The Coorong at Goolwa

The Coorong is one my favourite places in South Australia but I'd never visited the Goolwa end until today. So, part tourist and part birder, I drove to Goolwa following a great morning at the mouth of the Onkaparinga River (see previous posts: Reflections on the Onkaparinga River and Hanging at the Beach).

Goolwa is located at the 'armpit' of the Fleurieu Peninsula (see map) and is home to the Barrage and last lock on the Murray River (there is a bird in this shot!)

Murray River Barrage, Goolwa SA

The Coorong is the system of estuarine lakes, islands and the sand dune spits that hold back the Southern Ocean for more than 100 km between Kingston and Goolwa.

Coorong National Park starts downstream of the Murray River Barrage

As I was still an 8 hour drive from home, I didn't have time to search for many birds but did manage to find an interesting collection making the most of the old fence posts at Beacon 19 Boat Ramp. As I drove into the car park at the ramp, a pelican and this Silver Gull were jostling for the roost on the last fence post. I'm not sure how the gull managed to displace the pelican and I wasn't quick enough to get a photograph of the battle but I did capture the smug victor (OK so just a little anthropomorphising...sorry).

Silver Gull, Coorong National Park, Goolwa, SA

This Crested Tern remained, unperturbed, only a few metres away on the next post.

Crested Tern, Coorong NP, Goolwa, SA

The Welcome Swallows were particularly tame, allowing me to get very close. As the light was getting quite dull, I tried fill flash for a few shots.

Welcome Swallow, Coorong National Park, Goolwa, SA

The 'technical' mouth of the Murray River is a break through the dune barrier approximately 10 km east of Goolwa and can only be reached by driving along the beach. As I was by myself and hadn't brought any sand recovery gear, I was reluctant to do the drive this time so opted to take the view of the mouth from Hindmarsh Island.

Mouth of the Murray River, Coorong National Park, Goolwa, SA

By now the weather was turning for the worse with a strong westerly wind and an approaching storm. The birdlife on the beach in front of the lookout was sparse (I suspect the avian locals were more sensible than the tourists) but there were a few Australian Pied Oystercatchers getting buffeted by the wind blowing down the sand banks.

Australian Pied Oystercatcher, Coorong NP, Hindmarsh Island, SA

Daintree River

A 3:30AM start for the drive from Cairns to Daintree this morning was rewarded with a fantastic birding cruise with Bruce Belcher's Daintree River Cruises. Just my wife and I with Bruce on the boat armed with 3 cameras and 2 pairs of binoculars.

The first bird of the cruise arrived before we left the dock.

Welcome Swallow, Daintree River Qld

 We started by cruising along a side branch of the river

Lots of birds were heard calling from the tree tops and from deep in the foliage but few allowed close-up views until we spotted this Graceful Honeyeater (lifer number 1 for the day).

Graceful Honeyeater, Daintree River Qld

As we entered the mainstream of the river

we came across a large male crocodile basking on a sandbank.

Estuarine Crocodile, Daintree River Qld

along with two species of egret

Little Egret, Daintree River Qld

Eastern Great Egret, Daintree River Qld

We cruised along close to the bank and spotted an Azure Kingfisher alight on a branch just on front of the boat. Bruce cut the engine and we floated close enough to get a great view of this spectacular little bird.

Azure Kingfisher, Daintree River Qld

It even turned around to allow front and rear views. Quite the experienced photographic model :-)

Azure Kingfisher, Daintree River Qld

My wife was itching to see a sunbird as we had seen their nests hanging from branches along the river bank and spotted flashes of yellow in the vegetation. We had just about resigned ourselves to missing clear views of these birds when this female landed on a nest right next to us.

Olive-backed Sunbird (female), Daintree River Qld

The male was around but did not come close enough for a photograph. Other, more bedraggled, hanging nests were also common and, again, we eventually spied one of their owners.

Large-billed Gerygone, Daintree River Qld

With all of the mangroves along the river bank we expected to find Striated Heron and eventually did.

Striated Heron, Daintree River Qld

Just before we arrived back at the dock, a Whistling Kite landed in a tree close to the bank, albeit fairly high above us.

Whistling Kite, Daintree River Qld

In all, 26 species of birds and 6 crocs....what a great morning!

Black Rocks Shorebirds

I spent the early morning at Black Rocks end of 13th Beach searching for shorebirds, in particular Hooded Plovers and Pacific Golden Plovers. The usual suspects were on the beach directly in front of the access track

Double-banded Plover, 13th Beach

Red-necked Stint, 13th Beach

Red-capped Plover, 13th Beach

along with some others commonly found on the beach but not usually classified as 'shorebirds'

White-fronted Chat, 13th Beach

Welcome Swallow, 13th Beach

I dipped on the Hooded Plovers but did find the Pacific Golden Plovers among the rocks on the point.

Pacific Golden Plover, 13th Beach

I found a location as close as I dared to go and sat waiting for the tide to come in and (I hoped) bring the birds closer to me. This technique works for a lot of shorebirds but PGPs seem to be easily spooked. It only took one wave to break over the rocks and startling two birds for the whole flock to take off and fly away to the west. I did manage to count them -- 46 -- the most I have seen at this location.

On the walk back to the road, a Singing Honeyeater was doing it's thing and allowed me to get very close.

Singing Honeyeater, 13th Beach

Western Treatment Plant - Birds not in flight

Along the way and after the Birds in Flight session, I also got a few others:

Probably the most common bird at the treatment plant but it's always good to find them like this

Welcome Swallow, Western Treatment Plant

Common in most Victorian wetlands but unusually rare at the treatment plant, we found this Dusky Moorhen at the T-Section lagoon 4.

Dusky Moorhen, Western Treatment Plant

Godwits are starting to develop breeding plumage

Bar-tailed Godwit, Western Treatment Plant

By mid afternoon, the wind had dropped to almost nothing creating mirror surface on many ponds giving some great reflections

Little Egret, Western Treatment Plant

I found five species of terns today but the highlight was this lone Little Tern resting on a log

Little Tern, Western Treatment Plant

and one of my perennial favourites, this one giving itself a pedicure

Golden-headed Cisticola, Western Treatment Plant

Forest and Beach at Cape Otway

Spent the afternoon at Cape Otway, specifically around Blanket Bay (View Map). Access is from Cape Otway Lighthouse Road, which runs south from The Great Ocean Road approx. 20 km west of Apollo Bay. Turn left onto Blanket Bay Road and follow the signs to Blanket Bay Camping Ground.

First stop was on Blanket Bay Road where it re-enters the Great Otway National Park

at a bridge over a small creek running through wet sclerophyll forest

Within 15 minutes here, I had seen: Silvereye, White-throated Treecreeper, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Red Wattlebird, Laughing Kookaburra, Pied Currawong, Eastern Yellow Robin, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Crimson Rosella, Bassian Thrush, Red-browed Finch, Grey Fantail. In tall forest, the birds are mostly too far away to photograph successfully but the ubiquitous Superb Fairy-wren is usually closeby roadsides and walking tracks.

Superb Fairy-wren (male), Blanket Bay Road, Cape Otway

Superb Fairy-wren (female), Blanket Bay Road, Cape Otway

I also heard White-browed Scrubwren among the bracken along the creek and Pallid Cuckoo and Australian King Parrot high in the treetops but it took another 20 minutes to find them. They stayed a long way from me (so photographs are heavily cropped).

White-browed Scrubwren, Blanket Bay Road, Cape Otway

Pallid Cuckoo, Blanket Bay Road, Cape Otway

Australian King Parrot (male and female), Blanket Bay Road, Cape Otway

I continued on to Blanket Bay

Blanket Bay, Cape Otway

where there was very little bird life on the beach - only a few Silver Gulls. There were, however, many Crested Terns and Great Cormorants on the small rock islands a few hundred metres offshore.

Welcome Swallows were roosting on sign posts at the western end of the beach and juveniles allowed a close approach.

Welcome Swallow (juvenile), Blanket Bay, Cape Otway

On the way back along Cape Otway Lighthouse Road, I stopped to photograph several koalas in trees along the roadside. No, they're not birds but who can resist? Lots of males calling even in broad daylight.

Koala, Cape Otway