11th January 2015 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

11th January 2015 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

Weather Report

The last month has seen some good rains with plenty of sunny days, hot cool and humid with temperatures in the range from 21.2ºC minimum to a maximum on one day of a hot 35ºC but generally around 28-32ºC for top temperatures. Rainfall was 81.5mm.

Last Four Weeks Bird Sightings:-

These can be found on the Eremaea eBird site. 14th - 20th December 2014, 21st - 27th December 2014, 28th December 2014 - 3rd January 2015, and 4th - 10th January 2015 Species numbers were down due to a reduced effort over the Christmas/New Year period when we were very busy with guests.

Birding Highlights:-

Due to the rain managing to fill up a few low lying areas there was plenty of opportunities for waterfowl to spread out to the detriment of the local lagoons which were very quiet with only a few Magpie Goose, Pacific Black Duck, Grey Teal, a single Australasian Grebe, Great and Intermediate Egret, one Little Pied Cormorant, one Australasian Pelican plus a few Cattle Egret who disappeared before Christmas back to their breeding grounds. Raptors were also scarce as the local cane harvest wound down, the hoards of Black Kite left and only the odd one or two were left, the pair of local Whistling Kite stayed as did a couple of White-bellied Sea-Eagle. A single Grey Goshawk was seen one week being chased off by a few Sulphur-crested Cockatoo. Good news is that our pair of Red-necked Crake continue to be seen around the Lodge grounds, mainly at the Crake Pool in the orchard. There has been a big influx of Pale-vented Bush-hen this season with at least 7-8 pairs around the lodge area. Trying to see them is another matter as they rarely venture out from the grassy areas along Bushy Creek and the local roads.

Pale-vented Bush-hen

The odd Buff-banded Rail does make an appearance, usually alongside the cane fields or Bushy Creek. A White-browed Crake was seen in one of the McDougall Road Lagoons. The local pair of Bush Stone-curlew continue to look after their youngster (featured in the last blog), who is now almost as big as his parents as this updated photo shows, he is the one on the far right.

Bush Stone-Curlew

Plenty of pigeons and doves around with the usual Bar-shouldered Dove, Peaceful Dove, and Emerald Dove, these being the most common. Wompoo and Superb Fruit-Dove are around but hard to see and Torresian Imperial-Pigeon have mainly left with the occasional flock passing through. Brush Cuckoo have become noisy and displaying as the rain increases but the Australian Koel have become quiet along with the Channel-billed Cuckoo. Lesser Sooty Owl have only been heard occasionally as have Barking Owl, the Barn Owl are regularly around but not calling much at this time of year. We seem to be down to one Papuan Frogmouth in the Lodge grounds now that our pair failed with their nest attempt but another nearby nest, which was successful still have their youngster with them as this photo shows.

Papuan Frogmouth - female with immature

Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher have dug out their nest in the termite mounds but don't appear to be sitting yet. One pair was seen mating a few days ago so it should not be long until they lay, they are about a month behind their usual breeding period due to the dry weather we have been having. Yes another Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher photo! You can't help taking photos of them as they are so photogenic.

Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher

Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo were seen flying over at the end of December which is the normal pattern each year, they are usually in the area until about the end of February. It looks like we only have one pair of Noisy Pitta this year instead of the normal two pairs as only two have been seen at a time. Hopefully they are nesting now. Yellow-breasted Boatbill are in full song and Pied Monarch have also started to call again. A few Barred Cuckoo-shrike and Cicadabird are around and calling. Australasian Figbird have been nesting as have Willie Wagtail. This one was in our orchard sitting on its minimalist nest.

Willie Wagtail

Still no sign of Black-faced Monarch nesting but Spectacled Monarch have had a few nests around the Lodge. Metallic Starling are still attending nests and into their second breeding cycle along with adding more nesting material to the communal nests. A couple of Double-barred Finch were seen by our neighbours Carol and Andrew Iles (bird guides), these are uncommon around the Lodge with one or two sightings a year. They are more common around Mt. Molloy. Chestnut-breasted Mannikin have been seen carrying nesting material as well as displaying as this one is doing.

Chestnut-breasted Mannikin

Further Afield:-

Most of the sightings from further afield are from Mt. Lewis where all the 13 “Wet Tropic” endemics have been seen over the last month. A few Lesser Sooty Owl have been seen and a possible Masked Owl was heard. Male Golden Bowerbird have been seen but are not easy to find. The other endemics, Fernwren, Atherton Scrubwren, Mountain Thornbill, Macleay's Honeyeater, Bridled Honeyeater, Grey-headed Robin, Chowchilla, Bower's Shrike-thrush, Pied Monarch and Tooth-billed Bowerbird have been reasonably easy to find. Blue-faced Parrot-Finch have been scarce with up to four birds seen at any one time around the 10km clearing on Mt. Lewis. Tinaburra Peninsula, near Yungaburra on the Atherton Tableland has had an influx of Red-rumped Swallow with up to 38 seen by Alan Gillanders from Alan's Wildlife Tours, Also in the same area at Harper Road, Lake Tinaroo there was a Ruff.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

Green Tree Snake have been active with three seen in one week eating White-lipped Tree Frog. One 3.5m Australian Scrub Python was seen coiled up on the edge of the orchard, whilst we were on a night walk, before it moved off into the rainforest. The wetter weather got the frogs going with Jungguy Frog, White-lipped Tree Frog, Northern Dwarf Tree Frog, Desert Tree Frog, Dainty Green Tree Frog, and Cogger's Frog seen plus Green Tree Frog and Roth's (Laughing) Tree Fog heard. 

Jungguy Frog - male in breeding colours

Cogger's Frog

A few Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko were seen but they are difficult to find at this time of year. Boyd's Forest Dragon and Easter Water Dragon have been easier to find. Three Platypus were seen in Bushy Creek, two adults and a juvenile which was great. Also seen in Bushy Creek was a Water Rat, which have not been seen lately. Both Green Ringtail and Striped Possum have been seen but again they have been difficult to find. Fawn-footed Melomys and Yellow-footed Antechinus have been around, the antechinus coming to take banana from the reception area feeder. Northern Broad-nosed Bat have been roosting under our neighbours house which is where this one was found.

Northern Broad-nosed Bat

Spiders:-

Quite a few spiders around including many Wolf Spiders which appear to all be the same species (over 150 species in Australia). These two pictures show the whole spider and a close up of the head and body showing the eyes in a 4-2-2 configuration (sounds like a soccer match!). 

Wolf Spider

Wolf Spider - Head and body

This jumping spider was no bigger than a 5c piece and shows the amazing patterning in such a small creature. It is possibly Jacksonoides queenslandicus, thanks to Robert Whyte for the information.

Jumping Spider

Jumping Spider - head

Insects:-

These two insects were around the lodge buildings. Thanks to David Renz for the Robberfly ID.
 

Robberfly, family Asilidae

Jewel Bug (?)

30th November 2014 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

Weather Report

Plenty of threatening clouds but only 1mm of rain managed to find our rain gauge. Humidity dropped down to 43% and up to 95% with lots of sunshine and temperatures reaching 31.3ºc but generally lower with the cloud cover.

Last Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-

These can be found on the Eremaea eBird site. 16th – 22nd November and 23rd - 29th November The first week had 106 species recorded and the second week 107.

Birding Highlights:-

The main contingent of Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher arrived overnight on the 20^th of November (one had arrived on 31st October) which is two days after the previous late arrival record. Since then they have been pairing up and calling a lot as they sort out their territories. Most guests have been seeing them. A Pale-vented Bush-hen turned up in our neighbours garden on 23^rd November, this photo is from earlier this year of an adult feeding one of its six chicks. Hope they breed around here again this season.

Pale-vented Bush-hen - Adult and chick

A big surprise was six Brolga flying from the coast in a westerly direction over the Lodge grounds on the 26^th November. Not sure where they would have come from but this is only the second record we have had in 9½ years. A Glossy Ibis turned up at one of the McDougall Road lagoons at the end of the second week, this is a rare bird in our immediate area. Other waterbirds have been around in small numbers, Magpie Goose, Wandering Whistling-Duck, Green Pygmy-goose, Grey Teal were seen and a Black Bittern was heard. An adult Nankeen Night Heron was along Bushy Creek one morning whilst we were conducting a morning walk. Raptors have been scarce with only Black, Whistling and Brahminy Kite plus White-bellied Sea-Eagle seen over the last two weeks. Red-necked Crake has been appearing at the Crake Pool most late evenings and once at 8.00am. One spent 45 minutes one evening foraging around the pool. One of the McDougall Lagoons had a Comb-crested Jacana swimming around which was quite unusual as they are mainly seen walking over the water lilies. Pigeons and doves have once again been showing well with Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Emerald, Peaceful and Bar-shouldered Dove, Wompoo and Superb Fruit-Dove, Torresian Imperial-Pigeon and Topknot Pigeon all seen. Little Bronze-Cuckoo have again been around in a small flock of 6-8 birds. All have been of the race gouldi, this one was foraging in the orchard.

Little Bronze-Cuckoo - male

Other cuckoos that have been seen were Australian Koel, Channel-billed Cuckoo and Pheasant Coucal. Night birds have been a bit elusive with Lesser Sooty, Barn, and Barking Owl seen plus Australian Owlet-nightjar heard. Also seen was Papuan Frogmouth who were either roosting in our orchard or sitting on their nest. This one was sitting on a recently hatched chick.

Papuan Frogmouth - male

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo have also been nesting with two large chicks seen peering out of a nest hollow. Double-eyed Fig-Parrot have also been nesting and as reported in the last blog feeding young. We thought the young had fledged but after not seeing the adults at the nest for 1½ weeks they were back and little voices were heard from inside the nest. Noisy Pitta have continued to be noisy but have retreated into the rainforest within the last few days which may mean they are going to nest. Lovely Fairy-wren were heard on the edge of the orchard but not seen but Red-backed Fairy-wren were seen on a fence along the highway near Geraghty Park. 13 honeyeater species were seen and one heard, 11 of these were seen in one red flowering Callistemon (Bottlebrush) whilst we were on a morning walk. The most impressive was a male Scarlet Honeyeater who came down out of the tall trees to give everyone fantastic views. Blue-faced Honeyeater were seen feeding juveniles, the males blue face is really bright in breeding condition.

Blue-faced Honeyeater

Also a Helmeted Friarbird was heard for one day, this species does not usually come to our western side of the Great Dividing Range. Several pairs of Yellow-breasted Boatbill have been calling and seen. One pair of White-breasted Woodswallow were seen building a nest and a White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike was seen sitting in a nest. Both Barred Cuckoo-shrike and Common Cicadabird have been calling and seen. A female Australasian Figbird was seen sitting in a nest in a Queensland Blue Gum tree. Torresian Crow were seen chasing a Channel-billed Cuckoo, which may have left their nest unattended for the female channel-billed to lay her eggs in it. A Pale-yellow Robin was another bird seen sitting on a nest. These nesting birds must think the rain is coming along with an influx of insects as at the moment insects are very few and far between. Metallic Starling are also powering ahead with their nests and their colony is looking a bit better with at least 80-100 birds present.

Further Afield:-

A Baillon’s Crake was seen along the edge of the bund wall at Lake Mitchell by Ota Yu, one of the local Japanese birdguides. Also at Lake Mitchell, Carol Iles (our local bird guide) reported six Cotton Pygmy-goose, which are becoming a difficult species to find in our area. Several Yellow Wagtail were reported from Tinnaburra waters boatramp area on Tinaroo Dam, near Yungaburra. Mt. Lewis was a good as ever with most endemics being seen again, also a Shining Bronze-Cuckoo was reported by several people being fed by a Mountain Thornbill at the clearing 10km up the road. One Blue-faced Parrot-Finch was seen at the end of the 2nd week. Further north of Mt. Carbine Black-throated Finch and Squatter Pigeon were along the Kondaparinga Road to Hurricane Station. Maryfarms between Mt. Carbine and Mount Molloy had Banded and Rufous-throated Honeyeater (uncommon) as well as Australian Bustard who are still displaying.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

Two Australian Scrub Python were seen whilst on a night walk, the first for several weeks. A Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko was out during the day behind the cookshed, which is unusual. This one has an original tail.

Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko

Frogs have been anticipating rain and calling a lot, those seen were Jungguy Frog, White-lipped Tree Frog, Northern Dwarf Tree Frog, Dessert Tree Frog, Dainty Green Tree Frog and Cogger's Frog. Also Cane Toad was seen and Roth's (Laughing) Tree frog was heard. A Striped Possum was seen on a night walk high up feeding on the flowers of a Black Bean (Castanospermum australe) tree, this was a first for nearly three weeks. Northern Broad-nosed Bat decided to invade our bedroom with three finding there way past the fly screens. After a midnight chase we managed to get two out, the third was found in the morning and removed. Also in the office was our local Yellow-footed Antechinus who pays regular visits but just has a look around and leaves. Fawn-footed Melomys (small rodent) was seen foraging in a Sugar Apple tree in the orchard one night. At least four Red-legged Pademelon are around the Lodge grounds as well as several Agile Wallaby.

Insects:-

A few Longicorn Beetle have been appearing, this one was on the wall of the units before being re-located to the rainforest.

Longicorn Beetle sp.

A few Katydid have also been seen.

Wader ID:-
The mystery wader from the last blog is a Pectoral Sandpiper. This species differs from the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper with it's more upright stance showing a longer neck, slightly downcurved bill which is slightly longer than the head. Its breast pattern is a distinctly demarcated from the whiter lower breast , weaker supercillium, legs are yellowish, and the bill is olive with a darker tip, whiter more distinct eyering and greyer crown. These are some of the distinguishing features.
Photo, Doug Herrington

Pectoral Sandpiper

 

8th May 2011 Report

The great weather still continues with cool (for our standards) sunny dry days and again great birds for the week. Temperatures ranged from 15.1ºC to 25.3ºC, the maximum for three days was only 22ºC – Brrr! No rain for the week despite a few threatening dark clouds one day.

Bird species recorded were 97 seen and 5 heard, reptiles and mammals were 18seen.

The weeks bird list is on the Eremaea Birds

Firstly we would like to welcome those members of Birds Queensland who might be checking out the blog for the first time due to our appearance in your newsletter (hope you have read it from cover to cover!), where we had a review of our web and blog site – thanks to John Holt for that very good report. We would also like everyone to know we have now got several bunkrooms available in our bunkhouse after a period of it being closed.

Lots of good bird sightings during the week starting off with Brown Cuckoo-Dove which have been taking advantage of a few fruiting trees.  

Brown Cuckoo-Dove

A Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove was foraging on palm seeds in front of the units in full sun, what a stunning bird and one which has sneaked into the area this year from their normal range along the coastal areas and nearby ranges as well as out on off-shore islands where they breed. There has been other reports of them on the Atherton Tableland further south from us. Red-necked Crake was hiding in the rainforest on the edge of the orchard near the rock wall path and both male and female Victoria's Riflebird were also along the edge of the orchard rainforest. A White-throated Gerygone was calling in Geraghty Park one morning which is unusual as they are normally found further out in the drier country areas of Mt. Molloy, Lake Mitchell, Mareeba and north to Mt. Carbine and beyond. First sighting for the year of a pair of Bassian Thrush was alongside the crake pool in the orchard, they make altitudinal migrations from the mountains behind us in the cooler months.

Bassian Thrush

Some of the other bird happenings around the area were a pair of Papuan Frogmouth roosting in the orchard for most of the week, lets hope they have got together for good and breed this year after two years of non-breeding. An Australian Owlet-nightjar was seen perched in a tree in the camping area and heard calling in Geraghty Park. A rarity at the moment was an Eastern Great Egret which was hanging around one of the ponds at the nearby Barramundi Farm. Pacific Baza continue to fly around the Lodge grounds calling as do White-bellied Sea-Eagle. Channel-billed Cuckoo are lingering on this year with at least four seen on several occasions during the week, this one was foraging around in a Queensland Blue Gum tree in Geraghty Park.  

Channel-billed Cuckoo

 
A pair of Eastern Barn Owl were seen and (Lesser) Sooty Owl heard around the Lodge grounds. Noisy Pitta is not so noisy at the moment with only a few calls heard mainly in the late afternoon and no sightings as they are keeping to the rainforest at the moment. Spotted Catbird has been calling and making a few forays to the feeder in the morning. An Eastern Whipbird was heard calling from rainforest across the Rex Highway from the Lodge which is another signal that the weather is cooling down, they rarely occur in the Lodge grounds. 

Eastern Whipbird

A few Barred Cuckoo-shrike are still around along with at least one pair of Cicadabird. Australasian Figbird numbers have increased this week as has their calling, mainly in the morning. After last weeks viewing of an adult Yellow Oriole we had a juvenile bird this week, almost in adult plumage but it still had a black bill instead of red. Still a few Spangled Drongo around and also a few Grey Fantail from down south, still waiting for the main migratory birds to appear. The Northern Fantail reported a few weeks ago in the rainforest is still with us, this week it was foraging around outside the units and posing in the sunlight before using the birdbath. It would appear that this bird is commuting between us and our neighbours garden, it's quite a novelty to have one around rather than go chasing them in the drier woodland country. A Shining Flycatcher was in McDougall Road near Bushy Creek, not common but have been seen along Bushy Creek before at several locations. Pied Monarch have been calling and foraging around in the rainforest as well as making appearances at Bushy Creek in the late afternoons to take a bathe. 

Yellow-breasted Boatbill - male

Yellow-breasted Boatbill have continue to be very vocal as have both male and female Victoria's Riflebird which have both been seen in the rainforest on the edge of the orchard.

A Platypus sighting in Bushy Creek one morning at 7.20 was the first for the year, we now know they survived the floods and hopefully will stay around. Surprisingly with the cooler weather snakes seem to be more active with two sightings of Amethystine Python, a large black snake shot off the path to the orchard and could have been a Red-bellied Black Snake, two sightings of Green Tree Snake and a small dead snake on our driveway which someone said was a Small-eyed Snake which we have never seen in the grounds before but have seen on Mt. Lewis in the mountains behind us. Frogs were also about but only a few odd sightings of White-lipped Tree Frog, Jungguy Frog, 

Jungguy Frog

Roth's Tree Frog (1^st for a long time), Desert Tree Frog and a few Cane Toad. Striped Possum were seen several times crashing around in the rainforest and calling a lot, must be mating time again! Bush Rat have been coming to the feeder with two juveniles. Other sightings at the feeder have been Fawn-footed Melomys, Giant White-tailed Tree Rat and Northern Brown Bandicoot.

Further afield we managed to spend a night at Yungaburra where we attended the Birds Australia North Queensland groups AGM and visited nearby Curtain Fig National Park early in the morning before the hordes arrived. Great little patch of rainforest with lots of good birds and a roosting Green Ringtail Possum 2.5m off the ground over the boardwalk. 

Green Ringtail Possum

A full list of birds seen on this visit is posted onto the Eremaea Birds website. On the way over to Yungaburra we stopped for lunch at Rocky Creek Memorial Park between Mareeba and Atherton. As it was the middle of the day it was fairly quiet for birds but there was Scarlet and White-naped Honeyeater feeding in some flowering callistemons which were nice to see especially at eye level. Just south of Mareeba we had a Wedge-tailed Eagle flying over the highway, this species seems to be more common now than a few years ago. Later in the week another Wedge-tailed Eagle was perched in a tree beside the highway and Lake Mitchell between Mareeba and Mt. Molloy. A Square-tailed Kite was circling low over the highway also between Mareeba and Mt. Molloy near “Kelly's Place” (banana selling stall at side of road). Two visits to Lake Mitchell during the week did not turn up many waterbirds, plenty of Black Swan with cygnets, a pair of Green Pygmy-goose, several Comb-crested Jacana and that was it apart from an Eastern Osprey. Quite a few bush birds including White-throated Gerygone, Great Bowerbird and Tawny Grassbird. The full list of birds seen can be found on the Eremaea Birds website. 

Lake Mitchell

A Southern Cassowary has been seen several times at the top of the range near the lookout on the way up (or down!) to Mossman which is not a good place to be hanging out. It was encouraged to go back into the rainforest where hopefully it will stay. Yellow-throated Scrubwren have been in Churchill Creek Road which branches off the Mt. Lewis Road before the Lewis road crosses Bushy Creek. This is yet another sign of cooler weather as some of them come down off the mountain and a couple usually make it into the Lodge grounds.

The reason for two visits to Lake Mitchell during the week was to check out the myriad of Dragonfly that occur here and to take a few images of them. As always with dragonflies we are open to any corrections in ID as we are still learning -  pity they don't make calls!

Common Glider

Common Bluetail

More information and images will be posted onto the Wildiaries Dragonfly website in the next few days and a link put here. Dragonflies Galore at Lake Mitchell, Far North Queensland