Yep. This morning I was up earlyish and planning to head for
Brookfield Conservation Park out on the far side of the Hills. This is about the closest place to Adelaide
where one can see the many of the birds of the drier country.
I have been there before when we have stayed in Adelaide from
where it is a 2 hour trip because one has to completely traverse the
Metropolitan area. From our current accommodation
it only took 40 minutes, including a couple of stops to take photos of the fog!
Once getting into the Park I became a little concerned about
time as I only had about 4 hours according to my schedule, and after 30 minutes
had only covered about half the distance (3km) from the gate to the start of
the (13km) Nature Drive! This was due to
a surfeit of interesting parrots, notably Mulga Parrots and Bluebonnets, plus
having to pursue a flock of Chestnut-crowned Babblers to ID them.
After watching some 'roos
eventually I got to the start of the Nature Drive, where the
Rangers (if such people exist here, as I have been about 6 times and have never
seen an official vehicle of any description) seem to have reversed the
direction of the drive. Whatever, one
still covers the same territory.
It was a most enjoyable outing: in total I wrote down 31
species of which 13 were additions to my trip list. I didn't add anything to my life list although
there were a couple of possibles. The many
Brown Treecreepers were all peered at closely for white brows, but alas that cupboard was bare. In terms of
honeyeaters the cupboard was almost overflowing. I recorded Yellow-plumed, Brown-headed,
White-eared, Singing, and Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters plus Red Wattlebirds. Some Miners were in the area but I couldn't
tell which species they were.
Towards the end of the drive (after about 3:45) I found an
absolutely gorgeous Red-capped Robin and the very last bird I wrote down was a
female Hooded Robin.
This was going on against a backdrop of very little
flowering. I saw blossom on one mallee
and a couple of yellow-flowered herbs.
For the first half of the drive the main vegetation was bluebush ( I
think Marieana sedifolia)
and saltbush.
The fruits of one of these were being consumed by a range of birds.
Then the vegetation morphed into Mallee for
the rest of the drive.
It was notable that although the mallee vegetation form is
rather sparse, and there was little in the way of a shrub layer, once I was
about 50 metres from the car it was usually impossible to see it through the
bush. Thus one had to keep a bit of an
idea of the direction in which one had wandered vis a vis the sun. It wasn't as bad as the Mulga at Bowra (where
the car vanished in about 15 metres) but still a note of caution was needed.
After getting home I picked up Frances and the small dog and
we headed back into Tanunda where the idea was to get some coffee cake
(traditional German tucker) and metwurst (ibid, but sausage not cake)! In finding our way to the bakery we noticed
another cemetery (the Tabor Cemetery) so wandered in for a squizz. Again many old gravestones and some modern
ones.
Bird of the Day Red-capped
Robin. Just spiffy!
Plant of the day River
Red Gum at Bethany, representing all the magnificent old gums of the Adelaide
Hills.
Interesting sight of the day: Roadside Olive trees full of ripe fruit
What we learnt today Much
easier to buy olives than processing them for home preservation!
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone in a park of mallee stuff
And never a Ranger came to moan
His bureaucratic guff.
