Well another weekend has come and gone and we spent it chasing birds for our Big Year. Started early Saturday morning to try and catch the 6:15am high tide at Thompsons beach north of Adelaide. Shorebirds were the main target for the day and we'd planned to spend the whole day travelling up the Gulf of St Vincent and down as far as Edithburgh on lower Yorke Peninsula looking for them. The lack of "large waders" like Far Eastern Curlews and Knots was a bit of a worry and we failed to connect with any of these birds at their traditional spots throughout the day. Did get good numbers of Turnstone and Grey Plover at Thompsons and Bald Hill Beach and the flooded saltpan at the top end of Thompsons Beach had good numbers of Curlew and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. The other main target was Rock Parrots that spend the summer on the gulf coast before heading out to offshore islands to breed during the cooler months. Despite seeing two "Neophema type " Parrots at Bald Hill disappearing over the samphire we failed to get on to them.
Was nice to catch up with Teresa Thompson Jack at Port Clinton and again near Port Giles as she was scoping out sites for the Shorebird 2020 wader count that was going on over the weekend. We left her with it and headed back north and called in to the flooded wetland area on the eastern outskirts of Port Wakefield and managed to find 3 Blue-billed Ducks out on the open water, a very uncommon occurrence in the district.
We'd planned earlier to meet up with Chris Steeles to go spotlighting on his mate Mikes property on the northern Adelaide Plains after dark. Was nice to meet Lisa Girdham who also came along. Was a great night chatting and driving around the stubble paddocks looking for Quail and night birds. We exceeded expectations seeing several Southern Boobooks, Eastern Barn Owls, Owlet Nightjar and Tawny Frogmouth not to mention Stubble Quails and a single Little Button-quail and multiple Horsfields Bushlarks, a great night.
As we didin't get home till 2:00am it was a slower start to Sunday. We had planned to go to Tolderol Game Reserve again to target the Lewins Rails that had been seen on and off over the last couple of weeks as well as Common Tern. We were fortunate to bump in to Colin Rogers and Peter Koch who were also spending the day there. Saw the Lewins after staking out a spot on one of the tracks it likes to walk across but the Common Terns were a no show. A nice leisurely day pottering around and watching the Terns and Swamp Harriers floating about the place
Gotta work next weekend then we've got 4 days off for an Australia Day long weekend, so we're off to the South-east to see what we can find! #HarperBigYear #SABirding @SueTytoalba #166
