by Carla Caruso

Main photo: Fran Mussared

Birds have been thriving in your Adelaide Park Lands, notably at the wetlands in Victoria Park / Pakapakanthi (Park 16).

And hobbyist photographers have been enjoying capturing the winged creatures on camera. 

Park-goer Darcy O’Shea snapped a black swan (below) at the wetlands, saying it was “the first time I’ve seen [one] there”.

When we reposted the pic on social media, one follower, Christabel Saddler, commented: “Ooh, I’m glad it’s back. I saw a young one there a few weeks ago and I so hoped it would claim the place as it’s own, and maybe in time, bring a few friends!”

Fellow Instagrammer Dr Birdnerd, aka Christopher Bollen, also recorded a first at the site. “The reeds around the [wetlands’] multiple ponds have proliferated over the past two years. This year was the first I had heard or seen the wonderful reed warblers,” Christopher wrote.

“This wetlands area is still very new, but the increase in birdlife [already] is remarkable ... Perhaps we will see superb fairywrens back in the park in the next year or two?”

Doug McEvoy, who’s part of the volunteer group, Green Pakapakanthi, hopes to see more smaller birds there in future too. Late last year, he helped plant a ‘pocket forest’ at the site, including plants that’d attract such birds.

“Many of the parks in the Park Lands have larger birds, like magpies and corellas,” he recently told us.

“But many of the smaller birds, such as wrens and thrushes, are no longer in the Park Lands, or at least they’re only in small pockets.

“We’re hoping that, in time, because of the permanent water supply that’s going to be in the wetland, we’ll be able to get a habitat that’ll provide shelter and food for them … If we can do more [plantings like this], then I think there’s a hope that that’ll happen.”

The $13 million, 3.2-hectare wetlands were opened in the southern part of Park 16 in May 2022.

Funded by state and local governments, it represented the largest earth-moving project within your Adelaide Park Lands for 60 years. Though primarily intended as a flood mitigation measure, it has also resulted in a beautiful urban environment, increasing biodiversity.

Elsewhere in your Park Lands, Fran Mussared snapped newly hatched grebes in the Adelaide Botanic Garden (Park 11) in December.

“They survived the storm recently, which is amazing as the nest is only a floating vegetation platform, around 40cm high and anchored to [other] floating vegetation,” she wrote.

“The Australasian grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae) is a small waterbird, common on freshwater lakes and rivers in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands.

“At 25-27cm in length, it’s one of the smallest members of the grebe family, along with the least grebe and the little grebe.”

To mark the end of the year, Fran also shared her most popular bird pics online for 2023. Here are a few from one of her favourite photography spots: the Adelaide Botanic Garden.

Meanwhile, along the River Torrens in Tarntanya Wama (Park 26), APA follower Richie Eightlegs took these snaps of Murray magpies, using light towers on the Linear pathway as nesting spots!