Hi all,
Haven¹t posted for a while, but here is a short report from primarily a 6
day holiday to visit family in Ayr in North Queensland.
Ayr is a small sugarcane town approx 90km south of Townsville. It is pretty
much enveloped by sugarcane fields, consequently it is probably not on the
top of one¹s birding hotspot lists. Nevertheless, I managed to get out and
about a number of times and managed around 130 species over a few days.
The local beaches around Ayr are worth checking out, with good numbers of
waders at Alva and Wunjunga Beaches Great Knot, Eastern Curlew, Whimbrel,
Lesser and Greater Sand Plover, Marsh Sandpiper, Greenshank, Bar-tailed
Godwit, Pied Oystercatcher and even several Wood Sandpiper on the mud-flats.
Also good numbers of Eastern Reef Egret and Striated Heron, plus a couple of
Glossy Ibis. Dipped on Beach Stone-curlew despite my Brother-in-law¹s recent
sighting of up to 15 seen over a 2 hour period!
The surrounding plains produced a few Brolga and several Bustard.
In the adjacent mangroves, I also finally caught up with a small population
of Mangrove Honeyeater, along with Restless, Shining and Leaden Flycatcher.
There are several swamps in and around Ayr which produced all the usual
suspects which included the magnificent sight of thousands of Magpie Geese
wheeling around in huge flocks. The nearby cane fields are temporary home to
many finches, with several small flocks of Crimson, Double-barred,
Chestnut-rumped and Spice Mannikin observed.
In the town parks I recorded Australian Koel, Brush Cuckoo, Channel-billed
Cuckoo, Pheasant Coucal, Spangled Drongo, Great Bowerbird, Peaceful Dove,
Black Butcherbird, Varied Triller, Bush Stone-curlew and lots of honeyeaters
which included White-throated, Yellow, Brown, White-gaped, Blue-faced, plus
a fairly southern record of Yellow-spotted HE.
I had only a short time in Townsville (no time to get to the Common), so I
checked out the Port/breakwater area and was fortunate to get close-up views
of 6-8 Brown Booby diving for fish. There was also a probable Black-naped
Tern fishing with a flock of Crested Terns.
Nice part of the world! Hopefully next time I will get to the famous Common,
Cheers,
Greg
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