6th October 2013 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge Report

Weather Report

Very dry weather again with just a slight hint of rain which did not even register in the rain gauge one day and a brief shower which produced 2mm just after dawn on another day. There were some storms in the area one afternoon but we managed to miss them. Some nights down to 15ºC and warm days up to 27ºc but still cooler than the coast from Cairns to Daintree.

Past Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-

Bird sightings for the first week were 99 seen and 6 heard, second week sightings were 92 seen and 6 heard. The last two weeks bird lists can be found on the Eremaea Birds Website:- 22nd September - 28th September and 29th September - 5th October.

Morning walks were very variable with between 41 and 55 species seen and heard. Total species seen over seven walks was 79.

Birding Highlights:-

Main highlights were seeing a Superb Fruit-Dove after hearing them calling for three weeks, Red-necked Crake running through our neighbours carport, Lesser Sooty Owl calling after an absence of several months, Noisy Pitta 20m up a tree calling non-stop one morning for several hours as well as making regular appearances in the orchard. This is just a reminder as to what the Lesser Sooty Owl looks like!

 

Lesser Sooty Owl

Eight species of pigeon and dove were seen including Wompoo Fruit-Dove foraging low down on the edge of the orchard and a lone Topknot Pigeon on the top of a Blue Quandong tree also on the edge of the orchard. Papuan Frogmouth have been seen regularly on morning walks and also on night walks. The one we have been seeing at night is calling and appears to be a juvenile bird, probably a first year bird moved on by parents who are getting ready to breed this season. White-faced and White-necked Heron have re-appeared with single individuals seen in the McDougall Road lagoons. Black-shouldered Kite have been around and Pacific Baza were around for three days after being absent for several months. At least two Buff-banded Rail have been visiting our neighbours garden but we don't know if one of them is Katie, the resident rail from two years ago. One pair of Bush Stone-curlew have two very small stripy chicks which they are guarding as good parents do. A Sulphur-crested Cockatoo has taken up residence in hollow of a Queensland Blue Gum and is probably nesting. This same hollow has been used by Nankeen Kestrel in the past. Red-backed Fairy-wren have been posing on the fences along McDougall Road most days.

 

Red-backed Fairy-wren - male

It would appear that the last of the Lewin's Honeyeater and Bridled Honeyeater have left our area and moved up to the mountains behind us as they have not been seen for at least 10 days. Graceful Honeyeater obliged for a photo, which shows a few ID features. 

Graceful Honeyeater

You can just see a diffuse yellow belly stripe which the Yellow-spotted Honeyeater does not have, other features are decurved lower mandible (straight in Y-S Honeyeater), clean and tidy underparts (no streaking like Y-S Honeyeater), the feathered extension of the gape is curved under the eye (Y-S tend to be fairly straight).

Two Little Friarbird turned up in the orchard for a day and a Noisy Friarbird was heard once, both these species are occasional visitors. Barred Cuckoo-shrike have been around in small numbers but appear to be passing through in the search for better pickings. At least one Spangled Drongo is still around but Rufous Fantail may have left as they have not been see for a week. Northern Fantail have been heard around the Lodge and Leaden Flycatcher have also been around calling. The returning Black-faced Monarch have been calling a lot but not seen much, when they have been seen it has usually been bathing in Bushy Creek late in the afternoon. Pied monarch and Yellow-breasted Boatbill have been active calling and showing well. Lemon-bellied Flycatcher have been in the nearby eucalypt woodlands and several pairs of Pale-yellow Robin are sitting on nests. Metallic Starling continue to build up their colony with an increasing amount of nests each day and Olive-backed Sunbird are still sitting in a nest.

Further Afield:-

Maryfarms north of Mt. Molloy has been good over the past two weeks with displaying Australian Bustard, a Black-breasted Buzzard, up to 30 Diamond Dove and a flock of Red-tailed Black Cockatoo. 

 

Australian Bustard - male

Closer to home a fruiting fig tree at the back of Julatten has been attracting flocks of Barred Cuckoo-shrike, White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike, Australian Figbird and Double-eyed Fig-Parrot. Black-chinned Honeyeater were at Wessels Road near Abattoir Swamp and at least four Blue-faced Parrot-Finch were in another area near the swamp. At Abattoir Swamp a Spotless Crake was seen – the hide is still closed due to broken walkway. 

Just north of Mareeba is a small wetland we have been calling Brady Road Swamp which is on private property. Our neighbour and bird guide Andrew recently met the owner of the property the wetland is on, Fay. She is happy to have birders checking out the wetland, which can be viewed from the main road or along a power line corridor between the highway and the wetland. As usual please don't encroach onto private property. Fay named the wetland Lake Evan after her husband (bit grandiose to call it a lake!), so we suggest this name is adopted. Brady Road is named after their grandson who lives at the end of the road.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

27 mammals and reptiles over the last two weeks, which is the most we have seen for several months. A brief shower of rain late one afternoon tempted a few frogs out of hiding, Stoney Creek Frog, Cogger's Frog, White-lipped Tree Frog, Northern Dwarf Tree Frog, Desert Tree Frog and Cane Toad were the ones sighted. We found a Striped Possum on one of our nightwalks, which was the first for several months, it was a large male. Let hope he can avoid the attentions of the Barking Owl! Two Carpet Python were disturbed at the nearby nursing home by builders doing renovations, they were relocated to a more peaceful area. A welcome visitor to the Lodge was a 1m Lace Monitor who was seen going up a tree behind the bunkhouse, this is the first sighting for well over a year, it was seen later in the week walking across the camping area before heading up another tree. Hope it stays around. Our neighbours had Northern Broad-nosed Bat mating underneath their house and an Eastern Tube-nosed Bat was seen whilst on a nightwalk feeding on a Guava Fruit in the orchard. Thanks to one of our guests Phil Kelly for letting us use his excellent image of this bat.

 

Eastern Tube-nosed Bat

Insect:-

This interesting ant was running around on the veranda outside the units, would not stop still for a photo but eventually managed a reasonable shot of it. Not into ants so don't know the species!

Ant sp.

Recent Books:-

Gary Oliver called by to drop off his recently published book Birdshoot Australia.

This is a result of a 12 month challenge to break the record for photographing the most Australian species in a single year. Gary and his wife Glenda travelled over 55,000kms visiting every state in Australia. Its a fascinating read especially the bit about the Lodge! If you want a copy of the book you can phone Gary 0419 511 501.

Another recently released book is Sue Taylor's Best 100 Birdwatching Sites in Australia.

This is Sue’s personal list of her favorite places to bird. It is a well laid out book with lots of photos and information spread over two pages for each location, once again the Lodge features (at number 8). This is a very useful book to help you plan your trips to good birding locations and to target species on your “wants” list.

Thanks to Gary and Sue for the time and effort in producing two excellent books.

2nd June 2013 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

FYI: The latest version of the Bird Trails Tropical Queensland brochure for the Cairns region has just been released. It covers Cairns, Daintree, Cairns Highland (Atherton Tableland) and Mission Beach areas. It has a map of the area showing all the best birding sites, bird guides and places to stay along with contact details and the various suggested trails around the area. The website shown on the brochure is not completed yet so has not gone live. You can download a copy from our website, just click on the brochure below.

Weather Report:-

Frustrating couple of weeks with lots of drizzle which did not produce much rain. Most of the drizzle came from the coast as the south-easterly winds were quite strong bringing the rain onshore. However there were a few breaks with sunshine and clear conditions temperatures ranging from 18ºC to 28ºC. Rainfall for the two weeks was 15.5mm. .

The cloudy weather did bring some good photo opportunities of the mountain range behind the Lodge. This one was taken with a 300mm F2.8 lens early morning.

Mt. Lewis Range in Cloud

Past Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-

Bird sightings for the first week were 86 seen and 11 heard, second week sightings were, 96 seen and 8 heard. The last two weeks bird lists can be found on the Eremaea Birds Website:- May 19th – May 25th and May 26th - June 1st

Birding Highlights:-

Magpie Goose were heard honking as they flew over the Lodge one night and were seen along McDougall Road the next day in one of the wetlands. Emerald Dove started to re-appear after their numbers dropped for about a month, they even started calling which might be a sign that the breeding season is not far off. Small flocks of Topknot Pigeon have been seen flying over from the mountains which hopefully signals their return to far north Queensland. A male Superb Fruit-Dove was caught helping itself to some palm tree fruit in front of the accommodation units late one afternoon and Wompoo Fruit-Dove also visited this food resource several times. Papuan Frogmouth was seen at the nursing home during the first week but disappeared during the second only to re-appear at the end of the week. A White-necked Heron, an uncommon visitor, was foraging in some ponding amongst a cane field behind the nursing home late one afternoon. A Nankeen Night Heron, occasional visitor, was along Bushy Creek one afternoon and at least five Royal Spoonbill were seen heading for the local Barramundi Farm. Raptors were around in low numbers with sightings of one Black-shouldered Kite, Spotted Harrier, Brown Falcon and Nankeen Kestrel plus a pair of White-bellied Sea-Eagle, two Whistling Kite and up to eight Black Kite. Red-necked Crake was heard quite frequently in the evening calling from the patch of rainforest between the Lodge and the Rex Highway but not sighted. Two Pale-vented Bush-hen were heard along Bushy Creek when a neighbour drove past in a tractor; noise quite often triggers them to call especially noisy cars, motorbikes and aeroplanes. Bush Stone-curlew have been very vocal at night up and down the road adjacent to the Lodge. These two, caught checking out the irrigation pipes of the nearby nursing home garden, could be the culprits.

Bush Stone-curlew

Double-eyed Fig-Parrot were seen flying over and were probably checking out a local fig tree which has fruits that are almost ripe - expect it to be ready in a week or two. Little Bronze-cuckoo have been around calling quite a lot and been seen, most are the nominate species not the usual Gould's sub-species that we get here; one Gould's was seen at the end of week two. 

 

Little Bronze-Cuckoo (Gould's)

Barking Owl have been heard calling in the evening and early morning with one spotted on the edge of the Lodge grounds early one morning and another one perched in front of the accommodation units at the end of a night spotlighting tour, great views. At least four Eastern Barn Owl have been around, one was seen clutching a small mice/rat. An Azure Kingfisher was at the Crake Pool perching on a vine and diving in to collect some small fish late one afternoon. Blue-winged Kookaburra have been calling and seen in Geraghty Park most times we have looked. Spotted Catbird have been calling mainly early morning as they skulk around in the rainforest. Honeyeaters were about in small numbers with 12 species seen and another two heard. A single Barred Cuckoo-shrike was perched high in the orchard one morning preening on top of a Blue Quandong tree and not seen again over the two weeks. A Bower's Shrike-thrush was a surprise in the camping area as it foraged in a fig tree, it showed its distinctive black bill (adult male), grey upper parts and streaked deep rufous upper breast. We do get one or two coming down from their more usual haunts up above 600m in the mountains during the cooler months. It was only seen once before disappearing. An adult Yellow Oriole continues to move around the Lodge and our neighbours garden calling as it goes. Northern Fantail has been around spasmodically as have Leaden Flycatcher. A territorial dispute erupted in Geraghty Park between four Magpie-lark which became quite violent as this image shows with three of the birds getting stuck into each other with a blur of wings, the fourth bird joined in for a brief period before the intruders were sent packing! Not a particularly good photo but it does show the ferocity of the encounter.

Magpie-lark

Pied Monarch has been around the Lodge grounds as well as coming down to Bushy Creek late afternoon for a bathe. A pair of Yellow-breasted Boatbill were dueting to each other one morning in the rainforest, they kept going for over 15 minutes and were still going when we left. Not heard this calling to each other before and it was hard to know which bird was responding, male or female. Still only a few Grey-headed Robin have come down off the mountains with only two or three heard and seen; quite a contrast to last year when there were three or four times as many. Tawny Grassbird are still around with a couple heard in an adjacent cane field.

Further Afield:-

The strangest sighting was of a Budgerigar on Mt. Lewis, yes it was green and no it was not an escapee! An image and information is on the Eremaea Birds site. Budgerigar were also reported from Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park by Doug Herrington and the BirdLife Northern Queensland Group. It is certainly a year for Budgerigar on the east coast with flocks of up to 900 reported from Townsville and district. Diamond Dove are still being found at Maryfarms (between Mount Molloy and Mt. Carbine) with others reported from around Mareeba. An adult Spotted Harrier was soaring over paddocks along Euluma Creek Road, in Julatten at the end of the second week, before landing in a cut cane paddock. Such a majestic bird with its contrasting grey upper wings and deep rufous breast.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

We had a student at the Lodge for just over a week who put out remote cameras for an experiment with mammals and it was very interesting to see what came to the feeding station by the reception area. At least two Long-nosed Bandicoot (one pregnant) came during the night, a species we don't see often earlier in the evening and a Black Rat turned up. One was reported a few weeks ago but not seen since, so the footage was confirmation of the sighting. We have only seen one previously at the feeder a few years ago and certainly would not encourage it to bring its mates along! A 4m+ Scrub (Amethystine) Python was seen crossing the road to reception one night, it had a large bulge in it so must have had a recent meal, possibly a White-tailed Rat. This would possibly be the largest python to be seen in the Lodge, its definitely the largest in our eight years. A Leaf-tailed Gecko was a great find on a night spotlighting tour – the first for several months. Boyd's Forest Dragon have been hiding most of the time but the odd one has been showing now and again. One around the reception area feeder came in for banana and another one was standing on the road near the entrance to the Lodge. This one did not want to move even when an Orange-footed Scrub Fowl almost walked on it! It needed some encouragement to get off the road and back into the rainforest. 

Boyd's Forest Dragon

Not many frogs around despite the drizzle, a White-lipped Tree Frog decided to set up home on a guest car between the cab and the back canopy, it did quite a few kilometres before it was coaxed out and relocated.

Other Criters:-
This rainforest Preying Mantis sp. turned up one evening and stayed long enough to get a photo.

5th May 2013 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

Weather Report:-

Still no new humidity or temperature sensor, can't find a decent one which isn't made in China. Temperatures have ranged from 17ºc up to 28ºc but most days less than this due to cloud cover and drizzly rain. Cyclone Zane which developed in the Coral Sea was over 1000km North-West from us and posed no threat in our area and as it turned out it broke up before hitting landfall north of Lockhart River on Cape York Peninsula. This was a very late cyclone and now the season is officially over. The rainfall was 29.5mm over the two weeks with week 1 mainly dry and sunny.

Past Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-

Bird sightings for the first week were 97, 94 seen and 3 heard, second week sightings were 113, 103 seen and 10 heard. The last two weeks bird lists can be found on the Eremaea Birds Website:- April 21st – April 27th and April 28th - May 4th

Birding Highlights:-

It would appear that all the adult Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher have left over the past two weeks for their journey back to Papua New Guinea leaving a few juveniles behind. This one is seven-eight weeks old and is coming down for a few meal worms each morning, it was last seen on the 4th May. Yet another progress photo!
 

Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher - 7-8 weeks  old

A few Topknot Pigeon continue to fly over and fruit-doves have been absent over the past two weeks. Papuan Frogmouth have been absent for most of the second week which has been quite damp, this normally forces them deeper into the rainforest to seek shelter. Waterbirds have been around in low numbers and the Straw-necked Ibis, which were around three weeks ago, vanished from the area until the last day of sightings for the Blog when one turned up along McDougall Road. Ten species of raptor were seen over the two weeks with one or two sightings of most apart from Black Kite which have been seen in small groups of 2-6 on most days. Other good sightings were an Australian Hobby which shot over one evening making its kikiki call and a Spotted Harrier which was gliding from the Julatten School towards McDougall Road.

A Black-shouldered Kite was perched on top of a dead tree along McDougall Road when three Blue-faced Honeyeater flew in and landed on the dead branch below the kite. After a few seconds the kite took exception to the presence of the blue-faces and started tail-wagging by cocking its tail up and down. This agnostic behaviour has been documented in the Handbook of Australian, New Zealand & Antarctic Birds (HANZAB) which says it is a response to an intruder into its territory. A quick check on the internet revealed plenty of other people who had seen it and interpreted it as mating or territorial display but our observation agrees with the HANZAB description. The four of us who witnessed this behaviour had never seen it before and several other birdos in the area we've asked have never seen this behaviour either; there is always a first time and it is this that make birding so interesting and unpredictable. Thanks to one of our guests Matthew for allowing us to use these excellent shots taken of the bird doing this behaviour along McDougall Road.

Black-shouldered Kite with Blue-faced Honeyeater

Black-shouldered Kite - Tail Wagging

One of our guests saw a Red-necked Crake at the Crake Pool early one morning whilst patiently sitting and waiting and one was also seen in our neighbours garden coming to their birdbath again. Pale-vented Bush-hen are still around but being seen on fewer occasions, however, they are still letting us know they are around by calling, often when a car goes by.

We've notice noise from motorbikes, cars and planes going over often trigger them to call in the past. Bush Stone-curlew were calling one night trying to compete with calling Orange-footed Scrubfowl – an odd combination of species which have diverse habitat requirements. Large-numbers of Rainbow and Scaly-breasted Lorikeet have turned up over the last week and don't appear to be feeding in anything particular, many were in our orchard flying around from tree to tree but not feeding on them. Several Little Bronze-cuckoo (nominate race) have been seen in the Lodge grounds as opposed to the normally present sub-species Gould's Bronze-cuckoo. Barking Owl have been around and seen several times, they have also been calling at dawn before going to roost when it is quite light. They were in competition with Laughing and Blue-winged Kookaburra, Black Butcherbird and Spangled Drongo one morning! Eastern Barn Owl are still calling well but not appearing to pair up yet. Azure Kingfisher is still zipping up and down Bushy Creek with the odd rest stop at the Crake Pool. A Laughing Kookaburra was seen crashing into a tree and emerging with a Dainty Green Tree Frog and Blue-winged Kookaburra have been vocal in Geraghty Park where these two were perched.

Blue-winged Kookaburra

Noisy Pitta are still around in the Lodge grounds but have only been heard once in the last two weeks. Spotted Catbird have started to call early mornings and sneak around in the rainforest when they are not raiding Soursop or Custard Apple fruits in the orchard. 

Spotted Catbird

Red-backed Fairy-wren have been regularly seen along McDougall Road and Lovely Fairy-Wren have been seen and heard in our neighbours garden. 13 species of honeyeater over the last week were seen plus two more heard. Dusky again being the most prominent plus a few White-cheeked were good to see near the Julatten School. An Eastern Whipbird was heard twice in the Lodge grounds rainforest but not seen as it was hiding in dense vegetation.

Eastern Whipbird

Yellow Oriole has again been seen and heard around the Lodge whilst Olive-backed have only been heard a couple of times in the open woodland area near Geraghty Park. Both an adult Black Butcherbird and a juvenile brown bird have been moving around the Lodge grounds and our neighbours garden. The first Grey Fantail of the year turned up this last week in the camping area and a Northern Fantail has been seen at the nearby Barramundi Farm several times. Most Black-faced Monarch have headed north to Papua New Guinea but there is still one with a juvenile in tow hanging around which is making it very late in the season. Pied Monarch are continuing to call infrequently and regularly coming down to bathe in Bushy Creek late afternoon as this one was doing.

Pied Monarch

Victoria's Riflebird is still around the Lodge but keeping high up in the canopy calling and not showing.

Victoria's Riflebird - male

Grey-headed Robin numbers are low for this time of year with only 2-3 birds around, the rest must still be up on the mountains behind us. Tawny Grassbird are along the edge of the cane fields with at least two birds heard one evening; these birds are probably migrating through the cane fields in the area as they only stay for a short period. Olive-backed Sunbird are either nesting or trying to nest with one mentioned before nesting on our neighbours veranda abandoned. One old nest in Geraghty Park was being refurbished by the female, lets hope they have more success than last year when two attempts failed.

Further Afield:-

One again Kath and Dave at Cooktown hit the jackpot with a Red Goshawk north of Cooktown to follow up the White Wagtail they saw (also north of Cooktown) on the 19^th April, which incidentally has not been seen since the initial sighting despite several people looking. Besides the two Pacific Baza already mentioned at the Lodge two more were displaying along Euluma Creek Road in Julatten one morning which could indicate they are back for the breeding season. Many years ago when we lived in Cairns we saw at least 12 bazas over our house heading north in August at the end of the breeding season, how far north they go we are not sure. 

Pacific Baza

12 Little Corella flew over the industrial area of Mareeba late one afternoon, the most we have seen in this area. Blue-faced Parrot-Finch are still being seen at the 10km clearing on Mt. Lewis up until at least the 26^th April when three were seen. Plenty of other species here as well including calling Fernwren, several parties of Chowchilla families, Atherton Scrubwren and Bassian Thrush. Brady Swamp near Mareeba has been good for several species including 300+ Grey Teal, 21 Pink-eared Duck, 11 Glossy Ibis, 1 White-necked Heron. A full list is on the Eremaea Birds site. Australian Bustard are still at Maryfarms as are a few Diamond Dove. Further north Del Richards from Fine Feather Tours sighted a small flock (10-12) of Budgerigar flying eastwards across the Mulligan Highway at Rocky St. George Creek, south of the Palmer River Roadhouse, possibly the first reports of this species for the region. Del also saw 400+ Black Kite at Mareeba airport on the 28th April - an amazing number.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

21 species of reptiles and mammals were seen, which was down on previous weeks due to a lesser effort in looking, especially at night due to unfavourable weather. Fawn-footed Melomys and Bush Rat were regulars at the feeder along with a couple of White-tailed Rat. Red-legged Pademelon were seen in the rainforest and an Agile Wallaby was hopping past the cookshed and office before heading down the path to the orchard, not sure where it came from – that's a first for us viewed from the office! Striped Possum were seen around the Lodge grounds on several occasions with at least two seen. One evening two were on the ground running around the veranda outside the units chasing each other – another first. At least three different Boyd's Forest Dragon have been around in the Lodge rainforest by the units and edge of the orchard. The rainy weather drove several White-lipped Tree Frog to come out of the rainforest and seek shelter in some of the buildings – aren't frogs supposed to like the wet weather? This one booked into one of our two bedroom units for a day!

White-lipped Tree Frog