April 30, 2005
Warm and dry (90° F)
On the way home from Renmark, we stopped to visit a Ramsar wetland complex called Banrock Station. I’d been looking forward to this hike throughout our the whole trip. It’s a beautiful location, but the weather was a bit too warm for my comfort during our long walk around the lake nearest to the café.
We did see a lot of wonderful birds, although nothing that I hadn’t seen previously. There were lots of wading birds and waterfowl, including Pied Stilt, Australian White Ibis, Straw-necked Ibis, White-faced Heron, Black Swan, Grey Teal, and Australian Shelduck. Australian Pelican and Australasian Darter were seen, along with Great Cormorant, and Little Pied Cormorant. I also saw a few Great Crested Tern and Caspian Tern.
Songbirds included Hooded Robin, Yellow Thornbill, Singing Honeyeater, and Grey Fantail. Yellow Rosella and Mallee Ringneck were perched high in the trees, and Whistling Kite soared overhead.
The day’s highlight, however, was more Emu! This group of half a dozen birds was completely unbothered by our presence, and wandered around feeding the whole time we were viewing them. We followed them for a while, and eventually went on our way on while they continued to do whatever it is that Emu do all day long. A really fantastic sighting – our best yet!
By the end of our walk, I was a bit disappointed, since I didn’t see any new species here, which I’d really hoped to do. Looking back now, though, I did see 41 species of birds, which is an excellent count for a couple of hours’ worth of birding. We’d just had such good success birding along the river that I’d seen most of the local birds, so it wasn’t really fair to expect Banrock to produce something new. It was definitely a great location to see a whole bunch of birds in one place.
Species List
Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus), Black Swan (Cygnus atratus), Australasian Darter (Anhinga novaehollandiae novaehollandiae), Black-faced Cuckooshrike (Coracina novaehollandiae melanops), Gray Teal (Anas gracilis gracilis), Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena neoxena), Maned Duck (Chenonetta jubata), Tree Martin (Petrochelidon nigricans), Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos melanoleucos), White-plumed Honeyeater (Ptilotula penicillata), Australasian Coot (Fulica atra australis), Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae novaehollandiae), Crested Pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes), Straw-necked Ibis (Threskiornis spinicollis), Pied Butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis nigrogularis), Yellow Rosella (Platycercus elegans flaveolus), Australian Raven (Corvus coronoides coronoides), Whistling Kite (Haliastur sphenurus), Australian White Ibis (Threskiornis molucca), Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo novaehollandiae), White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae novaehollandiae), Australian Shelduck (Tadorna tadornoides), Pink-eared Duck (Malacorhynchus membranaceus), Black-shouldered Lapwing (Vanellus miles novaehollandiae), Hooded Robin (Melanodryas cucullata), Brown Treecreeper (Climacteris picumnus), Pied Stilt (Himantopus leucocephalus), Great Crested Tern (Thalasseus bergii), Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia), Southeastern Australasian Swamphen (Porphyrio melanotus melanotus), House Sparrow (Passer domesticus domesticus), Gray Fantail (Rhipidura albiscapa), Yellow Thornbill (Acanthiza nana), Mallee Ringneck (Barnardius zonarius barnardi), Magpie-lark (Grallina cyanoleuca cyanoleuca), Singing Honeyeater (Gavicalis virescens), Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala), Gray Shrikethrush (Colluricincla harmonica harmonica), Red-kneed Dotterel (Erythrogonys cinctus), Barrier Saltbush (Enchylaena tomentosa), Common Reed (Phragmites australis)
Let me know what you think!