Kangaroo Island Trip report
My girlfriend Simone and I recently spend a week on Kangaroo Island from the
26th of December to the 2nd of January on Kangaroo Island. We had wanted to
visit for a while and were looking for a good place to relax after a hard year
of work. The fact that there were a few birds I wanted to see there of course
did not come into it. I would like to start by thanking those who responded to
my RFI, particularly Steve Potter and Tim Dolby. I would also like to thank
those who have written trip reports that have gone before, such a very good
resource at one’s fingertips.
We drove from Barwon Downs early on Boxing Day and ended up at Cape Jervis
around 4:00 pm for the 6 pm ferry. Not much of note on the trip there and the
best pre-KI bird was a Peregrine Falcon that repeatedly tried to get the jump
on the Rock Doves roosting in the harbour at Cape Jervis while we waited for
the ferry. Alas it was unsuccessful. I also had the misfortune of listening to
the cricket the whole way….. 98 all out…. Enough said. I was firing myself up
for the ferry crossing hoping for something interesting but the best I could do
was a couple of West End cans….
We spent 7 nights on KI, the first in the Ozone Hotel in Kingscote and the
remaining 6 camping at West Kangaroo Island Caravan Park. The hotel was
adequate, if expensive and the caravan park cheap and a great place for what I
call tourist wildlife watching – piles of wallabies, kangaroos and koalas with
plenty of other large visible species like geese, galahs and rosellas. The
nights were particularly raucous and amusing with the Stone-curlews starting
straight after dark followed by snorting kangaroos, bugling koalas and
shrieking Barn owls…. The reactions from the German tourists the next morning
after hearing that racket then finding their food stocks pillaged by possums
and wallabies was priceless. Probably my only complaint about that caravan park
was the toilet facilities when the park is full…. I don’t mind waiting for a
shower but a 10 person queue for unisex toilets is a little bit much,
particularly after a few beers or more.
I had three main targets on KI, namely Western Whipbird, Glossy Black-cockatoo
and Rock Parrot and I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that we saw all three
very well on our first attempt. Following a very good lead we went on the
first morning to American River to the area just above the abandoned motel at
the end of town and straight away saw a very amorous pair of Glossy
Black-cockatoos… We watched them for about a half hour during which time we got
a very good insight into the sex life of a male glossy black…. It would appear
that quantity certainly wins over quality. Apparently bobbing your head and a
quick kiss also counts as foreplay. We also found a second pair quietly feeding
in she-oak in town so it is well worth a look around when going there. Two
further visits to AR came up negative. After swimming at Stokes Bay one
afternoon we stopped at the car park at Lathami CP and I could hear them
calling down the ravine. Being mid 30’s and the fact I was slightly knackered I
did not bother to go chasing them.
Western Whipbird we both got up at 5 am and headed to Cape de Couedic, Simone
is not a serious birder and this would be her only early morning rise for
birds…. As soon as we parked the car in the car park near the cottages I could
hear whipbirds calling, the first couple were out in the scrub but one was near
the road right on the Weir Cove turnoff… I tiptoed up and then pished and was
immediately rewarded with the bird jumping up and scolding me. A little game
followed of pishing, hiding and scolding which gave Simone time to sneak up and
also get excellent views of the bird. It then decided to run across the road
and continue to watch us from the other side. Later that morning I saw another
bird singing from the top of a branch. I went back to CdC another 4 times and
each time got great views of different birds in various places including the
Sewer Track and behind the Weir Cove ruins. I did try tape playback at various
times but got rather ambivalent results… clearly Christmas is a good time to
visit and pishing was always the key. Judging by where they were calling in
relation to other birds I judge I got sightings of around 8 individual birds.
In addition to the birds at CdC and Weir Cove, I also heard Western Whipbird in
a number of places on the entrance road to Seal Bay and to Remarkable Rocks but
could not rustle up a sighting. Perhaps the most significant hearing was about
500 meters from the Turnaround number 6 on the road to CdC which was clearly in
regrowth habitat following the bushfires. I would certainly recommend a visit
to CdC and Remarkable Rocks as early as you can because once we saw the
whipbird we still had the place to ourselves for a good couple of hours before
the underwhelming tourist hordes arrived.
Rock Parrot was my final main target and we ended up seeing it on the road to
the Remarkable Rocks on the morning after seeing the first Western Whipbird. A
flock of four birds were feeding in a small gully just before the carpark. When
getting out of the car another bird was flying high overhead calling. Another
flock was seen at the back of Weir Cove ruins later in the week when following
down another calling whipbird.
At this stage I would like to add an honourable mention to the Hooded Plover.
It was fantastic to see this bird at almost every open water beach on the
island, sometimes in quite good numbers. This is despite the ridiculous fetish
that the average South Australian on KI seems to have for letting their dog run
unleashed and for driving their 4wd onto the beach and then parking to fish.
Apparently it is quite important to drive that extra 100 meters from the
carpark onto the beach and definitely added to the number of undersized whiting
they had in their buckets. My kingdom for a fisheries officer with any kind of
balls.
As I had seen my targets in the first real attempts at looking I was actually
able to spend the rest of the trip relaxing and being a tourist (albeit one who
had a binocular growth and a strangely weird neck angle) I still managed to
spend a lot of time birdwatching and probably the only bird I spent any time
looking for and didn’t see was the local race of the Shy Heathwren. I spent
quite a few hours in largely regrowth areas of FCNP looking for this but never
got more than a possible distant call. The burnt habitat still looks largely a
couple of years off again good habitat for this bird. Regrowth following the
recent fires seems to be progressing well but certainly has a sameness about it
considering such a large percentage of FCNP was burnt.
Kangaroo Island is surprisingly large and we ended up driving over 2000 km for
the week on the island itself….. petrol is upto $1.70 in some parts of the
island. I think it was fair to say we gave the tourist side a real bashing.
Amongst the dross I would heartily recommend buying a KI park’s pass… at $61
per adult we got really good value from this, at least one visit to Seal Bay
and doing the beach tour, swimming at Stoke’s Bay and any other northern beach
you can find quiet. Probably the only thing I wanted to do and missed was the
Hanson Bay walk from the caves. I spent a considerable time seawatching and got
bugger all…
As a final point I will add before moving into the annotated list that I find
so useful in trip reports I will have to comment on the amount of roadkill on
KI. There is a SERIOUS LACK of signs on KI warning tourists to be careful of
wildlife… you get one as you leave the ferry and maybe another one when you
enter Flinders Chase NP 100+ km later. It is a pretty sad indictment that it
was 18 roadkilled goannas until I saw my first live one…. And I had lost count
of how many roadkilled snakes until I had to shuffle my first live suicidal
snake off the road.
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