Part Three C ? Wilko?s birding in SEQ.
It seems that in the transfer of my text onto the birdsaus archive some of
the punctuation marks change to question marks, sorry.
We came down from the mountains to do some site seeing on the Sunshine
Coast. We stayed in Forest Glen Caravan Park. I recorded White-headed
Pigeon, Catbird, White-throated Needletail (c200) and Scaly-breasted
Lorikeet.
13/11/04. We did a drive around the Nambour area. I dropped into the
Maroochy Wetland Visitor Centre and spent 10 minutes in the wetland before
be hounded out by a squillion and 16 mozzies. Back in the carpark a
colourful male Regent Bowerbird presented itself, rather convenient I
thought.
I heard later that a few Cotton Pygmy-geese were in the area, bugga! another
reason to return one day.
We traveled onto Brisbane doing the Australian Zoo on the way. The zoo was
very well done the kids and parents were entertained all day. They present a
good conservation message.
15/11/04. While in Brisbane I wanted to visit a few spots hoping to find
Bush Hen, Lewins Rail and a few nocturnal birds. However because we were
beginners to driving in Brisbane we found it difficult to navigate our way
around the streets, so I settled on having a look for the nocturnal birds. I
had found on the internet that the JC Slaughter Falls picnic area in Mt.
Cootha Reserve was a fairly reliable spot for Powerful Owl and during spring
and summer was good for White-throated Nightjar.
So off we all went, I required a navigator to help me get there. We got to
the reserve a bit early so we did the scenic drive up the mountain to the
lookout, which gave spectacular views of Brisbane. We went down to the
picnic area noticing that it closed at 7pm, this didn?t give me much time to
find the owl. I did a quick walk up to the falls and back before sunset and
searched the trees hoping to find an owl perching, without luck. The sun had
gone down and in fading light I went down and sat on the lawn below the
carpark. Then the silhouettes of White-throated Nightjars started coming
down from the woodland, I saw four in the end. They seemed to hold their
wings well forward and their flight is direct unlike the butterfly like
flight of Spotted Nightjar.
I got back to the car at a quarter to seven, and decided to give the call
playback another go. About 15 seconds into the recording a large
broad-winged owl flew in and landed above us. We got the light ready and all
got great views of the beautiful Powerful Owl. A few minutes later a second
owl flew in, this one was even larger. The pair got on as though they were
life long mates. Not long after the security guard turned up, so the timing
of it all was perfect.
After Brisbane we hit the Gold Coast and the theme parks, so birding was put
on the shelf for a week, to be resumed in Lamington National Park.
22/11/04 Lamington National Park, we camped at the Green Mountain campground
for two nights. The first night was extremely windy and light rain fell all
night.
I woke up to get an early start, the drizzle had stopped but the wind was
still strong.
I started on the track that goes to the canopy walk, only a few metres along
a pair of Yellow-throated Scrubwren, foraged on the track in front of me. At
the start of the canopy walk I found another pair nesting. I did the canopy
walk and had a look at the botanic garden then took the short track down to
the Border Track.
I had read the Big Twitch story about the Rufous Scrub-birds found 6km along
the Border Track. I was sort of tempted to go but knowing how hard
scrub-birds are to see, and reading Seans story of walking about 50km over
several days, I was neither here nor there about making the trip, so I just
dawdled along the track searching for Alberts Lyrebird, Noisy Pitta and Rose
Robin. I found myself about 2km down the track and the weather was becoming
fine, only 4km to go bugger it why not! Head down butt up along the track.
The walk takes you through some spectacular wet rainforest, some of the best
I?ve seen to date. About 6km along, the tree canopy becomes more open and
the under-story closes up. Right on the edge of this change I found a Rose
Robin flitting around near ground level in front of me.
I walked up to the next track intersection and saw the 6.3km to Green Range
sign, which confirmed my thoughts that I was in the right area for
scrub-birds. I turned back along the track and only about 150m along I heard
a call that I presumed was a scrub-bird. Once again I recalled Seans Big
Twitch account of getting down on hands and knees to sneak up on the bird, I
decided to give this ago as well. I walked to within 15m of the calling bird
and then took to the hands and knees, thinking the leaches are in for a
field day. I crept to within a few metres of the calling bird and decided to
try and see the thing, peering into the dense shrub layer I could not see a
thing, yet the bird was still there calling. I was just about to try and get
even closer when I spotted movement, I slowly got my binos to me eyes and
saw the silhouette of a Rufous Scrub-bird with its head held skyward throat
feathers puffed out and calling as hard as it could. Eventually my eyes
adjusted to the light and I was able to make out the lighter coloured
plumage on the birds throat. I tried to get even closer, but the bird went
into stealth mode never to be seen again.
Yes a leach did get its way with me.
On the return trip I stumbled across an Alberts Lyrebird about 2km from the
resort.
The next day or so was spent doing walks with the family and searching for
Black-breasted Button-quail, Spotted Quail-thrush, Little Lorikeet and Noisy
Pitta, all without luck. I did however add Red-browed Treecreeper, Satin
Bowerbird, and Brush Cuckoo to my trip list. Also saw a Wedgy take a hit on
a medium sized wallaby, fur went flying but the wallaby kept going. I didn?t
see the final result.
This would be my last birding spot in QLD, next is northern and inland NSW.
TBC
Regards, Wilko.
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