A tough call Evan - there are plenty of birds that occur in the
Atherton Tableland that you won't get along the coast or in the
ranges. I was at Mareeba Wetlands Reserve yesterday (!) and whilst I
picked up a couple of new birds, the number of species overall was
quite low. To give you an example, in the Cairns Bot Gardens the day
before I picked up about 30 species in a couple of hours in the early
morning, including White-browed Crake, Black Butcherbird, Black
Bittern, Little Kingfisher and Brown-backed Honeyeater. These birds
probably occur at places on the tableland but they were quite simple
to find at Cairns (well, the Bittern was a lucky one, AND I got a
photo!). I only saw 18 species in a similar amount of time at Mareeba:
(sorry - these are in the order I saw them , straight out of my
notebook)
Welcome Swallow
Yellow Honeyeater
Green Pygmy-Goose (they have Cotton as well but I couldn't find them)
Coot
Pied Cormorant
Little Black Cormorant
Aust Pelican
Great Egret
Wandering Whistling Duck
Comb-crested Jacana
Peaceful Dove
Little Pied Cormorant
Intermediate Egret
Darter
Whistling Kite
Rainbow Bee-Eater
Blue-faced Honeyeater
Noisy Friarbird
Forest Kingfisher
There was also a group of probable Double-barred Finch - but I was in
a guided tour (not a birding one!) so didn't get the chance to hang
around to look for them.
On the way out to the Highway (7 Km of rough gravel) I saw Straw-
necked Ibis, Nankeen Kestrel and Square-tailed Kite.
I'm not sure how representative this is on tableland birds overall -
there are Brolga and Sarus Crane, magpie Geese and a number of dry
woodland birds that are usually only around the main lagoon in the
early morning and late evening. Our tour only got to see this lagoon,
and not the Pandanus Lagoon that holds a few different wetland
species. This is a great place to visit - I was there as part of an
IT conference, and we were on a tight schedule - I'd recommend going
for longer or maybe for a few days and doing some volunteering e.g.
survey work!
Here's their website:
http://www.mareebawetlands.com/
Cheers
Russell
On 03/10/2006, at 5:04 PM, Evan Beaver wrote:
My wife and I are heading up to Cairns/Julatten/Daintree in the
middle of
November for an adventure holiday which will involve some birding.
We've
only got 5 days and are planing to spend those in KF park and
Daintree with
the idea being to see some spectacular habitat and animals. We've
noticed
some good accommodation in the Atherton Tablelands area and
wondered if the
diversion was worth it, or if we should save it for another trip
when time
is less of an issue.
Evan
--
Evan Beaver
Lapstone, Blue Mountains, NSW
lat=-33.77, lon=150.64
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