Watchalunga, between Finnis and Milang.
From Strathalbyn, take the B37 Strathalbyn - Goolwa Road. After about 14 km turn left into Finniss Township along Main Road.
Stay on the bitumen as the road bends through the Township until you reach a right-angle bend to the left signed Finniss-Clayton Road.
IGNORE the bend and proceed straight ahead along dirt Barn Hill Road down the hill for about 1 km to a T junction (nice bird lake on right). Turn right on to bitumen Winery Road.
Cross over the Finniss watercourse (note Aboriginal canoe tree on left and entry gate to Dunreath H/S on right), before coming to a right hand bend in the road where the "Watchalunga Nature Reserve" signboard is on the left by an iron gate with stockyards just behind. This is only about 0.5 km from the T junction.
If you come to a single lane bridge and another Aboriginal canoe tree sign, you have gone too far!
Here are Louise Duff's notes on the most recent outing to Watchalunga:
Field Notes
15/10/17
Watchalunga NR
92 ha owned by Conservation SA.
Good variety in the habitat - big old dead stags, a corridor of young gumtrees following the Creek, exotic grassland pasture, a watercourse and wetland fed by the Finniss River, reeds and salt marsh. Farms with massive Conifers and dams.
We follow the Creek with Ribbon Weed in flower, frogs calling.
David comments there's not much water in the landscape in SA, so this is a good site.
Every stag is like a bird hotel full of old hollows occupied by Galahs, the Adelaide race of Crimson Rosellas, pretty Red-rumped Parrots and Starlings, with a family of Black-Shouldered Kites surveying the surrounds from the high branches.
We watch a Black-shouldered Kite fluttering above the wetland like a sky-born dancer.
The raucous screeching of Galahs fills the air. Across the paddock 5 Greater Black Cormorants array themselves in a stag.
A pair of Galahs are grooming each other - nice to think they mate for life and live into their fifties or more. I wonder how long these have been together? I can see the black eyes of the male and pink eyes on the female. Jack says when you watch a flock in flight you can see the pairs sticking together.
New Holland Honeyeaters flit through the canopy, and we see a Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike.
The Black-shouldered Kite has a rather dashing black eye mask. It's moving its tail in a scissor motion. There are 3 of them near a big untidy nest of sticks in a Eucalyptus. Parents and a juvenile?
In the farm dam there are Australian White Ibis and Purple Swamphens with huge feet, they remind me of Jacana feet they're so big!
A steady stream of birds can be seen above us in the beautiful blue sky. Overhead, a pair of Pelicans circling upwards on a thermal, and Black Swans. A flock of Cape Barren Geese fly in V-formation, soon they're so high we can only see them with binoculars. A skein of 15 Glossy Ibis with bronze and copper backs fly in formation then settle on the wetland, putting up a Shelduck. A lone Royal Spoonbill flies north. A big mixed flock of Australian White and Straw-necked Ibis circle above the farm next door.
We hear but don't see a chorus of Little Grassbirds - 3 penetrating whistles, and Reed Warblers warbling their little hearts out. After much scanning in the base of the reeds I spot a Reed Warbler, plump and rather drab. Nearby, a Superb Blue Wren shows off his mating finery. No girls in sight.
We walk across to the wetland fringed with Saltmarsh: Samphire and Juncus krausii, Succulent Suaeda australis flushed with fresh red growth. Carpobrotus with magenta flowers. Water Couch.
There are White-fronted Chats in the saltmarsh. Tiny Golden-headed Cisticolas flit from the top of the Samphire down to the ground where we can't see them. So quick! "Anne says they don't hang around for long." We see one with a white feather in its beak, ready to line its nest. With their streaked markings they're perfectly camouflaged in the Samphire. We watch one fly straight up in a song flight, buzzing, buzzing, wings a blur of rapid motion, then plummet erratically down into the foliage. Is it a mating call? No, Jeffery says he's saying "this is my place."
We follow a narrow track with Roo prints in the cracked mud. A graceful White-faced Heron rises up from the wetland. There's a squadron of dragonflies hovering at the water's edge. Margie points out a Swamp Harrier. She sees a Whiskered Tern in breeding plumage, white on top, dark underneath but I miss it.
In two and a half hours we've walked only two kilometres and seen 45 species of bird, a moving meditation in nature. Time for lunch!
Louise Duff
From Strathalbyn, take the B37 Strathalbyn - Goolwa Road. After about 14 km turn left into Finniss Township along Main Road.
Stay on the bitumen as the road bends through the Township until you reach a right-angle bend to the left signed Finniss-Clayton Road.
IGNORE the bend and proceed straight ahead along dirt Barn Hill Road down the hill for about 1 km to a T junction (nice bird lake on right). Turn right on to bitumen Winery Road.
Cross over the Finniss watercourse (note Aboriginal canoe tree on left and entry gate to Dunreath H/S on right), before coming to a right hand bend in the road where the "Watchalunga Nature Reserve" signboard is on the left by an iron gate with stockyards just behind. This is only about 0.5 km from the T junction.
If you come to a single lane bridge and another Aboriginal canoe tree sign, you have gone too far!
Here are Louise Duff's notes on the most recent outing to Watchalunga:
Field Notes
15/10/17
Watchalunga NR
92 ha owned by Conservation SA.
Good variety in the habitat - big old dead stags, a corridor of young gumtrees following the Creek, exotic grassland pasture, a watercourse and wetland fed by the Finniss River, reeds and salt marsh. Farms with massive Conifers and dams.
We follow the Creek with Ribbon Weed in flower, frogs calling.
David comments there's not much water in the landscape in SA, so this is a good site.
Every stag is like a bird hotel full of old hollows occupied by Galahs, the Adelaide race of Crimson Rosellas, pretty Red-rumped Parrots and Starlings, with a family of Black-Shouldered Kites surveying the surrounds from the high branches.
We watch a Black-shouldered Kite fluttering above the wetland like a sky-born dancer.
The raucous screeching of Galahs fills the air. Across the paddock 5 Greater Black Cormorants array themselves in a stag.
A pair of Galahs are grooming each other - nice to think they mate for life and live into their fifties or more. I wonder how long these have been together? I can see the black eyes of the male and pink eyes on the female. Jack says when you watch a flock in flight you can see the pairs sticking together.
New Holland Honeyeaters flit through the canopy, and we see a Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike.
The Black-shouldered Kite has a rather dashing black eye mask. It's moving its tail in a scissor motion. There are 3 of them near a big untidy nest of sticks in a Eucalyptus. Parents and a juvenile?
In the farm dam there are Australian White Ibis and Purple Swamphens with huge feet, they remind me of Jacana feet they're so big!
A steady stream of birds can be seen above us in the beautiful blue sky. Overhead, a pair of Pelicans circling upwards on a thermal, and Black Swans. A flock of Cape Barren Geese fly in V-formation, soon they're so high we can only see them with binoculars. A skein of 15 Glossy Ibis with bronze and copper backs fly in formation then settle on the wetland, putting up a Shelduck. A lone Royal Spoonbill flies north. A big mixed flock of Australian White and Straw-necked Ibis circle above the farm next door.
We hear but don't see a chorus of Little Grassbirds - 3 penetrating whistles, and Reed Warblers warbling their little hearts out. After much scanning in the base of the reeds I spot a Reed Warbler, plump and rather drab. Nearby, a Superb Blue Wren shows off his mating finery. No girls in sight.
We walk across to the wetland fringed with Saltmarsh: Samphire and Juncus krausii, Succulent Suaeda australis flushed with fresh red growth. Carpobrotus with magenta flowers. Water Couch.
There are White-fronted Chats in the saltmarsh. Tiny Golden-headed Cisticolas flit from the top of the Samphire down to the ground where we can't see them. So quick! "Anne says they don't hang around for long." We see one with a white feather in its beak, ready to line its nest. With their streaked markings they're perfectly camouflaged in the Samphire. We watch one fly straight up in a song flight, buzzing, buzzing, wings a blur of rapid motion, then plummet erratically down into the foliage. Is it a mating call? No, Jeffery says he's saying "this is my place."
We follow a narrow track with Roo prints in the cracked mud. A graceful White-faced Heron rises up from the wetland. There's a squadron of dragonflies hovering at the water's edge. Margie points out a Swamp Harrier. She sees a Whiskered Tern in breeding plumage, white on top, dark underneath but I miss it.
In two and a half hours we've walked only two kilometres and seen 45 species of bird, a moving meditation in nature. Time for lunch!
Louise Duff
