birding-aus

Silver Plains FNQ

To: "birding-aus" <>
Subject: Silver Plains FNQ
From: "John McLennan" <>
Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 06:49:48 +1000
                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 RosellaMangrove 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 ParrotBrown 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
 
<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU