SA birding to add to world-record of birds seen in a year globally

By Birding-Aus, on April 4th, 2016

Hi all,

I spent the Easter weekend birding with Arjan Dwarshuis, who is on a quest
to break the world-record of birds seen in a year globally. In the context
of a fundraiser for the Birdlife Preventing Extinctions Programme Arjan
will try to see 7,000 species – and he’s well on his way, having reached
over 2,000 in the first 3 months of the year. You can follow his adventures
here:
www.arjandwarshuis.com/#biggestyear. But this is birding with a
purpose: Arjan is trying to raise awareness of the world’s extinction
crisis, and raising funds for Birdlife ‘Preventing Extinctions Programme’
along the way. During his travels so far he’s seen plenty of saddening
evidence of the ongoing destruction of the world’s ecosystems, placing our
birds under enormous pressure – from the reclamation of mudflats in the
Yellow Sea, to the almost total eradication of lowland rainforest in the
Phillipines, to the ‘extinction by stealth’ of small ground-dwelling
outback birds that is occurring in Australia right under our noses – it’s a
depressing situation.

Anyway back to our Easter trip. I picked Arjen up from Adelaide airport one
evening and we drove straight to Gluepot reserve, arriving at midnight, and
set up camp close to Gluepot in the middle of the mallee.

We had breakfast in front of our tents while the unique birdlife that
inhabits this mallee habitat woke up all around us. From high-pitched
whistles of Southern Scrub-Robins to the deep booming of an Emum, birds
were all around us. Birding was just awesome in the picture perfect
conditions. One of the first birds was an Emu that rushed off as soon as it
was on to us, White-browed Woodswallow, Hooded Robin, Crested Bellbird,
Gilbert’s Whistler and Mulga Parrot were other nice finds, but the absolute
highlight was a party of 4 Chestnut Quail-thrush, cracking birds that
allowed point blank views as they blended in perfectly in their dry
environment.

After the morning run we went after one of the star birds of the mallee,
the very rare Red-lored Whistler, which didn’t disappoint when I located a
beautiful adult bird within half an hour. Next we looked for White-winged
and Splendid Fairywren and White-browed Treecreeper, which we found after a
bit of a run-around through the mallee.

Now there was one bird remaining, the critically endangered Black-eared
Miner. We drove across the sandy tracks of Gluepot in search of Miners, but
despite trying and trying we had no success. As it was time to leave Arjen
had dozed off in the passenger seat when suddenly a flock of Miners crossed
the road. We chased after them and sure enough, there were at least 2 birds
that met the current criteria of pure Black-eared Miners in the flock! High
fives and off we went towards Murray Bridge. On our way we made 3 stops
producing some more good species, the beautiful White-backed Swallow, the
unpredictable Little Eagle and the elusive Australian Spotted Crake. What a
fantastic taste of birding in South Australia!

Once again we bush-camped and the next morning we chased after some last
target birds, starting off with a smashing Australian Owlet-Nightjar right
at the crack of dawn, followed by a distant Tawny-crowned Honeyeater and
finally another one of Arjen’s most wanted species, the Diamond Firetail.
These cracking little birds put on a fantastic performance.

I dropped Arjen back at the airport shortly after 10am in time for his
flight to New Zealand.

(Adapted from
www.dutchbirding.nl/arjansbiggestyear/1204/march_25_-_31)

Regards,

Peter

——-

Peter Waanders

Bellbird Tours / Southern Birding Services
/ Australian Birding Store

PO Box 2008, Berri SA 5343 Australia

Phone: 1800-BIRDING (free from landlines within Australia)

mob.: +61 (0)409 763172

sat.: +61 (0)424 212889

Email: birds@bellbirdtours.com