January 1st saw us wake to a heavily overcast dull morning in Lake Gillies Conservation Park but soon warmed up with lots of bird activity with most of the cool Eyre Peninsula birds like Rufous Treecreepers, Western Yellow Robins and Blue-breasted Fairy-wrens all seen well, topped off with a family group of 5 Copperback Quail-thrush. We then headed over to Venus Bay late morning to pay homage to the little Yankee exhibitionist Laughing Gull, affectionately known by the locals as "Chuckles". He needs a top hat and cane that guy, what a star! . So we finished day one on a small list of 62 but gotta be happy with the quality!
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| Day 1 of our Big Year and we are ready!! |
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| Lake Gilles Conservation Park |
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| Venus Bay's celebrity Laughing Gull |
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| "Chuckles" |
After a night camping in HIncks Conservation Park we again woke to overcast conditions and the bird life was almost non-existant. We began driving north picking up new species as we travelled. ne of our favourite birding areas in South Australia are the Middleback Ranges. The Whyalla-Kimba Road always manages to turn up not only great birds but amazing reptiles.
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| Male Crested Dragon |
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| Moloch Horridus or Thorny Devil |
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| Thorny Devils live exclusively on small black ants, eating up to 5000 per meal |
After a relaxing with our good friends Stephen and Elyse we headed back to Adelaide, stopping to look for waders in Clinton Conservation Park. The tide was against us and there was little to see.
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| Wader watching. |
We finished our first trip with 113 species. But it's back to work now until Saturday and a day at Tolderol.
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