Greetings,
I'm currently on tour with an opera company,
performing Tosca by night in (mostly) outdoor
venues and trying to get out and about in the
early mornings to do some birdwatching.
The tour started in Innisfail but I travelled up
a couple of days before the tour started and
went about with Andy Anderson for a couple
of days looking for some Cairns/Atherton birds
I hadn't seen before. We had to work hard
for a few of them but it was great to see some
new birds.
An unexpected bonus was catching up briefly with
Lloyd Nielsen at Kingfisher Park.
Towns that we visit on the tour include Innisfail,
Charters Towers, Cloncurry, Mt Isa, Winton, Longreach,
Blackall (that's where we are today) and on to Charleville,
Roma, St George, Goondiwindi then NSW and Victoria.
Some of the wildlife highlights so far (apart from obvious
ones of new birds in Far NQ):
Freckled Ducks at Clem Walton Park (between Cloncurry and
Mt Isa), Mt Isa Sewage Ponds, Winton Sewage Ponds.
The local endemic rock-wallaby Petrogale purpureicollis at a
known Kalkadoon/Ballara Grass-wren site on the western
outskirts of Mt Isa (no grasswrens though).
Pied Honeyeaters at waterholes near Winton and Longreach.
Spotted Bowerbirds (2) with the presumed male displaying,
making all sorts of noises, presenting green berries to the
presumed female, imitating (quite convincingly) a Whistling
Kite call and all this in the main street of Blackall under an
hedge of Oleanders.
Baillon's Crakes (2) at Blackall Sewage Ponds this morning.
(Also Bob Forsyth and I flushed a crake near Cloncurry which
looked like a Spotless to me but we couldn't relocate it to get
a conclusive view.)
Plum-headed Finches at Longreach (several hundred) and
Blackall (six at the sewage ponds).
Black Falcon flying down the main street of Blackall
last night.
Always good to see Brolgas, bustards, woodswallows,
pratincoles etc.
Also good to meet Andy Anderson in Cairns and Bob
Forsyth in Cloncurry/Mount Isa (well done with the stint Bob) and thanks to
both of them for their company and local knowledge.
Cheers
Philip Griffin
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