No
rain this week and very dry. Overnight temperatures were again
slightly cooler than last week going down to 12.7ºc at the beginning
of the week which was 2ºc cooler than last week. The afternoon
temperatures were up to 25.7ºc which was about a degree cooler than
last week.
Another
good week for numbers of bird species with 105 seen, and 5 heard.
Reptiles and mammals were 16 which was one less than last week.
Highlights
for the week were an increase to three pairs of Cotton Pygmy-goose
along McDougall Road, a pair of Pacific Baza starting to nest, Grey
Goshawk carrying a prey item across Bushy Creek, Red-tailed Black
Cockatoo flying over one afternoon, first Fan-tailed Cuckoo since
17th April 2011, this one was seen along McDougall Road. A
female Eastern Koel was perched in our orchard one morning calling
and Brown-backed Honeyeater was building a nest in Geraghty Park.
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| Brown-backed Honeyeater |
Other
sightings:
Still
plenty of waterbird species in the McDougall Road lagoons including
Green Pygmy-goose, Australasian Grebe and six Comb-crested Jacana.
Wompoo and Superb Fruit-Dove have been heard only but there were four
Pied Imperial Pigeon and at least ten Topknot Pigeon feeding in a
Blue Quondong Eleocarpus grandis tree on the edge of the Lodge
grounds. Our female Papuan Frogmouth has been showing all week but
not heard calling as in previous weeks. Large flocks of Australian
Swiftlet have been around in the latter part of the week but Cattle
Egret numbers have declined, maybe some have moved off to their
nesting areas as a few were starting to colour up into breeding
plumage.
Raptor
numbers were down this week but we did manage eight species including
Brown Goshawk, Brown Falcon and Australian Hobby. “Katie” our
Buff-banded Rail continues to clean up around the place and has just
learnt to chase off one of our Major Skink (180mm+ in length), which
appeared on the veranda by our units. We saw a pair of Rainbow
Lorikeet entering a nest hollow in a tree one morning, shortly afterwards a
pair of Scaly-breasted Lorikeet flew in to investigate the same tree hollow and tried to go in. The Rainbow Lorikeet looked out in
surprise and the Scaly-breasted Lorikeet retreated to a nearby branch
looking equally surprised, the pair of rainbows then flew out. Both
pairs sat nearby looking at the hollow whist we tried to make out who
actually owned it – we did not find out as both pairs flew off!
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| Rainbow Lorikeet |
(Lesser)
Sooty Owl was heard several times during the week but not located
unlike Eastern Barn Owl who were calling and at least two seen. Four
species of Kingfisher were seen, Azure, Laughing and Blue-winged
Kookaburra plus Forest Kingfisher. Spotted Catbird has been around
the Lodge grounds and Great Bowerbird and Red-backed Fairy-wren were
along McDougall Road. 13 species of honeyeater were seen including
Lewin's, Yellow-spotted, Graceful, Bridled, Scarlet (M & F) and
Macleay's. Barred Cuckoo-shrike showed well at the end of the week
feeding in a fig tree along Mt. Kooyong Road and a juvenile brown
Black Butcherbird has been skulking around the orchard.
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| Black Butcherbird - juvenile |
Northern
Fantail continue to hang around our neighbours garden but no sign of
Grey Fantail who have rarely been seen around the Lodge grounds this
year which is unusual. The overwintering Black-faced Monarch has been
foraging in the orchard area and probably looking forward to meeting
his mates who should be returning from Papua New Guinea soon. Pied
Monarch and Yellow-breasted Boatbill have been seen most days, often
late afternoon around the Platypus viewing area on Bushy Creek.
Lemon-bellied Flycatcher have been active in Geraghty Park whilst the
Pale-yellow Robin have at least two nests under construction in the
Lodge grounds. Bassian Thrush was around at the beginning of the week
but not at the end, which seems to becoming a pattern as this is the
third week in a row that this has happened. Metallic Starlings seem
to have stalled with their nest building efforts in Geraghty Park during the week, but are still around as
they have been coming into our water bowls to bathe. Still three
Chestnut-breasted Mannikin coming into the seed feeder along with 50+
Red-browed Finch.
Further
afield a Painted Snipe was reported from Mareeba and two male Golden
Bowerbird were seen on Mt. Lewis, these are chance sightings with
birds flying across the road.
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| Painted Snipe |
Also on Mt. Lewis two pair of Fernwren
were seen building nests. North of Mt. Carbine Del Richards from Fine
Feather Tours reported Black-throated Finch and Banded Honeyeater
both adults and juveniles. He also reported six Australian Pelican on
Hasties Swamp near Atherton which is unusual. We have seen them here
before when one was present on 26/6/2002 and again on 17/9/2008.
Striated Pardalote are nesting near Abattoir Swamp, this appears to
be a second nesting as they were using the same nest two months ago.
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| Striated Pardalote |
Blue-faced parrot-Finch are still in the area but are becoming harder
to find and maybe starting to retreat back into the mountains.
Mammals
and Reptiles this week were a bit quiet but we did see a Green
Ringtail Possum, Spectacled Flying-fox, Platypus, Long-nosed and
Brown Bandicoot on a night walk. A native Giant White-tailed Rat has started to appear at the feeder for the first time in several months, this is a tree rat who nest in tree hollows.
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| Giant White-tailed Rat |
A few Major Skink are still coming
out to enjoy the warmer weather and a few Eastern Water Dragon are
along Bushy Creek. Only White-lipped Tree Frog and Roth's Tree Frog
seen which reflects the extremely dry weather.
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| Giant White-lipped Tree Frog |
Some people say rainforests are dull and different shades of green but this is not true as this image of rainforest leaves proves.
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| Rainforest leaves |
