Birds in Adelaide Parklands
Writers’ Week
Today I attended the Thursday sessions of Writers’ Week in Adelaide. This is a regular feature of the Adelaide Festival of Arts which is held every two years. Prominent writers from all over Australia and selected writers from overseas are invited to be guest speakers. Previously I have been unable to attend because of work commitments.
Adelaide Parklands
Writers’ week is held in a beautiful section of Adelaide’s parklands, about 200 metres across the road from the Festival Centre and about five minute’s walk from the CBD. While I primarily attended to hear the speakers talking about their writing and books, birders like me are naturally always on the lookout for birds flying around. As the tents where the sessions are held are open sided, the birds are easy to observe.
Bird List
The most conspicuous species was the Rock Dove. Groups of three to five flew overhead or around the nearby buildings every minute or so. The next common species was the Rainbow Lorikeet. Small flocks of up to six or eight went screeching from tree to tree at least every five minutes. Noisy Miners squabbled and carried on in nearby trees all day. I was surprised none came down to the lawn to search for dropped food. Perhaps the large crowd was too intimidating even for them. I also observed two Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos over the Torrens River, several Adelaide Rosellas (a sub-species of the Crimson Rosella) flying nearby and a single Magpie Lark. Surprisingly, I also saw only one Crested Pigeon all day. They are a very common species in the parklands.
Unexpected Sighting
The most unexpected sighting was a Brush-Tailed Possum. It came scampering across the grass from the back of the Governor’s residence, through the chairs of about a dozen attendees, and disappeared up one of the beautiful palm trees in that part of the garden. These mammals are essentially nocturnal, so that makes the sighting even more interesting.
Related Articles:
- Rainbow Lorikeets – at Wittunga Botanic Gardens
- Great Birding Moments – Noisy Miner (a species of honeyeater).
- Great Birding Moments – Crested Pigeons
Pangarinda Arboretum, Wellington, South Australia
This morning we travelled down river through Tailem Bend to the small town of Wellington, South Australia. This town is near the end of the River Murray where it flows into Lake Alexandrina. From this lake it flows into the Coorong and out to the Southern Ocean.
Just east of the river at Wellington is the Pangarinda Arboretum. This consists of a plantation of Australian native plants established over a decade ago by local members of the Australian Plant Society (APS). The plantation has been planted in sections to represent different plant regimes from different parts of Australia.
Today’s gathering of members of APS was for a special Christmas lunch for members of the three local branches of APS. Members came from the Murray Bridge, Parrakie and Karoonda groups. Also present were members of the family of Ross Foreman who celebrates his 80th birthday tomorrow. Ross and his late wife Pat have been long time members of APS and they have freely given hundreds of volunteer hours of work to the arboretum. After cutting the birthday cake we all moved to another section of the plantation for Ross to open the Foreman Gazebo. This looks over the arboretum to the east and the river to the west.
After the ceremony we all wandered around the plantings looking at the many flowering plants. Some had finished their spring flowering but others, like the banksias, were resplendant in a variety of shapes and colours.
The bird watching was quite good too, with 22 species recorded, despite all the people wandering around. I managed to get some very good flower shots and one good photograph of a thornbill. The following is a list of the birds seen:
White Faced Heron
Pacific Black Duck
Nankeen Kestral
Swamp Harrier
Black Kite
White Ibis
Rock Dove
Peaceful Dove
Crested Pigeon
Galah
Elegant Parrot
Singing Honeyeater
New Holland Honeyeater
Magie Lark
Australian Magpie
Yellow Rumped Thornbill
Common Starling
House Sparrow
Common Blackbird
European Goldfinch
Willie Wagtail
One of the members who regularly does volunteer work there reported to me that Zebra Finches had been breeding in the plantation recently.
A Happy Birthday
It was my birthday last week. I had a really great day. The weather was perfect at about 25 degrees, a bright cloudless sky and a gentle cooling breeze.
My wife suggested that we go out for lunch. We tried a recently opened restaurant called Pomberuk here in Murray Bridge. It is a part of the Aboriginal Cultural Centre. Downstairs there is a museum telling the story of the local Aboriginal people. There are also many paintings featuring local Aboriginal artists. On one side of the gallery and museum there is a viewing window where you can see chocolates being made in The Cottage Box factory.
Upstairs there is a gift shop and the restaurant. You may choose to eat indoors in the main restaurant or out on the balcony. The restaurant overlooks the River Murray, less than 40 metres away. The birdwatching is great from this vantage point, although some birds may be frightened away a little by the noise coming from both bridges.
The restaurant is situated between two of the the three bridges here in Murray Bridge. Near the CBD there is a road bridge and a separate rail bridge. Several kilometres downstream is the newer Swanport Bridge which serves the road bypass on the Adelaide to Melbourne highway. I was quite surprised how little noise coming from the bridges actually reaches one as you sit on the balcony of the restaurant. The food was delicious. And reasonably priced too.

This photograph show two of the three bridges at Murray Bridge.
The road bridge is in the foreground with the rail bridge is in the background.
Pomberuk is on the right in between these two bridges.
After lunch we drove a little distance downstream and found a shady tree to park under. we sat there for nearly half an hour watching the river flow past. Very relaxing.
Here is a list of the birds I saw during that time:
Rock Dove
House Sparrow
Common Starling
Eurasian Coot
Welcome Swallow
Clamorous Reedwarbler
Black Winged Stilt
Black Tailed Native Hen
Silver Gull
Pacific Black Duck
White Plumed Honeyeater
Noisy Miner
Red Wattlebird
Willie Wagtail
Little Raven
Galah
Crested Pigeon
Rainbow Lorikeet
Blackbird
Australian Magpie
Magpie Lark
Going cuckoo
I haven’t added an entry for several days. I had a busy weekend and the only free time was taken up watching the amazing battle between Australia and England in the Fifth and deciding Ashes Cricket Test. Watching cricket is another of my passions. I often accompany my daughter Rose to the test cricket at the world’s most beautiful cricket ground, the Adelaide Oval.
My only observation of note today was hearing a Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo near the house. Try as I might I couldn’t even get a glimpse of said cuckoo, never mind attempting to get a photograph. The first cuckoo of the spring I heard about two weeks ago and then only for a few seconds. Today’s individual hung around for about an hour.
Spring is well and truly under way here in Murray Bridge. Many birds are busy breeding, native plants are flowering and exotics like roses are sprouting new leaves in profusion. We have a few vines are they are also showing their first leaves. In our small orchard the fruit trees are either in blossom and have buds about to burst. The above photo shows a beautiful Nectarine blossom. The second photograph shows the magnificent bloom of the Grevillea “Winpara Gem”, a popular Australian plant.
I have noticed that the Crested Pigeons are not very conspicuous at present. I wonder if they are nesting somewhere? I must have a good snoop around tomorrow. Meanwhile, here is another beautiful photograph of one of the local Crested Pigeons sun-bathing near the house last week.
My first Blog entry
I am a first time Blogger. This is my very first entry having successfully stepped through the setup process.
I am reasonably familiar with the world of blogging because I regularly read the blogs of my daughter Rose in England and son Simon in Sydney (when he’s home), mainly to keep up with what they are doing and where in the world they are!
I plan to include recent interesting sightings of birds in and around our garden and property on the fringe of the rural city of Murray Bridge in South Australia. Our home is situated on 5 acres (2 hectares) of land. We have about two acres of mallee scrub and have planted several thousand trees and small plants on the rest.
I will also include reports on any trips I take here in South Australia and in other parts of Australia – and overseas when that happens. I also plan to include photos of birds (and other interesting things) taken with my new digital camera, a Canon Powershot S2 IS. The 12x zoom facility is great for birds shots. (Update: I updated my camera in 2011 to a Canon Powershot SX20 with a 20x zoom. Photos from the latter part of 2011 were taken with the new camera.)
It has been raining steadily here all morning so we are confined to the indoors. The bird life has been very quiet during the rain, but when I went to check the rain gauge a few minutes ago I observed five rather wet Crested Pigeons on a nearby power line. Sometimes I have observed up to 30 or 40 of these beautiful birds all perched on the power lines that run along the side of our property. Above is a photo of a Crested Pigeon taken yesterday. It was quietly sunning itself near the house. I was able to sneak up to within about 4 metres from it.
Yesterday I also managed to get a good photo of a male Mistletoe Bird. These delightful little birds are quite common around here and are frequent visitors to our garden. About 15 years ago this was the first species I recorded nesting in a plant we had planted on this property.
This post was updated on 2nd September 2015.
Good birding.
Trevor