SAMFORD
VALLEY
Was fortunate to spend 4 nights at Tom and Marie Tarrant?s place at
Samsonvale. Certainly a great area to bird offering a good diversity of
habitats. At the Samsonvale cemetery, got great views of my last Australian
cuckoo species, a male Little Bronze-cuckoo (with it red eyes clearly showing)
as wells as Pallid Cuckoos, 3 species of Fairy Wren (Variegated, Red-backed and
Superb Blue Wrens) in one small area and several Tawny Grassbirds.
At Lake Samsonvale heard a couple of King Quail (did not
bother searching hard for any of the quail/button-quail as I have seen them in
Sydney) and saw also 3 Caspian and 4 Whiskered Terns, about 10 Great-crested
Grebes, 3-4 Glossy Ibis, an Osprey, a Brahminy and several Whistling Kites, a
few Red-kneed Dotterels and some Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. We also flushed a
Nankeen Night Heron and saw a male Varied Triller in the remnant rainforest
beside the cemetery. I have also heard very recently that Tom found a pair of
Australian Painted Snipe on the day I left back for
Sydney.
At nearby Lees Crossing I met my first ever Platypus (seen on 2
consecutive mornings), an Azure Kingfisher, a Spectacled Monarch, as well as
seeing another Rose-crowned Fruit-dove.
A Tom?s place we had great view of my first ever Squirrel
Glider on one evening feeding on the blossoms of a Eucalypt and a White-throated
Nightjar flew around on the evenings I was there. I also heard the Bush
Stone-curlews call nearby just before dawn. During the day here I also saw 2
White-bellied Cuckoo-shrikes, Little Friarbird, White-throated Honeyeaters and
Cicadabird close by.
TOORBUL
No shortage of waders here with hundreds of a variety of species
including 40-45 Large Sand and 100 Lesser Sand Plovers, 100-150 Red-necked
Stints, 1 Broad-billed Sandpiper, 80 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, 100 Curlew
Sandpipers, 200 Grey-tailed Tattlers, 50 Red and 200 Great Knots, 500-600
Bar-tailed Godwits, 100 Whimbrels, 200 Eastern Curlews, 17 Greenshanks and only
one Terek Sandpiper. There were atleast 40 Gull-billed Tern amongst these waders
and in the mangroves were a few Collared Kingfishers, Mangrove Honeyeaters and
Mangrove Gerygones.
Close to the buildings, there was an adult Osprey perched in a dead tree
preparing a large fish for a young Osprey on a nest nearby and 5 Brahminy Kites
were circling above at the one time. In nearby swampy woodland I also heard a
Little Bronze-cuckoo.
WOODY PT
About 30 of both Pied Oystercatcher and Ruddy Turnstones were here. Tide
was very high when I was there and therefore did not see any Wandering Tattlers
in this spot but at the next location were you can get much closer to them.
CALOUNDRA AREA
At Pt Cartwright I easily found a single Wandering Tattler on the rocks
at high tide (I managed to get really close enough to it to actually see the
claws of its hind toes). It gave its distinctive trill (unlike the familiar
Grey-tailed Tattler whistle) after flying off. Also seen here were 2 Eastern
Reef Egrets (one of each white and grey morphs) and in the nearby Littoral
Rainforest, one of 3-4 Little Shrike-thrushes was trying to kill a very large
spider (Huntsman?) and Red-backed Wrens put on a good show near the light
house.
At the Caloundra Sand spits, the tide was quite high but I did see a sand
spit covered with 12,000 Terns comprising of atleast 8,000 Common, 100 plus
White-winged Black, 500 plus Little and a few Gull-billed Terns. Very impressive
sight, though I would have loved to join Jill Denning?s in her surveys later
that afternoon to hopefully see more Terns, but unfortunately had other
plans.
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Part 3 to
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