In search of the platypus and other paradoxes: A first look at Port Lincoln

Pacific Gull, Port Lincoln

I must admit to being a little unsure as to what to expect from Port Lincoln when I was travelling here. I assumed that moving from the tropics to South Australia in the middle of the Australian winter might be a bit of a shock to the system. I also assumed that the town might be a little more industrialised and less touristy than some of the other places that I had called home over the past few weeks. Finally, it was likely to offer a quite different suite of birds to those I was used to further north.

As usual I was up at dawn. Josh had to get to work early so I had breakfast with him and then prepared to head out. Before I did so however, I had a quick look from our apartment and immediately added two birds to my Australia list which were just about as far apart on the spectrum of Australian birds as you could imagine. The first was a blackbird, an introduced species here, brought by the early Europeans to make them feel more at home.

The second was a major target species of the holiday, an adult Pacific gull landed on the roof opposite. At this point I should mention, we're staying on the marina and the roof opposite is only about 50m away but is on the other side of the main channel out of the marina.

Coming from the UK where I can often expect to record 10 species of gull or more at the Pennington Flash Gull roost, it seems a little odd to me that the there are only three regularly occurring species of gull in Australia, and one of those only started breeding in the mid 20th century. I mean I know that Australia is a remote continent but you'd think that gulls would be about the best placed of all birds to reach it and colonise. Other seemingly less likely species are here, osprey, cattle egret etc. Even the sea bird mecca that is New Zealand fares little better when it comes to gulls.

Pacific gull, a gull with a puffins bill! This is apparently the third largest gull in the world, behind great black back and glaucous. Despite the bill, it certainly doesn't look as large or as ferocious as either of those two species.

Walking along the Parnkalla trail from the marina to the town, it was immediately obvious that the common bird was New Holland Honeyeater. I've seen this species before at Sydney, but never in such numbers. I got lucky with this series of photos, the two birds I was photographing were suddenly attacked by a third.

I love these sooty oystercatchers, they're a little larger than Australian pied oystercatcher and a little more aggressive.

Australian pied oystercatcher is superficially very similar to the bird we see in the UK, but as you can see in the photo below, the white wing bar is much less extensive.