In the end we saw 108 species for the week with a couple of extra mingers. I have dumped Simone in Adelaide where she caught a flight home and am currently in Port Augusta before heading further out… report from this week will follow. Annotated bird list 1. Brush-turkey – Single bird seen early in the morning on the road to Cape du Couedic. Was somewhat surprised to see that it didn’t have 3 heads as they are supposedly descended from a single introduced pair in about 1930!! 2. Stubble Quail – Many calling in grassland near Murray Lagoon. Single bird flushed. 3. Black Swan – Common in any wetland of size, particularly Murray Lagoon and American River 4. Musk Duck – WKI Caravan Park Lagoon, Duck Lagoon 5. Australian Shelduck – Many 100’s at Murray Lagoon. Some quite large flocks seen flying on roads nearby. 6. Hardhead – Single bird at WKI Caravan Park Lagoon 7. Grey Teal – Murray Lagoon, WKI Caravan Park Lagoon, Duck Lagoon 8. Chestnut Teal – Murray Lagoon, WKI Caravan Park Lagoon, Duck Lagoon 9. Pacific Black Duck – Odd birds on farm dams and most larger bodies of water 10. Cape Barren Goose – First seen in paddocks near American River, very common on west of island particularly at WKI Caravan Park and Rock River 11. Wood Duck – Seen most days on farm dams 12. Little Penguin – Seen in and around burrows at Penneshaw rookery 13. Short-tailed Shearwater – Very occasional birds seen at sea, many derelicts on most beaches 14. Australasian Gannet – Finally one bird seen at Admiral’s Arch, surprisingly scarce. 15. Australian Pelican – Impressive sight of 20 birds soaring at American River, odd birds elsewhere particularly where fish are cleaned. 16. Black-faced Cormorant – Common on rocky coasts 17. Little-pied Cormorant – Kingscote, WKI Caravan Park Lagoon 18. Pied Cormorant – Common on rocky coasts 19. Great Cormorant – A few birds on rocky coasts, pair on the beach every visit to Seal Bay 20. Little-black Cormorant – Single bird Stokes Bay, 6 birds at WKI Caravan Park Lagoon 21. Eurasian Coot – Breeding at WKI Caravan Park Lagoon 22. White-faced Heron – Odd birds at most wetlands of size and flying over 23. White Ibis – Common in cleared land 24. Yellow-billed Spoonbill – WKI Caravan Park Lagoon 25. Royal Spoonbill – 2 birds seen at small wetland at corner of road to American River 26. Pied Oystercatcher – Common on most sandy coastal areas 27. Sooty Oystercatcher – Kingscote, American River 28. Bush Stone-curlew – Heard every night at WKI Caravan Park, was amusing to hear the tourists wondering what was going on each time they started up!! 29. Eastern Curlew – Single bird American River 30. Common Greenshank – 4 birds at American River 31. Ruddy Turnstone – 25+ birds at Wheaton’s Beach hiding in weed at on rocks at south end 32. Red-necked Stint – 100+ birds at Wheaton’s Beach, 100’s seen at one small section of Murray Lagoon, must have been many 1000’s at this site. 33. Black-winged Stilt- Murray Lagoon, American River 34. Black-fronted Dotterel- WKI Caravan Park Lagoon 35. Red-capped Dotterel- 100’s in one small section of Murray Lagoon, breeding 36. Hooded Plover – Single birds or pairs seen at almost all open water beaches. 6 birds including 2 juveniles at Stokes, 4 birds including 1 juvenile at Seal Bay and 5 birds at Wheaton’s Beach notable. 37. Osprey – Single birds seen at Seal Bay and Wheaton’s Beach 38. Wedge-tailed Eagle – Singles and pairs seen regularly over the whole island 39. Swamp Harrier – Single bird only seen near turnoff to Seal Bay 40. Brown Goshawk – Odd birds seen across whole island 41. Collared Sparrowhawk – Single small bird seen on Rocky River walk terrorizing the locals 42. Black-shouldered Kite – Single birds seen outside Kingscote and American River 43. Nankeen Kestrel – Very common everywhere except taller forest like Rocky River 44. Peregrine Falcon – Single birds seen at Cape Du Couedic and American River 45. Silver Gull – Common coastal and wetlands 46. Pacific Gull – Common at all coastal locations 47. Crested Tern – Common at most coastal locations 48. Caspian Tern – Single birds at Kingscote, Emu Bay and American River 49. Rock Dove – Kingscote, Cape Willoughby, Parndana and Penneshaw 50. Common Bronzewing – Common roadsides across island 51. Brush Bronzewing – Quite common Seal Bay, Remarkables and Cape du Couedic 52. Glossy Black-cockatoo – Was quite pleased to see this on the first attempt at American River. Pair mating in tall trees behind the abandoned hotel, second pair feeding in she-oak in town. Also heard in ravine at Lathami CP but did not chase. 53. Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo – Quite common, particularly in western part of the island and near pine plantations 54. Galah – Very common 55. Little Corella – Common around Kingscote, odd birds across most of cleared space on island 56. Gang Gang Cockatoo – 2 pairs seen prospecting hollows near the Rocky River range station 57. Rainbow Lorikeet – Common across the whole island, more so than I had expected from reading previous reports 58. Purple-crowned Lorikeet – Quite commonly encountered around the island, more often heard than seen 59. Crimson Rosella – Quite common in western part of the island, particularly at WKI Caravan Park 60. Rock Parrot – 4 birds seen on Boxer drive on the way to the Remarkable Rocks single bird seen later flying over. 6+ birds seen behind Weir Cove when chasing a whipbird 61. Southern Boobook – Heard every night at WKI Caravan Park, spotlighted one night right above our tent, it even left us a feather. 62. Barn Owl – Heard screaming on a couple of nights at WKI Caravan Park, once again putting the fear of god into some Pommy tourists. 63. Laughing Kookaburra – Single bird at American River the only seen 64. Fan-tailed Cuckoo – heard in FCNP 65. Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo – heard several places in FCNP 66. Superb Fairy-wren – Common and widespred 67. Southern Emu-wren – Cape du Couedic, surprisingly few seen considering the amount of quiet time spent there 68. Striated Thornbill – WKI Caravan Park very good for this species, also FCNP 69. Brown Thornbill – Encountered across the island 70. White-browed Scrubwren – Encountered across the island – quite a nice streaky look 71. Spotted Pardalote – Quite common in west of island 72. Striated Pardalote – Common, nesting in a number of buildings 73. Red Wattlebird – Very common 74. Little Wattlebird – WKI Caravan Park very good for this species, also Rocky River visitor centre 75. New-holland Honeyeater – Very common 76. Crescent Honeyeater – Common, surprisingly large number of juveniles 77. Brown-headed Honeyeater – A small party at WKI Caravan Park were the only seen 78. White-naped Honeyeater – 3 birds at Duck Lagoon were the only seen 79. White-eared Honeyeater – Single bird near Murray Lagoon the only seen 80. Tawny-crowned Honeyeater – Common at Remarkable Rocks, Cape Du Couedic and Seal Bay. A single bird at American River was very oddly out of habitat 81. Purple-gaped Honeyeater – Easily seen fighting for the leaking sprinkler at Seal Bay visitor centre, Quite common throughout FCNP, even in regrowth areas 82. Eastern Spinebill – FCNP, WKI Caravan Park, Kelly Hill 83. White-fronted Chat – Murray Lagoon, also at some arty farty café whose name escapes me 84. Scarlet Robin – Common across the island. I had a single male who used to call to me when I was sitting drinking beer of an evening, I think he liked the red cans of pig swill, errr … West End I was drinking. 85. Golden Whistler – Surprisingly only heard and seen in a couple of locations, FCNP and Seal Bay 86. Grey Shrike-thrush – Surprisingly only a few heard and seen 87. Western Whipbird – As discussed earlier, easily seen at Cape du Couedic and Weir Cove with up to 6 birds heard at one time at CdC some mornings. Also heard on road to Remarkable Rocks and Seal Bay 88. Grey Fantail – Common, seemed a bit tatty compared to ones back home 89. Willie Wagtail – Common in cleared habitat 90. Restless Flycatcher – 2 very vocal birds at Duck Lagoon 91. Magpie-lark – Common in cleared habitat 92. Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike – Surprisingly only three birds seen in disparate places across the island 93. Dusky Woodswallow – Cape Borda, Shackles Road and Vivonne Bay 94. Magpie – Common in cleared habitat 95. Grey Currawong – This dark subspecies was common across the island 96. Australian Raven – Not heard in the east, heard daily at WKI Caravan Park and Cape du Couedic 97. Little Raven – More common of the ravens 98. Welcome Swallow – Common 99. Tree Martin – Very common across the island, Every martin I bothered to inspect was this species. 100. Australian Pipit – roadside verges behind Stokes Bay and Kingscote 101. Skylark – Quite common in East and around Murray Lagoon 102. European Starling – Very common in any cleared or coastal area 103. Blackbird – Penneshaw, Kingscote and American River 104. Silvereye – Probably the most common and widespread bird on the island 105. House Sparrow – Common around habitation and in cultivated land, also seen at Cape Borda and CdC 106. Goldfinch – Very common around Kingscote, some quite large flocks 107. Red-browed Finch – one small flock near Kingscote 108. Beautiful Firetail – Easily seen at Cape Borda with up to a dozen birds coming in to a leaky tap at the picnic ground. Single bird seen on road to Remarkable Rocks Other sightings • Neophema parrots flushed from roadside one morning on South Coast Road were probably Elegant but not seen well enough • Turkey were seen in a number of paddocks near WKI Caravan Park but probably domestic • Geese seen at a number of small dams away from habitation including 3 at Duck Lagoon • Kangaroo Island Kangaroo – Common • Tammar Wallaby – Common • Brush-tailed Possum • Echidna • Koala – Common at WKI Caravan Park, bloody noisy at night • Australian Sea-lion – Seal Bay beach experience is well worth doing. A few animals hauled up at CdC • New Zealand Fur-seal – Well worth spending time watching these at CdC, get there at dawn, see the whipbird then watch these guys before the tourists get there. • Heath Goanna – ended up seeing quite a few live ones • Pygmy Copperhead – had to move one individual off the road, extremely docile and kept wanting to slide back on the road. Had to explain the situation in some detail to it. • Tiger Snake – Many roadkilled unfortunately. Single live one seen.
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