11th July Report

Absolutely fantastic weather again this week with cool mornings, sunny days up to around 26-28c making for great birding conditions. 79 bird species were seen and 4 heard with 15 mammal/reptile (amphibians) seen.

Pretty standard sightings for the week around the Lodge grounds, an unidentified nightjar species was seen briefly on a nightwalk. The hugely bright eye shine lit up for a second as the nightjar disappeared over the forest canopy not allowing enough time for an ID. The Australian Owlet-nightjar reported previously in its roost hole appeared one evening looking out and again one morning catching the rising sun. Pacific Baza was active during the week sitting up in the eucalypt woodland adjacent to Geraghty Park for good views and calls on a morning walk. A juvenile Pale-headed Rosella was flying around Geraghty Park looking quite scruffy; his parents were not far away as we heard them calling. The three Barn Owl juveniles are still around and looking more like the parents each visit. A pair of Spotted (Black-eared) Catbird has a nest in the rainforest adjacent to the orchard. It was spotted on a morning walk and is breeding well out of season, normal season is August – March with a peak in October – December

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Spotted (Black-eared) Catbird

Again the honeyeaters have been busy in the flowering eucalypts and grevilleas with 12 species seen including more sightings of the golden-backed form of the Black-chinned Honeyeater. A Bower’s Shrike-thrush was seen on several occasions around the Lodge grounds, this is a winter visitor from higher altitudes such as the nearby Mt. Lewis area.

A couple of Striped Possum were seen on a night walk and six frog species were recorded including a Dainty Green Tree Frog Litoria gracilenta who took up residence in the back door of our Nissan Patrol - lucky it was not squashed.

In the local area a large fruiting fig tree is currently a magnet for hundreds of birds. There was several White-headed Pigeon, 20+ Wompoo Fruit-Dove, 2 Superb Fruit-Dove, 30+ Topknot Pigeon,100+ Double-eyed Fig-Parrot, 20+ Brown Gerygone, Yellow-spotted and Lewin’s Honeyeaters, 30+ Barred Cuckoo-shrike,

Barred Cuckoo-shrike

50+ Australasian Figbird, 2 Olive-backed Oriole, several female Victorias Riflebird, 50-100 Silvereye and an out of season Metallic Starling. Blue-faced Parrot-Finch has again been seen as have Lovely Fairy-wren in several sites. No adult male Golden Bowerbird sightings this week, only a couple of female/juvenile males on Mt. Lewis.

Get a Species List for the Period of your Visit to the Lodge

We have uploaded all our bird sighting records from the Lodge onto the Eremaea Birds website, these are records since 1994 with the last 4 years being weekly records. This will be very useful to our guests as they can now download a list of species that have been recorded at the Lodge for the period of their visit. The list will also show the % of sightings for the period as well so they will be able to see commonality. To access a list you can go directly to the Eramaea Birds website or you can go to our Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge website where you will find a link on the bird species list page or the bird watching and wildlife page . Once on the site click on species list for any site and enter Kingfisher Park then put in the period from and to.

The other sites we are gradually uploading are records of local sites, these will give you a species list for that site, not specifically for the time you are here as they are not continuous weekly records like the Lodge. So far we have uploaded Cairns Esplanade, Centenary Lakes (part of Cairns Botanic Gardens), Yorkey's Knob Lagoon - Cairns, Mt. Lewis – clearing (10km site) and Windmill Creek on East Maryfarms Road (south of Mt. Carbine), Lake Mitchell, Abattoir Swamp, Mt. Carbine, Mt. Hypipamee NP (The Crater), Luster Creek, Lake Barrine and Kaban. Further afield we have uploaded Warruma Swamp - Mt. Garnett, Lacey Creek and Licuala NP in the Mission Beach area.