Greetings birders,
Over Easter I visited Cockatoo Lake in the South East of South Australia.
This lake is set in farming country NW of Naracoorte (36 45' S 140 35' E)
and is filled regularly by drains leading to it from the surrounding
countryside.
Locals we spoke to while there said that the lake was at its lowest level
for many years. There has been little rain since November 1st, 1997. The
last three winters have also been comparatively dry in this area.
Most of the lake was ankle to knee deep, contrasted with the skiing
activities usually underway at Easter time. Despite the lack of water, the
birdlife was prolific. I walked around the whole lake during the afternoon
and did a reasonably accurate count of all birds observed over about 3
hours observing. The numbers of some species seem to be rather high for
this area. These are my observations:
Black Swan 26
Australian Shelduck 320 (many flew off south during the afternoon)
Australian Wood Duck 4
Grey Teal 10
Pacific Black Duck 6
Australasian Grebe 12
Little Pied Cormorant 15
Little Black Cormorant 3
Great Cormorant 1
Australian White Ibis 10
Yellow Billed Spoonbill 2
Black Shouldered Kite 2
Whistling Kite 2
Black-Tailed Native-Hen 35
Eurasian Coot 220
Black Fronted Dotteral 6
Masked Lapwing 95
Silver Gull 6
Galah23
Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo 8
Crimson Rosella 2
Eastern Rosella 2
Red-Rumped Parrot 25
Laughing Kookaburra 1
Brown Treecreeper 5
Superb Fairy-Wren 25
Striated Pardalote 2
White-Browed Scrubwren 4
Yellow-Rumped Thornbill 3
White-plumed Honeyeater 18
New Holland Honeyeater 3
Red Wattlebird 1
Restless Flycatcher 4
Magpie Lark 4
Willie Wagtail 6
Grey Fantail 1
Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike 2
Australian Magpie 30
Little Raven 8
Skylark 4 seen (+ many others heard: 30?)
House Sparrow 4
European Greenfinch 2 (an unexpected sighting)
Welcome swallow 90
Tree Martin 5
Common Blackbird 1
Common Starling 28
Happy Birding,
Trevor Hampel
Murray Bridge
South Australia
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