Today I was supposed to be on a pelagic but since I found out it was cancelled a week or so ago I have had a bit of an open schedule. I spent this morning trying to photograph the Slender-billed Thornbills which are found in the samphire flats at Port Gawler, just north of Adelaide. I spent a long time wandering through the flats without any success and was beginning to feel like I would miss out on yet another bird when I stumbled onto a flock of the thornbills right on the side of the road. Its funny out things often work like that. The birds were a bit shy and proved difficult to photograph, but I managed to get a few frames that I was quite pleased with. I have now photographed every species of thornbill I have seen so far and only have two species left to see and photograph, the Slaty-backed and Western Thornbills. I am not sure why but I have taken it on myself to try and photograph all of these small flitty birds. It has proven quite a challenge but so far so good.
This afternoon, Ijoined up with a Birds Australia: South Australia group on a field trip to the Dry Creek Salt Fields. These salt fields are well known for the huge numbers of waders that they support. Access is only possible with a local so it was fortunate that I was able to join the field trip. Unfortunately, it is late in the season so many of the birds have already departed. From all accounts it has been a poor year anyway with very low numbers of birds. Despite that, it was still great to be able to meet some folks and put faces with names.
After the field trip, I headed back east. I have a day and half to kill before Ihave to be back in Adelaide to have my tyres replaced on my truck before I head into West Australia. Since I have now seen pretty much all my target birds, I have decided to go give the Scarlet-chested Parrots one last shot. We will see how it goes.
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