Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

Birdwatchers Lodge in Far North Queensland 12th February 2012

2012-02-12T16:14:00.001+10:00

68mmof rain fell from Tuesday to Friday, 31mm fell in one big storm whichalso cut the power for five hours. Most rain fell late afternoon andovernight so the days were mainly dry and sunny, not the typical “WetSeason” weather. The minimum temperatures were again much the sameas last week down to 22.2ºc but the maximum was a few degrees warmerat 34.8ºc. This was the hottest day we have had in the 6½ years wehave been running the Lodge. Humidity was between 55% and 95%.

Birdsrecorded were 95 seen and 9 heard. 19 mammal and reptile species wereseen and two frogs heard. The weeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds

Highlights:

Asmall group of Varied Sittella, which we rarely record, were alongMcDougall Road in an area we had first seen them on 2^ndJanuary 2004, near the first lagoon on left. They are birds of thewoodland so we would not expect them in the Lodge but the habitatalong McDougall Road (within our 1.5km observation area) is ideal ifa little sparse due to clearing. They are more common back towardsMt. Molloy at Abattoir Swamp and nearby Wessels Road. NorthernFantail was around in our neighbours garden for a second week, not aspecies you would associate with the rainforest but they haveappeared in and around this habitat during the last 18 months. Mustbe a reflection of the relatively dry period over this time framewhich makes it feel like their normal woodland habitat.

Northern Fantail

A mammalhighlight was a Musky Rat Kangaroo which shot through the rainforestone morning. This is the first sighting of this mammal since we havebeen here and possibly a first for the Lodge, hope it stays aroundand brings a few mates.

Othersightings:

WanderingWhistling-Duck flew over the Lodge ground calling late one afternoonheading towards the wetlands along McDougall Road. Low numbers ofwaterbird are still along this road, they include Magpie Goose,Pacific Black Duck, Hardhead, Australasian Grebe, Little Pied andLittle Black Cormorant and a pair of Comb-crested Jacana with atleast two chicks. Brown Cuckoo-Dove were back after a few weeks awayand a pair of Pied Imperial Pigeon were making a nest high up in aQueensland Blue Gum in Geraghty Park. This is quite late in theseason to be nesting, last year a pair had young in the nest at thebeginning of February before Cyclone Yasi blew it away. Small flocksof up to 14 Topknot Pigeon are still around the orchard and BushyCreek. Our female Papuan Frogmouth continues to hide from us and onlymake one appearance this week. Australian Owlet-nightjar was heardcalling early one morning from the direction of its daytime roost butby the time we got to check it out it started to rain and the birdretreated back into its hollow. A Black Bittern was flushed from asmall wet season lagoon near the Bushy Creek bridge along McDougallRoad and was the first seen for nine weeks along here. A few CattleEgret were also along here for the second week since returning. Weeven had three raptors this week, a pair of Black-shouldered and aWhistling Kite again along McDougall Road plus two White-belliedSea-Eagle flew over Geraghty Park just after nightfall as we werespotlighting our way to a residents meeting in the hall (also saw apair of Easter Barn Owl ).

Whistling Kite

Red-necked Crake have also been showingwell this week, a pair with their three juveniles were foraging in awater run off drain behind the units one afternoon, an adult was seenfrom our bedroom window one morning calling and making its waythrough the rainforest, also in this same area an adult called atexactly 3.00am and woke us up, spooky. If you want to see some photosof the crakes and chicks check out Ian Montgomery's excellent web site as he has photos taken at theLodge last week. APale-vented Bush-hen was seen along Bushy Creek near the Platypusviewing area where it flew across the creek and walked through therainforest giving glimpses as it moved along the bank calling. AnAustralian Bustard was displaying in a paddock alongside the RexHighway and seen in the same location the next day, probably the samebird that has been reported over at least the past six months aroundJulatten. Afew Scaly-breasted Lorikeet are still in the area along with a fewDouble-eyed Fig-Parrot. Four cuckoos were recorded with PheasantCoucal, Eastern Koel and Little Bronze-Cuckoo heard and Brush Cuckooseen, including a juvenile.

Brush Cuckoo - juvenile

Buff-breastedParadise-Kingfisher are calling in the vicinity of their nests withat least one nest having fledged, another five have birds almostready to fledge and one has only just hatched chicks. This pair ofbirds were late last year, about two weeks after the rest hadfledged. When the chicks are first out of the nest they tend to gohigh into the rainforest canopy to be fed making them difficult tospot but after a while when they are flying well they come down lowerand easily seen as they perch waiting for the next meal. ForestKingfisher were seen feeding two juveniles along Mt. Kooyong Roaddown towards the nursing home from the Lodge. A few RainbowBee-Eaters flew over the Lodge and only one juvenile Dollarbird wasseen, no sign of any adults. Also no sign of Noisy Pitta not even acall, so we can assume that their nest was unsuccessful for thesecond time, would like to be proved wrong! Spotted Catbird (Clements hasthis as a sub-species of Green Catbird now) have been very vocal inthe dawn chorus but quiet for the rest of the day. Scarlet Honeyeaterwere back around with one heard in the Lodge grounds and a pair seenin Geraghty Park, they were one of 11 species of honeyeater recorded.This Graceful Honeyeater was foraging along Bushy Creek.

Graceful Honeyeater

ACicadabird male was seen feeding a juvenile at the entrance to theLodge, the juvenile has a very spotted breast unlike the female whohas barring on the breast. The first image has the juvenile just taken an insect from the male who had smashed it against the branch to make sure it was dead and the second image shows the breast patterning of the juvenile.

Cicadabird - black/grey male and juvenile

Cicadabird - juvenile

GreyWhistler have been around the grounds but have stopped calling makingthem even more difficult to track down. Australasian Figbird have been sharing a fig tree in Geraghty Park with Metallic Starlings, this one is having a break from mouthfuls of red figs.

Australasian Figbird - male

Black Butcherbird, mainly animmature bird, has been around calling and catching frogs. A RufousFantail was at the bottom end of McDougall Road and has probably comedown off the nearby mountains, a bit too early for southern migrants?A pair of Leaden Flycatcher have been feeding at least two, possibly three chicks ina nest in Geraghty Park, this image shows the female bringing in food to the nest which is about 15m from the ground.


Leaden Flycatcher - female

A Magpie-larks nest previously reported, also in Geraghty Park,has a very large chick just about to fledge as this image shows, the bird is perched on the rim of the nest which is also about15m from the ground.

Magpie-lark - chick

Lemon-belliedFlycatcher numbers have increased with sightings along Mt. KooyongRoad and Geraghty Park. A Horsfield's Bushlark was once again seen along McDougall Road, an uncommon sighting in our area. Metallic Starling numbers have decreased butthey are still nesting and building new nests. We did observe severalsmall flocks of starlings heading north one morning whilst alongEuluma Creek Road in Julatten. Our nesting Olive-backed Sunbird haveleft their nest but we have not seen any juvenile birds unlike ourneighbours pair who still have juveniles with the after about amonth.

FurtherAfield:-

Stillplenty of Black Kite along the road from Mt. Molloy to Mareeba. TheBrady Road lagoon north of Mareeba has dried back a little and nowhas more birds on it, four species of egret – Eastern Great,Intermediate, Little and Cattle in breeding plumage.

Little, Intermediate and Cattle Egret

Therewere also both Straw-necked and Australian White Ibis, Hardhead,Pacific Black Duck, Magpie Goose and an Australian Hobby swoopingoverhead.A full list can be found on the Eremaea Birds website

Reptilesand Mammals:-

TheFawn-footed Melomys have been down at our neighbours house gettingstuck into the seeds collected from the Metallic Starling nests inGeraghty Park, better that than chewing our car electrics!Yellow-footed Antichinus has been around this week climbing up ontothe feeder near the reception to feast on banana. Striped Possum wasagain in our neighbours garden and only one Northern Brown Bandicoothas regularly been coming to the feeder at night. A Long-nosedBandicoot was seen in Geraghty Park. Frogs have been surprisinglyquiet this week despite the rain with only Roth's and Cogger's Frogshowing plus Dainty Green Tree Frog and Northern Dwarf Tree Frogheard. Tube-nosed Bat were heard and seen as were Boyd's ForestDragon, Eastern Water Dragon shown loafing on a log in Bushy Creek and several Major Skink.

Eastern Water Dragon

Otherhappenings:-

Workon the bunkhouse has progressed with some structural timber andinternal paneling replaced. The roof has been relaid outside and awningsfitted to the windows to keep any rain out. Newcurtains are also being fitted. This work should be finished by theend of February, then we have a student group using it for the wholeof March. It should be open for bookings at the beginning of April,weather permitting.

Birdwatchers Lodge in Far North Queensland 5th February 2012

2012-02-05T16:13:00.001+10:00

Quickupdate on knee – walking around normally now and have OK fromspecialist but have to reassess how it is going in three months forany further work on it.

Meanwhilewe had 24mm of rain and big winds at the end of the week causing atree to fall onto our bedroom roof, little damage and tree now sawnup into logs! The minimum temperatures were much the same as lastweek down to 22.9ºc but the maximum was a few degrees warmer at32.1ºc , humidity was down to 66% and up to 95%.

Birdsrecorded were less, due to the inclement weather and restrictedwalking distance at the beginning of the week, with only 87 seen and12 heard. 18 mammal and reptile species were seen and three (frogs)heard which was a lower than normal number due to no night walks. Theweeks bird list is on the EremaeaBirds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds

Highlights:

Asmall group of seven Cattle Egret returned and were found foraging in apaddock along McDougall Road, they had been absent for five weeks.Red-necked Crake parents are still looking after their three juvenileoffspring and have been seen several times, heading across roads andbathing.

Othersightings:

Waterbirdsare still scarce in the area with only Pacific Black Duck, Little andLittle Black Cormorant plus Intermediate and Cattle Egret seen earlyin the week but right at the end Magpie Goose, WanderingWhistling-Duck, Hardhead and a Comb-crested Jacana turned up. Wompooand Superb Fruit-Dove were only heard whilst only one Pied ImperialPigeon was reported along with at least 50 Topknot Pigeon sitting high up in a Blue Quondong tree.

Topknot Pigeon

Our femalePapuan Frogmouth was only found once roosting in the orchard on theedge of the rainforest. Three raptors were seen, Black-shoulderedKite, White-bellied Sea-Eagle and Whistling Kite. A lone Buff-bandedRail was foraging on the lawn out the front of the nearby BarramundiFarm and two Pale-vented Bush-hen were in our neighbours garden. Afew Scaly-breasted Lorikeet were feeding on flowering Queensland BlueGum in Geraghty Park and two Double-eyed Fig-Parrot flew over theLodge grounds. A single Channel-billed Cuckoo was perched in a treealong Mt. Kooyong Road and probably contemplating the trip north toPapuan New Guinea/Indonesia which should be taking place very soon.Sooty Owl and Eastern Barn Owl were only heard due again to nospotlighting. Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher now have sevenconfirmed nests with another two unsure but still with birds in thevicinity of nest mounds. A few Rainbow Bee-Eater have been foragingin Geraghty Park and a very recently fledged Dollarbird was perchedin the Lodge grounds looking very bewildered, wondering what to donext. One Noisy Pitta was seen in the orchard and heard calling ontwo other occasions but no sign of any juveniles. There was areported 1.5m Red-bellied Black Snake in the vicinity of the nest,lets hope it did not predate the chicks. Red-backed Fairy-wren werealong McDougall Road and Lovely Fairy-wren were in our neighboursgarden.

Red-backed Fairy-wren - male

Large-billed Gerygone were again at their nest over BushyCreek at the beginning of the week but not seen there towards theend, so we are not sure how the chicks have fared. Nine species ofhoneyeater were seen and one, Scarlet, heard. Macleay's andBlue-faced Honeyeater along with Graceful and Yellow-spotted Honeyeater areall now regulars at the feeder by reception. Barred Cuckoo-shrikewere around at the end of the week and a pair of Cicadabird wereforaging in Geraghty Park and calling around the Lodge.

Cicadabird - female

SpangledDrongo continue to have their offspring following them around and aWillie Wagtail was foraging in the orchard, something they have notbeen doing for several months. Leaden Flycatcher have been callingaround the grounds as have Black-faced Monarch. The SpectacledMonarch nest beside Bushy Creek, mentioned last week, had two chicks being fed by theadults on Saturday morning but by the afternoon they had fledged and were being fed near the nest.

Magpie-lark in Geraghty Park were still sitting on a nest, this female was perched nearby as the male sat.

Magpie-lark - female

Pied Monarch have a veryrecently fledged juvenile following them around and it was on hand toget its photo taken. This is the youngest Pied Monarch that we havefound and a plumage stage that is little reported.

Pied Monarch - juvenile

SeveralLemon-bellied Flycatcher were on the edge of the Lodge grounds alongMt. Kooyong Road foraging in a Queensland Blue Gum; not too manyaround at the moment. The Metallic Starling colony in Geraghty Parklost 5-6 nests due to the high winds with at least two containingchicks. One nest had two chicks in and was upside down, we turned itover with the entrance hole upright and out popped two chicks whowere almost ready to fledge. They flapped off along the ground and the parents came down to feed them. Our Olive-backed Sunbird is still sitting on itsnest with the chicks near fledging, the location is quite safe from predators hanging off the safety chain in the gas bottle compound.

Olive-backed Sunbird nest

FurtherAfield:-

Stilla surprising number of Black Kite along the road from Mt. Molloy toMareeba. An unfortunate juvenile Pacific Baza was picked up deadalong Euluma Creek Road in Julatten. It had a broken neck and will belodged with the Queensland Museum in Townsville. A report of anesting Satin Flycatcher in Mareeba has to be confirmed, if it is one then this will be a significant breeding record this far north inAustralia.

Reptilesand Mammals:-

Highlightfor the week was the previously mentioned Red-bellied Black Snakewhich was on the path to the orchard before it shot off into therainforest at 100kph! We rarely see this snake around the grounds.Yellow-footed Antichinus was around again this week raiding the Mangoon the feeder and running along the veranda outside the units. GiantWhite-tailed Rat was at the feeder late in the week and StripedPossum was seen in our neighbours garden. Bandicoot numbers seem tohave decreased with only one Long-nosed and a couple of NorthernBrown Bandicoot seen.

Long-nosed Bandicoot

No Platypus sightings this week in Bushy Creek,probable due to the fast flowing murky water making observingdifficult. A few small Major Skink were around but no sign of thelarger adults.

Major Skink - immature

There were however several Eastern Water Dragon lounging around on a few fallen logs, no doubt resting after too much celebrating for the Chinese New Year of the Dragon!

Eastern Water Dragon

29th January 2012 Report

2012-01-29T15:32:00.000+10:00

Ashortened week due to having to go into Cairns for a knee operationfor two days. Knee appears to be coming along OK but it will curtailmost birding activity for a few more days.

70mmof rain over the week and a big thunderstorm, which we missed being in Cairns,knocked the power out for six hours one night. Temperatures were much the sameas last week 22.5ºc to 29.4ºc with the humidity 77% to 95%.

Birdsrecorded were less due to the reduced effort on our part, but ourneighbours Carol and Andrew were out and about recording the birds inour area which kept the numbers up to a respectable 84 seen and ahigh 14 heard. 21 mammal and reptile species were seen and one heard, thanks to James Cook University (JCU) students who were camped here for boosting this number.The weeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds

Highlights:

TwoRed-necked Crake with three chicks bathing in a pool beside theorchard, they were very flighty and took cover at the slightestmovement. Great to see three chicks again this year, hope they allsurvive. Olive-backed Sunbird at our neighbours fledged two chicks atthe end of the week and they seem to have survived longer than thelast two they tried raising. Our sunbirds are still sitting on their nest.

Othersightings:

Waterbirdnumbers were again down this week with birds spread out over thepermanent and temporary wetlands formed by the “wet season”rains. Only a few Magpie Goose, Pacific black Duck, Hardhead, anAustralasian Darter, Little Pied and Little Black Cormorant, EasternGreat, Intermediate and Little Egret plus a White-faced Heron and acouple of Australian White Ibis.

Pacific Black Duck

Topknot Pigeon were back with atleast 50 foraging around the edge of the orchard at the end of theweek. A few Pied Imperial-Pigeon were seen and both Wompoo and SuperbFruit-Dove heard. No sighting of our female Papuan Frogmouth for the week, she had been roosting in one of our fruit trees as this image shows, trying to look like one of the dead leaves.

Papuan Frogmouth

andonly one raptor sighting, a Whistling Kite. Several Buff-banded Railwere seen but not “Katie” who seems to have found new pastures.Spotless Crake was heard along McDougall Road where a dead one wasfound on a barbed wire fence a few weeks ago. Pale-vented Bush-henare certainly getting excited with the rain and are calling a lot andeven showing themselves along Mt. Kooyong Road on rare occasions.Pheasant Coucal have also been calling and sitting on fence posts butall the other cuckoos have only been heard, Eastern Koel,Channel-billed, Little (Gould's)-Bronze and Brush Cuckoo.

Pheasant Coucal

AzureKingfisher was along Bushy Creek and our Buff-breastedParadise-Kingfisher now have six confirmed nests with chicks in.Another nest with chicks is in our neighbours garden. Several RainbowBee-eater passed over the Lodge late in the week and Dollarbird havestarted to call again. Noisy Pitta have been seen in the orchardcollecting food and flying into the rainforest, so it would appearthey are feeding chicks in a nest. Unfortunately we found a deadNoisy Pitta outside one of our two bedroom units. It had been pickedclean with only a few primary feathers showing the green edging andwhite wing marking plus a few loose turquoisefeathers allowing the skeleton to be identified. It was probably oneof the juveniles from this year. Spotted Catbird have been perchingin the rainforest and calling intensely, mainly early morning butoften throughout the day, they really put a lot of effort into theircalls. They have also been coming to the water bowls as this one is.

Spotted Catbird

Fairy Gerygone are calling and flitting around high up in the trees but this female came down low before fleeing to the higher rainforest canopy.

Fairy Gerygone - female

Scarlet Honeyeater were heard for the first time in threeweeks and Blue-faced plus Macleay's Honeyeater have returned to thenectar feeders.

Blue-faced Honeyeater

Also coming to the water bowls are Yellow-faced Honeyeater. It really is worth putting out a few water bowls as birds will come in even if it is pouring with rain!

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Male Cicadabird has been calling and flying aroundthe Lodge grounds for brief glimpses. White-breasted Woodswallow arestill perching on fences along McDougall Road along with AustralianPipit and a few Metallic Starling, all appear to be feeding on theroad but could not see anything resembling suitable food. Black-facedMonarch are still calling from several locations around the groundsand must be sitting on nests as they have been calling from the samespot for several weeks. The Spectacled Monarch reported last weeknesting alongside Bushy Creek is still sitting but has chicks in thenest now. Pied Monarch and Yellow-breasted Boatbill have both beenshowing and calling. Metallic Starling are still collecting nestingmaterial and building more nests as they have been doing since earlyAugust last year. There are more starlings around this year than anyof the previous six years and they show no sign of letting up withtheir breeding; probably trying to make up for last year when CycloneYasi cut short their breeding season. Still plenty of Blue-faced Parrot-Finch on Mt Lewis.

FurtherAfield:-

Wemanaged to fit in some birding during our trip to Cairns and visitedYorkey's Knob Lagoon, Cattana Wetlands, Centenary Lakes (CairnsBotanic Gardens) and of course the Cairns Esplanade. Yorkey's KnobLagoon was full to almost overflowing with very few birds in thearea, the highlight was a Crimson Finch who came to investigate usand sat outside our car looking in. The only waterbird was anAustralasian Darter.

Australasian Darter

Cattana Wetlands was a bit more productive witha few more waterbirds and some bush birds. Green Pygmy-goose, MagpieGoose, Little Pied Cormorant and Australian Grebe were on the waterwhilst the most prominent bush bird was Black Butcherbird lurkingaround in the mangroves along the board walk. The presence of so manybutcherbirds was probably the reason we saw fewer numbers of smallerbirds. Cattana Wetland is well worth a visit whilst in Cairns, abrochure with species list can be downloaded from the BirdLifeAustralia NQ websitehttp://www.birdsaustralianq.org/pdfs/Cattana_Wetlands_No_33.pdf.Centenary Lakes was as good as ever with Black Bittern, RajahShelduck, Comb-crested Jacana and Bush Stone-curlew amongst the 27species we saw in just over an hour. The visit to the CairnsEsplanade was cut short by a rain storm but it made little differenceas the tide was extremely high (highest for the year) with few birdsvisible. Another visit had the tide way out which also did not helpfinding waders. We did manage to see Eastern Reef Egret, Lesser SandPlover, Masked Lapwing, Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Eastern Curlew,Grey-tailed Tattler, Great Knot and Red-necked Stint.

Great Knot

There were manymore birds we could have seen but we did not have the scope. On landthere was the reliable Varied Honeyeater, lots of Pied ImperialPigeon plus Rainbow Lorriket and Metallic Starling coming in to roostin trees along the Esplanade. The complete species list from ourvisits can be viewed on the EremaeaBirds site. Another search for Buff-breasted Button-quail southof Mt. Molloy, by one of our guests, failed to find any birds; the habitat here is becomingunsuitable with the grass becoming taller with the rains.

Reptilesand Mammals:-

Afew interesting reptiles and mammals this week, JCU students heard Marbled Frog Limnodynastes convexiusculusa species we have not knowingly heard before, certainly not recordedone here in six years. Maybe we have been overlooking them as theyhave been recorded in the past. Queensland Tube-nosed Bat with theirdistinctive whistling call were heard by our neighbours, not one wehave heard very often. Yellow-footed Antichinus have been activeduring the day with one coming to the feeder to enjoy some mango.Striped Possum was heard and seen once and a Platypus was seenwhizzing along under the Bushy Creek bridge on the Mt. Kooyong Road. On nearby Mt. Lewis the JCU students spotlighted a Daintree River Ringtail possum which usually occurs at higher altitudes than the Lodge. They are said to come down to 420m (we are 450m) but normally they are found on Mt. Lewis above 800m and are found in greater densities at higher altitudes (above 1000m). Information from "The Mammals of Australia" 3rd Edition. Steve Van Dyck and Ronald Strahan.

Daintree River Ringtail

22nd January 2012 Report

2012-01-22T09:55:00.000+10:00

Aweek with lots of rain after a week with none, we had 93mm for theweek spread over the 7 days. The majority fell overnight with a fewshowers during the day but still allowed birding time in the dry.

Thetemperatures were pretty consistent throughout the week with theminimums ranging from 22.0ºc to 22.7ºc and during the day were upto 32.3ºc at the beginning of the week but for the rest they werebetween 26.3ºc to 28.7ºc which was quite pleasant. Humidity washigh with all the rain from 78% to 87% minimum and between 92% to 96%for the maximum.

Therewere actually more birds recorded this week than last despite therain. Waterbirds numbers were down but a few more raptors were aroundwith five species seen; totals were 100 seen, 8 heard. 18 mammal andreptile species were seen, 3 heard and one found dead. The weeks birdlist is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlights:

Alone Black-necked Stork was in the first lagoon along McDougall Roadlate one afternoon. Red-necked Crake was foraging before having abath in a pool beside the orchard for over 10 minutes and twoPale-vented Bush-hen chasing each other around on our neighbourslawn. A neighbour across the Rex Highway reported a lone Australian Bustard in their front paddock; we get several reports of a lone bustard around the Julatten area every year. 34 Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo flying over late in the week mustbe the most we have seen in the Lodge area and a Northern Fantailsurprised us when it was heard calling in Geraghty Park late in theweek. This is the first record for 11 weeks.

Northern Fantail

Asingle Horsfield's Bushlark seen along McDougall Road is an uncommonbird in the area with only two previous records in the last sixyears.

Othersightings:

BrownQuail were calling along McDougall Road and two flew out of longgrass beside the road for good views. A few waterbirds were stillpresent in the McDougall Road lagoons but only one or two of eachspecies such as Hardhead, Australasian Grebe, Australasian Darter,Little Pied and Little Black Cormorant, Eastern Great Egret andComb-crested Jacana. The second swamp has been taken over by frogsand dragonfly's! The female Papuan Frogmouth made two appearances inthe orchard during the week and was heard calling during a rain stormone evening. Raptors were again hard to find but a few made a showingin the area, Black-shouldered Kite, White-bellied Sea-Eagle,Whistling and Black Kite plus a Brown Falcon. A pair of Double-eyedFig-Parrot were in a Queensland Blue Gum tree in the camping area. Amale Pheasant Coucal was perched on a fence post along Mt. KooyongRoad calling for over 30 minutes for no apparent reason – no othercoucals in the vicinity. Eastern Koel fired up with the rain andstarted calling for most of the week and at least two Channel-billedCuckoo were around. We should start to see these cuckoos passingthrough on northward migration soon. Brush Cuckoo were also callingand dropping in a few “referee whistle” calls. Sooty Owl wereonly heard this week on several occasions and Eastern Barn Owl wereseen hunting along the Rex Highway one night.

Thegood news is that at least four of our Buff-breastedParadise-Kingfisher nests have chicks in, we found eggshells outsideof them and heard the chicks calling from inside. One nest had threeeggshells outside the others had two. There are at least four othernests with adults sitting but no sign of hatching as yet. We have at least 45 termite mounds in the Lodge grounds and at least 8 have nests in them. Late News! One more nest had two chicks hatch Saturday night with two eggshells found Sunday morning, that is five with chicks so far.

Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher - entering nest to feed chicks

Nomore sightings of Rainbow Bee-eater over the lodge his week but a feware still along McDougall Road. Dollarbird numbers seem to be less atthe moment with only a couple sighted and our Noisy Pitta have beennot so noisy this week and only showing a couple of times. They areprobably sitting on eggs by now as they appear to have finished nestbuilding. Spotted Catbird have been having a feast in our orchard asthey are getting stuck into the fruit of a Soursop tree. This is alarge fruit which can weigh over 6kg's but they rarely get that bighere as the Spectacled Fly-fox get into them at night and the catbirdcleans up during the day. We are quite happy for them to have thefruit as it is not to our tastes. Lovely Fairy-wren were again heardlate afternoon in some bamboo along Bushy Creek where we suspect theygo to roost. Large-billed Gerygone continue to attend a nest hangingover Bushy Creek near the Platypus viewing area and should be feedingchicks by now.

Large-billed Gerygone

Ten species of honeyeater were recorded with the rainyweather hindering their attempts to get nectar from the trees theyhave started coming back to the feeders. Yellow-spotted, Graceful,Yellow, Blue-faced and Macleay's Honeyeater were all seen at feeders.The rain has also started the Macleay's Honeyeater to come under theveranda to roost in the dry, this one was perched on a chair by themammal feeding area beside the reception.

Macleay's Honeyeater

Asub-adult Black Butcherbird has been around and has started to changeout of it's juvenile brown plumage into it's black adult plumage. Atleast two pairs of Spangled Drongo have juveniles in tow who havebeen constantly begging for food. The Black-faced Monarch we havebeen chasing on the edge of the orchard for the last few weeks isstill sitting on its nest and calling like a few others we have foundin the area. One was even calling in the middle of the night on twodifferent occasions. A pair of Spectacled Monarch are sitting on anest precariously close to Bushy Creek, hope the creek does not floodand wash the nest away as happened a few years ago. Both Pied Monarchand Yellow-breasted Boatbill have been calling and showing well afterhiding for a few weeks. Olive-backed Sunbird at our neighbours housenow have two chicks in their nest while ours are investigating theirnest and sitting in it, not sure if they have laid yet.

Olive-backed Sunbird - Female

Large flocksof Chestnut-breasted Mannikin have been around the local paddocksincluding those along McDougall Road which also had at least 12Australian Pipit perching on fence posts. The mannikin flocks had alot of juveniles mixed in with the adults but quite often we haveseen juveniles form flocks of their own.

Chestnut-breasted Mannikin

FurtherAfield:-

Asearch for Buff-breasted Button-quail this week only turned upPainted Button-quail near Mt. Molloy. The Brady Road lagoon 4kmnorth of Mareeba has now filled to overflowing and only had threeAustralian Grebe on it with 80+ Plumed Whistling-Duck flying in toland in an adjacent cow paddock whilst we were there mid-week.Another nearby lagoon had 2000+ Magpie Goose in it with a fewStraw-necked Ibis but no other waterbirds. This is just a small section of them.

Magpie Goose

There was also asurprising number of Black Kite between Mt. Molloy and Mareeba at atime when most of these kites have gone further inland to breed, wemust have seen close on 30 birds. One of the local Japanese tourguides, Ota, showed us an image taken on his mobile phone of aPeaceful Dove nest which was built on the rear windscreen wiper of acar parked at the Cairns Airport. Don't hold out much hope of thisnest being successful. One white-tailed Needletail swooped down andwas nearly collected by our car in Mt Molloy on Saturday morning. Mt. Lewis is still good for Blue-faced Parrot-Finch with 20+ seen this week however with the rain we have had it is best to check the road conditions if going up to the 10km clearing.

Reptilesand Mammals:-

Frogsgot excited with the rain and started calling, those heard but notseen were Striped marsh Frog, Roth's Frog and Dainty Green Tree Frog.Those seen were Jungguy Frog, White-lipped Tree Frog, Northern DwarfTree Frog, Cogger's Frog and Cane Toad. Boyd's Forest Dragon arestill around as are the Eastern Water Dragon. A Keelback snake wasfound run over along Mt. Kooyong Road near Bushy Creek. Only oneStriped Possum sighting which was in our neighbours garden. A GiantWhite-tailed Rat was back at the feeder this week and a Red-leggedPademelon was in a gully between the Lodge and our neighbours garden.Regulars at the seed feeder include Bush Rat

Bush Rat

and NorthernBrown Bandicoot.

Northern Brown Bandicoot

Hey no fungus this week!

15th January 2012 Report

2012-01-15T15:50:00.001+10:00

Aweek with no rain, which must be a record for January, and plenty ofsunshine providing great birding weather once again..

Thesunny days kept the maximum temperatures up on previous weeks,getting up to 32.4ºc and the minimum was down to 20.3ºc for oneday, the rest of the week was 1-3ºc higher. Humidity ranged from alow of 59% to a high of 92%.

Therewere less birds recorded this week than last due mainly to the lackof waterbirds and raptors, totals were 99 seen, 6 heard and one founddead. 19 mammal and reptile species were seen, 4 heard. The weeksbird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlights:

SeeingRed-necked Crake three times in one day, 11 Red-tailed Black Cockatooflying over mid-day and two (Lesser) Sooty Owl flying around onenight, one perched.

(Lesser) Sooty Owl

Three Papuan Frogmouth, two in our neighboursgarden whilst the third was calling in the Lodge grounds.

Othersightings:

Ajuvenile Orange-footed Scrubfowl was hiding in vegetation around thereception area trying to avoid the attention of adult birds who wereintent on chasing it away. Waterbird species were down in theMcDougall Road lagoons but still a few Magpie Goose, WanderingWhistling Duck, Pacific Black Duck, Hardhead, Australasian Darter,Little Pied and Little Black Cormorant. A Wompoo Fruit-Dove was heardbut not seen but a female Superb Fruit-Dove was perched out in theopen for good views. A few Pied Imperial Pigeon and Topknot Pigeonare still around. Australian Owlet-nightjar was seen in its daytimeroost and also flying through the Lodge grounds one night. A NankeenNight-Heron was foraging at the Crake Pool one afternoon and ascruffy looking Royal Spoonbill was hanging around the BarramundiFarm. As previously mentioned raptors were scarce this week with onlyBlack-shouldered Kite and Whistling Kite with a late addition, a GreyGoshawk late Saturday evening, which was disappointing after lastweek when we had eight species. The one sighting of a dead bird wasby reported on Birding-Aus by Phil Gregory from Cassowary House whofound a Spotless Crake caught on a barbed wire fence along McDougallRoad. We have been hearing them call along here quite often but thisis the first sighting for well over a year.

Spotless Crake

Pale-vented Bush-hen was seen along Bushy Creek from the Platypusviewing area late one afternoon, this was the only sighting despitemany pairs calling around the area. Bush Stone-curlew were inGeraghty Park calling at night but they did not venture into theLodge grounds as they had been doing. Double-eyed Fig-Parrot wereseen several times in the Lodge grounds, once in a eucalypt tree andcalling whilst flying over on several occasions. Cuckoo were againcalling and most showing well, good views of Pheasant Coucal,Channel-billed Cuckoo, Little (Gould's) Bronze-Cuckoo and BrushCuckoo. Eastern Koel was heard only. Eastern Barn Owl werearound calling and at least three were seen. Buff-breastedParadise-Kingfisher are still showing well and calling nearly allday. Several have been seen coming out of their termite nests and areprobably sitting on eggs. Laughing Kookaburra have also been noisythis week as they are feeding recently fledged birds, one was seendevouring a Jungguy Frog Litoria jungguy.Blue-winged Kookaburra have also been calling in Geraghty Park butdon't appear to have any youngsters. Rainbow Bee-eater actually madeit to the Lodge with a small flock flying over, they have been in thearea for over a month but not recorded at the Lodge. Dollarbird aregetting around with at least one juvenile and Noisy Pitta haveretired into the rainforest, hopefully on their second nest attempt.Lovely Fairy-wren have been heard in bamboo along Bushy Creek in thelate afternoon and maybe roosting here.

Large-billed Gerygone

Large-billed Gerygone have built a nest over Bushy Creek at the Platypus viewing area and probably have eggs at the moment. The nest below is made to look like flood debris.

Large-billed Gerygone - nest

Lewin's Honeyeater has alsobeen heard in the grounds which is unusual for this time of year.

Lewin's Honeyeater

Brown-backed Honeyeater continue to attend a nest in Geraghty Park. Afew Barred Cuckoo-shrike are still around and showing well whentracked down from their calls. Cicadabird is also still calling andflying around the grounds. White-breasted Woodswallow have appearedin greater numbers this week with 34 perched on a fence alongMcDougall Road. One pair of Spangled Drongo are flying around with ajuvenile whilst another pair are still sitting on their nest. LeadenFlycatcher were seen feeding a juvenile and that odd Black-facedMonarch (previously mentioned) was found sitting on a nest about 20mup in the rainforest. At the moment we are trying to see its mate thecheck out the plumage to see if there is any differences. PiedMonarch has started to call and be seen more often this week, twowere bathing in Bushy Creek one late afternoon. Yellow-breastedBoatbill is also calling and being seen more often as well.Pale-yellow Robin are also feeding juveniles, this one was awaitingits next feed while the parent was having a rest.

Pale-yellow Robin - Adult and Juvenile

Pale-yellow Robin - Juvenile calling for food

TheOlive-backed Sunbird have finished building their nest which ishanging from a safety chain around a gas bottle.

Red-browedFinch are still churning out many juveniles who are coming to thefeeder by the reception.

FurtherAfield:-

Thetrack opposite Sides Road has not had Blue-faced Parrot-Finch therefor at least three months but it is still turning up interestingbirds. At the end of last week a Barking Owl was found dead along thetrack and this week the culprit was found, a Rufous Owl which wasseen clutching a Striped Possum. Rufous Owl are known for killingother owls so there is a good chance that it did kill the BarkingOwl, they also put Striped Possum high on their menu. One reason weare glad we don't have a resident Rufous Owl although we havesightings of birds most years as they pass through.

Rufous Owl

Mowbray NationalPark at Julatten is always an interesting area and worth visiting;this week it turned up 100+ Red-tailed Black Cockatoo,Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo and an egg shell outside a Buff-breastedParadise-Kingfisher nest. This kingfisher is more advanced than ours.Mt. Lewis continues to host good numbers of Blue-faced Parrot-Finchwith 20+ reported at the “clearing”, also an Azure Kingfisher wasat the miners dam which is at 950m.

Reptilesand Mammals:-

Ourneighbours reported a Slaty Grey snake under their house early in theweek, not a snake we see very often. A Green Tree Snake was also seenin the orchard, harmless to us but not to the frogs! Only one StripedPossum sighting, again in our neighbours garden in a Banana plant. ARed-legged Pademelon (small rainforest kangaroo) was sitting by theCrake Pool one afternoon, good that this one is staying around. Ithas been around for a few months now but usually only seen at night.Two Platypus were seen in Bushy Creek late one afternoon and a singleone seen most days. Frogs have not been showing but have been callingwhen they think rain is coming but it did not come this week. JungguyFrog and Cogger's Frog were the only two species seen.

Cogger's Frog

Boyd's ForestDragon have been active and obliging as they have been running aroundand perching on the side of trees for great views. Major Skink havealso been showing but being quite shy and not staying around forprolonged views.

OtherInteresting Sightings:

Fungiand Slime Mould, not too many around at the moment with the dryweather. The slim mould looks like the one pictured in Bruce Fuhrer's book A field guide to Australian Fungi P344.

Coprinellus disseminatus. ?

Slim Mould Ceratiomyxa fruiticulosa

8th January 2012 Report

2012-01-08T11:19:00.001+10:00

Thefirst day of the year saw us doing a fun Big Day, there is a separateaccount at the end of this weeks report.

Theweeks rainfall was only 10mm falling on three days of the week,mainly at night. The rest of the week was glorious sunshine providinggreat birding weather. Maximumtemperatures were slightly down on last week, getting up to 30.8ºcand the minimum was down to a pleasant 19.0ºc, again lower than lastweek. Humidity ranged from a low of 60% to a high of 94%.

Therewere more birds recorded this week than last due to a greater effortresulting in 112 seen and 5 heard. 21 mammal and reptile species wereseen. The weeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlights: Could you call a House Sparrow a highlight? Well two male birds seenat the Barramundi Farm were the first records for our 1.5km list,probably were truck assisted. They are in all the major towns aroundthe Atherton Tableland and also on the coast, hope no female birdsmake it here! Square-tailed Kite was a good addition to the weekslist when one soared over the tree tops in the camping area at theend of the week.

Othersightings:

CottonPygmy-goose were again along McDougall Road with two presentmid-week. Pied Imperial Pigeon were around with more seen than in previous weekswith at least four calling whilst perched in the Lodge grounds. A few Topknot Pigeonare still around but most of the local birds seem to have gone tohigher rainforest areas in the mountains such as Mt. Lewis. OurPapuan Frogmouth proved difficult to find again this week but it waslocated on the edge of the orchard one day and another day was furtherinto the rainforest in amongst a clump of leaves.

Papuan Frogmouth

AustralianOwlet-nightjar was perched at the entrance to its daytime roost atleast once early morning enjoying the sun. A few White-throatedNeedletail were overhead the Lodge grounds late on our Big Day,probably less than six. A Black-necked Stork was flying west overMcDougall Road late on Saturday afternoon.

Itwas a good week for raptors with eight species seen. Apart from thepreviously mentioned Square-tailed Kite we had a pair ofBlack-shouldered Kite along McDougall Road, Pacific Baza circlinghigh over the grounds calling with a Wedge-tailed Eagle below it,Whistling and Black Kite over Geraghty Park. Red-necked Crake showedat the Crake Pool both in the evening and morning most days and aBuff-banded Rail shot across a grassy path into the adjacent canefield (not “Katie” who we did not see this week). Pale-ventedBush-hen were again heard but not seen, calling all over the place!Three Red-tailed Black Cockatoo flew over the Lodge at the end of theweek calling, this is the normal time we expect to see a few birds inthe January-February period. Last year there were many sightingsthroughout the year which was unusual. This Sulphur-crested Cockatoo was looking for a nest site in this Queensland Blue Gum.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo

Asingle Double-eyed Fig-Parrot was seen in our neighbours gardenforaging in a Tobacco Bush. (Lesser) Sooty Owl was seen one morningas guests were leaving at 5.00am to go on a Daintreeriver trip, it flew past calling before going to roost. Buff-breastedParadise Kingfisher are still calling a lot, mainly from higher up inthe mid canopy and are probably in nests by now – still need tocheck them out. This time last year they were feeding young – theymust have know about the deluge that came at the end of January.Blue-winged Kookaburra are spending more time in Geraghty Park,calling early morning and late evening even after dark.Rainbow Bee-eater sightings for the last few weeks have been confinedto McDougall Road which seems to have an invisible barrier preventingthem from coming over the Lodge! Dollarbird have still been going totheir nest and feeding their nestlings. Noisy Pitta have been noisythis week with the pair who lost theirnestlings doing most of the calling. One morning one of thepair was up in a tree calling for over an hour, no sign of the otherpairs juveniles this week. Several pairs of Red-backed Fairy-wrenwere along McDougall Road perched on the fence wires. StriatedPardalote were seen in several locations around the edges of theLodge. Twelve species of honeyeater this week with both Bridled andScarlet seen along McDougall Road. Brown-backed Honeyeater arebuilding their third nest in the same tree in Geraghty Park, they arevery persistent. White-belliedand Barred Cuckoo-shrike have both been around the edge of the Lodgegrounds and into Geraghty Park.

White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike

A pair of Spangled Drongo with a neston the edge of the orchard have managed to produce at least oneoffspring, quite surprising as when on the nest the adult bird calledloudly for long periods. The two adults were seen near the nest witha juvenile bird half their size. Four Torresian Crow went over thegrounds heading towards the Barramundi Farm which is the most we haveseen together for sometime.

TheBlack-faced Monarch we tried to turn into a Black-winged Monarch lastweek was back around again and obligingly came down low for a fewmore images. From the second image you could be forgiven for thinking it was a Black-winged Monarch, Jeff Davies commented "that none of the greater coverts are black, normally a third to half are black". Jeff also said "I am concerned that the primaries and secondaries are a dark grey with narrow silver fringe this is also not what I would expect for a Black-winged Monarch which typically has solid black here normally and never a silver edge". If this is worn plumage we would have expected birds further south to have been reported with black wings, maybe they have? Thanks for your comments Jeff.

Black-faced Monarch

Magpie Lark were sitting on a nest in Geraghty Park anda Pied Monarch was seen in the Lodge grounds for the first time inseveral weeks. Yellow-breasted Boatbill started to call at the end ofthe week also for the first time in several weeks. Lemon-belliedFlycatcher were seen for a day before disappearing again. At last apair of Olive-backed Sunbird have started to build a nest in theLodge grounds, the first we know of in six years. They are alwaysaround but no nests found. At least six Australian Pipit have beenaround the area including several juveniles.

FurtherAfield:-

Mostof the reports can be found in the Big Day below. Additions include20-30 Blue-faced Parrot-Finch at the “clearing” on Mt. Lewis,this is the highest number reported this season. A Boobook Owl of theLurida sub-species was flushed from on the ground at the edgeof the road about 3-4km up from the Bushy Creek crossing by one ofour guests in the morning. The bird flew into a tree and perched forgood views, lucky guests as this is the first sighting for a longtime (over a year?). Other guests spotlighted on Mt. Lewis and founda (Lesser) Sooty Owl feeding a juvenile bird.

Reptilesand Mammals:-

BothGreen Ringtail and Striped Possum were seen in the grounds along witha Tree Mouse (Prehensile-tailed Rat). Fawn-footed Melomys andNorthern Broad-nosed Bat were in our neighbours property. Bush Ratand Northern Brown Bandicoot along with Giant White-tailed Rat werearound the feeder by reception most nights. Boyd's Forest Dragon are continuing to inhabit the area in front of the units.

Boyd's Forest Dragon

Platypus was seen severaltimes in Bushy Creek, late in the week two were seen. Eastern Water Dragon were ever present in Bushy Creek. Frogs wereconspicuously absent with only three species plus Cane Toad seen.Both Green and Brown Tree Snake were seen, the green in the orchardand the Brown in our neighbours garden.

OtherInteresting Sightings:

Yesmore fungi!

Fungi sp.

Kingfisher ParkBirdwatchers Lodge
Big Day 1^st January 2012

Onceagain it was the first day of another year and to start off our yearlist we were doing a Big Day for fun. No mad charging around thecountryside, just a laid back day of birdwatching, eating andrelaxing. A 6.30am start saw Keith, Lindsay and our two neighboursCarol and Andrew (who used to be the guides at the Lodge 10 years agobut are now independent bird guides) searching the Lodge grounds. Ourfirst surprise was a White-headed Pigeon flying over the adjacentcane field towards the hills, Pale-vented Bush-hen were also callinghere but not showing. Other good birds included Buff-banded Rail,Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher and Black-faced Monarch. Lindsayhad to leave us as guests had to be attended to. So the three of usheaded out to Geraghty Park where we found Pied Imperial Pigeon,Black Kite (a rarity of late) Barred Cuckoo-shrike, StriatedPardalote and Rufous Whistler. The weather looked threatening so wedecided to go up Mt. Lewis before it closed in. As we passed theBarramundi Farm a cry went out to stop as Carol though she washearing things – a House Sparrow! Sure enough a House Sparrow wasperched on top of a shed alongside the road, must have been truckassisted to get here! A first for the area for a species which is onthe coast but not normally up our part of the tablelands. After thisshock it was onto the lower slopes of Mt. Lewis, which producedSuperb Fruit-Dove, Double-eyed Fig-Parrot and a heard BlackButcherbird. The 10km area of the Mt. Lewis Road was very productiveas usual with Blue-faced Parrot-Finch the first bird we saw whengetting out of the car. Some other species encountered included BrownCuckoo-Dove, Emerald Dove, Topknot Pigeon, Tooth-billed Bowerbird,Fernwren building a nest, Yellow-throated and Atherton Scrubwren,Mountain Thornbill, Eastern Spinebill, Bridled Honeyeater,Chowchilla, Eastern Whipbird, Golden Whistler, Bower's Shrike-thrush,Grey-headed Robin and both Rufous and Grey Fantail. It was time tocome down off the mountain as a few spots of rain started to comedown. We had a half hour before the allotted lunch break so we headedback past the Lodge to McDougall Road, as always it put on a goodshow for us with plenty of waterbirds including Magpie Goose,Hardhead and Black-fronted Dotterel. Further down the road in thewooded area there were good views of Scarlet Honeyeater, GreyWhistler and Leaden Flycatcher before the rain started to pour downon cue for the lunch break.

Leaden Flycatcher - male

Afteran hours break we set off again stopping at Abattoir Swamp hoping tosee the reliable Northern Fantail in the car park but they were notshowing only calling, however we did add Lemon-bellied Flycatcher.Next stop was a small lagoon near Mareeba, here there were manywaterbirds allowing us to add Plumed Whistling-Duck, Grey Teal,Australasian Grebe, Eastern Great and Little Egret plus all threeIbis – Australian White, Straw-necked and Glossy. Overhead we hadgood views of Blue-winged Kookaburra. Time to turn around and headback towards Mt. Molloy with a few stops along the way. SeveralPurple Swamphen were in a small lagoon alongside the road and aWhite-faced Heron was beside the road just before we turned intoPickford Road at Biboorah. Quite a productive road with Pacific Bazafeeding a juvenile, Brown Goshawk, Nankeen Kestrel, Red-wingedParrot, Pale-headed Rosella and Yellow Honeyeater. More waterbirds toadd to the tally were found on Lake Mitchell, Black Swan, threeBlack-necked Stork, one Brolga and Comb-crested Jacana. Overhead wereEastern Osprey, Whistling Kite and Gull-billed Tern. Mt. Molloy wasgood to us as usual with Squatter Pigeon, Bush Stone-curlew, EasternKoel, Great Bowerbird, Grey-crowned Babbler and Double-barred Finch. This babbler was trying to wheedle out some insects behind the bark.

Grey-crowned Babbler

We decided to return to the Lodge via the back road through WetherbyStation and found Lovely Fairy-wren at the “Green Gate”, a couplemore Squatter Pigeon walking along the edge of the road and a WompooFruit-Dove at the Rifle Creek crossing.

Squatter Pigeon

Another look down McDougallRoad found a Black-shouldered Kite which was a much better view thanone we had seen soaring way off in the distance in the morning, therewere also several Australian Pipit perched on fence posts. Back atthe Lodge Lindsay joined us to add White-throated Needletail soaringoverhead with Australian Swiftlet and finally as it was getting darka Red-neck Crake appeared for a bathe. After dark we found an EasternBarn Owl in Geraghty Park and it was then time to call it a day.

Weended up with 132 seen plus 14 heard making a total of 146 species.Interestingly 85 of these were seen/heard within 1.5km of the Lodgegrounds. Best bird – so many, Most surprising sighting – HouseSparrow, Biggest dips – Noisy Pitta who decided to have a day offafter being seen everyday for the last few months, Papuan Frogmouthand Channel-billed Cuckoo who have been showing more often than not,Crested Pigeon and Pied Butcherbird had a day off in the dry country.However despite these dips it was a very good start to the year.

Species List

Australian Brush-turkey	Black-fronted Dotterel	Macleay's Honeyeater
Orange-footed Scrubfowl	Masked Lapwing	Grey-crowned Babbler
Brown Quail	Comb-crested Jacana	Chowchilla
Magpie Goose	Gull-billed Tern	Eastern Whipbird
Plumed Whistling-Duck	Sulphur-crested Cockatoo	Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
Wandering Whistling-Duck	Rainbow Lorikeet	White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike
Black Swan	Scaly-breasted Lorikeet	Barred Cuckoo-shrike
Green Pygmy-goose	Double-eyed Fig-Parrot	Cicadabird*
Grey Teal	Red-winged Parrot	Varied Triller
Pacific Black Duck	Pale-headed Rosella	Golden Whistler
Hardhead	Pheasant Coucal	Grey Whistler
Australasian Grebe	Eastern Koel	Rufous Whistler
White-headed Pigeon	Little Bronze-Cuckoo*	Little Shrike-thrush
Brown Cuckoo-Dove	Brush Cuckoo*	Bower's Shrike-thrush
Emerald Dove	Eastern Barn Owl	Australasian Figbird
Squatter Pigeon	Buff-br. Paradise-Kingfisher	Olive-backed Oriole
Peaceful Dove	Laughing Kookaburra	White-breasted Woodswallow
Bar-shouldered Dove	Blue-winged Kookaburra	Black Butcherbird*
Wompoo Fruit-Dove	Forest Kingfisher	Australian Magpie
Superb Fruit-Dove	Rainbow Bee-eater	Spangled Drongo
Pied Imperial-Pigeon	Dollarbird	Rufous Fantail
Topknot Pigeon	Noisy Pitta*	Grey Fantail
Australian Swiftlet	White-throated Treecreeper*	Northern Fantail*
White-throated Needletail	Spotted Catbird*	Willie Wagtail
Darter	Tooth-billed Bowerbird	Leaden Flycatcher
Little Pied Cormorant	Great Bowerbird	Black-faced Monarch
Little Black Cormorant	Red-backed Fairy-wren	Spectacled Monarch
Black-necked Stork	Lovely Fairy-wren	Magpie-lark
Great Egret	Fernwren	Pied Monarch*
Intermediate Egret	Yellow-throated Scrubwren	Yellow-breasted Boatbill*
White-faced Heron	Atherton Scrubwren	Victoria's Riflebird*
Little Egret	Large-billed Scrubwren	Lemon-bellied Flycatcher
Glossy Ibis	Brown Gerygone*	Pale-yellow Robin
Australian White Ibis	Large-billed Gerygone*	Grey-headed Robin
Straw-necked Ibis	Mountain Thornbill	Golden-headed Cisticola
Royal Spoonbill	Striated Pardalote	Silvereye
Eastern Osprey	Eastern Spinebill	Welcome Swallow
Black-shouldered Kite	Lewin's Honeyeater	Fairy Martin
Pacific Baza	Yellow-spotted Honeyeater	Metallic Starling
Whistling Kite	Graceful Honeyeater	Common Myna
Black Kite	Bridled Honeyeater	Mistletoebird
Brown Goshawk	Yellow-faced Honeyeater	Olive-backed Sunbird
Nankeen Kestrel	Yellow Honeyeater	Double-barred Finch
Brolga	Brown-backed Honeyeater	Red-browed Finch
Purple Swamphen	Dusky Honeyeater	Blue-faced Parrot-Finch
Red-necked Crake	Scarlet Honeyeater	Chestnut-breasted Mannikin
Buff-banded Rail	Brown Honeyeater	House Sparrow
Pale-vented Bush-hen*	White-throated Honeyeater	Australasian Pipit
Bush Stone-curlew	Blue-faced Honeyeater

* = Heard

132 Seen + 14 Heard

1st January 2012 Report

2011-12-31T12:23:00.001+10:00

Christmascame and went and now it is another year, hope 2012 is good foreveryone.

Theweeks rainfall was 63mm falling on the last three days of theweek, 47mm fell in one period.

Maximumtemperatures were slightly up on last week, getting up to 33.0ºcwhich is about as hot as it gets here, the minimum was down to 21.1ºc, slightly higher than last week.Humidity ranged from a low of 64% to a high of 95%.

Therewere more birds recorded this week than last with 99 seen and 10heard. 19 mammal and reptile species were seen. The weeks bird listis on the EremaeaBirds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlights:

This weeks highlight hasto be a possible Black-winged Monarch, which was first seen on 26thDecember but not confirmed. Our friend Kath was first alerted by thecall, which to us was very difficult to separate from Black-facedMonarch but Kath has had more experience with the Black-wingedMonarch than us and thought there was a subtle difference fromBlack-faced. Sound recordings were taken and an analysis of thesonogram might note any difference in the two calls.

Thefollowing day in the early morning the monarch was found again andafter some persistence a few images were taken in the gloom of therainforest. This resulted in some noisy pictures. The black aroundthe face did not extend over the eye and onto the forehead, theoverall grey of the upper body was a lighter grey than typicalBlack-faced and there was a definite contrast in the wing between theblackish primaries and the grey wing coverts. There have been a fewrecords on the Atherton Tableland including ones at nearby AbattoirSwamp and earlier this year one at Mt. Lewis on the lower slopes. TheBlack-winged Monarch normally has a distribution on Cape York as farsouth as Shiptons Flat (90km north of Julatten) but in recent yearsthey have been very rare here. The most reliable location for thesouthern distribution is now McIvor River which is about 165km northof Julatten. So it is very exciting to see this bird, if confirmed,so far south of its "normal" range. At the moment it looks like this bird is actually a Black-faced Monarch, a young adult in moult.

Monarch (?)

Pale-ventedBush-hen have been heard in several places and were seen at long lastby one of our guests Matthew, he saw one alongMt. Kooyong Road not long after he had seen Red-necked Crake at theCrake Pool – he gets the guest of the week title for seeing two ofthe most sought after and difficult birds to find around the Lodge.

Othersightings:

Thetwo reported Cotton Pygmy-goose continue to be on a lagoon alongMcDougall Road along with a single Green Pygmy-goose, 20+ Hardhead,Australasian Grebe and three Comb-crested Jacana. Another lagoonalong the same road had 50+ Magpie Geese, Wandering Whistling-Duck, amale Australian Darter in breeding plumage and a Black-frontedDotterel. A few Emerald Dove continue to be around the lodge groundsand a Superb Fruit-Dove was seen flying over one afternoon. A singlePied Imperial Pigeon was perched at the top of a Blue Quondong treealong with two Topknot Pigeon who seem to be moving on from our areaas sightings are becoming rarer each week.

Pied Imperial Pigeon

Our female PapuanFrogmouth was seen roosting near its previous roost tree on the edgeof the orchard on one occasion during the day and once at night alsoon the edge of the orchard. Australian Owlet-nightjar was seen inGeraghty Park perched on the railing around the oval when it waspouring down with rain one night. Eastern Great Egret was at thenearby Barramundi Farm along with Intermediate Egret and a flock ofPacific Black Duck. Raptors are again in short supply this week withonly single sightings of Whistling Kite, Brahminy Kite and BrownFalcon. At the end of the week on Saturday morning a pair of PacificBaza flew over the orchard calling before doing a U turn and flyingover the units, first reported sighting in five weeks. Red-neckedCrake has been see several times making their way through therainforest and “Katie” the Buff-banded Rail returned once moreduring the week before disappearing again. Two Bush Stone-curlew wererunning around the Geraghty Park oval whilst we were watching theAustralian Owlet-nightjar in the rain.

A few Scaly-breasted Lorikeetwere around after being absent for a few weeks. Double-eyedFig-Parrot were heard but not seen and a search of the area failed tofind any fruiting figs. A male Pheasant Coucal was climbing up aMacadamia tree on the edge of the Lodge grounds before flying off ina big loop over the adjacent cane paddock, it actually maintainedaltitude before disappearing into the edge of the rainforest. Don't think we have ever seen a Coucal fly so far without loosing altitude!At least two Channel-billed Cuckoo were around as were Brush Cuckoo. (Lesser) SootyOwl was in the area but again heard only most nights. One Buff-breastedParadise-Kingfisher has been seen coming out of a nest in theirtermite mound but three others checked had no sign of birds, most aresitting calling above their mounds. Forest Kingfisher have also beenseen coming out of their termite mounds as well as displaying.Dollarbird was another species seen at a nest, it was feeding chicksin a tree hollow. The second pair of Noisy Pitta have been moresuccessful than the first pair with an adult seen feeding a juvenilebird in the orchard whilst another was calling in the rainforest.

Noisy Pitta - Juvenile

Meanwhilethe first unsuccessful pair are continuing to build another nest andcalling a lot. Spotted Catbird are still trying to keep thepopulation of the smaller birds down as they skulk through therainforest but are being chased off by the smaller birds. Honeyeatershave been a bit quiet this week with only nine species seen but bothGraceful and Macleay's have returned to the juice feeders. A pair of Brown-backed Honeyeater have started to build their third nest this season in Geraghty Park. One maleCicadabird was seen flying over the Lodge grounds but BarredCuckoo-shrike were only heard. The Willie Wagtail nesting in GeraghtyPark were feeding chicks at the beginning of the week and nearby inthe same tree a pair of Magpie-lark were building their mud nest. Amale Leaden Flycatcher has been very vocal around the camping area,no sign of any females. Lemon-bellied Flycatcher was at Geraghty Parkearly in the week and then promptly disappeared for the rest of it.Olive-backed Sunbird have started to use the second nest constructedaround our neighbours house but there was also a juvenile being fed at thesame time, not sure whether there is one or two pairs present ormaybe one male with two females! Australian Pipit was again seen atthe Barramundi Farm.

FurtherAfield:-

Wehad a trip up to Mt. Lewis just after Christmas to check out theBlue-faced Parrot-Finch at the 10km “clearing”, we were notdisappointed as at least 12 birds were present.

Blue-faced Parrot-Finch

The area the birdsare in is on Brooklyn Station owned by the Australian WildlifeConservatory. The manager here conducted a controlled burn in thearea back in October to allow new grass growth to occur. Old deadmatted grass was smothering the area inhibiting new growth. The areanow has a dense new growth of grass which is attracting the finches,not only the Blue-faces but Chestnut-breasted Mannikin and Red-browedFinch as well.

Chestnut-breasted Mannikin

Atherton Scrubwren were foraging in several places

Atherton Scrubwren

aswere Fernwren, Tooth-billed Bowerbird, Bower's Shrike-thrush and thedark montane form of Grey Fantail - race Keasti.

Grey Fantail - keasti

Inthe rainforest adjacent to one of the many creeks which tumble offMt. Lewis we found two species of Damselfly, Giant RockmasterDiphlebia hybrioides and TropicalFlatwing Austroargiolestes aureus both new species to us.More information can be found on the Wildiariessite. Dragonflies/Damselflies have much more imaginative names than birds!

Giant Rockmaster

Tropical Flatwing

Also along the road was this unidentified snail which has asoft shell and was crossing the road at a snails pace!

Snail sp.

Inthe area of the Damselflies was this Robber Fly (?),

Robber Fly

somany interesting animals and plants to check out in this spectacularpart of Australia only 35 minutes away from the Lodge.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

Thewet weather restricted spotlighting this week but we still saw 19mammals and reptiles. Our neighbours heard an Eastern Tube-nosed Batflying over making its distinctive whistling sound. GiantWhite-tailed Rat has been around the feeder along with Northern BrownBandicoot and Bush Rat. A few frogs ventured out into the rainincluding lots of the very small Northern Dwarf Tree Frog. Boyd'sForest Dragon continue to perform for the guests and Eastern WaterDragon were along Bushy Creek. An Amethystine Python was again in theorchard, this time during the day but it soon took refuge in thebuttress roots of a rainforest tree.

OtherInteresting Sightings:

Incase you are not fed up with seeing fungi every week we have a fewmore to show you. Never ceases to amaze us the variety, must run outof photos soon! We can't find he first one in any of our fungi books, the closest we can get is Scutellinia scutelata.

Fungi sp.

Vascellum pratense (?)

Thisfruit of a Syzygium wilsonii ssp.Cryptophlebium was hanging from a tree in front of the units.

Syzygium wilsonii ssp.Cryptophlebium

25th December 2011 Report

2011-12-24T21:36:00.001+10:00

Wellhere we are Christmas and another year nearly gone. We would like towish all our readers a happy and safe Christmas period and a great2012. For those who have visited us over the last year and beyond wethank you for supporting us and for those who are thinking of comingnext year we welcome you. Those who are not thinking of coming whynot! Thank you all for your positive comments about the blog, we hopeit compliments our web site. The Noisy Pitta did not seem too pleased to be wearing the hat!

The biggest surprise on Christmas Day was the return of "Katie" our Buff-banded Rail who went off with "Pete" several weeks ago. She went straight into the office and cleaned up a few spiders. Good to see her again.

Theweeks rainfall was only 11mm falling on the first three days of theweek. We seemed to miss the storms which were going around theregion.

Maximumtemperatures were slightly down on last week, getting up to 31.9ºcand the minimum was down to 20.8ºc, again lower than last week.Humidity ranged from a low of 63% and a high of 95%.

Therewere less birds recorded this week than last with 94 seen and 10heard. 21 mammal and reptile species were seen. The weeks bird listis on the EremaeaBirds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlights:

TwoRed-necked Crake appeared at the reception area feeder late oneafternoon, just like a pair many years ago used to but these did not hangaround and took off into the rainforest. Two Cotton Pygmy-goose have re-appeared at one of the lagoons along McDougall Road after being away for a few months.

Othersightings:

Plentyof Magpie Goose along McDougall Road, including over 200 in a grassy paddock late in the week. Also in the lagoons along the road were WanderingWhistling-Duck, a Green Pygmy-goose, Pacific Black-Duck and Hardhead.An Australian Grebe was on the pond at the front of the BarramundiFarm along with Intermediate Egret and Australian White Ibis. An Eastern Great Egret was seen walking along Bushy Creek near the Platypus viewing area. BrownCuckoo-Dove returned to take advantage of the fruiting a Tobacco Bushin the orchard.

Brown Cuckoo-Dove

A few Emerald Dove are walking around the Lodgegrounds now with at least one male at the seed feeder by reception.Superb Fruit-Dove have been calling all over the area but only onesighting of a male in the orchard. Several Pied Imperial Pigeon havealso been calling in the orchard and a few Topknot Pigeon are stillvisiting the grounds. Our female Papuan Frogmouth has been playinghard to see again with only one sighting at the beginning of the weekperched in a Five Corner fruit tree in the orchard. A fewWhite-throated Needletail and Fork-tailed Swift were reported oneevening flying over in company with Australian Swiftlet. An adultNankeen Night Heron was seen to fly out of the cane field behind thenursing home in the direction of the McDougall Road lagoons onevening.

Nankeen Night-Heron

Raptors were very scarce this week with only White-belliedSea-Eagle seen. Our neighbours again saw a Pale-vented Bush-hen in agully behind their house whilst the rest of us have only heardnumerous pairs calling all around the surrounding area adjacent tothe Lodge. Red-tailed Black Cockatoo were heard flying over headingtowards Geraghty Park from the mountains one afternoon. A fewScaly-breasted Lorikeet were seen this week along with at least oneDouble-eyed Fig-Parrot which was heard before flying out of a treenear the amenities block. Channel-billed Cuckoo continue to fly overcalling whilst Brush Cuckoo were only heard. (Lesser) Sooty Owl washeard early one morning once and that was it for the week. At leastthree Eastern Barn Owl were seen plus several more heard calling.Azure Kingfisher was at the Crake Pool Saturday afternoon andBuff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher are busy attending termite mounds,calling and flying around for good views and a few Dollarbirds are stillcalling.


Noisy Pitta

The Noisy Pitta managed to shake off the hat whilst hopping around in the orchard. They were collecting food for three hungry mouths in their nest, however on Saturday morning they were seen with nesting material for another nest. So the first one was unsuccessful, taken by Spotted Catbird, Black Butcherbird or snake?

Spotted Catbird probably also took the chicks out of a Mistletoebird nest(famous last words in last weeks blog) in our neighbours garden andhave been seen being chased by other nesting birds such as WillieWagtail and Spectacled Monarch.

Forlorn looking Mistletoebird wondering where his offspring have gone.

Mistletoebird - male

Great Bowerbird and Red-backedFairy-wren were again along McDougall Road. Brown Gerygone have beenin our neighbours garden and seem to like that area in preference tothe Lodge grounds where we have not seen one for at least threemonths. Lewin's Honeyeater was again heard whilst there was onesighting of a Scarlet Honeyeater. White-throated Honeyeater are backwith many sightings in Geraghty Park and along Bushy Creek where theyhave been chasing each other. Macleay's Honeyeater have been raidingthe feeder by reception and flying off with banana, probably to feedchicks in a nest. Barred Cuckoo-shrike are around but only heard thisweek. Little Shrike-thrush have built a nest in our neighbours gardenbut not started using it yet. Spangled Drongo continue to wake us upat around 5.00am with their loud dawn chorus calls which seem tosubside when other birds awake and join in. Willie Wagtails are stillon a nest in Geraghty Park and may have chicks in it judging by theirbehaviour. Leaden Flycatcher are calling a lot but we have seen nosign of nesting yet. Black-faced Monarch are also calling and showingmore this week but both Pied Monarch and Yellow-breasted Boatbillhave gone quiet with only a single sighting of a Pied Monarch.Pale-yellow Robin have several brown juvenile birds around includingone which spends a lot of the day around the feeding area byreception, foraging and bathing. Our neighbours Olive-backed Sunbirdpair whose nest was predated a few weeks ago have almost completedanother nest low down on their veranda, not the idea location butlets hope they are successful this time. Red-browed Finch seem to besuccessful as many juvenile birds, which lack the red eyebrow, havebeen coming to the seed feeder. An Australian Pipit was at theBarramundi Farm again and seems to have made it's home here.

FurtherAfield:-

Afterlast weeks report of an unusual Pied Heron on a dam near Mareeba wechecked it out during the week and managed a few images. It certainlyis very mottled with a faint dark cap to the head which Pied's haveand its behaviour certainly looked like Pied Heron but it did lookslightly larger. There is always the possibility of it being ahybrid, we have seen Pied Heron x White-faced Heron in Darwin manyyears ago. We will keep an eye on it to see if it morphs intoanything definite. This highly cropped image shows the heron with a Magpie Goose for size comparison.

Pied Heron (?)

Thislittle dam was very productive with many other species presentincluding 100+ Magpie Goose, 50+ Plumed Whistling-Duck, 20+ GreyTeal, Pacific Black-Duck, Hardhead, Australasian Grebe, IntermediateEgret, Little Egret, Glossy Straw-necked and Australian White Ibis, Royal Spoonbill and Black-winged Stilt.

Magpie Goose

Plumed Whistling Duck

On the way back from Mareebato Mt. Molloy we saw five Little Corella at Biboorah on a grassyarea beside the road, these are presumably part of the small populationin the Mareeba area. Superb Fruit-Dove were nesting alongside the Mt.Lewis Road on the lower slopes whilst higher up at the clearingBlue-faced Parrot-Finch are proving difficult with only the oddsighting of up to three birds. Abattoir Swamp produced a White-browed Crake sighting which was the first for several months. A late migrant (?) Rufous Fantail was reported from Big Mitchell Creek by a local birdo, unusual record for this time of year.

Reptilesand Mammals:-

Notso many seen this week as in recent ones, probably due to a lessereffort in tracking them down. No possums this week but quite a fewother interesting sightings. A Red-legged Pademelon (small Kangaroo)was spotlighted in the orchard for the second week running, hope itstays around and brings a few friends along. A few bats wereidentified, Eastern Horseshoe Bat, Diadem Leaf-nosed Bat seen hangingon a vine in the rainforest beside the orchard on a night walk,Northern Broad-nosed Bat roosting under our neighbours house andSpectacled Flying Fox still eating our Lychees in the orchard. ThePlatypus have been showing well and a few frogs were showing butneeded hunting out. Jungguy Frog, White-lipped Tree Frog and Cogger'sFrog were all seen on a night walk but only one of each. Boyd'sForest Dragon continue to entertain as the run across the forestfloor and the roads before jumping onto trees and climbing up. Quitea few baby Eastern Water Dragon have just appeared along Bushy Creekand a Keelback snake was seen swimming in the creek.

OtherInteresting Sightings:

Morefungi have emerged as shown here.

Fungi sp. (?)

Bracket Fungi sp.

Fungi sp. (?)

Bracket Fungi sp.

18th December 2011 Report

2011-12-18T09:37:00.000+10:00

Theweeks rainfall was 47mm with 28mm falling Friday and overnight intoSaturday.

Maximumtemperatures were slightly higher than last week, getting up to33.6ºc and the minimum was only down to 22.8ºc. Humidity rangedfrom a low of 59% and a high of 94%

Therewere more birds recorded this week than last with 108 seen and 4heard. 25 mammal and reptile species were seen, two more than lastweek. The weeks bird list is on the EremaeaBirds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlights:

Actuallyseeing a female Superb Fruit-Dove, the few other sightings have beenof males. Also two Pale-vented Bush-hen were seen by our neighboursin the gully between their garden and the Crake Pool on at least twooccasions; many more are calling but not being seen. The return ofLemon-bellied Flycatcher to Geraghty Park after an absence of 10weeks, where do they go?

Othersightings:

Goodnumbers of Magpie Goose continue to frequent the lagoons alongMcDougall Road with 50-60 present late in the week along withWandering Whistling-Duck, a single Green Pygmy-goose, 15-20 Hardheadand two Australasian Grebe.

Australasian Grebe

Afew Emerald Dove have been showing and calling throughout the weekafter being absent for a few weeks, one even came to the feeder byreception. Wompoo Fruit-Dove also returned after a month and wereseen as well as heard. Pied Imperial Pigeon continue to hang aroundGeraghty Park but no sign of nesting yet and a few Topknot Pigeon arestill showing intermittently. The female Papuan Frogmouth was outsidethe reception area on the Sunday which made two consecutive days inthis location but then she disappeared for the rest of the week.Australian Owlet-nightjar was seen it its daytime roost several timesand also heard calling during the day. Both White-throated Needletailand Fork-tailed Swift were around on several days mid-week. Therewere more Fork-tailed Swift with up to 60est. than White-throatedNeedletail which numbered up to 20est. Cattle Egrets in breedingcondition were still around with at least eight left and fourAustralian White Ibis were spending their days at the BarramundiFarm. Raptor numbers have been down over the last few weeks butthere were a few more sightings this week; a single Whistling Kitewas over Geraghty Park, two immature and one adult White-belliedSea-Eagle across the Rex Highway over cow paddocks, a Brahminy Kitefeeding on a road kill near the Barramundi Farm, one Grey Goshawk,one Nankeen Kestrel and and adult and two juvenile Brown Falcon alongMcDougall Road. Two Red-necked Crake have been seen regularly mostdays, either at the Crake Pool or traversing the forest. They havealso been calling more frequently both during the day and at night.No sign of “Katie” the Buff-banded Rail who seems to have elopedwith “Pete” her new partner, maybe they will come back with afamily! Bush Stone-curlew have continued to come into the Lodgegrounds at night and surprise the guests with their wailing calls.

Bush Stone-curlew

Asingle Comb-crested Jacana was along McDougall Road on one of thelagoons. Scaly-breastedLorikeet numbers dropped during the week with only a small flock ofabout eight seen and Double-eyed Fig-Parrot continue to be seenflying over with no local fig trees in fruit at the moment, severalhave unripe fruits appearing. Cuckoos have again been calling andseen, those seen were Pheasant Coucal, Channel-billed Cuckoo, Little(Gould's) Bronze-Cuckoo and Brush Cuckoo, Eastern Koel was onlyheard. (Lesser) Sooty Owl was heard throughout the week and seen oncehigh in a tree in our neighbours garden. Buff-breastedParadise-Kingfisher are still calling, chasing each other andperching out in the open for good views. Blue-winged Kookaburra arealso showing well in Geraghty Park, usually early in the morning. TwoNoisy Pitta are still around the orchard area collecting food fortheir three hungry nestlings and can be seen most times of the day.Spotted Catbird are lurking around in the forest looking for babybirds to prey on, unfortunately they took the two Olive-backedSunbird chicks within a few minutes of them fledging from their nestin our neighbours garden. The parents are now looking at nestingagain, hard life being a small bird. Fairy Gerygone are still around and calling, this female is posing slightly better than last weeks one!

Fairy Gerygone - female

One Lewin's Honeyeater returnedafter a five week absence and was both seen and heard; most of thepopulation is normally at higher altitudes at this time of yearbreeding. A few Barred Cuckoo-shrike were seen around the Lodgegrounds and in Geraghty Park. Cicadabird continues to call with a fewsightings again in the Lodge grounds.

Cicadabird - male

An immature brown BlackButcherbird has been around the rainforest areas throughout the weekand several Spangled Drongo have been seen in nests. Torresian Crowhave been calling whilst perched on power poles along the Rex Highwaynear the entrance to the Lodge. Pied Monarch and Yellow-breastedBoatbill have been seen a few times in the grounds but not callingmaking tracking them down a bit harder. Mistletoebird are nesting inour neighbours garden, lets hope they can avoid the Spotted Catbird.

FurtherAfield:-

APied Heron was reported from the small wetland 4km north of Mareebawhere the Eastern Yellow Wagtail was seen early November. It was apretty scruffy individual and may have been a moulting juvenile. AWedge-tailed Eagle was soaring over Pinnacle Road, Julatten (the roadleading to Mowbray National Park). A Black-shouldered Kite was seenat Craglie, near Port Douglas and the first reported in the area forsometime. They have not been around Julatten for at least five weeks.A flock of Red-tailed Black Cockatoo were feeding in the heart ofPort Douglas along Macrossan Street, the main road through town.Red-tailed Black Cockatoo have been reported along the coast for atleast the past six months from Cairns north to at least Wonga Beachnorth of Mossman. Australian Bustard are showing well at Maryfarms north of Mt. Molloy with at least six adults and a juvenile seen one afternoon.

Australian Bustard

Reptilesand Mammals:-

Goodnumbers this week with 25 species recorded. Fawn-footed Melomys werenot seen this week but they got into our car and chewed up some ofthe wiring rendering the airbag inoperable, this is the second timethey have chewed this wire; anyway a repair sorted out the wiring. ARed-legged Pademelon (small Kangaroo) was seen drinking at the CrakePool before being spotlighted the next night. A Tree Mouse(Prehensile-tailed Rat) was seen emerging from its daytime hideout atthe back of the cook shed one evening. A Green Ringtail Possum wasalso seen on a night walk and a Striped Possum was in our neighboursgarden. Platypus have been seen most days but the heavy rain late inthe week made the water murky and hard to see, this will soon clearup when the rain stops. Seven species of frogs this week with therain bringing a few elusive species such as Peter's Frog Litoriainermis out to join theWhite-lipped Tree Frog, Northern Dwarf Tree Frog, Jungguy Frog andCogger's Frog.

Jungguy Frog

Boyd's Forest Dragon are being seen running across therainforest floor and clinging to the sides of trees whilst some large(245mm) Eastern Water Dragon have been sitting along Bushy Creek. A3m Amethystine Python was spotted on the ground under a Lychee Treein the orchard during a night walk and a Brown Tree Snake was in ourneighbours garden.

OtherInteresting Sightings:

Fungiagain dominate this section, not sure of any ID's but working on them! The first image is of fungi growing on the same log as the Dead Man's Fingers in the second image, it looked similar but not as advanced.

Dead Man's Fingers Xylaria aff. Polymorpha (?)

Dead Man's Fingers Xylaria aff. Polymorpha (?)

Microporus sp. (?)

Jelly Fungi (?)

Mycena (?)

11th December 2011 Report

2011-12-11T12:46:00.001+10:00

Theweeks rainfall was 20.5mm, 16mm came in one storm accompanied bythunder and lightning.

Maximumtemperatures were slightly higher than last week, getting up to32.2ºc and the minimum was down to 21.2ºc. Humidity ranged from alow of 57% and a high of 95%

Therewere less birds recorded this week than last with 96 seen and 7heard, too many sitting on nests! 23 mammal and reptile species wereseen. The weeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlights:

AgainRed-necked Crake appeared at the Crake Pool, this time at 8.20 onemorning and also one evening on the opposite bank of Bushy Creek tothe Platypus viewing area where two showed. One was also seen headingoff into the rainforest early one morning and two ran across the grassy area of the orchard one evening. A Noisy Pitta was seen foragingin the adjacent cane field early one morning – an unusual location. Other Noisy Pitta were showingwell in the orchard collecting worms, and heading off to their nestto feed the three chicks which are in it. Whilst checking termite mounds for signs of Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher nesting activity a Noisy Pitta nest was found by accident, a couple of quick shots were taken before vacating the area and watching from a distance to see the adult return to feed the chicks. This image shows an open entrance to the nest with three bright red gapes of the chicks, a previous nest observed had a cover over the front entrance which hid the contents. This image was taken at a safe distance to cause minimal disturbance to the nest and then severely cropped to show contents.

Noisy Pitta

Othersightings:

Upto 100 Magpie Goose were along McDougall Road early in the week witha few Green Pygmy-goose and Hardhead. Emerald Dove was around at thebeginning of the week but by mid-week had disappeared for the secondtime this year. At least six Superb Fruit-Dove were calling aroundthe orchard with the only sighting being one fly over. Pied ImperialPigeon are still around but not so obvious and Topknot Pigeon wereanother species to disappear mid-week. Our female Papuan Frogmouthproved elusive during the week with her only appearance outside thereception area late on Saturday morning – again found by thePale-yellow Robin who caused her to become alert before settling down and begin to preen.

Papuan Frogmouth

Australian Owlet-nightjar was seen once in itsregular daytime roost and heard calling during the evening and earlymorning, it was in a different daytime roost from the regular onewhen it was calling early morning. Australian Darter, Little PiedCormorant and Little Black Cormorant plus Australian White Ibis wereall seen flying over heading towards the Barramundi Farm which nowhas some of its ponds netted. A few Cattle Egret in breeding plumagestill remain and one White-faced Heron was in a small pond alongMcDougall Road. Raptors have been scarce this week with onlyWhite-bellied Sea-Eagle and Whistling Kite seen. “Katie” ourBuff-banded Rail has been coming around less frequently and was seenwith her love interest “Pete” foraging around the cook shed forthe first time, they then headed off to the rainforest and have notbeen seen for four days. This was one of the last images taken of "Katie" when she came around to have an extended bath and did a lot of fluffing of feathers and wing stretching as she is doing here.

"Katie" Buff-banded Rail

Pale-vented Bush-Hen continue to call alongBushy Creek with at least three pairs heard. A couple were seen tofly across the creek near the Platypus viewing area which was theonly sighting. Bush Stone-curlew have been coming into the Lodgegrounds around the cook shed and reception area at night to ensurethey wake everyone up with their wailing calls. Masked Lapwing havebeen flying around the cane fields in flocks of up to 33 calling andchasing off any intruders who come to close. Sulphur-crested Cockatoonumbers have increased as has their chainsaw activities of chewingoff small branches for amusement. Double-eyed Fig-Parrot were onlyseen flying over when two went over Mt. Kooyong Road early onemorning. Cuckoos continue to call with Channel-billed Cuckoo, LittleBronze Cuckoo and Brush Cuckoo seen. Sooty Owl was only heard severaltimes both in the evening and in the morning. At least four EasternBarn Owl were seen in Geraghty Park and several more heard calling.Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher continue to call and fly around aswell as perching out in the open for great views. A check of thetermite mounds found only one which had been newly excavated andseveral others from last year looking like they had been refurbishedas there was bits of white tail feathers at the entrances. We willnot be sure of exact numbers until they start sitting. Both Laughingand Blue-winged Kookaburra have been calling and showing well andForest Kingfisher continue to feed chicks in at least one nest.Several Rainbow Bee-Eater were seen along McDougall Road but nonehave come the short distance to the Lodge grounds yet. SpottedCatbird have been getting a hard time from other birds such asPale-yellow Robin and Spectacled Monarch who have been chasing themaway from their nests. Fairy Gerygone have started to come down lower and provide an opportunity to photograph them or so I thought. They don't stay still for a millisecond and the best I could do was this shot which I've included to prove not every shot can be a winner!

Fairy Gerygone - female

Honeyeater numbers were down this week withonly nine species seen, must be better offerings elsewhere! A singleScarlet Honeyeater was in the orchard foraging on some mistletoetrying to look like a Mistletoebird, well they both have bright redin their plumage. Barred Cuckoo-shrike have been eluding thebinoculars but have been heard and Cicadabird are still calling aswell as being seen. Spangled Drongo have been first in the morningchorus making sure everyone else is awake. Two Spectacled Monarchnests were seen during the week, one with a lot more decoration on itthan the other.

Spectacled Monarch - nest with little decoration

Spectacled Monarch - nest with more decoration

Pied Monarch and Yellow-breasted Boatbill have beenshowing occasionally and calling infrequently, possibly they arenesting. More egg shells have been found under the nesting colony ofthe Metallic Starling, these are from the second broods. The nestsare continually added to and become heavier and heavier until somesnap off the branch they are attached to and fall to the ground. Hereyou can see a juvenile bird, white streaked breast, having a restfrom collecting material whilst below is an all black adult doing thesame.

Metallic Starling - immature and adult at nests

Olive-backedSunbird continue to nest and there was even a report of them nestingin the Lodge grounds but we have not seen this yet.

FurtherAfield:-

Noreports of White-streaked Honeyeater from Mt. Molloy or AbattoirSwamp this week despite several searches. Abattoir Swamp still has afew flowering Melaleuca and Grevillea but only a few species ofhoneyeater recorded, Yellow, Brown-backed, Brown and White-throated.Mt. Lewis continues to be good with Fernwren and Atherton Scrubwrenseen at nests. Blue-faced Parrot-Finch have been a challenge to findwith no more than four seen so far (reported to us). Out at Mt.Carbine to the north west there were Galah and Red-tailed BlackCockatoo.

Reptilesand Mammals:-

Highlighthere was the appearance of a Tree Mouse Pogonomys sp. outof a tree hollow beside the cookshed, where they have been seenbefore but not for at least six months. This Australian species wasformerly thought to be one of two species occurring in New Guinea butcurrent thinking is that is an unnamed species. This species isrestricted to the rainforests of Cape York Peninsula and the WetTropics region (where we are). It was first recorded in the WetTropics at Lake Barrine in 1974 and only two specimens have beencollected on Cape York an Iron Range in 1977. GiantWhite-tailed Rat have been feasting on fallen fruit from a treecalled Steelbutt Endiandra impressicosta (thanks to Rupert Russell and Peter Stanton for identifying the tree), whichhave been raining down onto our restaurant deck for the past month.Both Green Ringtail and Striped Possum have been seen this week aswell as Long-nosed and Northern Brown Bandicoot. Platypus have beenshowing most days in Bushy Creek and Spectacled Flying Fox have beenraiding the Lychee's in the orchard. Still not much action with thefrogs despite some rain, plenty of calling but few showingthemselves. Two Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko were found high up on thetrunks of trees one night and not found again. Up to three Boyd's Forest Dragon have been coming in around the restaurant area and entertaining the tour groups.

Boyd's Forest Dragon

Several Major Skinkhave been making appearances on the veranda and one tried to comeinto the office but lost traction on the floor of the reception areaand retreated! An Amethystine Python was seen one night crossing theorchard and was the first seen for seven weeks.

OtherInteresting Sightings:

Fungicontinue to pop up all over the forest floor, here are a few more.

Fungi sp.

Also honeybees are around at the moment, this one, a Blue-banded Honeybee (thanks for ID Snail) was on a flower.

Blue-banded Honeybee

4th December 2011 Report

2011-12-03T18:47:00.001+10:00

Theweeks rainfall was only 3.5mm which all came in one shower with a fewthreatening clouds on several other days but only a trace out ofthem.Maximumtemperatures were slightly higher than last week, getting up to31.7ºc and the minimum was down to 21.3ºc on one day but on fourother days it only got down to between 23.1ºc and 23.6ºc. Humiditywas slightly lower than last week getting up to 94% and going down to 63%.

Therewere two more birds recorded this week than last with 105 seen and 8heard. 21 mammal and reptile species were seen and one heard.Theweeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlightsaround the Lodge grounds this week were the return of the Red-neckedCrake to the Crake Pool. A pair has been showing well most lateafternoons with two putting on a display of head bobbing whilst goingto bathe. They are still very vocal calling mainly in the afternoonand at night.

Red-necked Crake - welcome back!

Five Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo flew over and circledthe Lodge grounds one lunch time before alighting in the top of aCadagiCorymbia torelliana whichis a eucalypt. They perched long enough for all the guests to raceout and see them before they flew off. It is unusual to see theRed-tailed Black-Cockatoo around at this time of year; this may be aresult of the many which have been on the coast between Cairns and uptowards the Daintree this year heading back inland. A Horsfield'sBushlark was seen on 2^ndDecember displaying high up over the adjacent cane paddock beforeplummeting to the ground, this is only the second record in sixyears, the only other record was 3/12/2006.

Othersightings: Brown Quail were around the cane field edges andMcDougall Road still has many waterbirds in residence along withother good birds such as Red-backed Fairy-wren.

Brown Quail

Superb Fruit-Dove arestill calling well with only a few glimpses of birds high up in therainforest canopy unlike the Wompoo Fruit-Dove who have been absentthis week. Our female Papuan Frogmouth showed one day when it wasroosting in a Rambutan tree in the orchard and being harassed by thePale-yellow Robin who never gives up with its ritual, which luckilyfor us helps locate the Frogmouth. Australian Owlet-nightjar was seenon several occasions in its daytime roost and heard calling onseveral nights. Australian Swiftlet have been overhead, sometimes incompany with a few Fork-tailed Swifts (4 on 29^th/11).Black Bittern were again seen along McDougall Road and are becomingregular here as is the juvenile Nankeen Night-Heron previouslyreported. A few Australian White Ibis are still hanging around,mainly flying over towards the Barramundi Farm or seen on the groundthere. A pair of Pacific Baza were circling over Geraghty Park whilston a morning walk showing very well as the sunlight illuminated theirplumage. Two immature White-bellied Sea-Eagle were circling over thelodge grounds accompanied by a Whistling kite and a couple ofWhite-breasted Woodswallow when we raced out to see the Red-tailedBlack-Cockatoo. At least four Pale-vented Bush-Hen were calling fromlong grass along Bushy Creek but despite them moving only metres awaythey were not seen. Bush Stone-curlew were along Mt. Kooyong Roadtowards the nursing home with at least one chick in tow. RainbowLorikeet were seen peering out of a tree hollow in Geraghty Parkwhich previously had an Eastern Barn Owl roosting in it.

Rainbow Lorikeet - in nest hollow

Double-eyedFig-Parrot were once again seen flying over. Cuckoos were again veryvocal throughout the day and night with Eastern Koel and ShiningBronze-Cuckoo, which was a first for the season only heard. PheasantCoucal, Channel-billed Cuckoo, Little (Gould's) Bronze-Cuckoo andBrush Cuckoo were all seen. At least three Eastern Barn Owl were seenand several others heard but the (Lesser) Sooty Owl was only heardthis week. Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher have continued callingand showing well as they are perching lower down and out in the openwith signs that some of their termite mounds for nesting are beingexcavated. Laughing Kookaburra have been posing in the orchard andshowing off their punk hairdo as this one was.

Laughing Kookaburra

ForestKingfisher have been seen bringing food to one of their nest sites ina termite mound high in a tree. Noisy Pitta have quietened down thisweek and not showing as much which maybe a sign that they arenesting. Spotted Catbird have been around with this juvenile birdcoming to the feeder and being curious about “Katie” ourBuff-banded Rail having a bath.

Spotted Catbird - juvenile

LovelyFairy-wren were again seen late in the afternoon amongst the Bambooalongside Bushy Creek; maybe a roosting area? Fairy Gerygone havecome back to life after being quiet for a few weeks they are nowcalling and chasing each other around. Eleven species of honeyeaterthis week with notable exceptions being Lewin's which have probablyall gone to higher ground to breed plus White-throated and Scarletwho have been seen in the district but not around the Lodge. BarredCuckoo-shrike and Cicadabird are still calling and being seen.Australasian Figbird were carrying nesting material and chasing offSpangled Drongo who were paying them too much attention. Pied Monarchwere heard but not seen and Yellow-breasted Boatbill were seen butnot heard. Mistletoebird has been busy attending his floweringMistletoe and displaying as well as perching in the open as this onewas.

Mistletoebird - male

Thefemale Olive-backed Sunbird in our neighbours garden is feeding andsitting in her nest whilst the male does not see to be doing muchapart from hanging around.

Furtherafield a first year White-streaked Honeyeater was at Abattoir Swampall week and is a different one to the previously reported bird at Mt. Molloy earlyOctober on EremaeaBirds. Two separate birds were seen within 15 minutes of each other late in the week, one at Mt. Molloy and the other at Abattoir Swamp. The swamp is about 90km south of their normal rangewhich usually extends to Shipton's Flat south of Cooktown. A guestalso reported a possible White-gaped Honeyeater from here as well,the nearest population of this species is along the McLeod River atthe Peninsula Road crossing north of Mt. Carbine, 38km North-West ofAbattoir Swamp. We have been unable to confirm this sighting so far.Whilst looking for the White-streaked Honeyeater we found at leasttwo Black-chinned Honeyeater “Golden-backed” form and the regular“Meet & Greet” Northern Fantail in the car park.

Severalsightings of Striped Possum were had during the week including twoseparate individuals on a night walk. This night walk also turned up2 Giant White-tailed Rat, lots of Spectacled Flying Fox helpingthemselves to our Lychees in the orchard, Northern Brown Bandicoot,several Cane Toad and a Cogger's Frog. As well we saw Eastern BarnOwl, heard Australian Owlet-nightjar and saw some luminescent fungiglowing in the dark.

Luminescent Fungi sp. - by day

Otherinteresting mammals and reptiles were a Macleay's Water SnakeEnhydris polylepis swimmingin Bushy Creek early one evening whilst guests were watching aPlatypus and a Dingo foraging around the Cane Paddock near thenursing home. A family (?) of four Major Skink Egerniafrerei (3 Adults + 1 juvenile)were seen together on the edgeof the orchard, this is quite unusual as we normally only see themindividually.

Apartfrom the luminescent fungi other species have still been appearing,this is the latest – looks like a Mycena sp.

Mycena sp. (?)

Thisinsect is what we think is a Bandy-legged Caedicia Caediciapictipes,

Bandy-legged Caedicia

it was identifiedusing David Rentz book “ A Guide to the Katydids of Australia”, which we keep in our shop $49.95 + P & P.

27th November 2011 Report

2011-11-27T15:55:00.001+10:00

Theweeks rainfall was 36mm, considerably more than the last few weeks,this all fell in the last three days of the week. Maximumtemperatures were slightly lower than last weeks due to the rain and cloud covergetting up to 30ºc and the minimum temperature was down to 21.2ºc.Humidity was also higher, up to 96% and down to 55%.

Therewere slightly less birds recorded this week than last with 103 seenand 8 heard. 23 mammal and reptile species were seen which is slightlymore than previous weeks. The weather played its part in thesenumbers with less effort put into birding and more reptiles andamphibians coming out to enjoy the wet conditions.

Theweeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlightaround the Lodge grounds has to be “Katie” our Buff-banded Railwho now has a boyfriend called Pete! They were seen mating on thelawn in front of the units in full view of the guests. “Katie”still comes around the reception/office but less frequent now butPete is off in a flash if he spots someone. The pair of them werecircling a Green Tree Snake one afternoon not knowing quite what todo whilst the snake was rearing up and looking threatening. We movedthe rails out of the way and allowed the snake to seek refuge up atree. A Dainty Tree Frog record was of a dead onethat “Katie” was playing with without actually eating it. A quick grab shot with the compact camera shows the deed being done.

"Katie" with Dainty Tree Frog

Other highlights included at least two and possibly three(Lesser) Sooty Owl who showed at the end of the week, one perched alongMt. Kooyong Road for a good 20 minutes to allow guests to have goodviews, another was on the other side of the road calling but notshowing and a little later a (Lesser) Sooty Owl called at a distancefrom Geraghty Park. Lovely Fairy-wren were seen foraging in thebamboo alongside Bushy Creek near the nursing home.

Othersightings:Waterbirds are still coming and going at the Lagoons along McDougallRoad with the same species recorded as in previous weeks. Sevenspecies of dove and pigeon over the week included good views of amale Superb Fruit-Dove who came down to eye level along Bushy Creekat the platypus viewing area for to thrill two guests. It sat for awhile before flying along the creek for a short distance to perchagain for more good views. Lucky guests! Our female Papuan Frogmouthonly appeared at it roost site on the edge of the orchard once butwas heard again most nights. Australian Owlet-nightjar was not seenin its daytime roost but was heard calling Saturday night when the(Lesser) Sooty Owl appeared.

Australian Owlet-nightjar

Also on Saturday 26^that least five Fork-tailed Swift went over ahead of storm clouds. Ourneighbour Carol (of bird guide fame) saw two Black Bittern fly acrossMcDougall Road one evening as well as seeing four Bush Stone-curlewdrinking from one of the Lagoons. The immature Nankeen night-Heronreported a few weeks ago was seen again this week flying over BushyCreek. The regular pair of White-bellied Sea-Eagle were displayingover the adjacent cane field one afternoon, one bird had a fish inits talon and flew in circles with the other following before theyreversed positions and carried on until they disappeared over theLodge grounds. A Brahminy Kite was circling over the Barramundi Farmearly one morning, Grey Goshawk was along McDougall Road and NankeenKestrel continue to perch on the foot pegs of the power poles alongthe highway. Red-necked Crake have been even more vocal than lastweek even joining in the morning chorus however they have eluded themany pairs of binoculars trained on the direction of the calls. APale-vented Bush-Hen was heard calling near our neighbours housewhich hopefully signals their return to the area. Cuckoos were againcalling this week with Pheasant Coucal, Eastern Koel and LittleBronze-Cuckoo only heard and Channel-billed Cuckoo and Brush Cuckooseen. Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher have been extremely vocal,flying around chasing each other and perching out in the open forgreat views. Blue-winged Kookaburra were also calling and showingwell in Geraghty Park where they seem to be spending more time thanelsewhere.


Blue-winged Kookaburra

Dollarbird are still going around in pairs but have not beobserved doing any nesting activities. Noisy Pitta are still noisyand being seen regularly, quite often dodging the unwelcomeattentions of the Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher who dive bombthem. Spotted Catbird were still feeding young as were Pale-yellowRobin who are having a good breeding season this year. Always worth an image for their "cute factor".

Pale-yellow Robin

The same 12honeyeater species as last week were seen with very few coming to thefeeder. Graceful Honeyeater were coming to the feeder and taking awaybanana, presumably to feed their young. Barred Cuckoo-shrike andCicadabird are both still calling and being seen infrequently.Spangled Drongo were seen building a nest in Geraghty Park andSpectacled Monarch have several nests in the Lodge grounds. OneGrey-headed Robin was seen at the beginning of the week but notsince, dare we say they have all gone back into the mountains behindus? Our neighbour Carol witnessed 10Fairy Martin, along McDougall Road, twittering in to roost, they ended up all huddled along a little 1m tall sapling or weed bent over to almost touching the ground! Metallic Starling are still busy adding totheir nests with both adult and immature birds collecting buildingmaterial, also egg shells have been found under the nests indicatinga second brood for the season.

Metallic Starling - immature

Olive-backedSunbird have been investigating a piece of string we put out by thereception area several years hoping they would choose it to build anest on, maybe they will.

Furtherafield Murray Hunt from Daintree Boatman Nature Tours (ex ChrisDahlberg's River Tours), reported seven Spotted Whistling-Duck on theDaintree River Friday afternoon. These maybe the ones from WongaBeach, which is not far away and the river is a new location forthem. A check of the lagoon 4km north of Mareeba during the weekfailed to find the previously reported Grey Wagtail and Painted Snipebut did find at least 60 Plumed Whistling-Duck and a large flock ofMagpie Goose.

Plumed Whistling-Duck

Lovely Fairy-wren have been regularly seen in the RifleCreek camping area at Mt. Molloy. Also near Mt. Molloy one possiblytwo Buff-breasted Button-quail were seen by guests who spent threedays searching an area, also in the same area were Brown Quail andPainted Button-quail. Looks like it could be a good year for theBBBQ's with the habitat looking suitable at the moment.

Reptileand mammal numbers were up this week to 23. A Green Ringtail Possumwas seen during the day in our neighbours garden moving through sometrees, probably disturbed by too much attention from the birds. Thiswas the first one reported for two months. This one shows how they roost during the day, curled up on an exposed branch.

Green Ringtail Possum

Striped Possum have beenshowing well and calling as they crash around in the rainforestgiving good views, some only 4-5m off the ground. At least twoPlatypus are still being regularly seen in Bushy Creek along with theodd Water Rat who make infrequent appearances. The wet weathertempted a few frogs to start calling and showing, the Northern Dwarf Tree Frog were one of the frogs whose calls were triggered by the rain.

Northern Dwarf Tree Frog

A White-lipped TreeFrog was actually spotlighted in a tree – much better than theamenities block! Atleast two Boyd's Forest Dragon are still around the eating area nearthe units. They were seen chasing each other and one ended up on oneof our guests outdoor table where it sat for a while before moving tothe back of a chair.

20th November 2011 Report

2011-11-20T12:27:00.001+10:00

Theweeks rainfall was only1.5mm. Maximum and minimum temperatures wereslightly higher than last week getting up to 30.7ºc and down to19.5ºc. Humidity was again high, getting up to 93% and going down to54%.

Therewere slightly less birds recorded this week than last with 104 seenand 9 heard. 20 mammal and reptile species were seen.

Theweeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlightsaround the Lodge grounds were a pair of Lovely Fairy-wren on the edgeof the rainforest in the orchard. This year has been the best forsightings with eight around the Lodge, previous years have seen nonein 2005, 2006 or 2009, one in 2007 and 2010 and two in 2008. Theyhave not been recorded in January, February, April, June andNovember.

Lovely Fairy-Wren - male

A Rufous Fantail was high up in the rainforest canopyforaging which was the first one recorded for a month and only theforth sighting in November over the past six years.

Othersightings: Good selection ofwaterbirds along McDougall Road including Magpie Goose, WanderingWhistling-Duck, Green Pygmy-goose,

Green Pygmy-goose - female and male

Pacific Black Duck, Hardhead,Australasian Grebe, Dusky Moorhen and Comb-crested Jacana. PiedImperial Pigeon have started to display and look like they might nestin the area again after last years nesting attempt was foiled byCyclone Yasi. Tawny Frogmouth was around at the beginning of the weekbut not towards the end. The female Papuan Frogmouth was seen on anightwalk but only twice in the normal daytime roost tree. AustralianOwlet-nightjar was seen twice in its daytime roost tree after severalweeks of being absent. About 30 White-throated Needletail flew overlate afternoon about 5.30 on the 19^thmixed with a fewAustralasian Swiftlet ahead of a few storm clouds. The immatureWhite-bellied Sea-Eagle that has been around for a few months wasseen again at the end of the week flying past the entrance to theLodge grounds. Red-necked Crake started to call during the week andhopefully they will start to show soon. Red-tailed Black-Cockatoowere heard flying over mid-week and Double-eyed Fig-Parrot werefeeding in a Cluster Fig. Channel-billed Cuckoo were calling and seenas were Brush Cuckoo who were calling all night. (Lesser) Sooty Owl was onlyheard this week mainly in the early morning before going to roost.Little Kingfisher was seen at the beginning of the week and theBuff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher have been pairing up and calling aswell as coming down lower to be more easily seen. This one was pouncing on the ground to feed.

Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher - male

Blue-wingedKookaburra have also been calling well and are being seen in GeraghtyPark. Noisy Pitta have been very vocal and showing well but not seenwith any nesting material this week. Spotted Catbird have also beenvocal and feeding juveniles around the grounds. It would appear thatthe Lewin's Honeyeater have all left as there has been no sightingsor calls heard during the week, so the identification decision iseasier with only Yellow-spotted or Graceful to choose from! 12honeyeater species were seen including Noisy Friarbird who are stillaround in small numbers. White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike, BarredCuckoo-shrike,Cicadabird and Varied Triller were all seen and heard.Grey Whistler have still been firing up early in the dawn chorus butvery little calling for the rest of the day. Both brown and BlackButcherbird were around for most of the week with the brown immaturebird seen carrying off a White-lipped Green Tree Frog. LeadenFlycatcher are back with many birds calling as this male was.

Leaden Flycatcher

SpectacledMonarch are sitting on nests as well as having juvenile birds aroundand both Pied Monarch and Yellow-breasted Boatbill are being seen andheard well. At least one Grey-headed Robin is still around andGolden-headed Cisticola have been calling and seen along Bushy Creek.Silvereye were seen on the ground picking up the aril (fleshy growtharising from the seed base) of the Pink Tamarind Toechima erythrocarpum seeds and thenflying off with a beak full. Not sure if they were going to eat thearil or use it for decoration on their nest.

Pink Tamarind - showing aril

Metallic Starling arestill adding to their nests and coming into the Lodge grounds to pulloff thin vine tendrils. At least one pair of Olive-backed Sunbird arenesting; the nest on our neighbours flyscreen has the female sitting.

Furtherafield two Grey Wagtail were reported (EremaeaBirds), one at the Dinner Falls track at Mt.Hypipamee (The Crater) National Park south of Atherton on the wayto Ravenshoe. The other was at Lake Mitchell between Mount Molloy andMareeba, neither birds have been seen since. A search on the day forthe one at Lake Mitchell failed to find the bird but this was notsurprising in such a large body of water. Plenty of other birds to beseen including two Brolga, hundreds of Australasian Darter andWandering Whistling-Duck plus three Pelican and a Pied Cormorantwhich is not common in this region. The outstanding sighting for thevisit was a Water Python eating what we decided was an AustralasianDarter. The head was already ingested when we saw it and the body waswrapped in the coiled python so it was quite difficult to identifythe prey especially as the python kept going under water and doingbarrel roles!

Water Python - showing bulge in body, probably head, whilst body of prey is yet to be devoured

Water Python - after barrel roll showing wing and feet of prey

Great Bowerbird were active at their bowers in Mt. Molloy, this one was standing guard over the bower.

Great Bowerbird

20Mammals and reptiles for the week which included a Striped Possum ina flowering Black Bean tree, an adult male Agile Wallaby foraging atnight in the orchard, a Water Rat and Platypus in Bushy Creek alongwith Eastern Water Dragon and at least two Boyd's Forest Dragonhanging around the restaurant area.

Fungi are still appearing, this was one of the latest.

Fungi sp.

13th November 2011 Report

2011-11-13T09:58:00.001+10:00

Theweeks rainfall was 17mm falling mainly at the beginning of the week.Maximum and minimum temperatures were slightly higher than last weekgetting up to 30.2ºc and down to 19.5ºc. Humidity was again high,getting up to 94% and going down to 60%.

Therewere more birds recorded this week than last with 113 seen and 7heard. 22 mammal and reptile species were seen and I heard.

Theweeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlightsaround the Lodge grounds were the return of Little Kingfisher withone at the Crake Pool late in the week. A White-winged Triller was alongMcDougall Road which is very unusual as they are normally out in thedrier country. A Satin Flycatcher was foraging in bamboo along BushyCreek for most of the week. Most surprising was three Double-barredFinch foraging high in a Poinciana tree at the entrance to the Lodge.Over the last six years we have only had one record of a single birdnear the Mt. Kooyong Nursing Home at the beginning of December 2010.They are more common in the drier country around Mount Molloy, LakeMitchell and Mt. Carbine areas.

Othersightings: Nesting continueswith Noisy Pitta seen carrying nesting material and a LittleShrike-thrush nest 1m off the ground was predated by a Brown TreeSnake. The snake was found coiled up in the nest with one egg and alarge bulge in it, the next day it was gone along with the other egg.

Brown Tree Snake in Little Shrike-thrush nest

Little Shrike-thrush

Another pair of Graceful Honeyeater were sitting on a nest and a pairof Olive-backed Sunbird were trying to nest on our neighboursflyscreen. The nest fell off twice so our neighbour intervened andtied the nest to a piece of string which has worked so far with thebirds nearly completing their nest. A Willie Wagtail is nesting in amachinery shed in the adjacent cane paddock.

Waterbirdsare still a bit patchy with Magpie Goose and Cotton Pygmy-goosemaking an appearance for a few days along McDougall Road. A one GreenPygmy-goose has also been at this location along with a few Hardhead.Again the eight pigeon and dove species which have been present overthe last few weeks are around with all seen apart from WompooFruit-Dove which was only heard. The rufous morph Tawny Frogmouthmoved down into our orchard area during the week and was found invarious locations. It was sitting out in the open on the edge of therainforest on a broken branch one day but moved onto a log on theground where it was found by the Pale-yellow Robin. The frogmouthtook up a defensive pose with head up and beak open whilst uttering astrange hissing sound.

Tawny Frogmouth on a stick

Tawny Frogmouth - defensive pose

The Papuan Frogmouth was found in a new location high up in therainforest on the edge of the orchard early one morning but moved bymid-morning and was not seen again. Both species of frogmouth werecalling most nights. On 9^ththree Fork-tail Swift and one White-throated Needletail were over theLodge heading west. Pacific Baza are calling but still no sign ofcontinuing nest building and Brahminy Kite were at the nearbyBarramundi farm. A single Black Kite was flying above the Rex Highwayand a Wedge-tailed Eagle was over the cane paddocks. SeveralRed-tailed Black-Cockatoo were also seen flying over the canepaddocks late one afternoon which is unusual at this time of year. Amale Double-eyed Fig-Parrot was feeding in a Cluster Fig along Mt.Kooyong Road and was the first seen feeding for a few months. Afemale Eastern Koel was seen around the orchard area andChannel-billed Cuckoo are still flying over most days calling. Othercuckoos around were Little (Gould's) Bronze-Cuckoo and Brush Cuckoowho were calling low down in trees around the orchard as this one was.

Brush Cuckoo

(Lesser) SootyOwl was again seen by one of our tour groups and heard calling mostdays. Azure Kingfisher were flying up and down Bushy Creek in asection they have nested in before so they maybe nesting again. Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher have just started to pair up and are calling from territories, they have also become more visible and are being seen more often now. There is no sign that they have started digging out their termite mounds but that can't be far off. Blue-winged Kookaburra have started to make appearances in GeraghtyPark after a few months hiding across the Rex Highway and are alsocalling a lot. Dollarbird have been calling and perching out in theopen but no sign of nesting yet.

Dollarbird

Thereare at least two pairs of Noisy Pitta calling around the grounds andthey are usually showing well. Spotted Catbird have been seen feedingan immature bird and probably a different pair to the ones seenbuilding a nest over the last few weeks. 14 species of honeyeaterthis week including Bridled and Brown-backed who have been comingdown to Bushy Creek to bathe like this one who is looking a bit wet.

Brown-backed Honeyeater

White-belliedCuckoo-shrike are still sitting on their nest and BarredCuckoo-shrike have been feeding on fruiting trees in the Lodgegrounds. Grey Whistler has been calling for a few hours in themorning and is usually the first heard in the dawn chorus. BlackButcherbird has been heard around the grounds but not seen.Black-faced Monarch are calling throughout the day and pairing up sobreeding must be close now.

Black-faced Monarch

PiedMonarch are around but not easy to see and Yellow-breasted Boatbillare still continuing to be very vocal. Pale-yellow Robin have beenseen feeding immature birds and still sitting on nests. No sign of the Bassian Thrush this week so it must surely have gone back up into the mountains - famous last words again!

Furtherafield an Eastern Yellow Wagtail was seen on a drying lagoon about4km from Mareeba on the Peninsula Road towards Mount Molloy on twooccasions, this location also had Glossy Ibis, both Wandering andPlumed Whistling-Duck plus Snipe sp. (either Latham's or Swinhoes). AGrey Goshawk was seen carrying a large lizard near the Julattenschool and maybe nesting in the area. Brush Cuckoo were also veryvocal around Mount Molloy and this one was perched near the school.

Brush Cuckoo

Alsohere were a pair of Eastern Koel feasting on a fruiting fig tree.

Mammalsand reptile species numbers were quite respectable with 22 seen and aDainty Tree Frog heard. Another Leaf-tailed Gecko was seen during theweek in a new location in the camping ground but the one reportedlast week could not be located. Giant White-tailed Rat are moreactive and being seen regularly. Striped Possum was seen on severaloccasions feeding in the orchard and again the Platypus have beenshowing most days/nights but again there were only five frog speciesseen despite a couple of wet nights. Interestingly one of our guestsphotographed a male Jungguy Frog in its yellow breeding colour whichis something we have not seen here in six years. We have photographedone in Cairns many years ago when they were called Lesueur's Frog.Boyd's Forest Dragon have been found most days as have the WaterDragon along Bushy Creek. Also along the creek late one afternoon wasa Water Rat.

Morefungi are appearing like this one in the rainforest. Thanks to Gayefor identifying last weeks fungi.

Fungi Sp.

Alsodue to the wetter conditions insects are appearing such as this locust, which looks like a Spur-throat Locust.

Spur-throat Locust

6th November 2011 Report

2011-11-06T16:59:00.000+10:00

Thisweeks rainfall was double last weeks with 5mm falling mid-week.Maximum and minimum temperatures were almost the same as last weekgetting up to 29.2ºc and down to 19.2ºc. Humidity was again high,getting up to 94% and a slightly higher minimum than last week, goingdown to 61%.

Therewere a few less birds recorded this week than last with 104 seen and8 heard. 20 mammal and reptile species seen were seen.

Theweeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlightsaround the Lodge grounds were the sighting of at least five SuperbFruit-Dove feedinghigh up in the canopy of the rainforest on the edge of the orchardplus several other views of a single bird lower down. All these birdswere males, so where are all the females? Maybe sitting on nests? ARed-necked Crake called early in the week and was the first timeheard or seen for several months.

Othersightings: The SuperbFruit-Dove maybe nesting but several other species have actually beenseen on nests or building ones. Pacific Baza were carrying nestingmaterial and started building but have had a break and not done anybuilding for a few weeks, Forest Kingfisher have been attending atleast three nests in or around the Lodge grounds high up in termitemounds on the side of trees and both Spotted Catbird and FairyGerygone were also seen high up in the rainforest collecting nestingmaterial.

GracefulHoneyeater were seen going into an Arrow Vine (feral weed which weare eradicating) to feed a fledgling. The fledgling was seen on theground the following day flapping around calling and attracting thedevoted parents in to feed it. It could just fly less than 1m before flopping down again. If you find a bird on the ground it isbest to leave it as the parents will continue to feed it and theyoungster will stand more chance of survival than if you intervene totry and feed it yourself or take it to a wildlife carer. Honeyeatersare not the easiest of birds to raise and quickly become imprinted onthe carer as we found out from personal experience.

Graceful Honeyeater - fledgling

Graceful Honeyeater - adult feeding fledgling

Brown-backedHoneyeater started to build another nest in the same tree as thefirst two weeks after we saw them feeding young in the nest, whichprobably means the first nesting attempt was unsuccessful.

Brown-backed Honeyeater

White-belliedCuckoo-shrike have been sitting on their nest, situated in the forkof a tree about 6m off the ground for about a week now.

White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike

Cicadabird were seencarrying nesting material to a nest, White-breasted Woodswallow arebusy refurbishing an old Magpie Lark nest.

White-breasted Woodswallow

Pale-yellowRobin have been nesting over the last few months and this one hasbeen sitting for nearly two weeks.

Pale-yellow Robin

MetallicStarling are still building their colonial nests and a pair ofOlive-backed Sunbird are attempting to make a nest on a flyscreen onone of our neighbours houses. We should add that these images ofbirds on nests were taken with a long telephoto lens at a distance soas not to disturb the birds and the images then cropped.

Waterbirdnumbers were still down around the McDougall Road area but a singleCotton Pygmy-goose was recorded after not being seen for a few weeks.Also late in the week a Black-necked Stork was at one of the lagoonsalong McDougall Road. All the eight pigeon and dove species whichhave been seen over the last few weeks are still present. The rufousmorph Tawny Frogmouth was seen up until mid-week but not since andthe female Papuan Frogmouth only showed at its regular roost site onthe edge of the orchard for a single day on Saturday, it was seen inthe rainforest in some vines by a guest earlier in the week. Boththese frogmouth were heard calling during the week, the tawny with afaster call than the similar papuan call.

AustralianSwiftlet have been around in large numbers over several days but avery mobile and disappear as quickly as they appear. Both adult andjuvenile White-bellied Sea-Eagle have been around again this week anda Brahminy Kite was seen on a morning walk soaring over a canepaddock. A Grey Goshawk flew over the Lodge grounds at the beginningof the week and Nankeen Kestrel continue to sit on the power polesalong the Rex Highway. “Katie” our Buff-banded Rail continues tokeep the guests amused and might have some competition as a secondrail was seen lurking around in the undergrowth near the units.Double-eyed Fig-Parrot have once again only been see flying over andnot stopping despite some very tasty looking figs fruiting around thearea. Eastern Koel (female) and Channel-billed Cuckoo are being heardmore often than seen with only a couple of sightings for the week.Sooty Owl has been heard but not seen and an Eastern Barn Owl was seen once.

Eastern Barn Owl

Buff-breastedParadise-Kingfisher are still not easy to see but most guests havefound them with a bit of effort. Noisy Pitta have proved to be easierto see with at least four birds present, leaving a trail of snailshells (snails are a favourite food) along the pathways. They arecalling well and have even been heard during the night at 3.00am.Brown Gerygone were recorded after a few weeks absence along Mt.Kooyong Road in our neighbours garden. 12 species of honeyeater thisweek with White-throated being a notable absentee, this is normally acommon species in the eucalypts of Geraghty Park and at our waterbowls in the Lodge grounds. Barred Cuckoo-shrike have been callingall week but not seen. Grey Whistler have been calling and usuallythe first heard in the morning chorus, only being pipped by a NoisyPitta one morning which called at five past five. This maleAustralasian Figbird was foraging along a log on the ground; don'texpect to see them foraging on the rainforest floor.

Australasian Figbird - male

YellowOriole has again been heard and Olive-backed Oriole, including animmature, seen. Both Pied Monarch and Yellow-breasted Boatbill havebeen calling well and seen regularly. A few Grey-headed Robin arestill with us and must surely leave soon for higher ground to breed.Our lone Bassian Thrush has been around all week and getting underour feet as it is reluctant to move off the pathways to let us pass.

Bassian Thrush

Furtherafield at Abattoir Swamp two Spotless Crake were seen in a small poolto the left of the hide. Along the road from Mt. Molloy to Mareeba,near Biboora, two Black-breasted Buzzard were circling, this is anuncommon species in our region. At least four Large-tailed Nightjarwere calling along Euluma Creek Road in Julatten one evening andalong the same road Doug Herrington reported 17 Little Lorikeet, anunusually high number for our area. Doug also reported a Red-backedButton-quail at Shannonvale (near Mossman) both these sightings canbe found on the Eremaea Birds website. Red-winged Parrot are usually found around MountMolloy as this male was during the week.

Red-winged Parrot - male

Mammalsand reptile species numbers were down due to lack of effort!Highlight for the week here was the reappearance of a Leaf-tailedGecko a species we have not seen since the second week in August thisyear and only the second sighting in November since we startedrecords in 2005. Boyd's Forest Dragon have been showing around thereception area rainforest. Striped Possum was seen low down in therainforest adjacent to the reception at the end of the week but noGreen Ringtail sightings. Platypus has been showing most days/nightsbut there were only five frog species seen despite a couple of wetnights.

Afew more fungi species have been appearing such as this one which wedon't remember seeing before. Thanks to Gaye for identification.

Xerula australis

30th October Report 2011

2011-10-30T18:10:00.000+10:00

Thisweeks rainfall was a complete contrast to last weeks with only 2.5mmfalling on the first two days of the week. Maximum and minimumtemperatures were about the same as last week getting up to 30.2ºcand down to 19ºc. Humidity was high, getting up to 94% and slightlylower than last week going down to 58%.

Therewere a few more birds recorded this week than last with 106 seen and11 heard. Theweeks bird list is on the EremaeaBirds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlightsaround the Lodge grounds were the return of Noisy Pitta on the 23rd after beingaway since mid-May, at least two have been seen and are callingthroughout the day. Welcome back.

Noisy Pitta

AnEastern Osprey was flying over the Rex Highway heading towards theBarramundi Farm, this was the 14^threcord in six years, so they are not very common here. The first yearBassian Thrush returned and stayed all week showing well around thegrounds. A Great-billed Heron was seen one afternoon walking alongBushy Creek and presumably the same bird was seen later in the weekalong the same creek at McDougall Road. At least two SuperbFruit-Dove were seen and many more were calling.

Othersightings: Waterbird numberswere again down with only one Green Pygmy-goose seen and fewerHardhead around. Pigeons and doves were again in evidence with 8species seenand one heard. The Superb Fruit-Dove have been calling for at least six weeks but it has only been this week that we have seen more than one when two males were foraging high in the rainforest canopy. The rufous morph of the Tawny Frogmouth was aroundfor a second week, it was seen roosting and spotlighted one night. ThePapuan Frogmouth female was roosting on the edge of the orchard apartfrom the last two days of the week and was calling most nights. Asingle Fork-tailed Swift was seen on the 29^thlate evening flying over an adjacent cane field. Two White-neckedHeron, an adult and an immature, were seen on a morning walk flyingover Geraghty Park, not a common species in our area. The previouslyreported Juvenile Nankeen Night-Heron was still along Bushy Creek.The Pacific Baza continue to be in the area and have been seensoaring overhead but still no action at the nest they startedbuilding a month ago. Both a juvenile and two adult White-belliedSea-Eagle were seen, the two adults were on the ground at theBarramundi Farm and the juvenile soaring over the Lodge grounds. AWedge-tailed Eagle was over the cane fields one evening and NankeenKestrel were perched on the power poles along the highway most days.A snipe sp. was in a small lagoon in the cane field near the nursinghome and presumed to be a Latham's. Double-eyed Fig-Parrot were onlyseen flying over despite several suitable fig trees being in fruitaround the Lodge. An immature Eastern Koel was foraging in theorchard showing patchy black feathers through the juvenile brownplumage. Azure Kingfisher was again flying up and down Bushy Creekafter a period of several week without being seen. Buff-breastedParadise-Kingfisher are still proving difficult to see but mostguests have seen them by being patient and putting in the time.

Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher

ForestKingfisher are still fiddling around with their nest in therainforest and Dollarbird are flying around Geraghty Park checkingout suitable nest hollows. Spotted Catbird has been spotted carryingnesting material and appearing at the feeder to grab some fruit. 13species of honeyeater were taking advantage of the numerous floweringtrees in the Lodge grounds with a few Lewin's still around and anincreasing number of Noisy Friarbird appearing. Yellow Honeyeater has started to come back into the Lodge grounds over the last few weeks after ignoring us for at least 18months. They have been in the area but out in the more open woodland habitat of Geraghty Park and surrounds.

Yellow Honeyeater

White-belliedCuckoo-shrike are sitting on a nest in the fork of a tree and bothBarred Cuckoo-shrike and Cicadabird have been very vocal and seen.Yellow Oriole have returned with at least one calling and a juvenileOlive-backed Oriole has been seen in the orchard. Black-faced Monarchare extremely vocal calling for most of the day and showing well butalways out of reach of the camera lens! Yellow-breasted Boatbill areall very vocal, mainly early morning and there is still a femaleVictoria's Riflebird getting around the grounds. Pale-yellow Robinare at various stages of nesting with some birds sitting whilstothers are feeding recently fledged birds. A few Grey-headed Robinare lingering on reluctant to head to the higher ground of the nearbymountains. Metallic Starling are nearing completion of their nestsand providing seeds for the local tree planting group who have acatcher under their colony to collect regurgitated seeds. This one is eying off its next meal to help the tree planting group.

Metallic Starling

Further afield at Mt. Molloy the Noisy Friarbird has been chasing off theBlue-faced Honeyeater gangs from flowering grevilleas, which is nomean feat.

Blue-faced Honeyeater

Also feeding in the grevilleas was this immatureOlive-backed Oriole; note the dark tear drop streaks on the breastwhich are different to the female Australasian Figbird streaking,which is more parallel and more brown in colour.

Olive-backed Oriole

Mammalsand reptile numbers were again good this week with a few unusualsightings; A 1m Lace Monitor was seen heading up a tree near thereception area and was the first seen since December 2010. ARough-scaled Snake, which are venomous, was seen in the rainforestnear the Crake Pool and serves as a warning to wear sensible shoesand clothing when wandering around and that it is possible to comeacross snakes anywhere in the forest. In general snakes are rarelyencountered on the property and if they are they are relativelyharmless Green Tree Snake or Amethystine Python. Agile Wallaby havebeen on and around the Lodge grounds and are the only kangaroo wehave on the property.

Agile Wallaby

GiantWhite-tailed Rat have been actively chasing each other around andmaking a lot of noise which probably indicates breeding season. AStriped Possum was heard on a night walk calling and tracked down ina dead tree for all the guests to get good views. Long-nosedBandicoot have been coming out of the rainforest to forage in theorchard where three were seen one evening.

Long-nosed Bandicoot

ThePlatypus have also been showing well with most guests seeing them inBushy Creek where there is at least two. A film crew were filmingtheir underwater activities whilst above water a friend of ours fromour Darwin days was trying to photograph bats in flight. Sevenspecies of frog this week, they got excited at last weeks rain but most had disappeared by the end of the week. Boyd's Forest Dragon andEastern Water Dragon were showing most days whilst the Major Skinkwere playing hide and seek!

Therain of the previous week triggered off a flurry of activity with thefungi, this one is growing out of a crack in a tree trunk.

Fungi sp.

23rd October Report 2011

2011-10-23T12:20:00.004+10:00

Thestart of some rain, reported in last weeks blog, continued throughthe week culminating in a total of 119mm, considerably less thanother locations in our area. Cairns had around 400mm. Temperatureswere lower than they had been due to the cloud cover but did get upto 30.7ºc at the beginning of the week however after that the toptemperature was down to 24.4ºc. The lowest was 19.3ºc but mostmornings were around 20ºc. Humidity was high, getting up to 96% anddown to 65%. Whilst it is not officially the start of our “WetSeason” it certainly felt like it!

Notquite as many birds this week due to the wet weather causing a dropin birding effort but still a respectable 103 seen and 12 heard.

Theweeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Highlightsaround the Lodge grounds were seeing a Superb Fruit-Dove after weeksof hearing them, also seeing a Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisherduring the week, a rufous morph Tawny Frogmouth of the race Podargusstrigoides phalaenoides, which stayed around for 3 days andanother two sightings of a (Lesser) Sooty Owl which coincided withtwo of our tour groups. The Tawny was first found roosting on the ground in a Ginger plant and later higher up on the edge of the rainforest.

Tawny Frogmouth - rufous morph, on ground

Tawny Frogmouth - rufous morph, edge of rainforest

Late news just in from our neighbours is that whilst taking their dog out at 10.30 Saturday night for a call of nature a Noisy Pitta was heard calling, this triggered a Red-necked Crake to call - both these species have been absent for some time, the rail not heard or seen for about six weeks and the pitta not around since 22nd May 2011, lets hope they start showing.

Othersightings:

Still a few birds in theMcDougall Road lagoons but numbers are down and several species leftonce the rain set in. Pacific Black Duck, Hardhead, a lone DuskyMoorhen and a pair of displaying Australasian Grebe were about allthat were present at the end of the week. Pigeons and doves were goodthis week with seven species seen and one heard, they were BrownCuckoo-Dove, Emerald Dove, Peaceful-Dove, Bar-shouldered Dove, SuperbFruit-Dove, Pied Imperial Pigeon and Topknot Pigeon. Our femalePapuan Frogmouth did not like the rain and was found perched in oneof her usual spots looking like a Vulture with all her head and neckfeathers soaked and flattened to her neck. She was still calling atnight and was joined by another frogmouth who was also calling with aslightly different call. This was probably the aforementioned TawnyFrogmouth. Again Great, Intermediate and Cattle Egret have beenaround as well as a juvenile Nankeen Night-Heron which was for thesecond week found along Bushy Creek. Pacific Baza also continue to bearound but are making slow progress on their nest with very littleconstruction over the week. Two White-belled Sea-Eagle with ajuvenile bird were around, circling over the Lodge grounds as was aBrown Goshawk. Grey Goshawk and Nankeen Kestrel were also seen.

Rainbow andScaly-breasted Lorikeet have been feasting on the prolific flowers ofthe Pink Mahogany and Bumpy Satinash drowning out most other birdcalls.

Rainbow Lorikeet - in Bumpy Satinash

A pair of Rainbow Lorikeet had two juvenile birds in tow whowere begging food with their wings outstretched in one of the BumpySatinash trees. Double-eyed Fig-Parrot were again only seen flyingover as were a pair of Channel-billed Cuckoo. Eastern Koel were againin a fruiting fig along Bushy Creek and a very brave Pheasant Coucallaboured to fly across the creek before flopping into a tree. Theyare terrible flyers and spend most of their time climbing trees sothey can glide downwards rather than fly! Little (Gould's)Bronze-Cuckoo was seen and Brush Cuckoo heard. At least threeindividual Eastern Barn Owl were seen and an Azure Kingfisher flewinto a window of our neighbours house. It was stunned and put into abox for the night to recover which it did as it flew off strongly inthe morning. Great Bowerbird andRed-backed Fairy-wren were active along McDougall Road and LovelyFairy-wren were heard along Bushy Creek near the Platypus viewingarea. Lewin's Honeyeater were back in numbers with up to nine at thefeeder after being away for several weeks, one of them had a damagedlower mandible with a piece missing. Note that the bird in this image has the distinctive blue-grey iris of the adult Lewin's and the normally crescent shape yellow ear patch is distorted out of shape by the bird turning it's head.

Lewin's Honeyeater

A few Bridled Honeyeater werearound feeding on the flowers of the Black Bean tree and Brown-backedHoneyeater continued to feed their nestlings. Noisy Friarbird turnedup in the orchard area feeding on the flowers of the Black Bean buthad to contend with noisy Rainbow Lorikeet who chased them off. Atleast five Barred Cuckoo-shrike were around all week with plenty ofcalling but not showing well. A male Cicadabird was foraging 4m offthe ground in one of our neighbours trees giving the occasional calland a brown juvenile Black Butcherbird was hiding in trees in frontof the units being harassed by the Pale-yellow Robin. A NorthernFantail returned to our neighbours garden after nearly a monthsabsence and Leaden Flycatcher seems to be established in the area.Black-faced Monarch are calling well and probably looking for a placeto nest, they have not been too successful around the Lodge groundspreviously as they have a habit of singing on the nest – not a goodsurvival strategy! Lemon-bellied Flycatcher was heard once but notseen; they have been gone from the area for nearly a month now. A fewGrey-headed Robin are still with us and finding food easier to getafter the rains softened the ground. Metallic Starling are also taking advantage of the flowering trees, this image shows one in the same Bumpy Satinash as the Rainbow Lorikeet.

Metallic Starling

The rain triggered flyingtermites to leave their nest in huge numbers and several bird speciessuddenly became flycatchers including this Red-browed Finch who wasfeasting on the high protein food supply.

Red-browed Finch - with termite

Further afield aWhite-necked Heron was seen along the Peninsular Road in LakeMitchell (between Mareeba and Mt. Molloy), they are not very commonin our region. Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo was seen in the MowbrayNational Park as was Lovely Fairy-wren. The Daintree River trips havebeen turning up some good birds for our guests including LittleKingfisher and two Black Bittern but the most unusual sighting was ofa Noisy Pitta in the mangroves dismembering a crab! Geoff Jones, whosome of you might know from his excellent bird images posted onto hisBarra Imaging websitecalled by one day and reported seeing some White-throated Needletailoutside Kuranda.

Mammalsand reptile numbers were again good this week with 26 species seenand one heard. An increase in frog species due to the rains helpedthis total, they were Striped Marsh Frog, Jungguy Frog, White-lippedTree Frog, Northern Dwarf Tree Frog, Roth's Tree Frog, Dessert TreeFrog, Dainty Green Tree Frog – heard, Peter's Frog, Cogger's Frogand Cane Toad. A Green Tree Snake was seen heading across the orchardbefore it climbed effortlessly up a trunk of a Malabar or GuyanaChestnut fruit tree. Several unidentified skink (Carlia sp.) and aBoyd's Forest Dragon appeared at the same termite mound as theRed-browed Finch to join in the feast.

Carlia sp.

Boyd's Forest Dragon - at termite mound

A Striped Possum was seenthree times in the same tree near the Crake Pool and a Platypus wasseen several times in Bushy Creek, once at 9.30 in the morning.Several young Bush Rat have appeared at the feeder with their parentsas well as a Fawn-footed Melomys. The Northern Brown and Long-nosedBandicoot are enjoying the softened ground and have been busycelebrating by aerating our grassy areas with their deep conicalholes. They have also been coming to the feeder most nights exceptone when it was pouring with rain and they decided to stay indoors.

16th October 2011 Report

2011-10-16T18:52:00.000+10:00

Minimumtemperatures at the beginning of the week were down to 16.6ºc butfor the rest of the week they were quite high around the 17-22ºcmark, which was higher than last week. The maximum temperature was34.2ºc mid-week, which was the highest we can remember in six years;the rest of the week had temperatures of over 30ºc. Quite unusuallyhigh for this time of year. The lowest humidity was 39% and highest90%. No rain to record for the week but a big storm arrived onSaturday afternoon and dumped 25mm of rain onto us which will getrecorded in next weeks statistics.

Agreat week for numbers of bird species with 112 seen, and 6 heard. Reptiles and mammals were up on last week with 25 seen which equaledour previous highest week.

Highlightsaround the Lodge grounds were the first records of Little Friarbirdsince 6^th August 2009 and Brush Cuckoo which was last seenat the beginning of February 2011.

Brush Cuckoo - juvenile

Theweeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at thislink on EremaeaBirds.

Mostsurprising record for the week was a Bassian Thrush foraging outin the open in a recently cut cane field along Bushy Creek. It wasforaging with a flock of 16 Masked Lapwing.

Mostsurprising behavior for the weekwas a Pale-yellow Robin who pounced onto the ground to grab aNorthern Dwarf Tree Frog Litoriabicolor.The robin proceeded to smash the frog onto a log before it swallowedit. The Handbookof Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birdslists the diet of Pale-yellow Robin as Arthropods; mainly insects;sometimes seeds. We have so far not found any reference to themeating vertebratessuch as tree frogs. If you have any records of this behaviour wewould like to hear from you.

BreakingNews: Buff-breastedParadise-Kingfisher arrived overnight 15-16^thOctober, were heard calling on the morning of 16^th.

Othersightings:

CottonPygmy-goose are still along McDougall Road as are many otherwaterbirds. Wompoo Fruit-Dove have been seen in the Lodge grounds butthe Superb Fruit-Dove have only been heard calling all week, suchelusive birds. At least six Pied Imperial Pigeon have been gettingaround together and Topknot Pigeon numbers have decreased over theweek but some are still feeding in the grounds on the Blue Quandongfruits. Our female Papuan Frogmouth disappeared during the week andhas not been seen for four days or heard calling at night sohopefully she might have found a mate and gone off to breed. ALarge-tailed Nightjar was heard one evening but not a murmur or anysightings of Australian Owlet-nightjar. One of the McDougall Roadlagoons had a Black-necked Stork trying to swallow a large snake andsix Royal Spoonbill were seen flying over the lodge in the directionof the lagoons. A juvenile Nankeen Night-Heron was roosting on itsown in a large fig tree alongside Bushy Creek.

PacificBaza are still around calling and seen carrying nesting material. Ajuvenile Brown Goshawk was flying over the adjacent cane fieldcarrying a prey item whilst we were on a morning walk. “Katie”our Buff-banded Rail has continued entertaining our guests but wasquite bemused when we has some rain at the end of the week. She hasnot seen heavy rain before and was quite spooked by the thunder andlightning, hiding under one of our tables on the veranda. She alsomet up with another rail and chased it away one morning. This is themost recent image of her, now almost six months old.

"Katie" Buff-banded Rail

TwoLittle Lorikeet were mixed in with the flocks of Scaly-breastedLorikeet so it is worth checking the flocks of scaly's. AgainDouble-eyed Fig-Parrot were seen flying over at breakneck speed butnot stopping. Pheasant Coucal was along Bushy Creek near a fruitingfig tree which was attracting both male and female Eastern Koel,Channel-billed Cuckoo, Barred Cuckoo-shrike plus large flocks ofAustralian Figbird and Metallic Starling. Several pairs of Dollarbirdwere actively looking for nest hollows in the Queensland Blue Gum(Forest Red Gum).

A(Lesser) Sooty Owl put on a show for our guests mid-week when weinadvertently disturbed it from the ground behind our units. It flewinto a nearby tree and perched about 3m off the ground. So we got allour guests out, some in night attire, who we thrilled to see this owlwho behaved and sat in the tree preening, not taking any notice ofus. We managed a few images which showed blood around the mouth, soit was probably feeding when we disturbed it off the ground. Sorryyet another Sooty Owl Image!

(Lesser) Sooty Owl

ALewin's Honeyeater was seen for the first time in several weeks whichwas a surprise as we had though they had all gone up onto themountains behind us to breed. The Brown-backed Honeyeater nest wehave been keeping an eye on had a bird sitting one night when wepassed it during a spotlighting trip. The following day we saw adultscarrying insects to the nest and feeding young. Noisy Friarbird wereseen within our 1.5km radius of the Lodge and were the first seensince the beginning of March this year. White-bellied Cuckoo-shrikewere seen building a nest in the fork of a tree and Cicadabird wereheard every day but not seen. Leaden Flycatcher arrived back thisweek after being away for several months, both male and females wereseen. Black-faced Monarch numbers increased again with much callingand displaying so they might be about to start nesting. Good views ofPied Monarch and Yellow-breasted Boatbill were had most days aroundthe grounds. Grey-headed Robin are still with us with no noticeabledrop in numbers, which would signal their return to the highergrounds of the mountains where they breed. Golden-headed Cisticolawere along Bushy Creek foraging in the remaining grass clumps.Welcome Swallow had been breeding in a road underpass with at leasttwo nests active. There were two juvenile birds perched on the nestsmid-week who fledged the next day after this image was taken. Interestingly one of the mud nests was decorated withGuinea Fowl feathers.

Welcome Swallow - juvenile

Furtherafield Wedge-tailed Eagle was reported from the Mt Molloy area. Aquick trip up to the Mt. Carbine area found 21 Glossy Ibis and 85+Green Pygmy-goose, full list can be found on the EremaeaBirds site. Also on a small dam near Mt. Carbine was a Snipe sp., probably Latham's Snipe but cannot rule out Swinhoe's as they alsopass through the area. They are very difficult to separate in thefield, this cropped hand held shot is inconclusive.


Snipe sp.

Mammalsand reptile numbers were good this week mainly due to an increase infrog species towards the end of the week as they anticipated thecoming rains. Frog species were Jungguy Frog, White-lipped Tree Frog,Northern Dwarf Tree Frog, Roth's Tree Frog, Dessert Tree Frog,Peter's Frog and Cane Toad. Five bat species were identified, EasternHorseshoe Bat, Diadem Leaf-nosed Bat, Northern Broad-nosed Bat,Little Bent-winged Bat and Large Footed Myotis. Boyd's RainforestDragon were around with at least two seen, an Amethystine Python wasseen hunting in the campers amenities block and several Eastern WaterDragon were along Bushy Creek.

Finally some interesting insects were in the crack of a tree trunk, this one is from the Order Hemiptera, the True Bugs. Unknown species at the moment.