of this one!

To give a brief insight, I was based in a small village called Mount Compass roughly in the middle of an area called the Fleurieu Peninsular around an hour’s drive from Adelaide, it’s roughly the size of Wales and appears on the Australian map as a small dot, as NJS likes to remind me “Australia is roughly the size of Western Europe” I’ve no idea where he got that fact from but he isn’t wrong!

Most places are less than two hour drive away and the area consist mainly of farms (mainly fruit and of course wine), scrub and forests with lots of coastline and estuaries. I had the use of my nephews Volkswagen Golf for the holiday which was great but I had to be careful where I drove it as a lot of the side roads are gravel roads of varying degree of rough wear, several times I couldn’t visit places as the car just wasn’t suitable for the road environment.

I have to say this is probably the hardest birding and most enjoyable I’ve ever done, for the first week I didn’t know what the hell had hit me, it’s hard, very hard, the bush is dense and I was amazed by how green everywhere was given the heat (usually between 26C & 36C during my visit), while the trees where all bare, the tops had dense green leaves which is of course were all the birds were, things like Parrots, Rosella’s and Lorikeets would just disappear into the tree never to be seen again.

I’ll just cover what new birds were seen on each birding day with a few photo highlights, apologies for some of the photos they are slightly blurred but it’s a very old camera, well that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!!

Day One – Goowla, Hindmarsh Island

Australian Pelican, Pied Cormorant, Black Swan, Cape Barren Goose, Pacific Black Duck, Purple Swamphen, White-faced Heron, Australian White Ibis, Straw-necked Ibis, Royal Spoonbill, Masked Lapwing, Red-kneed Dotterel, Red-necked Avocet, Silver Gull, Crested Tern, Swamp Harrier, Nankeen Kestrel, Crested Pigeon, Galah, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Red-rumped Parrot, Superb Fairy-wren, New Holland Honeyeater, Willie Wagtail, Magpie-lark and Australian Magpie.

 Red-kneed Dotterel

Superb Fairy-wren 

Day Two – Mount Compass, Granite Island

Australasian Grebe, Australian Wood Duck, Dusky Moorhen, Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo, Adelaide Rosella, Laughing Kookaburra, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Red Wattlebird, Welcome Swallow, Sooty Oystercatcher, Little Pied Cormorant & Pacific Gull

Adelaide Rosella

Pacific Gull

Day Three – Mount Compass, McLaren Vale

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Silvereye, Black Falcon, Black-shouldered Kite, Rainbow Lorikeet, Little Wattlebird, White-plumed Honeyeater & Mistletoebird

Rainbow Lorikeet

Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike

Day Four – Mount Compass, Port Nourlunga

Black Kite, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Spotted Turtle-Dove, Grey Teal, Australian Hobby, Common Bronzewing & Fairy Martin

Common Bronzewing

Day Five – Hallett Cove, Scott Creek CP

Collared Sparrowhawk, White-throated Treecreeper, Noisy Miner, Singing Honeyeater, Grey Fantail, Grey Currawong, Little Raven & Weebill

Noisy Miner

White-throated Treecreeper

Day Six – Mount Compass, Kuipto Forest, Port Nourlunga

Red-browed Finch, Australian Reed Warbler, Golden-headed Cisticola, Eastern Spinebill, Nankeen Night-heron, Eastern Reef Egret, Long-billed Corella & Little Corella

 

 Little Corella’s

Day Seven – Belair, Mount Compass

Hardhead & White-browed Scrubwren

 Hardhead (White-eyed Duck)

Day Eight – Aldinga Scrub, Mount Magnificent

Dusky Woodswallow, Grey Shrike-thrush, Musk Duck, Peaceful Dove & Brown Falcon

Musk Duck

Day Nine – Hindmarsh Island, Goowla, Currency Creek CP, Scott CP

Pied Oystercatcher, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Red-capped Plover, Red-necked Stint, Latham’s Snipe, Australasian Shoveler, Australasian Pipit, Stubble Quail, Horsfield’s Bushlark, Elegant Parrot, Tree Martin, Brown Goshawk, Crescent Honeyeater & Striated Pardalote

 Elegant Parrot

Day Ten – Inman River, Hindmarsh River CP

Chestnut Teal, Hoary-headed Grebe, Crested-shrike Tit and Musk Lorikeet

Musk Lorikeet

Day Eleven – Greenfields Saltpans, St Kilda

White-fronted Chat, Banded Stilt, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Brown Thornbill

 Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater

White-fronted Chat

Day Twelve – Newland Head, Talisker CP, Nixon Skinner CP

Scarlet Robin, Brown-headed Honeyeater, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Painted-button Quail, Golden Whistler, White-naped Honeyeater

 Dusky Woodswallow

Golden Whistler

Day Thirteen – Hindmarsh Island, Scott CP

Australian Shelduck, Yellow Thornbill, Little Eagle

Australian Shelduck

Day Fifteen – Belair CP, Laratinga Wetlands

Little Grassbird, Jacky Winter, Buff-rumped Thornbill, Sacred Kingfisher, Black-fronted Dotterel, Whistling Kite, Blue-billed Duck, Pink-eared Duck, Freckled Duck

 Sacred Kingfisher

Day Seventeen – Morialta CP, Para Wirra RC

Brown Treecreeper, White-browed Babbler, Emu, Eastern Rosella, White-winged Chough, Chestnut-rumped Thornbill, Rainbow Bee-eater, Brush Bronzewing

 Rainbow Bee-eater

Emu

Day Eighteen – Ferris McDonald CP, Monarto CP

Purple-gaped Honeyeater, Spotted Pardalote, Shy Heathwren, Variegated Fairy-wren, Australian Ringneck

Day Nineteen – Coorong NP

Beautiful Firetail

Day Twenty – Hindmarsh Island, Goowla

Fairy Tern

Day Twenty One – Dubai Airport

Common Myna

In total 157 species were seen of which 133 were new species for me.

Other ‘items’ of interest included:

Koala

Kangaroo

Shingleback Lizard

Chris Waring

A short video summary

The start of the year has seen a few bits turning up in Staffordshire plus a few trips to Norfolk, North Yorkshire and North Wales. Here's a quick video, ending with the Ferruginous Duck, Lapland Buntings and Pallid Harrier in Norfolk.

Green-winged Teal at Aqualate, 1w Caspian Gull at Chasewater, Ring-necked Duck at Uttoxeter, Kumlien's Gull at Barmston, Richard's Pipits on Flamborough, Surf Scoter off Filey (and I was nearly too), Ferruginous Duck at Holkham, Lapland Bunting at Blakeney FM, Pallid Harrier at Flitcham.

January 2016 - Staffs has a decent run at last

Following the new year rush, things just carried on happening. On Monday 4th January, I saw the 1w Red-necked Grebe at Trentham Gardens on my second attempt. The first attempt, although we snook in for free, ended empty handed, rushed, very wet and my car broke down. 

The following weekend I saw the wintering Pallas's Warbler in Cheshire, and in the following week, a male Black Redstart was found in Burslem of all places (my second for Burslem as I ticked the one in 1987 that sang on top of the town hall).

The county's decent start to the year continued with a brief Green-winged Teal at Aqualate Mere. I was in the hide with The Stalker and Richard Powell and we watched it fly off to the left and out of sight. Little did we know this would be its final showing.

The Aqualate Green-winged Teal

 

 The same day also produced a 1w Caspian Gull at Chasewater.

1w Caspian Gull found by Snapper Richards

Then, after deciding to pop into North Wales for Black Grouse and Hawfinch, we had to race back to Staffs and Uttoxeter Quarry where Richard Powell had found a female Ring-necked Duck.  

Ring-necked Duck at Uttoxeter Quarry

And so to the final weekend (an amazing five Saturdays this month - should happen every month and cut back on the Tuesdays in my opinion), we popped up to the East Yorkshire coast where the Kumlien's Gull had returned for its fourth winter. Having only seen one before (and I don't beyond to the One Only Club), it was nice to watch such a good example loafing about on the beach.  

Next stop was just up the coast at Flamborough. This time we visit the North Landing, a place I've only been to on the odd occasion before. The three wintering Richard's Pipits were showing quite nicely in the field by the car park.

North Landing

Richard's Pipit Flamborough Head

The final stop was on Filey Brigg for the 1w Surf Scoter. By this time, the wind had whipped up, and walking along the Brigg was quite hair raising to say the least (despite my lack of hair it was that windy it was still raised). I tried my best to find the duck, but holding the scope still was almost impossible. I couldn't understand why the birder I'd asked for directions was only carrying bins and had seen it. Then it dawn on me. The Surf Scoter was directly below me on the smoother water. It all clicked into place then.

Surf Scoter from a video grab

And then in a repeat of the previous week, we headed back to see the female Ring-necked Duck at its next venue on its tour of the county. This week it was at Tittesworth, making it my only site in Staffordshire where I've seen six Aythya species.