Hi all,
We stayed up at Kingfisher Park at Julatten (16° 35' 43''S 145° 20' 27"E )
for new year and did a very lazy big day. First bird of the year for me was
an Orange-footed Scrubfowl (I refused to look up in the sky to see the S-C
Cockatoos!), Lindsay's was a Brush Turkey. We teamed up with Andrew and
Carol, the resident guides at KFP and clocked up 68 species walking around
KFP for 1¼ hrs. before breakfast. Andrew sneaked off for a few minutes
whilst we were having breakfast and added Black Bittern to his list. We then
headed north towards Mount Carbine (16° 31' 48"S 145° 07' 55"E), along the
way we saw 2 young Bustards and a Koel which have been scarce around here
recently. Mount Carbine Dam (16° 32' 05''S 145° 02' 55''E) had a few
waterbirds including 2 Green-Pygmy Geese, Dollarbirds displaying and a Reed
Warbler in a small clump of reeds. A stop off on the way back to KFP at a
private property produced a male Shining Flycatcher which was a surprise as
there is very few records in the area and a very speckled juvenile
Lemon-bellied Flycatcher, the identity of which threw us for a while. We
collected lunch at KFP and headed up Mt. Lewis where the Blue-faced
Parrot-Finches were putting on a display for us feeding alongside the road
in several locations. The 10 km clearing had at least 10 birds showing well
and we saw at least 20 birds all up. Another 24 new species were added here.
We then headed back towards Mareeba stopping off at Southedge Lake (Quaids
Dam) (16° 47' 52''S 145° 21' 29''E), where the water level is very low,
good for waders but not too good for observing! We could see Sharp-tailed
Sandpipers and what appeared to be Little Curlew but they were too far away
to positively ID so were not counted. Plenty of waterbirds including Glossy
Ibis (20+), 3 Radjah Shelduck, 4 Black-necked Stork along with Whiskered and
Caspian Terns. We went our separate ways here as we had to return to Cairns
and a quick look along the Esplanade added a further 19 new species for the
day, including the Mangrove Robins who obligingly popped out of the
mangroves to be counted. Carol and Andrew added more to their list with a
night walk around KFP. It was a fun day, along with atlassing sites and got
us off to a good start for 2002 with 160 species for the day.
Cheers,
Keith & Lindsay Fisher
Cairns, Far North Queensland
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