Seacliff excursion, Kingston Park Coastal Reserve

What a fantastic day we had for the first outing of our second trial, for our project Citizen Science impacts on health and wellbeing outcomes in older South Australians. With a mild temperature and sunny conditions, we shared the beach with a sailing competition and surf lifesaving competitors. Our group had a fantastic introduction to discovering the iNaturalist app and learning how to make observations and upload to iNaturalist.

The first stop was the group of willy wagtails that have taken up residence at Tjilbruke spring, a permanent waterbody and important resource prior to European settlement. This spring was a hive of activity with several other bird species present including Red Wattlebird Anthochaera carunculata although no observations could be made as they were high in the trees and difficult to get an image of.

A curious Willie Wagtail Rhipidura leucophrys at Tjilbruke spring © mary-a-crawf

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After a short while, we managed to get down to the beach and discovered several mollusc species and other intertidal species. This included several gastropod species, and limpets and even some Seapills

We also managed to observe several shorline birds as well including some Pacific Gulls Larus pacificus and the ever-present Silver Gulls Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae in addition to a large group of Greater Crested Tern Thalasseus bergii. Overall as a group, we made 83 observations with 41 species being observed, this was an impressive effort as only five observers were included.

Otherwise, the group project on iNaturalist had 157 observations of 103 species made already over the month. a great contribution towards the monthly challenge we have organised for the wider group.