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Spent four days (13-17 April) doing some gentle birding
around Rainbow Beach, Inskip Point, and northern (Cooloola) secton of Great
Sandy NP.Based ourselves at Carlo Point on eastern part of Tin Can Bay, only 4km
from Rainbow Beach. Quickly lost the battle with the midges, drew with the
regular showers.
Saw about 60 species in and around Carlos Point,
managed a sole Double-banded Plover along with the more usual
waders (Whimbrel, Eastern Curlew, Greenshank, Bar-tailed Godwit,
Grey-tailed tattler etc).Both Collared and
Sacred Kingfisher were in the mangroves and darting onto the
mud, honeyeaters were fairly numerous with Little and
Noisy Friarbird,Blue-faced ,Lewin's,White-throated,Brown, White-cheeked,
Scarlet, and heaps of Mangrove Honeyeater (even more
numerous at Inskip and Bullock Points). Saw a Striated
Heron on the mud, and two stone-curlews
fly-up from the road about 1km from Carlo one night, suspect they were Bush
rather than Beach, but have seen both in the area in previous visits( Does
anyone know how far Beach Stone-Curlew will move from water, and in what
circumstances?)
Bullock Point, about 4km before Inskip Point, faces west
into the bay and is well worth a stop. We got 40 birds in an hour and a half,
inbetween showers. Best were Buff-banded Rail being harrassed
by Willy Wagtail only 3 metres from waters edge, Terek
Sandpiper,Little Egret, Royal Spoonbill on sandbar 100 metres distant,
along with Caspian, Little,Cested and Gull-billed
Tern.Mangrove Gerygone sang from the mangroves while
White-breasted Woodswallow, Varied Triller, Oriel and about 6
Spangled Drongos utilised the shrubbery. A short walk back down
the dirt road revealed platelets in the roadside undergrowth. We have seen
platelets here before without determining their maker.
Inskip Point was slightly altered since our last visit
(June 2004) with the sea having pushed a channel through the large sandbank
close by the barge set-off point, thus preventing one from walking out to the
western end of the sandbar.Fewer birds here than at Bullock Point but there was
a large flock of Common Tern, as well as Pied
and Little Black Coromant and the expected common
waders. In the bush between the carpark and the barge Mangrove
Honeyeater were common, as were Spangled Drongo and
Little Wattlebird, and white-cheeked
Honeyeater.There were platelets aplenty and I flushed three small
quail/buttonquail but had insufficient time to get an ID, though I suspected
male Black-breasted Button-Quail.
A nightime trip down the Freshwater Track as far as
Bymien dayuse area (only in 2wd) for owls was unsucessful, didn't even hear a
Boobook (Masked Owl had been reported at this site only 9 days earlier via the
BQ website, and both Sooty Owl and Marbled Frogmouth were seen in Jan or Feb
2004 on a BQ campout).
A good spot for birding at any time.
Russ Lamb, Maleny, SEQ
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