It’s not often that I get a full day out birding, but first day of the long weekend Nikki and the girls had various plans to do girl-stuff, so I had a pass out from dawn to dusk. I decided to head to the Coorong where a Broad-billed Sandpiper had been seen. I’ve seen this species in Thailand, but it would be an Australian tick for me.
I went to bed Friday night with good intentions of an early rise, but struggled to get up after a week of pre-dawn school/work starts. It was after 8 by the time I was on the road, heading SE from Adelaide along the freeway. The start to winter in SA has been very cold by our standards, with 2-3 degree overnight minima, dropping below zero in the hills and outback, and the days have been gloriously sunny. Today was more of the same, starting cold but calm and blue skies with a few high, sparse clouds. In short, ideal for winter birding.
I decided on a detour via Brown Rd, a nice spot of remnant mallee about 45min from Adelaide, and one of my most regular “local” sites. As I turned off Callington Rd onto the Old Princes Hwy out of the corner of my eye I spied a raptor high up in a gum. In fact there were two Australian Hobby there — a cracking start to the day.
My main purpose in visiting Browns Rd on this occasion was to try to find Painted Button-Quail that had been reported a few times over the last few weeks. I dipped the previous Sunday when a 4 hour vigil in the area it’d been reported drew a blank.
This occasion I strode into the area vowing to give it no more than 15mins. It “felt” very birdy as Purple-crowned Lorikeets bombed overhead utterly their low squeaky calls, and a few Diamond Firetails and White-winged Chough shuffled about the firetail feeding station.
The woodland here is quite open and I wandered off north of the track scouring the ground and hoping that perhaps I’d see some movement or get close enough for a bird to flush.
This didn’t seem to be paying dividends so I stopped to regroup, when I heard movement under some dense cover at the base of a tree. Then it goes quiet — perhaps I’ve imagined it. No, there it is again… Probably a lizard, I think. But then as I looked at the scrubby cover at the base of the tree, a pair of button-quail scampered away and hid themselves behind the trunk of the next tree. I’d got enough of their delicately patterned backs and chestnut sides to be able to tick my first Australian lifer in some time — Painted Button-Quail — whoo-hoo!
I moved slowly and quietly around to where they were apparently now hiding. Of course as soon as they saw a lumbering dude peer around the corner they scampered back whence they had come. Over the next few mins I followed them around a bit, squeezing off pictures as/when I could, though they were not very obliging photographic subjects, moving both quickly, and — unsurprisingly — away with their backs to me. After 5-10 mins I left them in peace, returning to the car via the Owlet-nightjar roost, and with a spring in my step. A female Red-capped Robin flitted to and from a fence post as I drove out.
Mission accomplished at Monarto I rejoined the freeway and bombed south east across the River Murray, then south to Tailem Bend and Meningie, skirting the banks of Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert along the way. Black Kite, Brown Falcon and Whistling Kites are the usual roadside raptors down this way and I noted all three before an early lunch in Meningie was a chance to make a final decision about whether to go looking for the BBSP. I knew that some others had been out looking earlier and I’d heard nothing, so took the (selfish) decision not to go back north towards Narrung where the bird had been seen to help look, and instead go south 60km to Salt Creek and look for some of the Coorong’s special land birds, most of which I have seen, but few of which I have photographed. I’d been through here recently en route to May’s pelagic (see here), but pressed for time had not seen, much less photographed them.
First stop along the way was Parnkas Point. Here I tracked down a lovely male Southern Emu-wren but was unable to get any sort of photo. At the point itself I counted a few hundred (but distant) Red-necked Avocet, and a distant Rufous Bristlebird sang from across the water on the beach side. A few km later I stopped again to scan a raft of birds that turned out to be c 1500 Hoary-headed Grebes.
As I hit the Loop Rd a pair of Wedge-tailed Eagles soared, but further along the road sadly the Mallefowl mound was again unattended, and just as in May, I did not have the patience/time to wait. Nearby a mixed feeding flock of nearly a hundred small passerines comprised Silvereye, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Striated Thornbill, and Brown Thornbill. They were so active and somewhat agitated, and in such numbers, that I wondered if there was an owl or snake or something other than food drawing them in, but I couldn’t find a specific cause. Further along a distinctive chattering grabbed my attention and I was delighted to find a small group of five or so Purple-gaped Honeyeaters with a couple of Spiny-cheeked. I followed a song that initially I thought was a different, simpler vocalisation of Bristlebird, having the same high, sweet timbre, until I finally tracked down the perpetrator and kicked myself for not pinning down a song I should know: Southern Scrub-robin.
A message from Ed Smith confirmed that they’d dipped on the BBSP — I was somewhat relieved to have made the right call — and he also suggested that while down this way I should check out Salt Creek Rd for Flame Robins. I was heading that way anyway to Martin Washpool Conservation Park, and it proved to be an excellent tip. Barely a few hundred metres along the road I spied a robin on a fence-post. Fairly dullish brown, pale forehead, big dark eye and pale wing-bar, this was it: a female Flame Robin. She flitted down to the ground where I noted two others, though they kept a good distance between themselves and me and I was unable to approach for better photo ops. I continued scanning for several minutes hoping to find a male but found only Australian Pipits, Welcome Swallows, a flock of 50-60 Goldfinch and the female robins.
Another 2km along while driving slowly, a small passerine bombed across in front of the car and I thought caught a glimpse of red in the tail. A minute or so later and I had tracked down a pair of gorgeous Beautiful Firetails.
A pair of pretty Peaceful Doves posed nicely in the sunshine here too.
I’ve only been to Martin Washpool once previously and heard a Rufous Bristlebird on that occasion. I drove in on the sandy track about a km stopping once or twice to listen and/or try some Bristlebird playback but had no joy. Eventually I decided to turn around and head out. As I turned the car, amazingly I heard the distinctive song, and it was quite close. A short burst of playback later and a Rufous Bristlebird had hopped out into view and I was able to fire off a few shots (and add it to my SA list).
It was still only 3pm, but my self-imposed curfew was 5pm back in Adelaide. I decided on risking being late back 🙂 and one more quick stop. Messent C.P. is only 2km away from Martin Washpool and so I drove to the central track of the park and tried to track down a less camera-shy Emu-wren. I could hear a few calling around me but concentrated my efforts on a pair some 10m in front of me. They kept in dense cover and the image below of the female is the best I could get. Ironically — and as often happens — as I turned to leave I heard a loud song taunting me. I turned to see the pair now in the open in a dead bush. But as I raised my camera they both bombed back down into the dense stuff and it really was time to hit the road for the two and a quarter hour drive back to Adelaide.
I rolled into the drive bang on 5.30, in time to eat dinner and enjoying a cracking evening at the Festival Hall seeing Matilda with the family — I’m not a musical theatre fan, but love this show. Has much to do with Tim Minchin’s use of the story as a vehicle for amazingly pertinent commentary on today’s society. If you don’t know what I mean, have a look for “Miracle” or “Loud” online…
Fascinating report, you had a successful day!