MALENY
Visited the lovely rainforest in Mary Cairncross Reserve were both Wompoo
and Rose-crowned Fruit-doves were
both quite common and easy to see as well as a Paradise Riflebird, a pair of
Spectacled and Black-faced Monarchs and 5 Red-legged Pademelons. This reserve
offers superb views of the Glass
House
Mountains and the coast and while
admiring all this, I saw some (20 plus) Spine-tailed Swifts fly over.
DOBOY (near Lytton)
Saw the large colony of Black Flying-foxes in the mangroves along Bulimba
Creek and this was another new mammal tick for me (we usually only see
Grey-headed Flying Foxes back in
Sydney).
MOUNT GLORIOUS
I spotlighted in this rainforest a couple of nights where I heard both a
Sooty Owl and a Marbled Frogmouth and saw several Fawn-footed Melomys (some
almost touchable as they paused while on the ground or half way up the palms), a
couple of Mountain Brushtail Possums and a few Red-necked Pademelons. Heard a
few calls from the Great Barred Frogs ?Wauk wauk?.
SHERWOOD ARBORETUM
I found easily in the heat of the day and well out in the open 2 male
Black-backed Bitterns (formerly Little Bittern) and a single Baillon?s
Crake.
There were lots of tadpoles in the ponds which I think belonged to Bufo
marinus (Cane Toads)!
CARINDALE
Sheryl Keates kindly devoted some of her time to help me find my first
Bush Hen (have only heard them previously up in the Daintree) and was lucky to
see one walk across the track.
LOCKYER
VALLEY
My first point of call was Atkinsons Dam which still had plenty of water
and birds including a pair of Black-necked Storks, 5 Little Egrets, 50 plus
Pink-eared Ducks amongst 1000 plus of both Hardheads and Grey Teal, 60 plus
Pacific Golden Plovers, 200 plus Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, 10 Marsh Sandpipers,
20 plus Red-necked Avocets, a White-bellied Sea-eagle and 5 Whistling Kites. A
male Brown Songlark, several Pale-headed Rosellas and flocks of Cockatiel were
in the surrounding areas.
Met up with Bill Jolly for the later part of the morning and Jan and John
England for most of the day were the star bird of the day were 5 Australian
Painted Snipe (good views of 4 males and one female out in the open beside a
small dam). Surprisingly, there was not much cover for them but was good for us
to see the birds quite well. Have seen these a few times before in
Sydney but rate it amongst one of
the most beautiful Australian birds.
Jan and John showed me the loads of ducks at the
Gatton
Agricultural
College comprising of 500 plus Magpie
Geese, 1300 plus Plumed Whistling Ducks and 1000 plus Pink-eared
Ducks.
We also saw 30 Freckled Ducks in the small dam on the other side of the
road and opposite Atkinsons Dam. This is certainly the largest number I have
seen of this species at any one time.
Just to the east of Atkinsons Dam we also saw 4 pairs of Banded
Lapwing.
My last good find of the day were a pair of Cotton Pygmy Goose feeding
amongst floating water weed with a Comb-crested Jacana nearby as well as many
other water birds.
In the Lockyer
Valley I was hoping to see again
Ground Cuckoo-shrikes (which are often present in the turf areas) so I could
achieve seeing all species of Cuckoo-shrike and Trillers in one week.
I thank everyone who gave me assistance in finding a good variety of
interesting birds and especially to Tom and Marie Tarrant for their hospitality
for the 4 nights I stayed at their place. The various trip reports shared on
birding-aus have also really helped make my trip very worthwhile and I thank
everyone for their contributions.
If anyone is interested, I
have made a full species list with further information of my trip in
excel (which I have spent hours doing) and would be happy to send a copy
via email.
-------------
Edwin Vella
