1st January 2012 Report

Christmas came and went and now it is another year, hope 2012 is good for everyone.

The weeks rainfall was 63mm falling on the last three days of the week, 47mm fell in one period.

Maximum temperatures were slightly up on last week, getting up to 33.0ºc which 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%.

There were more birds recorded this week than last with 99 seen and 10 heard. 19 mammal and reptile species were seen. 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:

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

The following day in the early morning the monarch was found again and after some persistence a few images were taken in the gloom of the rainforest. This resulted in some noisy pictures. The black around the face did not extend over the eye and onto the forehead, the overall grey of the upper body was a lighter grey than typical Black-faced and there was a definite contrast in the wing between the blackish primaries and the grey wing coverts. There have been a few records on the Atherton Tableland including ones at nearby Abattoir Swamp and earlier this year one at Mt. Lewis on the lower slopes. The Black-winged Monarch normally has a distribution on Cape York as far south as Shiptons Flat (90km north of Julatten) but in recent years they have been very rare here. The most reliable location for the southern distribution is now McIvor River which is about 165km north of 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 (?)

Monarch (?)

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

Other sightings:

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

Pied Imperial Pigeon

Our female Papuan Frogmouth was seen roosting near its previous roost tree on the edge of the orchard on one occasion during the day and once at night also on the edge of the orchard. Australian Owlet-nightjar was seen in Geraghty Park perched on the railing around the oval when it was pouring down with rain one night. Eastern Great Egret was at the nearby Barramundi Farm along with Intermediate Egret and a flock of Pacific Black Duck. Raptors are again in short supply this week with only single sightings of Whistling Kite, Brahminy Kite and Brown Falcon. At the end of the week on Saturday morning a pair of Pacific Baza flew over the orchard calling before doing a U turn and flying over the units, first reported sighting in five weeks. Red-necked Crake has been see several times making their way through the rainforest and “Katie” the Buff-banded Rail returned once more during the week before disappearing again. Two Bush Stone-curlew were running around the Geraghty Park oval whilst we were watching the Australian Owlet-nightjar in the rain. 

A few Scaly-breasted Lorikeet were around after being absent for a few weeks. Double-eyed Fig-Parrot were heard but not seen and a search of the area failed to find any fruiting figs. A male Pheasant Coucal was climbing up a Macadamia tree on the edge of the Lodge grounds before flying off in a big loop over the adjacent cane paddock, it actually maintained altitude 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) Sooty Owl was in the area but again heard only most nights. One Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher has been seen coming out of a nest in their termite mound but three others checked had no sign of birds, most are sitting calling above their mounds. Forest Kingfisher have also been seen coming out of their termite mounds as well as displaying. Dollarbird was another species seen at a nest, it was feeding chicks in a tree hollow. The second pair of Noisy Pitta have been more successful than the first pair with an adult seen feeding a juvenile bird in the orchard whilst another was calling in the rainforest.

Noisy Pitta - Juvenile

Meanwhile the first unsuccessful pair are continuing to build another nest and calling a lot. Spotted Catbird are still trying to keep the population of the smaller birds down as they skulk through the rainforest but are being chased off by the smaller birds. Honeyeaters have been a bit quiet this week with only nine species seen but both Graceful 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 male Cicadabird was seen flying over the Lodge grounds but Barred Cuckoo-shrike were only heard. The Willie Wagtail nesting in Geraghty Park were feeding chicks at the beginning of the week and nearby in the same tree a pair of Magpie-lark were building their mud nest. A male Leaden Flycatcher has been very vocal around the camping area, no sign of any females. Lemon-bellied Flycatcher was at Geraghty Park early in the week and then promptly disappeared for the rest of it. Olive-backed Sunbird have started to use the second nest constructed around our neighbours house but there was also a juvenile being fed at the same time, not sure whether there is one or two pairs present or maybe one male with two females! Australian Pipit was again seen at the Barramundi Farm.

Further Afield:-

We had a trip up to Mt. Lewis just after Christmas to check out the Blue-faced Parrot-Finch at the 10km “clearing”, we were not disappointed as at least 12 birds were present. 

Blue-faced Parrot-Finch

The area the birds are in is on Brooklyn Station owned by the Australian Wildlife Conservatory. The manager here conducted a controlled burn in the area back in October to allow new grass growth to occur. Old dead matted grass was smothering the area inhibiting new growth. The area now has a dense new growth of grass which is attracting the finches, not only the Blue-faces but Chestnut-breasted Mannikin and Red-browed Finch as well. 

Chestnut-breasted Mannikin

 
Atherton Scrubwren were foraging in several places

Atherton Scrubwren

as were Fernwren, Tooth-billed Bowerbird, Bower's Shrike-thrush and the dark montane form of Grey Fantail - race Keasti.

Grey Fantail - keasti

In the rainforest adjacent to one of the many creeks which tumble off Mt. Lewis we found two species of Damselfly, Giant Rockmaster Diphlebia hybrioides and Tropical Flatwing Austroargiolestes aureus both new species to us. More information can be found on the Wildiaries site. Dragonflies/Damselflies have much more imaginative names than birds!

     

Giant Rockmaster

 

Tropical Flatwing

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

Snail sp.

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

Robber Fly

so many interesting animals and plants to check out in this spectacular part of Australia only 35 minutes away from the Lodge.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

The wet weather restricted spotlighting this week but we still saw 19 mammals and reptiles. Our neighbours heard an Eastern Tube-nosed Bat flying over making its distinctive whistling sound. Giant White-tailed Rat has been around the feeder along with Northern Brown Bandicoot and Bush Rat. A few frogs ventured out into the rain including lots of the very small Northern Dwarf Tree Frog. Boyd's Forest Dragon continue to perform for the guests and Eastern Water Dragon were along Bushy Creek. An Amethystine Python was again in the orchard, this time during the day but it soon took refuge in the buttress roots of a rainforest tree.

Other Interesting Sightings:

In case you are not fed up with seeing fungi every week we have a few more to show you. Never ceases to amaze us the variety, must run out of 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 (?)

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

Syzygium wilsonii ssp. Cryptophlebium

30th October Report 2011

This weeks rainfall was a complete contrast to last weeks with only 2.5mm falling on the first two days of the week. Maximum and minimum temperatures were about the same as last week getting up to 30.2ºc and down to 19ºc. Humidity was high, getting up to 94% and slightly lower than last week going down to 58%.

There were a few more birds recorded this week than last with 106 seen and 11 heard. The weeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds website and morning walk lists can also be found at this link on Eremaea Birds.

Highlights around the Lodge grounds were the return of Noisy Pitta on the 23rd after being away since mid-May, at least two have been seen and are calling throughout the day. Welcome back.
 

Noisy Pitta

An Eastern Osprey was flying over the Rex Highway heading towards the Barramundi Farm, this was the 14^th record in six years, so they are not very common here. The first year Bassian Thrush returned and stayed all week showing well around the grounds. A Great-billed Heron was seen one afternoon walking along Bushy Creek and presumably the same bird was seen later in the week along the same creek at McDougall Road. At least two Superb Fruit-Dove were seen and many more were calling.

Other sightings: Waterbird numbers were again down with only one Green Pygmy-goose seen and fewer Hardhead around. Pigeons and doves were again in evidence with 8 species seen and 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 around for a second week, it was seen roosting and spotlighted one night. The Papuan Frogmouth female was roosting on the edge of the orchard apart from the last two days of the week and was calling most nights. A single Fork-tailed Swift was seen on the 29^th late evening flying over an adjacent cane field. Two White-necked Heron, an adult and an immature, were seen on a morning walk flying over Geraghty Park, not a common species in our area. The previously reported Juvenile Nankeen Night-Heron was still along Bushy Creek. The Pacific Baza continue to be in the area and have been seen soaring overhead but still no action at the nest they started building a month ago. Both a juvenile and two adult White-bellied Sea-Eagle were seen, the two adults were on the ground at the Barramundi Farm and the juvenile soaring over the Lodge grounds. A Wedge-tailed Eagle was over the cane fields one evening and Nankeen Kestrel 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 nursing home and presumed to be a Latham's. Double-eyed Fig-Parrot were only seen flying over despite several suitable fig trees being in fruit around the Lodge. An immature Eastern Koel was foraging in the orchard showing patchy black feathers through the juvenile brown plumage. Azure Kingfisher was again flying up and down Bushy Creek after a period of several week without being seen. Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher are still proving difficult to see but most guests have seen them by being patient and putting in the time.

Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher

Forest Kingfisher are still fiddling around with their nest in the rainforest and Dollarbird are flying around Geraghty Park checking out suitable nest hollows. Spotted Catbird has been spotted carrying nesting material and appearing at the feeder to grab some fruit. 13 species of honeyeater were taking advantage of the numerous flowering trees in the Lodge grounds with a few Lewin's still around and an increasing 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-bellied Cuckoo-shrike are sitting on a nest in the fork of a tree and both Barred Cuckoo-shrike and Cicadabird have been very vocal and seen. Yellow Oriole have returned with at least one calling and a juvenile Olive-backed Oriole has been seen in the orchard. Black-faced Monarch are extremely vocal calling for most of the day and showing well but always out of reach of the camera lens! Yellow-breasted Boatbill are all very vocal, mainly early morning and there is still a female Victoria's Riflebird getting around the grounds. Pale-yellow Robin are at various stages of nesting with some birds sitting whilst others are feeding recently fledged birds. A few Grey-headed Robin are lingering on reluctant to head to the higher ground of the nearby mountains. Metallic Starling are nearing completion of their nests and providing seeds for the local tree planting group who have a catcher 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 the Blue-faced Honeyeater gangs from flowering grevilleas, which is no mean feat. 

Blue-faced Honeyeater

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

Olive-backed Oriole

Mammals and reptile numbers were again good this week with a few unusual sightings; A 1m Lace Monitor was seen heading up a tree near the reception area and was the first seen since December 2010. A Rough-scaled Snake, which are venomous, was seen in the rainforest near the Crake Pool and serves as a warning to wear sensible shoes and clothing when wandering around and that it is possible to come across snakes anywhere in the forest. In general snakes are rarely encountered on the property and if they are they are relatively harmless Green Tree Snake or Amethystine Python. Agile Wallaby have been on and around the Lodge grounds and are the only kangaroo we have on the property.

Agile Wallaby

Giant White-tailed Rat have been actively chasing each other around and making a lot of noise which probably indicates breeding season. A Striped Possum was heard on a night walk calling and tracked down in a dead tree for all the guests to get good views. Long-nosed Bandicoot have been coming out of the rainforest to forage in the orchard where three were seen one evening. 

Long-nosed Bandicoot

 

The Platypus have also been showing well with most guests seeing them in Bushy Creek where there is at least two. A film crew were filming their underwater activities whilst above water a friend of ours from our Darwin days was trying to photograph bats in flight. Seven species 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 and Eastern Water Dragon were showing most days whilst the Major Skink were playing hide and seek!

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

Fungi sp.

26th April Report

A fantastic week of dry, cool (down to 19ºC) and sunny weather which bought the birds out with 72 species seen and a further 7 heard. There were 16 mammal and reptile sightings also. Highlight of the week was actually seeing the Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo in the Lodge grounds on the Sunday before it disappeared on the Tuesday, when it was last heard calling. Of the migratory species an adult Black-faced Monarch was still hanging around in our neighbour Ron’s garden and a few juvenile Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher are still here, no sightings of any adults during the week. Cicadabird was still present and calling and two Channel-billed Cuckoo were seen in the adjacent Geraghty Park. Two White-bellied Sea-Eagle were circling up high in the sky with only two small dots seen but their distinct quacking call could be heard. The Noisy Pitta has been seen several times during the week and heard calling on a number of occasions. Several guests have remarked during the week that the Emerald Dove has been very hard for them to see in the rainforests they have visited. When they arrive at the Lodge there are usually a couple walking around the units and past their feet on the veranda! Quite a lot of the species at the Lodge are used to people and can be approached quite closely and the Emerald Dove is no exception. The Emerald Dove is distributed around the top end of Australia, Cape York Peninsula and down the east coast. They are found in dense forests, rainforest and deciduous vine-scrubs.

Emerald Dove - Male

Further afield a morning on Mt. Lewis was rewarded with 2 adult and one juvenile Blue-faced Parrot-Finch foraging at the 10km mark (track to Dam junction). Also seen were Chowchilla, Fernwren, Atherton Scrubwren, Juvenile Golden Bowerbird, Tooth-billed Bowerbird, Mountain Thornbill, Bridled Honeyeater, White-cheeked Honeyeater, Bower’s Shrike-thrush, Victoria’s Riflebird, Grey Fantail (race Keasti), Grey-headed Robin, Shining-bronze Cuckoo, Australian King Parrot and lots of White-throated Treecreeper. The road up Mt. Lewis has been repaired on the lower slopes for about 1km but there is a big whoaboy (like a speed hump) at the beginning, used to channel water off the road, which will probably cause any low slung car to get stuck. Further up the road we had to chainsaw a tree out of the way and there are several other tree falls requiring detours onto soft road edges. Not recommended for non-four wheel drive vehicles or those with low ground clearance. A Red-backed Kingfisher was reported from Maryfarms on the way north to Mt. Carbine along the Peninsula Development Road. A night walk around the Lodge turned up a Masked Owl, Papuan Frogmouth, Feather-tail Glider, Striped Possum, Fawn-footed Melomys in the rainforest (not at feeder!), Giant White-tailed Rat, Long-nosed and Northern Brown Bandicoot, Spectacled Flying-Fox, Stoney Creek Frog, White-lipped Green Tree Frog, Dessert Frog and Cane Toad. Two nights later another night walk found only a Masked Owl, a very brief glimpse of a Feather-tail Glider and at the feeder a Northern Brown Bandicoot, Fawn-footed Melomys and a Giant White-tailed Rat – just shows no two nights are the same.

Giant White-tailed Rat