G'day Chatters from down-under,
Just thought you might like a trip report from our weekend at Sundown
National Park, near Stanthorpe, Queensland. We spent 3 days at an almost
empty campsite over the 'Australia Day' long-weekend.
The park is quite large (14000 hectares) and the majority of the area 4
wheel-drive only, however the campsites are situated at the western corner,
and are accessible by 2 wheel-drive vehicles...here the fauna and flora of
the park is rather different to the rest and appears richer, more
representative of western Queensland and New South Wales (whose boundary
runs along that of the parks)
On Saturday we spent most of the morning setting up camp and drove up to the
nearby Glenlyon Dam to get ice and near the park entrance saw Southern
Whiteface, Red-winged Parrot, Rufous Songlark, White-winged Triller and some
White-browed Woodswallow, unusual in that there were only small numbers as
in other areas they normally flock in thousands.
We decided to go on a short walk in the early afternoon, we had only just
set off when we saw a party of our target birds, the White-browed Babbler, a
rare bird in Queensland which I last saw there nearly 10 years ago! Young
Dusky Woodswallows and Jacky-Winter were everywhere and another uncommon
bird in South-East Queensland, the Red-capped Robin was abundant but none
appeared in the beautiful male plumage. Small birds such as Speckled
Warbler, Weebill and Yellow-rumped Thornbill were easily 'pished' into view.
During the evening we sat round the camp-fire and enjoyed a meal and a glass
of Port and listened to Boobook Owl, White-throated and Owlet-Nightjar
calling while parties of Eastern Grey Kangaroo grazed nearby.
An early start the following morning took us to a large area of
Silver-leaved Ironbark in search of Painted Button-Quail which were known to
be fairly common, but usually difficult to see (a 'lifer' for half of the
group of six) We flushed up to 5 in different locations but the views were
pretty fleeting. However we also managed to get the handsome Turquoise
Parrot (a park speciality) Diamond Firetail and Fuscous Honeyeater (uncommon
in SEQ)
After a heavy shower in the afternoon we walked up to the permanent
waterhole, where several people indulged in a swim, whilst I stayed dry and
continued birding, seeing the handome Azure Kingfisher, similar to the
Common Kingfisher of Eurasia but a more vivid royal-blue on the upperparts.
The following morning brought four of the party back to the same area of
Ironbark to search for button-quail which they saw again...disappearing into
the distance!
At the same time I decided to see if I could do some photography and managed
to get some nice shots of a pretty Nobby Dragon (an agamid lizard) On return
I was almost upon the campsite when I found what may have been the bird of
the trip, a female Spotted Quail-Thrush, much sought after by overseas
birders and possibly not recorded before in the park. Shortly after there
was another heavy shower and we decided to leave and return to Brisbane.
Stopping at the park entrance, which often seemed to produce interesting
birds we were watching a Little Eagle being mobbed when I noticed small
numbers of the rare White-backed Swallow...this was a great ending to an
excellent weekend and the final species count ended on 113 (not bad when
most species were 'bush' and very few water birds)
Species List
Australian Little Grebe
Australian King-Parrot
Australian Magpie
Magpie-Lark
Australian Owlet-Nightjar (H)
Australian Raven
Australasian Pipit
Azure Kingfisher
Bar-shouldered Dove
Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike
Blue-faced Honeyeater
Brown Falcon
Brown Honeyeater
Brown Quail
Inland Thornbill
Brown Treecreeper
Buff-rumped Thornbill
Cattle Egret
Cicadabird
Common Bronzewing
Common Starling
Crested Pigeon
Crested Shrike-Tit
Australian Darter
Diamond Firetail
Dollarbird
Double-barred Finch
Dusky Woodswallow
Eastern Rosella
Eastern Yellow Robin
Fan-tailed Cuckoo
Fuscous Honeyeater
Galah
Golden Whistler
Grey Butcherbird
Grey-crowned Babbler
Grey Fantail
Grey Shrike-Thrush
Hooded Robin
Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo
Jacky-Winter
Laughing Kookaburra
Leaden Flycatcher
Little Eagle
Little Friarbird
Little Lorikeet
Little Woodswallow
Maned Duck
Masked Lapwing
Mistletoebird
Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner
Olive-backed Oriole
Pacific Black Duck
Pacific Heron
Painted Button-Quail
Pale-headed Rosella
Peaceful Dove
Pied Butcherbird
Pied Currawong
Rainbow Bee-eater
Rainbow Lorikeet
Red-browed Firetail
Red-capped Robin
Red-rumped Parrot
Red-winged Parrot
Restless Flycatcher
Rufous Songlark
Rufous Whistler
Sacred Kingfisher
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Scarlet Honeyeater
Shining Bronze-Cuckoo (H)
Silvereye
Southern Boobook (H)
Southern Whiteface
Spangled Drongo
Speckled Warbler
Spotted Quail-Thrush
Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
Spotted Pardalote
Striated Pardalote
Striped Honeyeater
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Superb Fairywren
Tawny Frogmouth
Torresian Crow
Tree Martin
Turquoise Parrot
Variegated Fairywren
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Weebill
Western Gerygone
Welcome Swallow
White-backed Swallow
White-browed Scrubwren
White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike
White-browed Woodswallow
White-browed Babbler
White-eared Honeyeater
White-faced Heron
White-plumed Honeyeater
White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Needletail
White-throated Nightjar
White-throated Treecreeper
White-winged Chough
White-winged Triller
Willie-wagtail
Wonga Pigeon
Yellow-faced Honeyeater
Yellow-rumped Thornbill
Yellow Thornbill
Mammals
Eastern Grey Kangaroo
Red-necked Wallaby
Wallaroo
Wild Pig
Fallow? Deer
Rabbit
Unidentified insectivorous bats
Reptiles
Nobby Dragon
Laced Monitor
Tom Tarrant and Marie Hayward
Lot 4 Dayboro Rd Rush Creek Dayboro Queensland 4521 Australia
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