Greetings all,
The SAOA had an outing to the Langhorne Creek / Tolderol area yesterday
7/4/01. Tolderol has suffered this summer from a lack of water caused by a
failed pump. Pumping resumed in February and there was a good water level
just exposing mudflats. This, together with the numbers of birds present,
represented a great recovery which we had not expected to find.
We arrived at Tolderol for a late-ish start at 9.00. ( 35 22 26s, 139 08
19e)
The weather was cool, about 15 C, the sky lightly overcast. Between 9.00 and
12.30 the 16 people present listed the following:
Stubble Quail (2), Black Swan (ca 50), Aust Shelduck ( ca 20), Pacific Black
Duck ( ca 20), Aust Shoveler (1), Grey Teal (100s), Aust Grebe ( ca 20),
Hoary Headed Grebe ( ca 20), Little Pied Cormorant ( 1 or 2), Little Black
Cormorant (1), Great Cormorant (1), ( this lack of cormorants is quite
unusual for this area), White-faced Heron ( ca 10), Great Egret ( a flock of
11), Aust White Ibis ( ca 30), Royal and Yellow-billed Spoonbill ( 1 or 2 of
each), Black-shouldered Kite (2), Spotted Harrier ( 1, an unusual sighting
for this wetland area), Swamp Harrier ( 3, very usual for here), Kestrel
(1), Spotted Crake (1), Purple Swamphen ( ca 30-40), Dusky Moorhen (1),
Black-tailed Native Hen (1), Black-tailed Godwit ( 6-10, going into
breeding ), Bar-tailed Godwit (1 or 2), Marsh Sandpiper (1), Greenshank (60,
Red-necked Stint ( 100s, some with a great deal of breeding colours),
Sharp-tailed S/P ( ca 20, mostly gone by now), Curlew S/P ( ca 100),
Black-winged Stilt ( ca 50), Red-capped Plover ( 100s), Double-banded Plover
( 1), Masked Lapwing (ca 50), Silver Gull (only 1 !!!!), Caspian Tern ( 3),
Crested Tern (ca 50), Whiskered Tern (ca50), White-winged Black Tern ( 2
nonbreeding, 1 in full colour), Wood sandpiper ( ca 6), Elegant Parrot (1),
Fork-tailed Swift ( more than 100 flying east, some dipping for water),
Superb Fairy Wren ( 6), Singing H/E ( 2), White-fronted Chat ( ca 6, this is
very low for this area), Red-capped Robin ( a pair, rarely seen this far
away from mallee), Magpie Lark (ca 6), Willie Wagtail (2), Aust Magpie (1 or
2), Little Raven ( 3 or 4), Richard's Pipit ( 2), Welcome Swallow ( 100s),
Tree Martin ( ca 50), Little Grassbird ( 6), some excellent views of this
often difficult bird), Golden-headed Cisticola ( ca 50), Silvereye ( ca 6),
Common Starling ( ca 30 ).
We then moved to the Frank Potts Reserve at Langhorne Creek for lunch ( 35
18 05s, 139 02 28e) for lunch by which time the temperature had reached the
forecast 30 C. There weren't too many birds but the lunch was very
convivial.
Bird list: Galahs, Adelaide Rosellas, Red-rumped Parrots, Superb Fairy
Wrens, Striated Pardalote, Red Wattlebirds, Noisy Miners, White-plumed H/Es,
Magpie Larks, Willie Wags, Magpies, Welcome Swallows, Tree Martins,
Starlings. It was noted that the Rainbow Bee-eaters had gone.
In a mad fit some of us ( 8) then went off about 50km to the Woodside
Settling Ponds ( 34 57 25s, 138 55 40e) which usually have a good
complement of waterfowl, only to find extensive cleaning and other
earthworks in progress and very few birds. We found the following few
birds: Wood Duck (100s), Black Duck 9 ca 20), Grey Teal (ca 10), Pink-eared
Duck (2), Aust and Hoary-headed Grebes ( just a few), Black-fronted and
Red-kneed Dotterels ( 1 of each), Galahs, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (2),
Adelaide Rosellas, Red-rumped Parrots, Yellow-faced, New Holland, and
White-plumed Honeyeaters.
All three sites atlassed.
Tony Russell for SAOA.
Cheapskate Adelaide birding by 4WD
phone: 08 8337 5959
email:
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