More of Kangaroo Island!
While on our adventures on Kangaroo Island with, Craig Wickham of Exceptional Kangaroo Island, we witnessed some gorgeous sites. The type of places people get married or take their engagement pictures at. Places like Remarkable Rocks.......
This place, Remarkable Rocks, was incredible in the least. We shot some film there, but the sea-birding off the coast was amazing. Lots of birds, but the main activity was at Admiral's Arch (just down the road). There were some shearwaters and storm-petrels we could not identify, but the show of Albatross's was stunning. We were scanning the rocks off the coast and I happened my eyes upon some very large birds in the distance. I had never seen an albatross before, but James Currie (Birding Adventures TV) confirmed that they were indeed albatross's. Black-browed Albatross and one of the Yellow-nosed Albatross species' were identified. James also had a flyby Cape Petrel which I did not see. Grrrrr...certainly a sore spot for me! So it seemed that every stop Craig made for us we had plenty of things to photograph.
This is a shot of James Currie getting ready to film up on Remarkable Rocks! We tried to get him up higher on the rocks for the shoot, but there was no place to grip with feet or hands. James even tried standing on my shoulders at one point to get a higher perspective, but I guess the ,"Big Guy," wasn't big enough. Tough luck but still a great shoot nonetheless.
After this stop we were off to find the, "Golden Bird," of the trip which was the endemic and the vulnerable Glossy-Black Cockatoo. These are large parrots that breed high up in Casuarina forests and feed off of she-oaks. The understory is pretty open, but some of the gum trees tower above you. These birds are vocal throughout the day, but still requires a bit of effort to find them outside of the nest cavity. When feeding, they fly around often making them hard to keep track of. I had brought my Nikon EDG Fieldscope along to assist with scanning the canopies. It certainly paid off! With Nikon's ED glass we were able to view minute details about the birds. We visited Lathami Conservation Park, and met with Mike Barth, whom is a Project Manager and principal who tracks the success of these birds. Check out the habitat below:
After this stop we were off to find the, "Golden Bird," of the trip which was the endemic and the vulnerable Glossy-Black Cockatoo. These are large parrots that breed high up in Casuarina forests and feed off of she-oaks. The understory is pretty open, but some of the gum trees tower above you. These birds are vocal throughout the day, but still requires a bit of effort to find them outside of the nest cavity. When feeding, they fly around often making them hard to keep track of. I had brought my Nikon EDG Fieldscope along to assist with scanning the canopies. It certainly paid off! With Nikon's ED glass we were able to view minute details about the birds. We visited Lathami Conservation Park, and met with Mike Barth, whom is a Project Manager and principal who tracks the success of these birds. Check out the habitat below:
We can see how the understory opens up, but still has the expansive canopy. This is what Glossy-Black Cockatoo breeding habitat looks like in south Australia. We hiked around for a while as we hear the birds feeding and moving about. We eventually came upon a nest with multiple pairs in the area. Thanks to Mike Barth (below in photo with James Currie) for helping track these magnificent birds!
I gather that a pair's home range is rather small as we had noticed multiple birds interacting together. These Cockatoos are very large parrots with broad wings and long tails. Male has a much red in the tail while the female has red on the outer tail coverts. The female will also have a bit of yellow on the face as well. Check out the next picture!
These birds were outside the nest cavity. This photo caught three of them, but there were at least five birds in the vicinity. Interestingly enough, Mike had told us about some of the management practices they used to preserve this population of Cockatoos. They will wrap an aluminum-like material on the base of the gums that these birds breed in. Of course, they identify the nest first then fit the trimmings. What this does is protects the nest from would-be predators including Brush-tailed Possums and snakes.
It was a very rewarding experience to view these birds in natural habitat and learn about them first hand from Mike Barth. Nevertheless, we were able to see some other birds as well on the island.
I gather that a pair's home range is rather small as we had noticed multiple birds interacting together. These Cockatoos are very large parrots with broad wings and long tails. Male has a much red in the tail while the female has red on the outer tail coverts. The female will also have a bit of yellow on the face as well. Check out the next picture!
These birds were outside the nest cavity. This photo caught three of them, but there were at least five birds in the vicinity. Interestingly enough, Mike had told us about some of the management practices they used to preserve this population of Cockatoos. They will wrap an aluminum-like material on the base of the gums that these birds breed in. Of course, they identify the nest first then fit the trimmings. What this does is protects the nest from would-be predators including Brush-tailed Possums and snakes.
It was a very rewarding experience to view these birds in natural habitat and learn about them first hand from Mike Barth. Nevertheless, we were able to see some other birds as well on the island.
This White-browed Scrubwren was found poking around the bushes in some of the parking lots we used along with Grey Shrike-Thrush, New Holland Honeyeater, Rock Parrots, etc.
In conclusion, we would like to thank South Australia Tourism and all of the Kangaroo Island partners who made this experience possible. There is so much to say, but nearly impossible to write up in a series of blog posts. Please let me know if you have any questions. Good birding and thanks for reading.
In conclusion, we would like to thank South Australia Tourism and all of the Kangaroo Island partners who made this experience possible. There is so much to say, but nearly impossible to write up in a series of blog posts. Please let me know if you have any questions. Good birding and thanks for reading.
