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Hi [[firstname]]
Welcome to another Birds SA year.
A reminder that, for about the price of a coffee per month, you can become a Birds SA member, throwing your weight behind our conservation work and gaining access to current publications and member-only events.
This edition we have for you:
General Meeting
2026 Annual General Meeting
Birds SA Excursions, events and activities
Fleurieu Birders
State Election Support
Marie's Long Flight
A message from the RSPCA
Duck and quail shooting seasons for 2026 announced
Membership notes
Birds SA Library news
The Birder magazine
General Meeting
The first general meeting of the year is on January 2026 at the Lecture Room 101/102, Charles Hawker Building, The University of Adelaide – Waite Campus, Urrbrae, from 7:30 to 10pm.
Speaker: Greg Macpherson
Topic: Birds of the Kruger National Park, South Africa. Greg will describe birds seen at Kruger and consider their natural history and relationships to the landscape and other animals.
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2026 Annual General Meeting
Notice is hereby given to members that the 2026 Annual General Meeting of The South Australian Ornithological Association Inc (Birds SA) will be held on Tuesday 26 May 2025 at Charles Hawker rooms 101/102, Waite Campus, commencing 7:00pm.
Any business for inclusion in the agenda and any nominations to Officers of the Management Committee should be received by the Secretary in writing by Monday 27 April 2026. These should be sent by post to: The Secretary, Birds SA, c/o South Australian Museum, North Terrace, ADELAIDE 5000 or by email to: secretary@birdssa.asn.au.
The meeting will be followed by the Birds SA General Meeting for May 2026.
Further details of how to become a Committee Member will be issued closer to the meeting date.
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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
Sunday 25 January: Tolderol Game Reserve, Lake Alexandrina (Easy) 85km.
Meet at 8.30am. Take the road from Langhorne Creek to Wellington for approximately 5km and turn right into Dog Lake Road. Continue over a crossroad, past a farm on the left-hand side, pass through a gate, turn left on reaching the T-junction. Leave gates as you find them, please.
Trip Leader: to be confirmed
Saturday 14 February: Whites Road Wetlands, Globe Derby Park (Easy) 16 km.
Meet at 8.30am. Head north on the Port Wakefield Road. At 1.5 km after passing the Salisbury Highway Bridge, turn left into Globe Derby Drive and stay on this road until it meets Whites Road. Turn right and continue to the end. The Park entrance is on the left.
Trip Leader: Clive Paling
Thursday 19 February: Hart Road Wetland, Aldinga Beach 46km (Easy).
Meet at 8.30am in the carpark near the corner of Rowley Road and Hart Road Aldinga Beach. It is adjacent to the NE corner of the Aldinga Scrub Conservation Park.
Trip Leader: Bonny Vogelzang
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There are still places on the regular birdwaching boat trip from Goolwa on Tuesday 3rd February.
The trip includes morning tea and lunch with an option of food to suit all dietary requirements and is offered at a special discount for bird watchers. You are advised to book early by contacting the charter office on 8555 2203.
The tour departs Goolwa Wharf (Cutting Road) @10:00am returns at 3pm and costs $110.00 per person.
Passengers can individually call the Charter office 08 8555 2203 and pay with credit card over the phone or/ make payment via EFT. If passengers call or/ email the office to make a reservation first, we can either take payment over the phone or send EFT payment details individually.
Arrive 15 minutes prior to cruise departure at 9.45am. There is ample free parking without restriction at the Goolwa Wharf.
Book by Friday, January 30.
Wendy Phillips 0414 248 648
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State Election support
We have an opportunity before the state election in March to press MP‘s, Ministers and the Premier on issues that are important to us.
We are targeting around 30 constituencies that are either Labor seats or marginal seats.
We’re looking for members to help us to put questions to politicians at public meetings and radio phone-ins. We will provide very short, scripted questions, probably just a single question, so all you have to do is deliver it / them. Very likely there will be a focus on duck hunting.
Ideally, we are looking for one member to ask one question at a public forum in their constituency. So, not hard.
If you think you can help or want to have more information, please contact me at steven.langley@birdssa.asn.au .
Thank you!
Steven Langley
President – Birds SA
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Marie's Long Flight
Marie's Long Flight is a children’s book about the life adventures of a young Osprey as she learns to fly and fish. Marie goes on a long flight south to the Continental Shelf and then north to Woomera before she finally finds her forever home in the Coffin Bay National Park.
The book is based on a true story and all profits from the sale of the book are going to Friends of Osprey to aid with the recovery of Osprey in South Australia.
Written by Fran Solly and beautifully illustrated by Robyn Kilgour, this book is one to keep and treasure for years to come.
Price is $25 with all profits going to support Friends of Osprey.
Purchase online or It is also available to pick up on Yorke Peninsula and in Port Lincoln.
Eastern Osprey (Pandion cristatus) is officially listed as endangered in South Australia. They are facing threats from coastal development, habitat loss, human disturbance, and predation.
Friends of Osprey are working towards reversing this trend with community-led conservation efforts, including building artificial nesting platforms which have had good success.
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A message from the RSPCA
Today, I’m writing with a heavy heart.
After months of campaigning alongside Birds SA, Conservation Council SA, South Aussies for Animals, and other passionate groups – our voices have been ignored.
Many of us had hoped that South Australia was finally ready to put an end to recreational duck and quail shooting.
Instead, the Malinauskas Government has chosen to permit yet another season in 2026 – a decision that prioritises the wishes of just 711 permit‑holding hunters over the clear, powerful voices of 22,507 South Australians who demanded an end to this cruelty.
Once again, this is more than a policy choice. It's a profound moral failure.
We know what a shooting season means for native birds. It means shattered wings, broken legs, torn bills, and long, agonising deaths for animals who deserve protection.
Every season brings the same suffering, the same preventable injuries, the same quiet deaths in wetlands across our state. And now, thousands more ducks and quail will be condemned to that fate.
What makes this decision even more disheartening is that we stood together on the steps of Parliament in November. We showed up in force, united in compassion, determined to speak for the voiceless.
Our petition, the largest presented this term of Government, reflected overwhelming public sentiment. 22,507 South Australians have been crystal clear: we do not want our native wildlife used as target practice.
Yet today, our collective voice has been dismissed.
This announcement lands on the same day the Government introduced a public consultation for stronger dog and cat breeder licensing laws - a step forward for animal welfare that should have been a moment of shared progress.
Instead, it's overshadowed by a choice that drags us backwards, away from compassion and toward outdated practices that no longer reflect who we are as a community.
Other states have already shown the way. Western Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, and the ACT ended recreational duck and quail shooting years ago.
They recognised that the cruelty inherent in this activity has no place in a modern, humane society. South Australia had the chance to join them - and chose not to.
So, what happens next?
If you are disappointed, angry, or heartbroken, you are not alone. And your voice still matters. In fact, it matters now more than ever.
Unfortunately, there is very little chance of the Government's decision changing for the 2026 shooting season, but with an election looming, we are asking the Labor government to make a pre-election promise to ban it.
So I’m asking every Changemaker reading this to take one simple but powerful step: contact Premier Peter Malinauskas and Minister Lucy Hood.
Tell them that this decision does not reflect your values and ask them for a pre-election promise – a promise that, if they win government, they will legislate a ban on recreational duck and quail shooting.
Email: premier@sa.gov.au
Email: minister.hood@sa.gov.au
Tell them that compassion should guide policy, not the demands of a tiny minority. And tell them – clearly, respectfully, firmly – that choices like this will influence how you vote in the next election.
We've changed hearts and minds before. We've shifted public conversations, built movements, and stood up for animals who cannot stand up for themselves. I know we can do it again.
Let’s make sure the Government hears us. Let’s make sure they understand that South Australians expect better. And let’s keep fighting for a future where cruelty is never sanctioned in the name of sport.
With hope,
Dr Rebekah Eyers
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Duck and quail shooting seasons for 2026 announced
On 15 January 2026, Minister Hood declared open seasons for the shooting of native ducks and quail in SA in 2026. This is extremely disappointing considering the petition that was presented to Parliament on 13 November 2026 with over 22,000 signatures, calling for an end to duck shooting. An explanation from Minister Hood will be sought when the Birds SA President and Vice President meet with the Minister (currently scheduled for early February). The open seasons declared are as follows:
Ducks
Species permitted to be hunted: Grey Teal, Chestnut Teal, Australian Wood Duck, Pacific Black Duck, Australian Shelduck
Season dates: Sat 21 March to Sun 28 June
Bag limit: 8 ducks/hunter/day
Astoundingly, hunting will still be permitted in Tolderol Game Reserve. Immediately adjacent to the hunting area, large sums of State and Federal funding have just been spent on the water bays to, in the words of DEW, 'improve the availability and quality of habitat for migratory and non-migratory shorebirds.'
Stubble Quail
Season dates: Sat 25 April to Sun 2 Aug
Bag limit:15 quail/hunter/day
There is no mention of lead shot being banned for quail hunting. Birds SA has been calling for a ban on lead shot for years because of its devastating effect on raptors and other scavengers of downed birds that have not been retrieved.
A further great concern is the fact that a quail open season has been declared when there is no independent scientific evidence of Stubble Quail abundance in eastern Australia.
For further information, email Jeff Groves at jeff.groves@birdssa.asn.au.
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Membership Notes
Image by Ann Houghton
Credit card – Renewing membership fees
Members can renew their membership with a credit card either in Auto renew (automatically removed from your account 1 -2 days before expiry date) or manually, where you enter your card number and details every year yourself.
It's important that if the credit card changes or is renewed during the year that members change the details on Member Jungle.
Go online at the website to the Membership account, and add the new card number (see below).
If the old card is still on Member Jungle, and it's not up-to-date, Member Jungle will not accept it and will generate an email to say that it hasn’t been accepted, so the fee isn’t paid. Sometimes it is not the correct date and sometimes there's not enough money in the account.
Members will receive an email to inform them of the pending situation. They will need to stay in Pending membership until the account is updated and paid.
Members will receive advice about this with instructions on how to renew membership.
At 28 days before membership expires, members will receive an email to remind them with a link to tap to renew.
The other two reminder emails (at 2 weeks and 2 days before expiry) are also reminders.
The Members Jungle mobile phone app has a link to membership which shows when it's due to renew and the expiry date.
Change the card number etc by going online on computer then go to MY ACCOUNT (top right), then click on PAYMENTS and click on ADD A NEW CARD. (Green box).
Card numbers are securely coded so no one can see them and are very secure.
Please email me if you have any questions.
Sue Winwood - Membership Officer membership@birdssa.asn.au
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Birds SA Library news
The library will re-open on Friday January 30, 2026, from 12:30 to 3:30 pm.
It will be open in 2026 from 12:30 to 3:30 pm on the following dates:
February 27, March 27, April 24, May 29, June 26, July 31, August 28, September 25, October 30 and November 27.
The Library is now located in the basement of the Old Stock Exchange Building, 53-57 Exchange Place, Adelaide, between Grenfell and Pirie Streets.
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.
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 bird-watching 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.
Share our Shores exhibition
If you are venturing over Eyre Peninsula during the holidays, and visiting Elliston, be sure to pay a visit to Elliston Town Hall to catch the Share our Shores exhibition by talented young artist and shorebird enthusiast Zephyr Jones, whose story appears on page 24 of the current Birder. The exhibition runs from 19 December 2025 to 20 February 2026.
The Birds SA Library has a new home – at last!
For full details including pictures of the move, a massive task which would not have happened without help from a dedicated group of Birds SA members over several days, read the report on page 47 in the Summer Birder.
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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