Cairns Show Weekend so some of the FNQ Naturalists set off down past Ingham
to Jourama Falls in near perfect weather. The camping ground being busy and
noisy we held out litle hope of any good night spotting and so were not too
disappointed to dip out on Mahogany Gliders though we did meet a local
Drongo who not only hallucinated a Quoll in the undergrowth -[and I was daft
enough to look for it] - but went on to tell us how at times he saw as many
a 15 Bilbies from his own verandah, whereupon we realised he must have found
some very good Herbal Tobacco .......
But the daytime birds were great. Before dawn, the Long-tailed Nightjars
were diligently plonking, till overtaken by the most raucous Kookaburras,
who thankfully then stayed away to let the little birds perform. Little
Yellow-bellied Flycatchers watched us set up camp; Grey and Northern
Fantails accompanied us down the tracks - [and at last after nearly 9 years
in FNQ I've learned to tell them apart....] Scarlet Honeyeaters flitted
about in the higher trees - inspiring plans for an Artwork I'll never have
time to start; White-throated, Dusky, Yellow, Macleay's and the ever
-confusing Yellow-Spotted and Gracefuls were abundant. White-browed Robins
and Spectacled Monarchs, Varied Trillers and Forest Kingfishers, Figbirds
and Olive backed Orioles, Grey Whistler, Emerald, Brown and Peaceful Doves,
Little Shrike-thrush, Mistletoebird, Red-Browed Finches .... We set off on
our last walk on Saturday afternoon; somebody said, as we crossed the creek,
"Perfect place for an Azure Kingfisher"; I started to look and instead
spotted the departing rear of a Rufous Fantail .... we argued for about 10
minutes while it flitted about in deep shadow before agreeing it WAS the
Rufous, then continued on our way.
Pretty ordinary? Somebody saw a Willy-wagtail and a Peewee. I had a
frustrating sighting of The Lower Half of a Small Bronze-cuckoo
[Horsfeldt's?] which departed, some Rainbow Lorikeets flew over and then a
Fantailed Cuckoo sat on the powerlines just after a passing ute had scared
away a fine little flock of Chestnut-breasted and Crimson Finches. Away up
in the hills, Dingoes howled mournfully.
Back to the creek. Where's that ......the Rufous....? No, it's a female
Shining Flycatcher, hopping on the creekside, putting on a show, is she
waiting for somebody?
"Meanwhile" scanning the creek bank I had found the Azure Kingfisher.In
glorious technicolor. Just got to find Mr. Flycatcher now, and sure enough
Derna spotted him, right in the undergrowth beside us. Brilliant deep blue
in the late sunshine, his bright red mouth quite clearly seen when he
called. Much more interested in his love-life than bothered by us, he
crossed the creek, and he and Mrs. were still hopping about on the bank when
we decided it was tea-time.
Back at the campsite, the Brush Turkeys lived in hopes that we'd ignore the
Do Not Feed notices. First night, Something With Teeth got Jan's porridge
jar and ate through the lid, second night's raider was not so lucky as
he/she/it got my tin of Bloody Awful Not-Quite-Coffee and liked it no more
than I did - NEVER buy anything marked fat-free or sugar-free as even a
white-tailed rat will reject it!
Una
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
