It was a good day for birdwatching weatherwise – lights winds and sunny. A small but expectant group set off from Angair soon after 8am.
Rice Reserve is around 5km north of Torquay. Thompson Creek runs through the reserve, and it typically has a mix of water birds and bush birds, and sometimes exciting surprises across the road in the farm paddocks. On this occasion there were 30+ Straw-necked Ibis poking around in the paddocks.
Other bird highlights included Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Darter flying over, Australian Hobby doing some fast flying, Striated Pardalotes hanging around atop telephone poles, colourful views of Red-rumped Parrots and Eastern Rosellas, and lots of White-plumed Honeyeaters (great sounding bird). Full list of birds and counts included below.
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
We had some morning tea at the picnic table at Rice Reserve.
We then drove a couple of kilometres to Dans Reserve. This is a small area on the opposite side of Thompson Creek from Minya Winery. It is a pretty spot, and a few birds but nothing too exciting for our visit. There was a Great Egret which was demonstrating its power of concentration and immobility for so long that we thought it was a statue!
Great Egret
A really enjoyable day of birdwatching and sunshine towards the end of winter.
James Orton
Bird List – Rice Reserve
The table below shows the names and count of birds seen at Rice Reserve. This list is from eBird.
| Species | Count |
| Chestnut Teal | 10 |
| Australasian Grebe | 2 |
| Crested Pigeon | 2 |
| Eurasian Coot | 20 |
| Masked Lapwing | 1 |
| Australasian Darter | 1 |
| Australian White Ibis | 3 |
| Straw-necked Ibis | 40 |
| Australian Hobby | 1 |
| Galah | 5 |
| Little Corella | 10 |
| Sulphur-crested Cockatoo | 5 |
| Crimson Rosella | 6 |
| Eastern Rosella | 10 |
| Red-rumped Parrot | 6 |
| Rainbow Lorikeet | 30 |
| Superb Fairywren | 10 |
| Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater | 1 |
| Red Wattlebird | 5 |
| White-plumed Honeyeater | 50 |
| New Holland Honeyeater | 50 |
| Spotted Pardalote | 1 |
| Striated Pardalote | 5 |
| Brown Thornbill | 2 |
| Grey Shrikethrush | 6 |
| Australian Magpie | 10 |
| Willie Wagtail | 3 |
| Magpie-lark | 2 |
| Little Raven | 20 |
| Welcome Swallow | 10 |
| Common Starling | 20 |
| Common Myna | 2 |
| Red-browed Finch | 2 |
Bird List – Dans Reserve
The table below shows the names and count of birds seen at Dans. This list is from eBird.
| Species | Count |
| Australasian Grebe | 2 |
| Eurasian Coot | 23 |
| Little Pied Cormorant | 1 |
| Great Egret | 1 |
| Galah | 2 |
| Superb Fairywren | 5 |
| Red Wattlebird | 1 |
| White-plumed Honeyeater | 2 |
| New Holland Honeyeater | 5 |
| Brown Thornbill | 6 |
| Australian Magpie | 1 |
| Little Raven | 1 |
| Welcome Swallow | 3 |
| Common Starling | 5 |
Phone photos courtesy of Liz Fenwick