Eungella in the Wet

Eungella means Land of Clouds and this weekend I found out why!

Eungella township is also known as Dalrymple Heights and is 85 km west of Mackay. At 725m it literally reaches the clouds!

With only one honeyeater left to complete the set and four days off work I headed straight to Eungella to find the rare Eungella Honeyeater.

I booked into the Broken River Mountain Resort which is 5 km from the township and was pleasantly surprised at the comfortable accommodation, friendly staff and stunning surroundings. Platypus can be observed easily in the river right next door to the resort!

 

 

 

 

I immediately set off to find the Eungella Honeyeater as a cyclone was heading towards the area meaning that by Sunday it would be wet, windy and the weather would deteriorate! Thankfully I managed to hear one calling within the first hour or so but try as I did the bird decided to remained hidden in the upper canopy and refused to budge. I then tried another location and after searching finally found another one calling. Again a frantic search of the canopy and finally YES! TICK 702!!  YAY - got the honeyeater set! 

Kookaburra

With the pressure off I was able to look around and enjoy the surroundings. Found some nice birds before the weather deteriorated to drizzle and mist.  Some birds seen include Cicadabird, Black-faced monarch, Drongo, Bustard, Red-browed Finch, Eastern Yellow Robin, Red-tailed Tropicbird, Forest Kingfisher, Kookaburra and Scrub Turkey.

Red-browed Finch

 

 

 

 

Top-knot Pigeon

Pale Pea Blue

 

Scalloped Grass Yellow

 

 

Evening Brown

 

 

Graphic Flutterer

 

 

Macleay's Swallowtail

 

 

Platypus

Australian Bustard

 

 

 

 

By Sunday the cloud was right on the mountain, it was rainy, drizzly and hard to see anything further than 10 metres away.

The cyclone is due to hit tomorrow so I think birding may be over for now :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darwin birding in the Wet Season

My bogeybird for the last couple of years has been the Rufous Owl. It's one of those birds that everyone who has seen it says they has a "Dead Cert" location for it, but it's never there when I try.

Getting sick and tired of Adelaide's scorching summer I decided to spend a whirlwind weekend in Darwin to search for my 700th bird in Australia. Yeah ok, it's the wet season but I also needed to find Swinhoe's Snipe which  are relatively simple in the wet. Thankfully my mate lives there and he generously offered to put me up and assist me to search. Then one of my other birding friends decided to join us so it ended up being quite a fun and social weekend!

The Swinhoe's Snipe was easy to find in the grass with a flock of 5 of them within a few minutes. Apart from the tail length, the Swinhoe's  fly quite differently to the Pin-tailed Snipe. Swinhoe's flush and then fly low for a short distance then drop back down where-as the Pin-tails fly up high and keep flying as far as the eye can see!  We had excellent views of the snipe but due to the rain and overcast conditions getting decent photos was impossible!!

Celebration time and high fives all around! 700 - TICK!

 

 

We searched various rainforests for the Rufous Owl, getting attacked by leeches for our efforts, sadly without success and I was beginning to think that it was a fictitious species.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We gave up, climbed back into the car and drove off. Suddenly as we drove down the road in the dark a stunning beautiful Rufous Owl flew across in front of our car in the headlights!! Great view even if it was only brief! 701 TICK!





My friend Jen and I spent a few hours birding at Fogg Dam which was a hive of activity with Pied Herons, little Egret's, Jacanas, Royal Spoonbills and Magpie Geese feeding on the wall.

 

 

Gilbert's Dragon

 

Common Grasshawk

 

Common Grasshawk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Common Glider

 

 

Common Crow

 

 

Common Crow

We tried for the recently reported Phalaropes but they had left a few days before we arrived. No matter, they will turn up somewhere else and I can twitch them then....

Darwin delivers again and I'm pleased to report that the Rufous Owl does exist after all!!

Horsfield's Bushlark

 

 

Pied Heron

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Royal Spoonbill

 

 

 

Rufous-banded Honeyeater

 

 

 

 

White-bellied Sea-eagle

 

 

 

 

Female Chalky Percher      Diplacodes trivialis

 

 

 

 

Slatey-grey Snake

 

 

 

Water Buffalo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Pied Heron

 

 

 

 

Birds of Beauty - the video

Recently I joined forces with local composer Elio to create a 10 minute video. This clip is a free download with every purchase of the new Sepia album which is relaxing and healing music especially designed for meditation.



 For further info or to purchase the album which includes a free copy of this video click this link!



    http://eliomusic.com/sepia-album-for-women/?tracking=52dedee8436e6 

Summer Owling fun!

What do you do when you are experiencing the hottest summer on record?  When the days are well over 40C and the nights over 25C to can be too hot to go birding..  Well we make the most of it and go Owling instead!


This weekend Chris and I went out with Mike and Lisa for about 5 hrs and came across 14 Barn Owls, a few Tawny Frogmouths and one Boobook. Along with a few Stubble Quail. Some of the Barn Owls allowed for very close viewing.

 

 

 

 

 

Stubble Quail