The plan for the next day was to begin heading up the cape with a camping
stopover at Lakefield National Park. From now on it was all new territory
for me. Along the way we picked up our first and only Little Eagle for the
trip near Laura. We went as far as Musgrave, then turned right into the
park, camping at Sweetwater lake, which is the first campground you come to.
There are lots of campgrounds to choose from at Lakefield but most only have
one or two sites. The new rules require you to book campsites ahead so you
need to be organised ahead of time. Sweetwater Lake was nice enough, with a
few Raja Shelducks. Torresian Imperial Pigeons, and Lemon-bellied Flyrobins
around. We did a side trip out to Low Lake and Nifold Plain hoping to pick
up some Finches but we couldn't find any. Low Lake had way more birds than
Sweetwater. And here I picked up my second lifer: Black-backed Butcherbird,
which was a nice surprise. In all we recorded 57 species at Lakefield but
mostly common ones. From then on it was full steam ahead for Iron Range. The
roads were pretty good with only small sections of bad corrugation and
bull-dust holes.
We had booked three nights at Cook's hut camp ground . It has four spots but
there was only one other group there, a birding couple from Victoria. I had
long imagined what birding at Iron Range would be like and was drooling at
the prospect of up to 20 possible lifers. As it turned out the birding was
more difficult than I had expected, in part because of the weather
conditions. Whilst it remained fine, there was a strong wind blowing
throughout all the days we were there, making it difficult to spot bird
movement in the canopy (that's the excuse I've decided on anyhow).
Nevertheless, we managed to get onto most of those we had targeted, missing
only the Yellow-billed Kingfisher, Yellow-legged Flyrobin and the two dry
country species White-streaked HE and Fawn-breasted Bowerbird. Now, before
we left home a well-known Brisbane birder (who shall remain nameless in case
he won't let me come on any more pelagics) told me that the only species he
missed at Iron Range was the Green-backed Honeyeater. So imagine my glee
when one of the first birds we stumbled on when walking out of the campsite
was just this particular one. Honestly, some birders just need to lift their
games.that was way too easy! Mind you there was a reason this pair was down
low and not way up in the canopy avoiding birdwatchers: a fledgling was
down low and looked like it was just out of the nest. We took a couple of
quick shots of the worried parents and left them alone. On the first day we
picked up White-faced Robin, Tropical Scrubwren, Tawny-breasted HE, and
Magnificent Riflebird around the Gordon Creek Area. The Riflebirds were
surprisingly common and were calling everywhere we went. One persistently
calling bird led us to a display perch where we managed some shots of a
display. My photography was dealt a blow by the failure of my External flash
unit which suddenly decided not to speak to my camera anymore. Consequently
a lot of my shots are a bit noisy (shot with very high ISO numbers), and not
as good as they might have been. (More excuses.. I know). We also saw
Eclectus parrots and Red-cheeked Parrots which were quite common but always
in a hurry to get somewhere and never seemed to land. Eventually I got some
passable flight shots of the Eclectus but failed to get any of the Palm
Cockatoos which seemed quite wary (fairly common at the western end of the
old Coen track). One bird that proved difficult was the Northern Scrub
Robin. We heard them a couple of times around the rainforest campground, but
it was not until the third day that we actually pinned some down, and I
managed a crappy record shot. Bill got some good video though. Another bird
which proved to be quite common was the Marbled Frogmouth. We could hear
them calling all over on the first night and finally managed to track one
down on the main road. We were looking into the trees and suddenly realised
it was perched very low down and right in the open, allowing an easy
photograph. Frill-necked Monarchs ("Frilled Monarchs" in C&B) were also
common enough but I dipped on a photograph. Overall, the birding was quite
good, but we were disappointed not to see more mammals and reptiles. I did
photograph a monitor which I'm still trying to ID. On the way out we chanced
upon one last lifer.a Trumpet Manucode perched high on a tree in the
distance. At first it looked like a Metallic Starling, but when I got the
bins on it, it suddenly fluffed up its wing and made that weird 'ong" call.
End part 2
Steve Murray
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