29th June 2014 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

Weather Report

The first week was rainy and overcast with 16.5mm of rain over 4 days, but by the end of the week it had improved with the second week being dry and sunny, fantastic weather! At last the Lodge was starting to dry out. Temperatures ranged from a low of 14.8ºC up to 23ºC, very pleasant, perfect birding weather.

Last Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-
The first week we recorded 98 species and the second week 101, these can be found on the Eremaea eBird site. 15th - 21st June and 22nd - 28th June

Birding Highlights:-

Wandering Whistling-Duck, Green Pygmy-goose, Pacific Black Duck, Australasian Grebe, Little Black and Little-Pied Cormorant and Great Egret were reported along McDougall Road in the lagoons. An Australian Pelican was flying over the Lodge one afternoon and a White-necked Heron was in a swampy patch of the adjacent cane paddock, this is an occasional visitor. Black-shouldered Kite, Swamp Harrier, Grey and Brown Goshawk, Black and Whistling Kite, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Nankeen Kestrel and Brown Falcon were the raptors seen. Red-necked Crake were heard, but not seen. Brown Cuckoo-Dove have been calling and feeding on fruiting trees in the rainforest. Fan-tailed Cuckoo have been calling every day along with the Little (Gould's) Bronze-Cuckoo and our bird guide neighbours Carol and Andrew had a Shining Bronze-Cuckoo in their garden, this is a winter visitor. Barn Owl are calling, but not always seen as they have changed their normal routine due to the start of the breeding season. The pair of Barking Owls have been around most nights calling incessantly and waking everyone up! A Lesser Sooty Owl was heard giving a single call on one night and that was all for the two weeks. Again four Papuan Frogmouth have been seen, one was perched over the road to reception whilst on a night walk. Rainbow Bee-eater are still with us, but their numbers appear to be decreasing so they may be moving off. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo have whinging youngsters with them and must be driving the parents crazy as the go all day. Double-eyed Fig-Parrot have only been seen as fly overs and Red-wing Parrot were seen near the Julatten School, just in our 1.5km radius Lodge bird list area. Noisy Pitta is still being seen, usually in the orchard or adjacent rainforest, but are not easy. Spotted Catbird are still coming to the feeder and also seen feeding with Victoria's Riflebird on the fallen fruit of a Spondias tree in the orchard.

Victoria's Riflebird - immature male

14 species of honeyeater were seen over the two weeks, the highlight was a Helmeted Friarbird which normally are common along the coast and up onto the great divide so to see one this far inland was very unusual. Graceful Honeyeater have also been calling and feeding on rainforest flowers as the one below is doing. This bird is stretching itself to get to the nectar and in doing so it is distorting the yellow ear patch so it does not look like the field guides show. The shape of the ear patch is naturally variable in Yellow-spotted and Graceful and the Lewin's Honeyeater this area have an ear patch which is not quite the defined crescent shape of the southern birds, which leads to more confusion in identification. Best bet is to learn the calls before you visit this region. 

Graceful Honeyeater

Graceful Honeyeater - close up of head and ear patch

We had the first sighting for the year of a Yellow-throated Scrubwren (male) in the Lodge grounds on the 27^th June. We usually get one or two birds coming off the higher mountains to visit us in the winter months which is good as they can cross the broken corridor between us and the mountain rainforest unlike some other species like Chowchilla. Yellow-breasted Boatbill have again been calling and showing well as have Pied Monarch.

Pied Monarch

A female Bower's Shrike-thrush has been around the Lodge grounds late in the second week, again this is a winter visitor from higher grounds. Female Bower's have a bone bi-colour bill unlike the adult male who have an all dark bill. At least one male Golden Whistler (another winter visitor) is still around the grounds and has been calling well. A Yellow Oriole has been lurking around in the Lodge grounds, whilst they are common on the coast they have only started to appear here in the last 3-4 years.

Yellow Oriole

Willie Wagtail are interesting and a common bird, but not at the Lodge all year around. Whilst they are reported to be resident in many areas of Australia they also migrate out of some parts of Australia. Amazing how little we know about the movements of such a common bird. 

Willie Wagtail

A Tawny Grassbird was around the nearby cane paddock, a species we have not seen since September 2013. Chestnut-breasted Mannikin were foraging around the edge of the adjacent cane paddock one morning along with the regular Red-browed Finch.

Further Afield:-

Black-breasted Buzzard was seen at the Mt. Carbine Cemetery, Collared Sparrowhawk and Satin Flycatcher were at McLeod River north of Mt. Carbine. Pacific Baza was at the Mowbray National Park in Julatten, thanks to Jan England for these sightings. Little Kingfisher are being seen on the Daintree River and Australian Praticole were found on the Atherton Tableland behind the Shalee Strawberry Farm on the Gillies Highway (Yungaburra to Atherton Road) at the junction of Marks Lane. A female Double-eyed Fig-Parrot stunned itself on a window of our house in Julatten and after it was calmed down it was put on a tree branch in the shade where it sat until it recovered and flew away. It was looking rather sad when this photo was taken.

Double-eyed Fig-Parrot - female

Thanks to Carol and Andrew Iles for their sightings contributions. If you need any bird guiding contact Carol and Andrew.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

Top of the list this week goes to the Tree Mouse Pogonomys sp.(previously known as Prehensile-tailed Rat) which was running around on the edge of the rainforest near the reception area one evening. Two other Pogonomys species occur in New Guinea but the Australian one is thought to be an unnamed species as no taxonomic study has shown a definite link with the other two species. The Australian species was first recorded in 1974 at Lake Eacham on the Atherton Tableland when a cat bought one into the Lake Eacham Teahouse. This one stopped in the same position for over 10 minutes whilst it was photographed contrary to published reports that it runs around in a confused manner back and forth along tree branches when spotlighted. 

Tree Mouse

Other mammals seen were Fawn-footed Melomys, Yellow-footed Antichinus, Red-legged Pademelon, Agile Wallaby, Eastern Horseshoe Bat, Northern Tube-nosed Bat, Bush Rat, Giant White-tailed Rat, Striped Possum, Long-nosed and Northern Brown Bandicoot plus Spectacled Flying Fox. Once again we found several Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko, several of which were showing different colour variations depending on the tree bark colour they were on, great camouflage

Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko

Frogs were good for the first week when it was wet but only a couple of species ventured out in the second week, we recorded seven species including Striped Marsh Frog, Jungguy Frog, Dainty Green Tree Frog and Cogger's Frog. No Boyd's Forest Dragon and only one snake, an Australian Scrub Python, over the two weeks which probably means they have gone into hibernation or are less active in the cooler weather.

Fungi:-

This Bridal Veil fungi Phallus indusiatus popped up along the rainforest track to the orchard. It is pollinated by flies which are attracted to it by the smell, which is like rotting meat. The cap has a brown spore containing slime which is eaten by the flies who then disperse the spores. It is an edible fungus and is used in Chinese cooking as well as in medicines. If you want to find out more about this fungi follow this link.

Bridal Veil Fungi

New Books:-

Two new books were added to our shop this week, Finding Australian birds: a field guide to birding locations by Tim Dolby and Rohan Clarke. Had a quick browse through this book and it looks like the definitive guide to get you onto great birding locations and the birds you want to see. It is over 600 pages with plenty of maps. A bargain at $49.95.

The other book is A Guide To The Cockroaches of Australia by David Rentz who is well known to us as he lives nearby at Kuranda. This book describes comprehensively most of the 550 described species found in Australia, excellent descriptions, photos and maps. It is only when you see this field guide that you can appreciate the diversity of cockroaches in Australia, $49.95. 

 

Well done to Tim, Rohan and David for the work and dedication needed to bring such great books to us.

Finally:-
After months of roadworks along the Mt. Molloy to Mossman road near the Bushy Creek Bridge where we were delayed by traffic lights which took for ever to change, it has been finished. This is what it looks like now. Not sure about the speed limit!

Mt. Molloy to Mossman Road.

For Sale:-

Canon EOS 7D body + EF 100-400mm Lens. All in excellent condition with original boxes, Instruction manual. Great bird photography outfit - have upgraded. Only $1600.00 plus P & P. Email interest.

Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge Business and Property For Sale
Click here for more sale details

29th January 2012 Report

A shortened week due to having to go into Cairns for a knee operation for two days. Knee appears to be coming along OK but it will curtail most birding activity for a few more days.

70mm of 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 same as last week 22.5ºc to 29.4ºc with the humidity 77% to 95%.

Birds recorded were less due to the reduced effort on our part, but our neighbours Carol and Andrew were out and about recording the birds in our area which kept the numbers up to a respectable 84 seen and a high 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 this link on Eremaea Birds

Highlights:

Two Red-necked Crake with three chicks bathing in a pool beside the orchard, they were very flighty and took cover at the slightest movement. Great to see three chicks again this year, hope they all survive. Olive-backed Sunbird at our neighbours fledged two chicks at the end of the week and they seem to have survived longer than the last two they tried raising. Our sunbirds are still sitting on their nest.

Other sightings:

Waterbird numbers were again down this week with birds spread out over the permanent and temporary wetlands formed by the “wet season” rains. Only a few Magpie Goose, Pacific black Duck, Hardhead, an Australasian Darter, Little Pied and Little Black Cormorant, Eastern Great, Intermediate and Little Egret plus a White-faced Heron and a couple of Australian White Ibis. 

Pacific Black Duck

Topknot Pigeon were back with at least 50 foraging around the edge of the orchard at the end of the week. A few Pied Imperial-Pigeon were seen and both Wompoo and Superb Fruit-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

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

Pheasant Coucal

Azure Kingfisher was along Bushy Creek and our Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher now have six confirmed nests with chicks in. Another nest with chicks is in our neighbours garden. Several Rainbow Bee-eater passed over the Lodge late in the week and Dollarbird have started to call again. Noisy Pitta have been seen in the orchard collecting food and flying into the rainforest, so it would appear they are feeding chicks in a nest. Unfortunately we found a dead Noisy Pitta outside one of our two bedroom units. It had been picked clean with only a few primary feathers showing the green edging and white wing marking plus a few loose turquoise feathers allowing the skeleton to be identified. It was probably one of the juveniles from this year. Spotted Catbird have been perching in the rainforest and calling intensely, mainly early morning but often throughout the day, they really put a lot of effort into their calls. 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 three weeks and Blue-faced plus Macleay's Honeyeater have returned to the nectar 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 around the Lodge grounds for brief glimpses. White-breasted Woodswallow are still perching on fences along McDougall Road along with Australian Pipit and a few Metallic Starling, all appear to be feeding on the road but could not see anything resembling suitable food. Black-faced Monarch are still calling from several locations around the grounds and must be sitting on nests as they have been calling from the same spot for several weeks. The Spectacled Monarch reported last week nesting alongside Bushy Creek is still sitting but has chicks in the nest now. Pied Monarch and Yellow-breasted Boatbill have both been showing and calling. Metallic Starling are still collecting nesting material and building more nests as they have been doing since early August last year. There are more starlings around this year than any of the previous six years and they show no sign of letting up with their breeding; probably trying to make up for last year when Cyclone Yasi cut short their breeding season. Still plenty of Blue-faced Parrot-Finch on Mt Lewis.

Further Afield:-

We managed to fit in some birding during our trip to Cairns and visited Yorkey's Knob Lagoon, Cattana Wetlands, Centenary Lakes (Cairns Botanic Gardens) and of course the Cairns Esplanade. Yorkey's Knob Lagoon was full to almost overflowing with very few birds in the area, the highlight was a Crimson Finch who came to investigate us and sat outside our car looking in. The only waterbird was an Australasian Darter.

Australasian Darter

Cattana Wetlands was a bit more productive with a few more waterbirds and some bush birds. Green Pygmy-goose, Magpie Goose, Little Pied Cormorant and Australian Grebe were on the water whilst the most prominent bush bird was Black Butcherbird lurking around in the mangroves along the board walk. The presence of so many butcherbirds was probably the reason we saw fewer numbers of smaller birds. Cattana Wetland is well worth a visit whilst in Cairns, a brochure with species list can be downloaded from the BirdLife Australia NQ website http://www.birdsaustralianq.org/pdfs/Cattana_Wetlands_No_33.pdf. Centenary Lakes was as good as ever with Black Bittern, Rajah Shelduck, Comb-crested Jacana and Bush Stone-curlew amongst the 27 species we saw in just over an hour. The visit to the Cairns Esplanade was cut short by a rain storm but it made little difference as the tide was extremely high (highest for the year) with few birds visible. Another visit had the tide way out which also did not help finding waders. We did manage to see Eastern Reef Egret, Lesser Sand Plover, Masked Lapwing, Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Eastern Curlew, Grey-tailed Tattler, Great Knot and Red-necked Stint. 

Great Knot

There were many more birds we could have seen but we did not have the scope. On land there was the reliable Varied Honeyeater, lots of Pied Imperial Pigeon plus Rainbow Lorriket and Metallic Starling coming in to roost in trees along the Esplanade. The complete species list from our visits can be viewed on the Eremaea Birds site. Another search for Buff-breasted Button-quail south of Mt. Molloy, by one of our guests, failed to find any birds; the habitat here is becoming unsuitable with the grass becoming taller with the rains.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

A few interesting reptiles and mammals this week, JCU students heard Marbled Frog Limnodynastes convexiusculus a species we have not knowingly heard before, certainly not recorded one here in six years. Maybe we have been overlooking them as they have been recorded in the past. Queensland Tube-nosed Bat with their distinctive whistling call were heard by our neighbours, not one we have heard very often. Yellow-footed Antichinus have been active during the day with one coming to the feeder to enjoy some mango. Striped Possum was heard and seen once and a Platypus was seen whizzing 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

2nd August 2009 Report

Not much rain again with only 3.5mm during the week but quite a few cloudy days. 84 species of birds were seen and 3 more heard plus 22 Mammal/Reptile/Amphibians during the week.

Highlights for the week were a pair of Blue-faced Parrot-Finch drinking from Bushy Creek at the end of the orchard, which means they must be feeding nearby. Pacific Baza was back foraging in the tree tops around the camping area as was a pair of Chestnut-breasted Mannikin who turned up at the seed feeder. A few waterfowl were in the swamp along McDougall Road near the lodge, Magpie Goose, Green Pygmy-goose, Grey Teal, Pacific Black Duck, Hardhead, Australasian Grebe plus Little Pied Cormorant and Intermediate Egret, this made a welcome change to the lack of water birds in the area for the first half of the year. Whistling Kite still continue to refurbish the old Brahminy Kites nest and a Cattle Egret was flying over with a big stick in its claws heading towards McDougall Road. Have to check this out as they have not bred in our area before. An Australian Hobby swooped us during a morning walk whilst we were in Geraghty Park before heading across the Rex Highway and out of sight. Pied Monarch and Yellow-breasted Boatbill were regularly seen around the grounds.

An interesting sighting was a pair of Yellow Honeyeater refurbishing an old Magpie-lark nest, they were bringing in small twigs and sitting in the nest, shuffling around to make it comfortable. They were only seen once but we will keep checking to see if they continue with it. We have not found any reference to this behaviour being reported before.

Spotlighting was quite good during the week with 7 species of frog recorded including a Striped Marsh Frog Limnodynasties peronii which is not seen often around the lodge,

Striped Marsh Frog

only one sighting of a Striped Possum but several sightings of the Platypus. Reptiles started to become more active with Boyd's Forest Dragon, Eastern Water Monitor and Major Skink seen.

Further afield up to 11 Australian Bustard were seen in the Maryfarms area north of Mt. Molloy, and along the McLeod River north of Mt. Carbine several Black-chinned Honeyeater were seen. Even further north along the Kondparinga Road a lone Black-throated Finch was seen along with two Squatter Pigeons.

A quick spotlighting trip to Mt. Lewis revealed a Long-tailed Pygmy Possum, a Daintree River Ringtail and a Green Ringtail Possum with a very tiny baby on its back.

Daintree River Ringtail Possum

Presently there is only access to the birding area 10km along the road with the gate across the road locked beyond here. The section (15km) beyond the gate is permanently restricted access and requires a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Mossman; the gate closure is due to roadworks. For birders this section of the road does not contain any extra birds than those that can be seen around the 10km area.