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Birdline North Queensland Weekly Update

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Subject: Birdline North Queensland Weekly Update
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Date: 2 Jan 2012 01:30:29 +1000

Birdline North Queensland

Published sightings for the week ending 1 Jan 2012.

Sun 1 Jan Little Bittern Tyto Wetlands
Male Little Bittern flushed near SW corner main lagoon about 8.30am. Low 15m flight into even thicker flooded grasses. 99% sure same bird seen same spot 21/12/11.
Tony Ashton

Lovely Fairy-wren, Shining Flycatcher Toomulla Beach
Lovely Fairy-wren (6) at least; 1m & several f / juveniles; Shining Flycatcher (1) female in tree at picnic area
Alexandra Canton

Wed 28 Dec Pacific Golden Plover Forsyth Road, Near Atherton, FN Queensland
9 Golden Plovers in a ploughed field on Forsyth Road, off Marks Lane near Atherton in North Queensland. Also one Australian Pratincole and two very dirty Bustards.
David and Margaret Merrall

Tue 27 Dec Black-winged Monarch Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge, Julatten, QLD
A Black-winged Monarch was first seen on 26th December but not confirmed. The following day in the early morning it was found again and after some persistence a few images were taken in the gloom of the rainforest. This resulted in some noisy pictures but good enough to separate it out from the more common Black-faced Monarch. The black around the face did not extend over the eye and onto the forehead, the overall grey of the upper body was a lighter grey than Black-faced and there was a definite contrast in the wing between the blackish primaries and the grey wing coverts. The calls of the Black-winged and Black-faced are very slightly different making them difficult to separate out without experience. There have been a couple of records on the Atherton Tableland including one at nearby Abattoir Swamp. The Black-winged Monarch normally has a distribution on Cape York as far south as Shiptons Flat (90km north of Julatten) but in recent years they are very rare here. The most reliable location for the southern distribution is now McIvor River which is about 165km north of Julatten. So it is very exciting to see this bird so far south of its "normal" range and to confirm the identification.
Kath Shurcliff, Lindsay and Keith Fisher

Mon 26 Dec Oriental Plover, Oriental Pratincole, Little Curlew Frances Rd Turf farm, Edmonton
We found a single Oriental Plover this morning in close association with the same lone Oriental Pratincole discovered here 2 days prior at this site by Dom Chaplin. (The attached rough pic by Martin Cachard shows this close association). The single Little Curlew that has been present recently was also seen here this morning. We believe this is the first record of an Oriental Plover at this new site - they were uncommon but fairly regular to the now closed Edmonton Turf farm on nearby Warners Rd. It is indeed a great day to see these three very uncommon visitors to the Cairns floodplain all at the one small site.
Martin Cachard & Adam Arnold

Sun 25 Dec Fork-tailed Swift Kamerunga (vac. Barron River)
20 Fork-tailed Swifts seen at 11:00 and then 55 Fork-tailed Swifts at about 15:30 closer to the school near the traffic lights on the southside of the river. There may have been a few White-throated Needletails in the flock but due to distance they could not be positively be identified. Another flock (30) spotted 15 minutes later at foot of Kuranda Range near Smithfield shopping centre with 2 White-throated Needletails sighted. This flock was present for much of the day.
Greg Bortolussi

Birdline North Queensland is sponsored by Birds Australia North Queensland and Townsville Region Bird Observers Club and co-ordinated and hosted by Eremaea Birds.

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