2017 South Australia Trip - Birds - Pelagic trip off Port MacDonnell & Cape Gannets at the Gannet Colony of Portland, Victoria.

Whilst visiting South Australia, I booked myself onto a Pelagic trip. It's an ocean bird watching day trip  that usually travels 40+ kms from the coast where we are in an area where the continental shelf drops down to deeper waters, possibly up to 300m depth.
Birders have to book these pelagic trips months in advance as they are usually very popular.
It was mid November & the weather conditions for the day were "fine & calm off shore with light winds". For pelagic trips that's not what birders want to hear as usually the birding is not as good with calm seas & winds.

We boarded our boat around 7am, 1 hr later than it was booked for due to an unknown reason.
It usually takes a few hours to arrive at the edge of the continental shelf. During those 1st couple of hours we can be entertained with sightings of the odd whale, shark, dolphin or pelagic birds flying past.
I added 7 species to my life list on this pelagic. For me the weather was smoothe sailing & I also had a calm stomach. For the birding though, there was much disappointment from the other people on board as there was a greater expectation of more species. I also saw several Great-winged Petrels, which are similar in appearance to Grey-faced Petrels (to my untrained eyes)
Other species also seen & not photographed were Hutton's, Fluttering & Short-tailed Shearwaters, all of which I have seen off shore in Queensland.

I use a bridge camera with a 83 mm zoom, so the photos are of variable quality.

30 minutes after leaving port we pass a Blue Whale that has come up to the surface.

Many of the birds came & went through out the day. Some others just sat around the boat as the crew threw out burly - that is usually shark liver to entice the birds to come close to the boat.
The birds can smell the slick for several kms.

For convenience I've placed each of the species together even though some of the photos are hours apart.

White-chinned Petrel have a subtle white patch under their chin. Wing span of 1.4 m

We saw 45 Shy Albatross on this day. Because there were so many of them, I was always in awe of their size every time they flew towards the boat - 2.1 to 2.6 m wing span.

Northern Giant Petrel have a wing span of up to 2.1 m. There were 4 of these.

Northern Giant-petrel with a Shy Albatross behind

20 Grey-faced Petrels came & went during the day.

Grey-faced Petrel at bottom & Great-winged Petrel back.

Wandering Albatross looked awesome out there. There were only 2 of them during the day. They were the largest bird we saw that day with a wing span of 2.5 - 3.5 m.

Shy Albatross at top of photo with Wandering below.

Comparison sizes with White-chinned Petrel on the right.

A single Arctic Jaegar (pronounced yae-gar) flew past.

It's a little difficult to see, but that's a jelly fish top centre of this photo.

 Quite a few Albatross wouldn't come close to the boat.

 2 Black-browed Albatross (immature bird) showed up as well....front bird with the rest being Shy Albatross.

Black-browed Albatross.

A late arrival was a Salvin's Albatross, juvenile bird. The regulars on the boat were quite excited to see this specie as they're not often seen. Usual wing span is 2 - 2.5 m wide.

Portland Gannet Colony is at Portland Victoria. The drive to there was a just over 1 hr from Port MacDonnell.  I had heard on my pelagic trip that people can now access the restricted area if we phone the information centre.
A very dedicated birder & supporter of the Gannet colony takes birders into the restricted area on dedicated days.
This photo was taken the day before from behind the locked gate. Hundreds of Australasian Gannets use the tip of Point Danger as a roost & breeding place.

Hundreds were feeding at any given time.

A few hundred metres further out to the sea was another huge colony of gannets on a rocky island
There's estimated to be 10,000 birds there.

Inside the restricted area we were 20 m from the breeding birds. There were chicks at various ages.
Wow, it was an awesome sight, & they were a noisy bunch of birds.

This is the bird that I have come to see. Centre of this photo below is a Cape Gannet.
Cape Gannets are endemic to South Africa & just a few birds have made Portland home.
The major feature difference to the Aust Gannets is that the Cape Gannet has a longer black stripe.
 The Cape Gannets also have 2 chicks....being parented on this day by an Aust Gannet. The caretaker was astounded with this behaviour as the day before the chicks were with their rightful parents.

Cape Gannet (Left) sparing with Aust Gannet

Near the fence were the shells of 2 eggs retrieved from the colony to display the size of their eggs. They're about duck egg size.

2017 South Australia Trip - Birds of Kangaroo Island

We booked our car & caravan onto the Kangaroo Island vehicle ferry. It was at the time an unknown number of days spent on the island, but certainly more than  4 where just staying in cabins would have been cheaper. We would eventually spend 12 days on KI exploring nearly most parts of KI.

Kangaroo Island has several sub species of the mainland birds, so it was wonderful to see as many as I could. 1 day some of them may be split from the mainland species. I ended up seeing 109 species of birds on KI.

We drove anti-clockwise around KI.

My Kangaroo Island birding started at Cape Jervis vehicle ferry terminal with Cormorants on the rock wall next to the ferry terminal.
 Cormorants preening.

Black-faced Cormorant.

Pied Cormorant

Immature Pacific Gull

I stayed on the open top deck during the 50 min crossing so that I could look out for ocean birds.
At a 200m distance I could see Shearwaters flying parallel with the ferry.
Most of these are Hutton's Shearwaters. (photo has been cropped)

Hutton's (top) & Fluttering (bottom) Shearwater

That's almost the true distance with the camera lens zoomed in. I also saw an Australian Gannet flying past.

Once we parked the caravan at Penneshaw caravan park we went about driving around the town.
Purple-crowned Lorikeets were feeding in the bottlebrush bushes near the golf course.

There were also 36 Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo feeding on pine tree cones near by.

That night I went on the Little Penguin tour near the ferry terminal. The number of penguins that come into shore is variable depending on breeding season. I saw 5 Little Penguins that evening.

The next day I explored Baudin Conservation Park on the edge of the town for several hours.
Superb Fairywrens are a separate ssp to the mainland.

Grey Fantail

Scarlet Robin

European Goldfinch

Glossy Black-cockatoo are a separate ssp to the mainland & this was 1 of my target birds for KI.

White-browed Scrubwren is also another different ssp

Eastern Spindbill

I also walked / drove parts of the coast around Penneshaw. Pied Oystercatcher.

Near the ferry terminal at Penneshaw were dozens of roosting birds inlc Black-faced Cormorants & Sooty Oystercatcher.

At American River were Red Wattlebirds

Galah

Red-browed finch.

New Holland Honeyeater were perfect show offs.

Horsfield's Bronze-cuckoo was also at American River near our camp spot.

An immature Grey Currawong

White-fronted Chat

Restless Flycatcher at Discovery Lagoon camping area.

Discovery Lagoon's lagoon was fast drying up. There were still plenty of birds to see.
Common Greenshank.

It's a really terrible photo, but I tracked down the Southern Boobook that I could hear 200 m from our camp spot. This Boobook is a ssp endemic to KI , part of the Eyre Pen, Yorke Pen & Fleurieu Peninsula.

I visited a private home along Stevens Road at Bay of Shoals & saw dozens of Purple-gaped Honeyeaters.

It's also worth stopping to look a Wisanger Salt Lakes as well. Unfortunately the birds were too far away for photos, but there were 250 Banded Stilts with 10 Red-necked Avocets & 1 Cape Barren Goose.

Free camping is available at Duck Lagoon not far from Emu Bay if desired.
Duck Lagoon is worth a visit as I saw a few good species there.
Little Corella

Crimson Rosella, KI ssp melanopterus

Female Musk Duck.

Several Freckled Ducks with a a Hardhead

Pink-eared Ducks were also roosting.

At "Island Pure Sheep Dairy", Wild Turkey's were roaming about, un assisted by humans, so are a tick able specie for the twitchers.

I visited Emu Bay. I had to walk along the bay for 500 m to locate the Hooded Plovers

Common Bronzewings were there in the picnic area.

Ruddy Turnstones were seen on the rocks near the sandy bay.

Red-necked Avocets & Banded Stilts were seen in another secluded lagoon on private property next to Emu Bay Road, not far from Discovery Lagoon.

We stayed at Stokes Bay for a night. Striated Pardalotes were excavating some of the sandstone.

Also in the camp ground was a Scarlet Robin.

Another Crimson Rosella ssp melanopterus (KI)

Beautiful Firetails were coming into drink from a puddle on top of a water tank at Cape Borda.

Crimson Rosella at Ravine des Casoars

Little Wattlebird seen along the walk at Ravine des Casoars.

We stayed at Western KI Caravan Park for 3 nights to explore the SW & NW of the Island.
Cape Barren Geese wander around the  caravan park.

Purple-gaped Honeyeater near Remarkable Rocks. I also heard a Western Whipbird in the heath near the boardwalk to the Remarkable Rocks.

Crescent Honeyeaters were also at Remarkable Rocks.

Striated Thronbill were seen at Kelly Hills Conservation Park.

Rainbow Lorikeet also at Kelly Hill CP.

Brown Thornbills were also there at another part of the track.

Grey Fantail

Little Raven was at the car park area.

Fan-tailed Cuckoo

Grey Shrikethrush at Platypus Walk in Flinders Chase National Park.

New Holland Honeyeater.

Spotted Pardalote's were gathering nesting material near the creek.

White-browed Scrubwerns were again seen at Seal Bay Conservation Park

Also there were more Superb Fairywrens.

Female Superb Fairywren.

Silvereye. There are 9 ssp of Silvereye for Australia incl Lord Howe Island.

Female Golden Whistler.

Purple-gaped Honeyeater

They were taking water from weeping holes on a tank near the amenities block at 1 of the picnic spots.

Crescent Honeyeaters were also there.

An immature Pacific Gull was cruising overhead at the Seal Bay CP seal colony

Osprey was also there.

At Vivonne Bay I saw a pair of Hooded Plovers. I saw another pair at d'Estrees Bay CP.

Common Bronzewing at Vivonne Bay

It's a Crested Tern roost at d'Estrees Bay.

Osprey nests are used for feeding too.

A record photo of an Eastern Reef Egret, dark morph.

We stayed a night at Murray Lagoon. The camp site overlooks the large expansive lagoon. Murray lagoon is a part of Cape Gantheaume CP. There are walking tracks around parts of the lagoon, but unfortunately many of the tracks were closed due to flooding. I was able to walk down to the lagoon near the camp ground though.

White-fronted Chats at Murray Lagoon

Aust Spotted Crakes were on 1 of the flooded tracks.

Indian Peafowls are a tick able specie on KI as well. I found a male bird near our camp spot, but he was very elusive......lol to the  silly photo.

Australian Gannets sitting on the water on the strait between KI & the mainland. I didn't see any other pelagic birds this time.

I had a wonderful time on KI sighting 109 species over the 12 days we were there.
The landscape was also amazing for a small island & thankfully at least 1/3 of it is protected as National Park or Conservation Park.