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Ground Parrot & Black-breasted Button-quail

To: Peter Baitz <>
Subject: Ground Parrot & Black-breasted Button-quail
From: Chris Charles <>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:36:03 +1100
Some thoughts....
Flushing by 'Beating' through their habitat has been the way they are counted for research purposes for a long time. Also some suppression of scrub growth, in lieu of fire, may actually be beneficial to the birds.
See http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=MU9940300.pdf
The GP seen was in the 'clearing' of the roadside - I think Cooloola Way is just a rocky sandy track at this point with regular 4WD 'scrub- bashing' evidence.
In comparison the impact of 1 or 2 birders surely is negligible.

Regards, Chris

Chris Charles
0412 911 184

33deg 47'30"S
151deg10'09"E





On 27/01/2009, at 8:18 PM, Peter Baitz wrote:

I to find it disturbing that any Bird Observer would crash about in the undergrowth-are the birds important or is another tick the be all and end all.
Peter Baitz
On 27/01/2009, at 6:49 PM, peter crow wrote:

Lisa's report or possibly that of Dominic Chaplin who signed off at the end of the report is good news but is also quite disturbing.

The good part is reporting both BBBQ and Ground Parrots at Cooloola. Many of us visit these spots areas annually or more often and usually see both species.

However most who visit are rather more responsible than whoever did this birding appears to be.

To quote the report,

" I then spent from 05.00-06.30 crashing about in the undergrowth close to where the calls seemed to be coming from, achieving very little apart from falling in wet concealed ditches from time to time. I did flush a Tawny Grassbird and also a small dark Quail (King?)

I thought flushing birds was what hunters did-- not responsible birders.

The Ground Parrot is an uncommon species and in Queensland is threatened.
This is one of the few places where they are doing well.
It is a National Park.
We would like them to be still there in 100 years.

It is offensive to the National Park authorities to go crashing about in the undergrowth as this undergrowth is the habitat for that threatened species.

I also find it offensive that someone interested in birds should have so little consideration for the welfare of the birds that they should behave like this.

We all know some bird watchers are more interested in seeing birds that in the birds welfare.

I hope in this case it was a matter of enthusiasm overcoming consideration.

I implore those concerned and all other birders to remember that the birds welfare is of prime importance. Even of more importance than of you or I getting good looks at a bird.

My rant for the week

Regards

Peter



On 22/01/2009, at 9:27 PM, Lisa Tanner wrote:

I am just writing to report a successful expedition to Rainbow Beach SEQ where I was lucky enough to find the Ground Parrot & the Black-breasted Buttton-quail on the same day.

Directions

1. Ground Parrot
One parrot was seen 50m from the location suggested in Thomas & Thomas. This is:

Drive 16km West from Rainbow Beach
Turn Left/South onto Cooloola Way
After 2.9km turn Left/East down a track just before the powerline
After 1.7km stop on the 'bridge' (actually a small hump in the road over a concrete pipe)

19 Jan 2009 06.30 One parrot flushed beside the road, 50 m East of the bridge

2. Black-breasted Button-quail
One BBBQ was sighted in the location suggested by Sean Dooley in his first book.
This is:

From Rainbow Beach Drive approx 10km North to Inskip Point. (This is where the ferries leave to go to Fraser Island.)
Drive as far as the turning loop on the bitumen.
Park just before the loop.
Leading NW from the loop is a sandy walking track which leads a short distance to the point. After about 1-200m hundreds of 'platelets' were found. These are caused by the BBBQs spinning around causing a circular depression of approx 15cm diameter in the leaf litter.

19 Jan 2009 13.30 One BBBQ was observed spinning around for as long as I cared to watch. Noisy 4WDs are driving past all day so the Quails must be very habituated to disturbance. (Actually I also saw two BBBQs in the exact same location one year previously in atrocious conditions of heavy rain.)

Ground Parrot

Came very close to running over a White-throated Nightjar sitting in the middle of the track on the way down Cooloola Drive. About 3-4 Ground Parrots were calling from the heathland between 04.30-04.45 when it was still dark. As soon as it became light enough to actully see a parrot they all stopped. But if anyone ever wanted to see a New Holland Honeyeater, this would be the place to start looking. I then spent from 05.00-06.30 crashing about in the undergrowth close to where the calls seemed to be coming from, achieving very little apart from falling in wet concealed ditches from time to time. I did flush a Tawny Grassbird and also a small dark Quail (King?)

Walking back along the road to the car whilst pondering my next move a beautiful slender green/yellow parrot took off from the roadside and gracefully flew 50 into the heath, never to be seen again.

Other birds seen at this location: Brown Quail, Pied Cormorant, Welcome Swallow, White-throated Nightjar, Noisy Frairbird, New Holland Honeyeater, Australasian Pipit, Red-browed Finch, Red- backed Fairy-wren, Grey Shrike-thrush, Willie Wagtail, Tawny Grassbird, White-throated Needletail

Black-breasted Button-quail

Inskip Point is actually an excellent spot for birding. As well as a collection of very tame bushbirds including a Satin Flycatcher along the walking track there were also thousands of seabirds on the sand islands just off shore. In between birding much amusement can also be had watching 4WDs get stuck in the deep sand trying to reach the Fraser Island ferries.

I came to the same location in 2008 with the same objective of find the Quail and the Parrot. In weather not fit for man nor beast I was very pleased to fing a pair of Quail but Cooloola way was deep under water so I never reached the parrot site. I'm not sure if these parrots can swim.

I was quite surprised by the large number of platelets beside the track. In places there were more platelets than spare ground.Obviously the Quail are not bothered by the traffic but a pair of Goannas observed at the same spot might cause more of a problem. Just off shore was a large sand island which had literally thousands of seabirds resting on it. They were slightly hard to pick without a scope but there must have been huge numbers of Common Terns and Crested Terns amongst the migratory waders. The beaches were quite popular with Red-capped Plovers and I also managed to pick out one Sanderling amongst them.

A perfect day was capped off at the point watching the great flocks of terns wheeling over the ocean in the sunset. Just to finish it off a pair of Indo Pacific Humpback Dolphins swam past 10m off shore. One of them swam along for a good 5 minutes with his head right out in the air, looking about and admiring the scenery and sunset himself.

Other birds seen at this location: Bar-tailed Godwit, Red-capped Plover, Royal Spoonbill, Pelican, Grey-tailed Tattler, Whimbrel, Curlew, Sanderling, Red-necked Sting, Pied Oystercatcher, Caspian Tern, Common Tern, Crested Tern Little Tern, Siver Gull, Pied Cormorant, Brahminy Kite, Brush Turkey, Fairy Gerygone, Brown Thornbill, Rufous Whistler, Satin Flycatcher, Mangove Honeyeater, Lewins Honeyeater, Whte-breasted Woodswallow, Bar Shouldered Dove, Eastern Yellow Robin, Eastern Whipbird, Little Wattlebird, Varied Triller, White-browed Scrubwren

Dominic Chaplin
PO Box 208
Bungalow QLD 4870
Tel 0419 028 077 Fax 07 4051 4896
http://www.pinecreekpictures.com.au


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