|
G'day all,
In the last 7 weeks I have visited the north east
coast area 3 times trying see a few of the rain forest
birds.
Well I saw a lot and heard even more .. but in
spite of getting a stiff neck I still missed on several of the high foliage
roosting species.
(Waders are a lot easier .. except
for that bit about identifying them !)
Well, I joined the North Queensland group of Birds
Australia for the Australia Day weekend at Ron Stannard's Kingfisher Park at
Julatten.
Julatten is about 10km north of Mount Molloy at the
northern end of the Atherton Tablelands.
On the monday morning, returning from a bird
walk, I was in the resident guides (Andrew & Carol Iles) vehicle
travelling along Eumula Ck Rd.
Carol said "their is a Raptor .. I wonder what it
is ? "
She stopped the car and we got out to find that we
had driven under the bird roosting on tree just overhead. In fact it was
only 20 metres from us and filled my binos.
It was a Square-tailed Kite !
But that's not all !
It slowly opened its tail to display the barring
and then opened its wings for an even better view.
By this time Darlene Kneen had joined us in her 4wd
and also got a good view.
I of course did not bring my camera that
day.
I had been told that KfP had a great roll call of
birds but that was out of the box !
It was a wonderful weekend with everyone
(especially Keith Fisher) going out of their way to point out and ID the local
birds for me.
The 2800km round trip was well worth
it.
Regards
Bob Forsyth, Mount Isa, NW
Queensland
| 