John,
There has been an awful lot of rain up there since September. I don't
think anyone will be going down Duck Creek Rd for a while.
Cheers,
Carl Clifford
On 01/02/2012, at 11:56 AM, Nick Leseberg wrote:
Hi John and others,
The sump of my wife's little 2WD Astra will attest to the condition of
Duck Creek Rd. In September I put a hole in it trying to get down
there, and had to call up a tow truck from Canungra to come and get
me. The tow truck wouldn't go down Duck Creek Rd, but luckily I was
not far down the road when I hit trouble, so was able to get back to
the main road for the truck to pick me up. It was 8:30am when I hit
the rock, and 5pm by the time I got back down to Canungra in the tow
truck - it turned into quite an expensive exercise. The tow truck
driver said there was no way he would go down Duck Creek Rd to get
anyone, and no other towing company would go down there either.
Certainly if you got stuck in a rental car down there you would be on
your own and the expenses could get quite nasty. To be fair though
(and my wife was very unforgiving on this point) I missed the bump in
the road which caused it because I was distracted by a Noisy Pitta
flying across in front of me!
As Chris pointed out, Red-browed Treecreeper is the main species you
would go down there for, and it is also good for Buff-rumped Thornbill
and White-naped Honeyeater. It would be a reasonable walk to get to
the section where they are (about 2.5km I think), but if you have the
time very achievable, and the road is good for birding anyway. I often
stop to bird the first few hundred metres of Duck Creek Rd down to the
first clearing on the left anyway. You can get all the same rainforest
species you get at the top and it is less hectic, with rarely anyone
else there. From the first clearing on the left the view is
spectacular and I have picked up Little Eagle here a few times.
Spotted Quail-Thrush has become increasingly difficult to find along
Duck Creek Rd, and if this were a target species I would definitely
have a back up plan. If you still want to look for it though you can
also find it at Luke's Bluff. This road is between Duck Creek Rd and
O'Reilly's and goes off in the same direction as Duck Creek Rd. It is
marked private, but if you ask permission up at O'Reilly's I have
never had any problems getting down there. It is also a good spot for
Koala.
Cheers and good birding!
Nick Leseberg
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