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Birdline North Queensland
Published sightings for the week ending 10 Jul 2011.
| Sat 9 Jul
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Yellow Oriole, Crimson Finch
Townsville Town Common Conservation Park
Yellow Oriole (2) 1 near barrumundie lagoon, 1 between freshwater and jacana hides both imm.
Crimson Finch (8) causeway between freshwater and jacana hides, appeared to be all adult.
Ed Pierce
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| Thu 7 Jul
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Banded Honeyeater
Mt Molloy
2 Birds feeding in eucalypt trees. I have seen this species in the same area before but definitely not common here.
Chook Crawford and Guest [ Close-up Birding Adventures]
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| Wed 6 Jul
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Buff-banded Rail
Garbutt (suburb of Townsville)
At the very busy 80km/h dual-carriageway roundabout on the corner of Woolcock and Pilkington Streets, Council workers in heavy machinery were working on clearing of the thick Reed-beds that were blocking/slowing the huge open roadside stormwater drains. This maintenance work must have disturbed the Buff-banded Rail, which probably was using this reeded drain area as its feeding ground. Travelling outbound at about 11:30am, as I approached this roundabout, one Buff-banded Rail flew out of the reeds and straight under the car in front of me, the wheels of which killed it instantly.
Buff-banded Rails have been reported on only a few occasions in the suburbs of Townsville; usually in the quieter open drains and garden areas.
Chris Ezzy
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| Tue 5 Jul
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Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo
Malanda
Observed a pair, calling often. Local says they have been hanging around for a week.
david lumpy milson
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Brolga
Shannonvale
Single bird soaring over the valley. It was quite high up but through binoculars it was easy to see the red at the back of the head and the dark flight feathers. I haven't previously seen any closer to here than Tolga. About 5 minutes earlier I'd watched a White-bellied Sea Eagle circle higher then glide off towards the mountains and just for an instant I thought it was the eagle coming back.
Peter Houston
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| Mon 4 Jul
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Spotted Dove
Pentland, North Queensland
Spotted Dove (1) heard and then seen on residential powerline about 200 metres from the Pentland Dam. First known sighting of this introduced species at Pentland and is about 220km inland from the east coastal populations.
Len Ezzy (et al TRBOC Pentland Campout)
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Banded Lapwing, Baillon's Crake
Pentland Dam, Pentland, North Queensland
Banded Lapwing (1) seen 50 metres in from the Cemetery access road grid on short grassy dry shore in the fenced Pentland Dam compound. (Long-range ID digiscope image attached)
At about 9:00am TRBOC birders completed a Baillon’s Crake count of the dam. A total of 45 Baillon's Crakes were visible at that time. (28 crakes counted from the Cape Road side of the dam and a further 17 were simultaneously scope-counted from the Cemetery side). There were obviously more crakes that we couldn;t count as they remained hidden from our lenses by the banks of Reed-beds in the middle of the dam.
Chris Ezzy (et al on TRBOC Pentland campout)
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| Sun 3 Jul
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Rufous Whistler, Channel-billed Cuckoo
Cattana Wetlands, Smithfield (north of Cairns)
I was amazed to find an immature Rufous Whistler here - this is my first ever record of this species on the Cairns lowlands in 15 years & I am unsure if there are any other records from the district. It certainly would be regarded as a rare winter visitor to the area in any case. Also here today was the first Channel-billed Cuckoo of the season - it was an adult & on it's own. Other good birds in the few hours I spent here included: imm Fan-tailed Cuckoos, Black Bittern, Lovely Fairy-wrens, Crimson Finch, White-browed Crakes (this is one of the best sites for this species near Cairns), & Little Bronze-cuckoos in some numbers (of both the resident race 'russatus' & the wintering southern race 'barnardi').
Martin Cachard
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