Atherton Tablelands North Queensland Birding

A 3 day weekend based at Kingfisher Park is always a rewarding experience.  Keith and Lindsay Fisher are wonderful hosts and the Unit accommodation is very comfortable.

I arrived in Cairns Saturday lunch time, collected my hire car and went straight to the mangrove end of the esplanade.  Thankfully the tide was just going out and the waders were in good numbers and I felt like a kid in a toyshop! A “5 minute look”  ended up being a walk between the mangroves and playground and lasted 65 minutes. I got burned to a crisp as I had not taken the time to apply sunscreen.  My war wounds were worth it though, with a wonderful selection of waders.

Greater Sand Plover

Grey-tailed Tattler

Grey-tailed Tattler

Bar-tailed Godwit

Eastern Curlew

Common Myna (yeah ok, so it's not a wader)

Gull-billed Tern

The Atherton Tablelands is one of the only places in Australia where you can find the introduced Helmeted Guineafowl. I found 2 populations between Tolga and Mareeba.

Great Bowerbird

Helmeted Guineafowl

Birding at Kingfisher Park provided quick but good views of a pair of Red-necked Crake as they scurried across the orchard and into the bushes. Buff-breasted Paradise-kingfishers were in good numbers and calling constantly.

                                                                          Noisy Pitta

I caught up with my friend Carl Billingham and we enjoyed dinner (he cooked) and wine and chatted into the evening while watching a Tree Mouse - Pogonomys coming in and out of its burrow.

Sunday morning I went up Mount Lewis with Chook and we enjoyed great views of Fernwren taking worms to it's nest. It was wonderful to watch  a young male Victoria Riflebird displaying and a female was taking great interest.

Chowchilla were feeding and scurrying in the undergrowth and a Pied Monarch was on a nest.

Atherton Scrub-wren & Mountain Thornbill were along the narrow walking tracks.

It was great to get good views of Tooth-billed Bowerbird!

Also seen were Bridled & Dusky Honeyeater, Bassian Thrush, Superb Fruit-dove and Yellow-throated Scrub-wren. 

Bridled Honeyeater

I had forgotten just how difficult it is to try and photograph birds in the rainforest! The slow shutter speeds and all the vegetation make it VERY challenging!  Especially as I am too lazy to carry a tripod… oh well….

I was keen to find a Golden Bowerbird so I followed Chook to the Crater in the afternoon (2 hrs drive each way) making a brief stop in Mareeba for a Brush Cuckoo. 

                                               Grey-headed Robin was a nice find!

The drive was well worth it as within 5 minutes we were enjoying 3 Golden Bowerbirds!! NOICE!  The dark canopy made it difficult to take a photo without a tripod.

Then it was a long drive back to Julatten! I stopped near Hastie’s Swamp as there were 3 Sarus Crane at the back of a ploughed paddock.  TICK

A couple of hours spotlighting that night produced Green Possum, Barn Owl, White-lipped Tree-Frog, Amethyst Python,  Northern-brown Bandicoot, Long-nosed Bandicoot, Spectacled Flying-fox, Boyd's Forest dragon, Giant White-tailed Rat and Bush Rat.

Amethyst Python

Green Possum

Northern Brown Bandicoot

White-lipped Tree-Frog

Bush Rat

This morning Carl, Michael and I went searching for Buff-breasted Button-quail. They had staked out a site yesterday and had found one. I only had an hour or so to search before driving to the airport so we searched in a line – up and down, up and down. It was so hot and humid!!  Well, we got 2 Painted Button-quails before flushing a single bird which we suspect may have been the same bird they found yesterday as it was in the same spot and its rump was pale. Having flushed it within a few minutes of the Painted Button-quail it helped with comparison.  However it was not a tickable view.

Carl and I at the Button-quail search site

Buff-breasted Button-quail prefer Eucalypt woodland with sparse grass and stony ground

I left the guys searching (and melting) in the woodland and I drove to the airport for a shower before catching the plane home.



UPDATE ON LIST TOTALS

2011 Yearlist as of Dec 12 -  541.

Australia Life List - 587.



I want to reach 600 before May 2012.

A great weekend with good birds, a few lifers, catching up with Carl, Chook, Keith and Lindsay and thankfully I still  a few feathered  reasons to return!

Birthday Birding at Bruny Island, Tasmania

Each year I treat myself to a weekend of birding for my birthday. The criteria to select the location is pretty simple –I  just answer  the following questions…

1.       Where can I get as many lifers as possible?

2.       Where can I get to reasonably quickly?

3.       Where can I afford to go?

So, this year I chose Tassie, and after a small amount of research I realised that the most affectively way to get the endemics  would be to go straight to Bruny Island and stay there! On Saturday I arrived at Hobart Airport and  picked up the hire car (which was so small I think I COULD have actually picked it up) and I was on my way to the ferry.

I stopped at  Peter Murrell Conservation Reserve.  This little park is a hidden jewel. Only about 20 min from Hobart, tucked behind the Vodaphone tower.

Little hire car at Peter Murrell reserve

A short, but enjoyable walk around the lake proved worthwhile. Yellow Wattlebird was my first tick followed by Tasmanian Native Hen, then Black-headed Honeyeater. 

Yellow-throated Honeyeater

I tried for Forty-spotted Pardalote but every Pard I got onto turned into a Striated or Spotted. Oh well….

Then it was onto the Ferry at Kettering. $28 will get you a return trip but ensure to have cash on you as the “hole in the wall” has broken down which left me with literally $1 to last me the weekend!!

45 km later I was at the South Bruny Island and at my accommodation. I beautiful property which is very well vegetated and owned by a conservationist. This private property has Forty-spotted Pardalotes so I immediately went out searching them.  Whilst searching I found Green Rosella, Yellow-throated Honeyeater, Strong-billed Honeyeater &Tasmanian Scrubwren.

Tasmanian Scrubwren

Green Rosella

Superb Fairy-wrens

I then saw the Forty-spotted Pardalotes! They were nesting and flying in and out of a hollow. The hollow was high up so it was difficult to take photos but I gave it a try!

I then found Dusky Robin, a very beautiful bird.

Immature Dusky Robin

Black Currawong was found up on the mountain and then a quick stop in the rainforest provided great views of Scrubtit and Tasmanian Thornbills. YAY, all 12 endemics are now accounted for!

Scrubtit

Black Currawong

Then into an area of old growth forest which is sadly being destroyed by logging provided 8 Swift Parrots! I discovered immediately why they are called SWIFT. Boy are they fast!!

Flame Robin

A walk along the beach provided Pied Oystercatchers , Hooded Plover, Kelp Gull  and White-bellied Sea-eagle. An Echidna also wandered past....

Kelp Gull

Last night I went spotlighting and got Little Penguins at the Neck between South Island and North Island along with Eastern Quoll, Bennet’s Wallaby (Red-necked), Tasmanian Pademelon and Tasmanian Bettong.

Bennet'sWallaby

This was a rushed trip but worth it.   All I need now in Tassie is the Ground Parrot…. Next time….

Gluepot Reserve

Friday evening I drove to Gluepot Reserve. I rolled out the swag and slept under the stars before getting up at 5.30am to make the most of the dawn chorus.

I'd only been in Taylorville for 30min before I was joined my some of my birder mates and we enjoyed a couple of hours photographing Scarlet-chested Parrots.

We found some lovely birds. It was a very enjoyable weekend!

By 10am is was too hot to continue birding on foot so we made use of the bird hides for a while. We were joined by a variety of reptiles who were also looking for somewhere to cool off.

This morning a walk around Kangaroo Dam provided numerous honeyeaters, Gilberts Whistlers, Chestnut Quail Thrush, Striated Grasswren, Restless Flycatcher, Budgies, Woodswallows and numerous Mulga Parrots.

Another fun weekend at Gluepot!!