Part Three A ? 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.
30/10/04 Made it to the QLD coast, it took us almost a month to get there,
but there we were setting up camp in the Seventeen Seventy C/Van Park. We
have an off road Jayco Eagle campervan that requires you to wind up the top
and pull out the sides and so on. We were head down butt up completing our
well-tuned set-up camp routine when one of the kids said look at that bird
dad. I swung around to see an Australian Brush Turkey dawdling through the
park. Cant get much easier than that, in fact that was a little too easy, I
was a bit embarrassed to count this as a new bird but down the track I got
to see them ?in the wild?.
We spent several days at 1770, I listed the birds from the woodland behind
the park and from the beach Pheasant Coucal, Wonga Pigeon, Eastern Yellow
Robin, Dusky H/e, Spangled Drongo, Channel-billed Cuckoo, White-bellied
Cuckoo Shrike, and Weebill were a few from the bush and at the beach Crested
Tern, Black-naped Tern, Whimbrel, Eastern Reef Egret (white), Common Tern,
Pied Corm., Lesser Sand Plover, Greater Sand Plover, Little Tern and
Bar-tailed Godwit.
We took a drive through the nearby Eurimbula Nat. Pk and recorded Little
Shrike Thrush, Bar-shouldered Dove, Common Bronzewing, Dusky H/e, Eastern
Curlew, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Pied Oystercatcher, Red-tailed Black
Cockatoo, Little Bronze-Cuckoo and I pished up a Mangrove Honeyeater but not
before the sand flies did there bit to cause my twitching to continue for
several hours.
Of course I couldn?t miss out on a trip to the islands to see the coral reef
and just quietly Black Noddy. There is a long story to this trip but the
short version is that there had been some rough weather over the previous
few days and this trip was borderline as to whether it would go or not. Jo
(my wife) is not good on the ocean and was going through and internal
dilemma as to go on the swimming, snorkeling, tropical island thing or let
me go alone. She couldn?t do that of course, so off we all went out to Lady
Musgrave Island. The trip normally takes 1.5 hrs but in rough sea takes a
little longer. About 10mins into the trip we hit the first few big waves and
only a few minutes after came the first casualty. I heard one of the crew
say ?one down? and predicted a 95% spew rate for the day. Turned out that of
the 32 passengers on the boat 26 did some belly dancing. I saw one of crew
not so quietly duck into the loo as well. So yes it was a rough trip out and
at that stage the $400 we paid looked like a huge waste of money. Just
before the island came into view I spotted hundreds of black birds flying
around, these were of course Black Noddy, there were also Wedge-tail
Shearwater.
We got to the island, and went ashore where there were hundreds of Black
Noddy nesting in the trees. On the island were two Great Frigatebirds, a
bonus! Jo and the kids decided to spend some time recovering on the beach
and snorkeling while one of the crew took a group of us for a short walk I
recorded Crested Tern, Silvereye, Brown Booby, Buff-banded Rail, Eastern
Reef Egret (white), Ruddy Turnstone, Sacred Kingfisher, Silver Gull,
Black-naped Turn, Common Tern, Bridled Tern (nesting) and Little Tern.
Unfortunately we were not allowed to go alone on the walking tracks (QNPWS
requirement) so I didn?t get to look around as much as I would have liked.
At the end of the day we had some enjoyable moments but still dont think the
trip was worth the $400 family ticket, the trip out probably spoilt it.
Following the coast south we dropped into Bundaberg. I spent some time at
Baldwins Wetland recording 31 species including Magpie Goose, Nutmeg
Mannikin, Tawny Grassbird, Red-backed Fairywren, Peaceful Dove,
Bar-shouldered Dove, Cattle Egret, Dusky Moorhen (breeding) and Black Swan
(with chicks).
4/11/04 Next stop was Hervey Bay. We walked up the very long jetty and saw
fishermen catching huge, big, large Spanish Mackerel I could have stayed
there watching them for ages but we had more stuff to do. We took a drive
along the coast checking out the sites, I was looking for rocky headlands.
Eventually we came across Vernon Point, where incidentally a pole has been
provided especially for the Osprey to nest on. It was high tide and there
were many waders on the exposed rocks.
Scanning through the many birds with my new spotting scope I found Crested
Tern, Black-naped Tern, Little Tern, Pelican, Ruddy Turnstone, Greater
Sandplover, Lesser Sandplover, Red-necked Stint, and yep a few tattlers. It
took some time but noting their dark lead-grey colour and the white stripe
not extending much past the eye I concluded they were Wandering Tattler (3).
There was a young Osprey on the nest and a Brahminy Kite flew past.
6/11/04 At Tin Can Bay preparing for our stay on Fraser Island, a lone
White-throated Needletail flew overhead.
We arrived at Inskip Point with considerable anxiety about taking the van
onto the island. The anxiety increased substantially when I saw the 200m of
soft sand between the barge and us. I sat and watched a few vehicles without
trailers come off the barge and seemingly struggle to get across the beach,
?this is gonna be embarrassing? I said. I stepped out and started letting
off some wind?..from the tyres as well. An empty tray back Landcruiser went
past and went down thirty metres into the soft patch, the driver got out and
engaged the hubs (idiot) dropped the clutch and sent rooster tails of sand
high into the air, STREWTH!! I thought.
The barge seemed to be waiting for us to come across so not wanting to upset
anyone here we go. This was gods opportunity to strike me down for not going
to church for the last 20 years. Bugger me, did it no worries. We drove onto
the island with some local advice about driving on the island and made our
way to Central Station where we camped for four nights.
Along the beach were plenty of Crested and Common Tern, Richards Pipit,
Red-capped Dotterel and Pacific Golden Plover.
TBC
Regards, Wilko.
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the microwave tower to try and
find Kalkadoon Grasswrens.
I arrived at the site at 1700, the first thing I saw was another one of
those black and white raptors it only took a quick glance to identify this
one as BSKite. It was hot so not much was calling, I wondered over to the
cliff edge next to the second tower and waited for awhile. I recorded a
Spinifexbird calling from further around the ridge, Owlet Nightjar
(calling), Grey-fronted H/e and Grey-crowned Babbler. I tried a few other
places with no luck. I give up, there are a few places closer to town where
I could look so I headed back to the car along a service track between the
two towers. Hows my luck, a few metres in front of me a dark grasswren flew
between spinifex clumps, then another and another. A group of three
Kalkadoon Grasswrens quietly foraging allowed me to follow them around for
awhile. Comparing them to Dusky Grasswren my impression is that these are
noticeably smaller and less robust, the plumage paler. They seemed to be a
little more timid and there contact calls quieter. I didn?t hear them do the
far carrying metallic trill that the Dusky does.
TBC
Regards, Wilko.
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