A.W.Birder: Always on the lookout for fine birds...: South Australia Birding Trip Report

Showing posts with label South Australia Birding Trip Report. Show all posts

Monday, 18 September 2017

South Australian Pelagic - FINALLY GOT ON ONE

I'm currently in South Australia with my very good friends Dave and Sue Harper who are 3/4 of their way through a Big Year across the huge state of South Australia. I've spent the last two weeks and a bit here and we did an awesome Outback trip - will post on that soon, we got some MEGA birds!

This weekend just gone I was meant to be on a Pelagic trip, but as fate would have it for the 3rd time in the last 4 years it got cancelled, not because of the wind, or the swell (as in the two previous cancellations), but due to the boat getting 'broken' when it was having its boat-MOT-type-thing.... so no pelagic trip for me this year AGAIN....

BUT, as I'm still playing catch-up from the back end of 2016 on my blog I can finally share some photos with you of my November 2016 South Australia Pelagic out from Port Macdonnell. This is the only time I've managed to get out here and it was incredible! We saw so many birds and got photos of most of them too.

The birds seen during this awesome pelagic trip (voted as in the Top 2/3 trips of all time off here by people on the boat who had done c50+ trips over the years....) included the following...

Albatrosses: Shy, Salvin's, Black-browed, Campbell's, Indian Yellow-nosed, Antipodean Wandering, Gibson's Wandering, and Grey-headed.

Petrels: Gould's, White-headed, Soft-plumaged, Grey-faced, Great-winged, and White-chinned (unidentified Giant Petrel was too distant to confirm unfortunately).

Shearwaters: Short-tailed and Sooty.

Storm Petrels: Grey-backed and Wilson's.

Other species: Australasian Gannet, Greater Crested Tern, Silver Gull, Australian Pelican, and Black-faced Cormorant.

Here are the pics...

Black-browed Albatross

Campbell's Albatross

Grey-headed Albatross

Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross

Salvin's Albatross

Shy Albatross

Wandering Albatross

Wandering Albatross and Blue Shark

Great-winged Petrel

Grey-faced Petrel

Soft-plumaged Petrel

White-chinned Petrel

White-headed Petrel

Grey-backed Storm Petrel

Wilson's Storm Petrel

Huge thank you to Dave and Sue for getting my on to this trip, and for driving me all the way there and back. Hopefully I'll get on another one of these trips someday... maybe next year...!

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

Rainbow Lorikeet © Andy Walker 2015

Superb Fairywren © Andy Walker 2015

Wedge-tailed Eagle © Andy Walker 2015

Whistling Kite © Andy Walker 2015

Zebra Finch © Andy Walker 2015

Letter-winged Kite at dusk © 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

Sunday, 2 August 2015

Australia Trip Report

Well, I've finally got round to completing my trip report for my Australia Birding Trip from November 2014. I was in South Australia for 17 days and then Queensland for 12 days. It was a seriously great trip as anyone who's spoken with me since I got back will know. I really loved it over there.

I recorded 435 species of birds and over 40 species of mammals and 40 species of reptiles. The whole natural experience was incredible - all set in some very impressive landscapes with some great friends. For quick reference to go with this trip report (which contains a lot of photos) here are the quick links to the pages of photos I've previously added (just click on the bullet point):

I'll be heading back to Australia this October and November to lead an exciting Birding Ecotours trip so very much looking forward to seeing lots of this amazing wildlife again! Details of Australia Tours here - a couple of places left for 2015 or how about joining me in 2016!

The 2014 trip report is below, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to drop me an email:

Australia 2014 Birding Trip Report

Friday, 2 January 2015

Australian Landscape Photos

Here are a few photos of the various landscapes/habitats I was birding in during my time in South Australia and Queensland. This will probably be the final installment of photos from my trip for a while (Phew! I hear), however I do have a few other blog posts to do on my trip, e.g. Bowerbirds and their Bowers, some species specific stuff etc... though I'm likely to be busy for a while on a few other things so will feed those posts in when I'm quiet.

Here's some quick links to the other Australian photo pages I've put together:

South Australia Birds: Click here
South Australia Wildlife: Click here
South Queensland Birds: Click here
North Queensland Birds: Click here
Queensland Wildlife: Click here

I'd highly recommend birding trips to South Australia and Queensland, I saw loads of great birds, many I got photos of, many I didn't! Also great for a wide range of other wildlife too.

Mount Lofty, Adelaide, South Australia © Andy Walker 2014