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Trip to Silver Plains Station 12 7 00 to 26 7
00 13 58 44s 143 32 48e
At 0700 on July 12th, Terry Learmonth from
Narara and myself left Cairns in the mail plane for the two hour ride to Silver
Plains, a 700,000 acre property owned by the Queensland Government to the east
of Coen, on the north-eastern coast of Cape York, with ocean access to Princess
Charlotte Bay.
The property was bought by the Queensland
Govt some years ago and is now destocking, with its future use still
undecided.
I have been up here every year since 1982,
and so know the property well.
After stopping at Laura and Lakefield NP
on the way north, we flew close to the shoreline of Princess Charlotte Bay, and
counted some sixty Brolgas on the beach in about five minutes
of flying.
We arrived on the property
after a comfortable and interesting two hour flight.
An hours walk late in the day in woodland
along the track leading to the Breakfast Creek landing gave us
Pied Heron, Pale-headed Rosella,
Mangrove Kingfisher, Emu,
Wedge-tailed Eagle, Forest
Kingfisher and Black-backed
Butcherbird.
I usually come up here later in the year, and so
was surprised at the large numbers of Rainbow
Bee-eaters, which were in large numbers in all habitats on the
property.
The nights around the homestead are filled with
the mournful cry of the Bush Thick-knee, a sound that most
birders are content with.
An early morning hour was spent around the
homestead where we found Goulds Bronze Cuckoo and
Little Bronze Cuckoo eating grubs in the flowering mango trees,
and two
Palm Cockatoos feeding on some
bush nuts. Also seen around the homestead were Brolga,
Bustard, Orange-footed Scrub Fowl,
Graceful Honeyeater and Leaden Flycatcher, and
a pair of Fairy Gerygones building a
nest.
On July 13th a trip across woodland into the
vine thicket and rainforest edges of the Massey River gave us Golden
Headed Cisticola, Red-winged Parrot,
Brown Quail, Black-Throated and Masked
Finch, Brown Goshawk, Red-backed
Fairy-wren and Lovely Fairy-wren on
the grassland, and along the river we saw Varied Triller,
Spectacled Monarch, Large-billed Gerygone,
Azure Kingfisher and Shining
Flycatcher.
Early on July 15th we left Breakfast Creek and travelled some
20km north by boat to the mouth of the Rocky River where we spent two nights
camped on a sandspit.
While camped here we were followed on each of our walks along
the beach by the resident Pied Oystercatchers,
and Beach Thick-knees followed us relentlessly,
calling all the while.
At low tide there were usually about 300 waders feeding on the
adjacent sand flats.
Lots of Great Knots and Curlew
Sandpipers, and also present were Red-necked Stints,
Bar-tailed Godwits,Large Sand Plover
and Mongolian Sand Plover. Whimbrels
called from the mangroves and on the beach.
An early morning walk into the thousand acre swamp
on the Rocky turned up a male Eclectus Parrot.
We had good views as it flew from tree to tree in front of us. We also flushed a
Large-tailed Nightjar here,
as well as seeing Wandering Whistling-duck and Burdekin
Duck and Palm Cockatoo.
Spent a total of six nights camped on the ocean front.
The Beach Thick-knees were common, each pair of birds taking
up a territory of about 3 km of beach.
Atlas searches were done each day, with Little
Kingfisher being seen three times in the mangroves, and the
Red-headed Honeyeaters in their breeding
plumage.Rufous-banded and Varied Honeyeaters
also present in the mangroves, as were the hard to see Black
Butcherbirds in the thickest parts.
Great-billed Herons were seen well on two
days.
After moving back to the homestead spent the next week taking
day trips to the Massey and Rocky Rivers as well as visiting the many lagoons
which were all full.
The expected rainforest birds on the Rocky River were
hard to find, and July is not the best time to be here, we did however see
Frilled Monarch, Wompoo
Pigeon, White-faced Robin and Northern Fantail
here, and a walk along the vine-thicket of the Massey River gave us
good looks at the Fawn-breasted Bowerbird, while hundreds of
White-rumped Swiftlets flew overhead.
Our two weeks on the property gave us 128 species and we
filled in 31 atlas sheets.
Two weeks here last September gave us 150
species.
John McLennan
PO Box 84 Ettalong Beach
2257 phone 02 4341
6403
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