Only
9mm of rain fell at the end of the week continuing this very strange
dry “Wet Season” weather. So once again sunny warm days with the
minimum temperature again much the same as last week, down to 22.0ºc
and the maximum was a few degrees cooler, down to 31.6ºc.
Birds
recorded were 96 seen and 8 heard. 15 mammal and reptile species were
seen and two frogs heard. The weeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at this
link on Eremaea
Birds
Highlights:
Continued
sightings of Red-necked Crakes, two adults and three half grown
juveniles who have been seen in the rainforest behind the units and
out front of the units heading across the road by the reception area.
Five of the seven confirmed Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher nests
have fledged with youngsters seen and heard in the rainforest. The
other two nests with chicks in are not far off from fledging, judging by the noise coming from them and the parents perched nearby
trilling.
 |
| Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher - juvenile |
Three
Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo flew over Mt. Kooyong Road which were the
first for a few weeks. One Lewin's Honeyeater was seen at the
entrance to the Lodge grounds and was the first since one was heard
at the beginning of January.
Other
sightings:
Wetlands
along McDougall Road continue to hold low numbers of waterbirds with
only Magpie Goose, two Wandering Whistling-Duck, about 12 Pacific
Black Duck, Hardhead, two Little Black Cormorant and two Masked
Lapwing. Emerald Doves started calling this week which maybe a sign
that they are interested in breeding.
 |
| Emerald Dove - male |
Two
Pied Imperial Pigeon in Geraghty Park are still behaving like they
are going to nest but no sign of nesting material yet. No sightings
of Papuan Frogmouth in the orchard this week or any calling at night
but we did hear an Australian Owlet-nightjar calling one evening.
About 12 White-throated Needletail flew over the adjacent cane
paddock on Friday 17th and One Fork-tailed Swift was
flying over the same paddock paddock late on Wednesday 15th.
Several Black Bittern sightings were along McDougall road in seasonal
ponding beyond the Bushy Creek bridge, one took off and followed the
creek towards the Lodge. Four raptor species this week,
Black-shouldered Kite, White-bellied Sea-Eagle plus Whistling and
Black Kite. One Buff-banded Rail scooted across Mt. Kooyong Road and
into the Lodge grounds whist on a morning walk, did not stop to let
us know if it was “Katie” or not! A White-browed Crake was in one
of the lagoons along McDougall Road and was seen rather than has been
the case, only heard. Pale-vented Bush-hen have again been vocal but
shy on showing themselves, not enough rain to draw them out of the
long grass. A Pheasant Coucal was seen along Mt. Kooyong Road and a
male Eastern Koel was in our neighbours garden.
 |
| Eastern Koel - male |
A
few Channel-billed Cuckoo have been calling as they have flown over
but not it's not like previous years when flocks of birds passed
through heading north on migration at this time of year. We have had
up to 60 juvenile birds stop over for 2-3 weeks in February to feast
on fruiting figs in the past, maybe they are just late this year.
Little (Gould's) Bronze-Cuckoo and Brush Cuckoo are still around and
calling. Several Forest Kingfisher pairs have a few
juveniles/immatures they are feeding including this one in Geraghty
Park. Some of our guests unfamiliar with Australian Kingfishers have
mistaken them for Sacred Kingfisher because of the juveniles buffy parts, but of course sacred are green on
the upper body parts and forest are blue.
 |
| Forest Kingfisher - juvenile |
A
few Rainbow Bee-Eater were feeding in Geraghty Park and one adult
Dollarbird was calling at the beginning of the week after we said
that we thought they had left, fatal making those statements! Noisy
Pitta made a few calls over the week but did not show, maybe because
the grass in the orchard is long and needs mowing again after only a
week, it is growing faster than Bamboo. A female Lovely Fairy-wren
was seen in two different places, once in Geraghty Park and another
time alongside the adjacent cane paddock at the end of Mt. Kooyong
Road. Thirteen honeyeater species seen during the week with both
Macleay's and Blue-faced Honeyeater coming to the sugar water feeder.
Our neighbours have started to get Dusky Honeyeater come to their
feeder which is something they never do at our feeder. Also a Bridled
Honeyeater was down McDougall Road. Cicadabird are still with us and
calling well as are Grey Whistler who have been quiet for a few
months. Black Butcherbird has been seen regularly on most days,
lurking around in the rainforest. The Leaden Flycatcher nest in
Geraghty Park has three chicks in it and they are growing well with the
parents bringing a constant stream of insects to them. The
Magpie-lark chick, mentioned last week in a nest in Geraghty Park,
successfully fledged. Both Pied Monarch and Yellow-breasted Boatbill
have been calling and seen. Lemon-bellied Flycatcher have again been
along Mt. Kooyong Road and in Geraghty Park with at least four pairs
seen.
 |
| Lemon-bellied Flycatcher |
Horsfield's
Bushlark is still along McDougall Road which is the only location they
have been seen this year in our area. Egg shells are still appearing
under the Metallic Starling nests in Geraghty Park but there is
definitely less birds present than has been in previous weeks. Our
pair of Olive-backed Sunbird who were nesting have been seen with two
juvenile birds which is good news as they have a high predation rate.
Further
Afield:-
Another
trip to Cairns allowed us to spend a pleasant hour eating lunch and
watching the shorebirds in action as the tide came in. Nothing
spectacular here but good to have a refresher course on the waders. A
pair of Australian Pied Oystercatcher were loafing on their own
whilst the other birds were either feeding on the decreasing mud or
running along with the tide.
 |
| Australian Pied Oystercatcher |
Smaller
birds were Red-necked Stint, Lesser Sand Plover and Greater Sand
Plover, medium size birds were Great Knot, Terek Sandpiper,
Grey-tailed Tattler and Masked Lapwing whilst the larger birds were
Whimbrel, Eastern Curlew and Bar-tailed Godwit. There was also one
Crested Tern and many Silver Gull. Along the area between the
shoreline and the road were Varied Honeyeater, Magpie-lark, Willie
Wagtail, House Sparrow and Common Myna. Notably absent were Pied
Imperial Pigeon who were very obvious a few week previously, maybe
they have headed north. Full list on Eremaea
Birds site.
On
the way back from Cairns we called into to see Sue at Cassowary House
in Kuranda and afterwards returned to Julatten via the alternative
route along the unsealed Black Mountain Road. It is a four
wheel drive/high clearance vehicle road as there are some high whooboys
(high piles of dirt across the road to direct water flows to the
side) and is quite narrow once it enters the Mowbray National Park
section. It is an interesting alternative route with good
opportunities to stop for birding. We did not stop as it was getting
late in the afternoon but we did see a mixed flock of Sulphur-crested
and Black-tailed Cockatoo in one of the pine plantations before we
got back into the rainforest. It took us an hour and twenty minutes
to get back to the Lodge this way, which is probably around 20
minutes longer in time but a shorter distance in kilometres than the
sealed route via Mareeba. Normally this road would be impassable at
this time of year if we had been having a “normal” wet season.
Two
juvenile Great Bowerbirds were accidentally disturbed on a property
along Euluma Creek Road, Julatten, whilst they were roosting 2m off
the ground on a vine overhanging a driveway. Also spotlighted here
was a roosting Azure Kingfisher and a 2.5-3m Amethystine Python who
was hanging around a small lagoon what for one of the many frogs
calling to hop past.
Other
Wildlife:-
This
bee was walking around on the ground in the rainforest and looks like
similar ones we have had before which were identified as Italian
Honey Bee, not sure if this is the same.
 |
| Bee sp. |
Also
at the beginning of last year (2011) we had a cluster of pupae on a
tree which were identified as a species of Oil Beetle, we have
revisited this ID and had a beetle expert look at the images and have
now found out they are not Oil Beetles but Acerogria
oriuda
from the big
beetle family Tenebrionidae, sorry no common name. Here are two
images to remind you of what they looked like.
 |
| Acerogria oriuda - pupae |
 |
| Acerogria oriuda - Hatching beetles |
No comments:
Post a Comment