A.W.Birder: Always on the lookout for fine birds...: November 2015

Sunday, 29 November 2015

South Australia - Hitting The Outback (The Birds)

Before my Birding Ecotours trip to Tasmania and Eastern Australia (Victoria, NSW, Queensland) this October and November (trip report coming to the Birding Ecotours website soon) I met up with my friends Dave and Sue in Adelaide (see here for last years trip report).

We had planned on going on a pelagic but as in 2014 the weather got the better of us and that got cancelled. So after a think about the most productive use of our time we decided to make a quick dash into The Outback to try and find a few birds I needed and to see if we could find any cool reptiles and mammals.

The trip was really successful given the short time we had and we really made the most out of it with birding during the day and herping through most of the night! It was not without suitable reward and we found some really great wildlife.

Some of the birding highlights included: Diamond Dove, Flock Bronzewing, Letter-winged Kite, Black-breasted Buzzard, Little Eagle, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Spotted Harrier, Black Falcon, Buff-banded Rail, Australian Spotted Crake, Banded Lapwing, Australian Pratincole, Little Buttonquail, Blue Bonet (pallescens), Red-rumped Parrot (caeruleus), Budgerigar, Red-backed Kingfisher, Eyrean Grasswren, Red-browed Pardalote, Pied Honeyeater, Crimson Chat, Orange Chat, Chestnut-crowned Babbler, Cinnamon Quail-thrush, White-backed Swallow and Zebra Finch.

Here are a few photos of the birds. I'll do a separate post on the other critters soon... A HUGE THANK YOU to Dave and Sue for again putting me up, driving me round, feeding me, and being a good laugh to hang out with, it was a seriously great trip!

Letter-winged Kite © Andy Walker 2015

Australian Pratincole © Andy Walker 2015

Banded Lapwing © Andy Walker 2015

Black-breasted Buzzard © Andy Walker 2015 (Iphone)

Black Falcon © Andy Walker 2015

Black Kite © Andy Walker 2015

Black-fronted Dotterel © Andy Walker 2015

Budgerigar © Andy Walker 2015

Cinnamon Quail-thrush © Andy Walker 2015

Emu © Andy Walker 2015

Eyrean Grasswren © Andy Walker 2015

Flock Bronzewing © Andy Walker 2015

Little Corella © Andy Walker 2015

Musk Lorikeet © Andy Walker 2015

Wednesday, 25 November 2015

Australia Happened (again)

Just back from another awesome trip round Australia (South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland). I led a tour for Birding Ecotours and had some free time before and after the tour where I did my own things with my friends in South Australia and Queensland.

Saw a ton of cool birds, including some really rare species, and other highlights included some very rare mammals, reptiles and amphibians. Is it too soon to plan my next trip back there!

Over the next few weeks I'll be putting my trip report online, along with a selection of photos of the above.

Rainbow Lorikeet - an abundant and gaudy parrot