Since there have been several reports recently about sightings of Budgies, Bee-eaters and Cockatiels from Redbanks Conservation Park, which we have never visited, Paul and I decided to go there on Wednesday. The weather was sunny and windy, but although the wind made birding a little harder than normal, we were grateful that it reduced the number of flies. The drive up was beautiful, going through the slopes of the Adelaide Hills, into the gentler scenery of the Barossa Valley at Angaston and on to the mounded hills around Eudunda, with their memories of Colin Thiele’s The Sun on the Stubble, and on to the start of the Southern Flinders Ranges. A Wedge-tailed Eagle was spotted soaring overhead and shortly afterwards a Black Kite was seen attacking another eagle sitting on a post. Just south of Burra we turned on to Eastern Road, reaching the park after about 10 kilometres. There is a secluded camping area for 11 sites, where we saw only galahs, and about a kilometre away, an area for day visitors, which includes the splendid red banks that give the park its name. Here there is mallee and saltbush, with two creek beds. Many of the gums were flowering and as soon as we entered this area, we began to see birds: a Grey Shrike-thrush, whose song accompanied us the whole time we were there, three Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes, and, on the tree we parked under, two budgies, indulging in a mutual preening session. Walking along the dry creek bed and surrounding slopes we soon glimpsed a Rainbow Bee-eater and, on a dead tree, a pair of Cockatiel. This pair were also spotted by a large and noisy crowd of mixed woodswallows, who pursued them in the fear, fully justified by their shape in flight, that they were kestrels. Once they perched, however, the woodswallows seemed perfectly willing to accept them, and joined them for a noisy but apparently amicable chat. Among the woodswallows we saw Dusky, Black-faced, Masked and the beautiful White-browed. Whistling Kites and Black Kites soared overhead, and a Brown Goshawk patrolled the ridge. Several other Budgerigars and Rainbow Bee-eaters appeared, and a Willie Wagtail made its presence known. There was a regrettable number of feral species—pigeons, starlings and sparrows—and the only Honey-eaters were White-plumed and White-naped. Flocks of Galahs went by, but, apart from the Cockatiels, no other parrot species. On the trip home, we were delighted to spot a Marsh Harrier patrolling a field of recently-mown hay. It was quite a long trip to make on a single day, but well worthwhile.
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