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Hi [[firstname]]
This month we celebrate Australian Bird of the Year for 2005, launch a raft of excursions and tell you all about the fabulous Laratinga Birdfair. Read on!
October General Meeting
Birds SA Excursions, events and activities
Fleurieu Birders
Laratinga Birdfair
The Tawny Frogmouth - Bird of the Year
Membership notes
Birds SA Library news
The Birder magazine
General Meeting
The next Birds SA General Meeting will be held on Tuesday, 28, October, 7:30 to 9:30pm at the Lecture Room 101/102, Charles Hawker Building, The University of Adelaide – Waite Campus, Urrbrae.
Speaker: Dr Michael Huxley
Topic: Birds of India
Michael will illustrate, with his superb photography skills, a 5-week backpacking adventure in India covering everything from impressive ruins to desert fortresses and spectacular, snow-capped peaks during which he saw over 150 bird species. This is one not to be missed.
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Excursions, events and activities
The following excursions have been scheduled but are subject to cancellation or change. Please check the Birds SA website or the Facebook page for any updated information. Affected excursions will be updated 24 hours prior to commencement if there is to be any change.
If a fire ban is in effect or the forecast temperature is 36C or above in the scheduled excursion area, that walk is automatically cancelled.
For more important information, read Guide to Participating in Birds SA Excursions in your browser.
Queries or require further information, please contact:
Lynton Huxley: 0498 466 092
Email: fieldtrips@birdssa.asn.au
Saturday 25 October 2025, from 10.00 am to 3.00 pm: Bird-friendly Garden Open Day at the rear of the church at 15 Clayton Avenue, Plympton.
The Birds SA marquee and volunteers will be present in the garden to chat with visitors about attracting bird life to suburban backyards, and there will also be people available to discuss suitable native plantings.
Sunday 26 October: Glenthorne National Park (Medium) 17km. Meet at 8.30am at the Ranger Station on Major’s Road, O’Halloran Hill, which is on the south side of Majors Road, between Main South Road and the Southern Expressway. The property is 3kms from north to south and up to 2.5 km wide, so it will be a long walk if we do the full property.
TRIP LEADER: Alan Burns
Wednesday, November 5th: Victor Harbour, 90-minute boat trip. Cruise past Granite Island and Seal Rock, viewing fur seals and sea lions.
Discover the West Island, home to more seals and sea lions, plus seabirds and dolphins. View the cliffs of Kings Beach and Waitpinga before returning to the Granite Island Causeway.
$60 per head. Places are filling fast.
Book via the Spirit of the Coorong Office, 8555 2203. For more information, view the Big Duck website.
Saturday, 8 November: Mount Lofty Botanic Gardens (Moderate) 19km. Meet at 8.30am in the lower car park off Lambert Road. To get there, leave the South Eastern Freeway at the Crafers Interchange and follow the Piccadilly Road for about 3km. Then turn left onto Trigg Road.
TRIP LEADER: Lynton Huxley
Thursday, 20 November: Manning Flora and Fauna Reserve, McLaren Flat (Easy) 32km. Meet at 8.30am at the Manning Reserve track entrance located off Kays Road about 500 meters from the junction with Whitings Road.
TRIP LEADER: Ali Ben Khan
Sunday, 30 November: Minko Scrub, Mount Pleasant (Moderate) 60km. Attendance will be limited to 20 members due to the nature of the site. Meet at 9am (note: not the usual 8:30am) Please be on time because this is a large private property, and we need to go in convoy and stay together as a group. It’s about a 15-min round trip from where we are starting our walk to the farm gate, so I’m afraid it will be difficult to accommodate latecomers.
We will do a 2 to 3 hr walk / explore. It’s not a manicured site, so depending on the weather, there could be a few short places that will be muddy, slippery and steep as we cross a couple of creeks. Please wear appropriate and clean footwear so that we do not bring any weeds into this operational cattle farm.
Registration to participate will be advised close to the visit date via Member Jungle.
TRIP LEADER: Steven Langley
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Big Duck Boat trip to the Islands out from Victor Harbor.
Kerri Bartley from Birdlife Australia will be in attendance to talk about the improvements made to the vegetation on the islands and the monitoring of the seabird nesting sites.
When: Wednesday 5th November at 8.45am ready to sail at 9am
Where: Halfway down the Causeway to Granite Island.
Bookings essential to the Spirit of the Coorong Office 8555 2203.
Cost $60 each
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Come and celebrate our rich bird diversity at the Laratinga Birdfair, 10am to 3pm on Sunday, November 2nd at the Laratinga Wetlands, Bald Hill Road, Mount Barker. Guided walks, workshops, competitions, music and games and activities for the kids. Bring your binoculars and a gold coin donation.
Check out the flyer and the full program.
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Bird of the Year – the Tawny Frogmouth
If you were one of the more than 310,000 voters for Australia’s 2025 bird of the year, well, the winner is the unassuming but charming Tawny Frogmouth. Owl-like, but not an owl, they're found all over the less arid parts of Australia, hunting at night and resembling tree branches during the day with their excellent camouflage. They pair for life and can sometimes be detected by their soft booming call. Full details of the voting are on the Guardian website.
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Membership Notes
Tips about your personal details in Birds SA Member Jungle
To avoid any scams or phishing emails to your account, please change your password regularly and record it somewhere to remember it.
Emails that look different to you or that you don’t recognise and are different, don’t answer them. Trash them or block them.
The Member Jungle program prefers you to use your own email address as your username. It's easy to change your personal details or account.
Happy Spring Birding
Sue Winwood - Membership Officer membership@birdssa.asn.au
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Birds SA Library news
The library will be open on Friday 31 October 12:30 – 3:30 pm. The final opening for 2025 will be Friday 28th November, 12:30 – 3:30 pm.
It is now located in the basement of the Old Stock Exchange Building, 53-57 Exchange Place, Adelaide (between Grenfell St and Pirie St).
To access the building if it is locked, press the intercom located on the left-hand side of the door.
Follow the signs to get to the library. If you have any problems accessing the library, ring Karen on 0402 1239 620.
As before, you can access the Library catalogue at https://www.libib.com/u/birdssa
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The Birder magazine
We are always particularly interested in hearing stories from our members. Your firsthand birdwatching experiences not only give life to the magazine, but also increase our knowledge of birds’ behaviour, and reading them encourages other members to participate. Include photos where you can, for sharing with our readers. Good-size and good quality photographs labelled with the name of the photographer, date and location of each image are welcome. People on Birds SA field trips can send photos directly to the magazine address if they wish, rather than via excursion leaders, to save double handling. We like to include people in the photos – just make sure you have consent for publication.
Please send all contributions and address all correspondence to the editorial team at magazineeditor@birdssa.asn.au.
OPEN DAY – Bird Friendly Garden in Plympton – Saturday 25 October 2025
Check out this item in the Spring Birder about a bird-friendly native garden in Plympton, which will be open as part of the 100th Anniversary celebrations of The Church of the Good Shepherd. The Birds SA marquee and volunteers will be present in the garden to chat with visitors about attracting birdlife to suburban backyards, and there will also be people available to discuss suitable native plantings. The church is situated at 15 Clayton Avenue, Plympton, and Open Day will run from 10am to 3pm on Saturday 25 October 2025 – love to see you there!
New addition to the Birder team
We are delighted to welcome Elspeth Young as a new member to the Birder editorial team. She will join us as an Editorial Assistant, commencing with the upcoming Summer 2025 issue.
Corrections to article in Spring Birder
Please note the following corrections to the Museum Specimens Confirm Another Prion for Australia article on Page 14 of the printed version of the Spring Birder. The website version of the magazine has been updated to reflect the changes.
Page 14, right column, line 6: change ‘later’ to ‘earlier’
Page 14, Figure 2 caption should read: ‘A probable MacGillivray’s Prion photographed near Gough Island by Colin Rogers, 4 April 2018. Because of the similarity of the two species, it is possible that the bird is a Broad-billed Prion.’
Page 16, add Acknowledgement: ‘Thanks to Colin Rogers for use of his photograph (Figure 2) and advice on field identification of prions.’
Page 16, in the Miskelly et al. (2025) reference, add journal volume and page numbers: ‘Emu – Austral Ornithology 125: 123–133.’
The Birder Editorial team
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Designed and edited by Malcolm Downes and Trish Aukett for Birds SA
Contact: malcolm.downes@birdssa.asn.au
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