Top spots to see ducklings in Adelaide’s national parks

Now is the per­fect time to vis­it parks, espe­cial­ly if you’re after that warm and fuzzy feel­ing you get from watch­ing a flock of duck­lings pad­dling around their mum and play­ing in the sun.

The good ol’ pas­time of feed­ing ducks by the water’s edge is one of those activ­i­ties that makes you feel at one with nature. But did you know that bread makes ducks sick?

So instead of feed­ing them, why not enjoy see­ing wild ducks just being them­selves – roam­ing free and find­ing their own food.

Here’s five nation­al parks in Ade­laide where you can enjoy a relax­ing after­noon of wild duck quacks, honks and squeaks:

1. Belair Nation­al Park

Mosey on down to Belair’s Play­ford Lake and enjoy a leisure­ly stroll around the water on the Wood Duck Walk trail.

You’ll see Pacif­ic black ducks and also oth­er water­birds such as dusky moorhen and Eurasian coot.

Remem­ber to look out for koalas in the trees on the carpark side of the lake.

2. Sturt Gorge Con­ser­va­tion Park 

Take Sturt Gorge’s Lake­view Trail and stroll around the water’s edge to see flocks of ducks.

You might even spot the rare freck­led duck, and you will def­i­nite­ly see the Aus­tralian wood duck.

3. Onka­paringa Riv­er Recre­ation Park

Try out Onkaparinga’s Wet­lands Loop Trail by enter­ing the park from Riv­er Road at Gate 12 and you’ll be sure to see ducks with their duck­lings pad­dling around.

The trail has edu­ca­tion­al signs about the wet­lands, with a mix­ture of a board­walk and some grav­el paths. You’ll like­ly see the Aus­tralasian shov­el­er, Pacif­ic black duck and blue-billed duck.

4. Ade­laide Inter­na­tion­al Bird Sanc­tu­ary- Winaity­i­naityi Pangkara 

Trav­el to Thomp­son Beach, one hour north of Ade­laide, sit­u­at­ed in the Ade­laide Inter­na­tion­al Bird Sanc­tu­ary.

Here you’ll get a great view of the coast and the salt pan with a vari­ety of birds, includ­ing ducks. You will like­ly spot pink-eared ducks and grey teal ducks.

Top tip: Keep your eye out for the migra­to­ry shore­birds feed­ing on the mud­flats dur­ing the warmer months. Also remem­ber, for those dog-friend­ly parks, keep your dog on the lead so the duck­lings are safe.

5. Ade­laide Botan­ic Garden

While it’s not a nation­al park, a list of duck­ling-watch­ing parks wouldn’t be com­plete with­out men­tion­ing the Ade­laide Botan­ic Gar­den. It’s in the heart of the city, but anoth­er world away.

Ducks can be found all around the gar­den, with the clas­sic Aus­tralian wood duck sure to be seen.

Do you love bird-watch­ing? Check out our blogs about South Australia’s tiny birds and par­rots too.

This sto­ry was orig­i­nal­ly post­ed in Octo­ber 2018.