15th February 2014 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

Weather Report

The first week from 2^nd to 8^th February saw the monsoonal trough come down and deposit 303.5mm of rain, which saw some minor flooding lasting a couple of days. One day we had 143mm. The second week from 9^th to15^th was not quite as wet, it started off with a day of 142mm then slowed down over the week ending up with two sunny days and a total of 162mm of rain. So the two weeks produced 467mm (approx 18.5 inches). Temperatures we quite cool with the overcast rainy days getting up to 25ºC but climbing up to 30ºC on the two sunny days. Minimum temperatures were around 21ºC. The monsoonal trough is forecast to return next week so we can look forward to some more rain. Further north on the west side of Cape York Peninsula the town of Kowanyama has had over 1200mm for the week! Serious rain.

Past Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-

These can be found on the Eremaea eBird site. 2nd - 8th February and 9^th - 15^th February.

Birding Highlights:-

An adult Pacific Black Duck was seen whizzing down the swollen Bushy Creek with eight ducklings in tow, they were in one big blob hanging on to each other until they managed to get out of the main current and pull off into calmer water at the rear of our neighbours property. The nesting Pacific Baza also reported in the last blog have now fledged two chicks as of five days ago. The juveniles are now in the Lodge grounds constantly begging food from the adults. A pair of White-bellied Sea-Eagle have started to call and fly over the Lodge after keeping a low profile for the last few months, maybe they are looking at nesting. Our pair of Red-necked Crake have been seen several times walking through the rainforest but no sign of the three chicks they had. 

Red-necked Crake

The two Pale-vented Bush-hen adults reported in the last blog with six chicks now have five chicks who survived the rain and flooding. Lets hope they all survive. Two Australian Bustard were found near the Julatten school just inside our 1.5km radius for the Lodge list which is quite unusual. We have had three records in the past, one in 2011 and two in 2012. This image is a male displaying at Maryfarms north of Mt. Molloy.

Australian Bustard

Channel-billed Cuckoo have been flying over heading north in small groups of up to six birds. An Eastern Koel is still with us and has just started to call again. A Lesser Sooty Owl was heard one night but not seen. Noisy Pitta have also fired up with at least four calling around the orchard one day and another couple calling from across Bushy Creek near the nursing home, who reported one presumably feeding on mangoes, it may also have been feeding on insects attracted to the fruit. A pair of Great Bowerbird were foraging in Geraghty Park, where they are not common but they are to be found nearby, usually along McDougall Road. Honeyeater numbers were down but that could be due to the lesser effort put in over the two weeks due to the rain but we did still manage nine species. Spangled Drongo appear to be heading north with an increase in numbers for at least two days, now there are just one or two hanging around. Black-faced Monarch are still with us but should be heading north soon. A pair of Spectacled Monarch are sitting on a nest in front of our accommodation units in a tree they used a few years ago but in October. A Brown Victoria's Riflebird (immature male or female) turned up in our neighbours garden to investigate their Paw Paw tree but left disappointing as there was no fruit on it. A pair of nesting Olive-backed Sunbird seem to have lost the nestlings, Black Butcherbird are the main suspects. After the rain the clouds cleared and the mountain ranges at the back of the Lodge once more came into view.

Mountain Ranges looking towards Mt. Lewis

Further Afield:-

Four Spotted Whistling-Duck turned up at Barrett's Lagoon near Cooktown on 2nd February making this the first record of this species in the Cooktown area. Thanks to Kath and Dave for this record. Their were at least 35 Great-crested Grebe at Lake Barrine on the Atherton Tableland on 4^th February. This location often has 100+ Great-crested Grebe present, full list for visit is on Eremaea eBird. 

Lake Evan (Brady Road Swamp)

Two Yellow-billed Spoonbill, a Pale-headed Rosella and two Red-winged Parrot were among birds seen at Lake Evan (Brady Road Swamp) 4km north of Mareeba. Full list can be found on Eremaea eBird. 

Red-winged Parrot

Little Lorikeet were along McLean Bridge Road in Julatten, this is about the furthermost east their distribution occurs. Also along here and at Abattoir Swamp were Black-chinned Honeyeater, Golden-backed form. Bridled Honeyeater were also in Julatten along Perseverance Road, the main population are still on Mt. Lewis.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

As you can imagine with all the rain the frogs were out in force and extremely vocal. Those seen were Striped Marsh Frog, Jungguy Frog, White-lipped Tree Frog, Northern Dwarf tree Frog, Dessert Tree Frog, Dainty Green Tree Frog, Cogger's Frog and Cane Toad, plus Green Tree Frog, Peron's Tree Frog and Roth's Tree Frog were heard. 


 

Striped Marsh Frog

 
Boyd's Forest Dragon, Eastern Water Dragon and Major Skink were around as they have been for the last few months. This male Boyd's Forest Dragon was coming to the feeder for banana during the rain.

Boyd's forest Dragon

A Brown Tree Snake was curled up on a tree branch in the camping area much to the annoyance of the birds who were scalding it but the snake took no notice and kept sleeping. Mammals were not very active during the rain along with the spotters so not much was seen in the first week but the dryer weather in the second week was more productive. Those seen were Fawn-footed Melomys, Yellow-footed Antichinus, Red-legged Pademelon (adult and youngster), Agile Wallaby, Eastern Horseshoe Bat, Large-footed Myotis, Northern Broad-nosed Bat, Giant White-tailed Rat, several Striped Possum, both Long-nosed and Northern Brown Bandicoot plus Spectacled Flying Fox making 12 species.

Insects:-

A selection of insects which have appeared since the rain has started, prior to the rain insects were pretty much non existent.

Cairns Birdwing

Grasshopper Sp.

Longicorn Beetle

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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

23rd May 2010 Report

A very dry week with only 1mm in the rain gauge and plenty of sunny days with some overcast ones. Temperatures were down to 17ºC and a top of 25ºC. Bird numbers were 75 bird species seen and 2 heard - mammals and reptiles were 12 seen which was down on the previous weeks mainly due to the lack of frogs with the dry weather.

The previous weeks Wompoo Fruit-Dove again hung around a fruiting palm tree all week and also again one sighting of a Papuan Frogmouth which was perched on a pipe vent behind our laundry one night. Intermediate Egret numbers increased in the area and a single White-faced Heron flew over the Lodge. Grey Goshawk was seen several times perched in its favourite tree beside Bushy Creek and a pair of Nankeen Kestrel were back around last years nest site. A couple of Buff-banded Rail were foraging along the edge of Bushy Creek before darting into the undergrowth. A pair of Double-eyed Fig-Parrot were seen flying around before briefly landing in a eucalypt and flying off again. Two Eastern Barn Owl were seen in Geraghty Park and a pair of Azure Kingfisher have been around the Crake Pool beside our orchard. Noisy Pitta was seen on several occasions along the edges of the rainforest but generally they are staying within the forest. A pair of Striated Pardolote were calling and foraging along Bushy Creek in an area they have nested in before. They excavate a tunnel and nest chamber in the mud wall of the creek.

Striated Pardolote

An intermittent visitor, the Yellow Oriole, appeared briefly late in the week for good looks. Black Butcherbird, both adult black and a juvenile brown bird, were around all week and a single Spangled Drongo was still around, after returning the previous week, making an appearance at one of the feeders. Yellow-breasted Boatbill were very vocal as were Pied Monarch. A female Victoria's Riflebird was around again this week and one was heard to call several times but no sign of any males yet.

Once again we managed to find interesting insects including the Mallotus Harlequin Bug Cantao parentum (order Hemiptera) shown below. As can be seen the bugs were clustering together on both sides of several leaves about 4m off the ground.

Mallotus Harlequin Bugs

This jewel bug is approximately 20mm long and one of the insect world's more interesting bugs. The adults stay and protect their young for several weeks after hatching, which is unusual for insects. They also produce a chemical pheromone known as spiroketals which was a first from any of the insects in the order Hemiptera . (Schulz, Stefan. 2004. The Chemistry of Pheromones and Other Semiochemicals I, Springer. Berlin, Heidelberg).

We managed a few hours away from the Lodge to check out Mowbray National Park where we walked the first part of the Bump Track from the Julatten end off Black Mountain Road. Directions from Mt. Molloy, head to Julatten and take the Euluma Creek Road turn-off (on right) by Julatten School. After 6.3km turn right onto Black Mountain Road and after 5.5km you will see a sign on left “Bump Track”, park on right of road. The Bump Track is part of a historical route from the Hodgkinson Goldfields (west of Atherton Tableland) to Port Douglas which was first constructed in 1877. The walk from the Julatten end of the track passes through rainforest with pioneer wattles either side in places. These wattles (Acacia spp.) have grown on the edges of the track which was originally up to 100m wide in places. This has made it good diverse habitat for birds. We walked as far as Robbins Creek which is about 2km; a further 4km takes you down the Macalister Range to the coastal lowlands NW of Port Douglas.

 

 

 Robbins Creek - Bump Track, Mowbray National Park

We recorded 33 species, including some specialities such as Wompoo Fruit-Dove, Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo, Spotted Catbird, Pied Monarch and Victoria's Riflebird. A complete list can be found here

 Wompoo Fruit-Dove

7th March 2010 Report

Good news is that our phones came back on mid-week and are still on! A lightning strike at the local exchange was the cause of all the problems and most of the equipment had to be replaced.

What a contrast to last week with only 5mm of rain and plenty of sunny days. Temperatures ranged from 22ºC to 29ºC which was warmer than last week. Species numbers for the week were 71 bird species seen and 11 heard, slightly up on last week - mammals and reptiles were 16 seen plus one heard.

Australian Brush-turkey were more obvious with at least 6-8 adults and 3-4 juveniles roaming the grounds, Magpie Goose were heard and seen flying over on two occasions late evenings. Papuan Frogmouth were around early in the week but disappeared from regular roost sites later in the week. Australian Owlet-nightjar was seen peering out of a daytime roost when heading out to spotlight for owls. A Black-shouldered Kite was seen gliding over the Lodge grounds on a morning walk and a Whistling kite was not far behind. 

Two Red-necked Crake were heard calling to each other before being seen on the edge of the orchard where they were following a wet season water flow. One dodged out onto the path 2m away before taking one look at me and scurrying back into the rainforest undergrowth. A pair of Double-eyed Fig-Parrot flew over one morning which is all we are seeing at the moment, a quick fly by. Cuckoos are still around with Pheasant Coucal, Eastern Koel and Channel-billed Cuckoo seen and Little-bronze and Brush Cuckoo heard. (Lesser) Sooty Owl was once again heard but not seen and one Eastern Barn Owl was seen emerging from a traditional nest site one evening.

 Eastern Barn Owl

A Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher juvenile was spotlighted roosting in the open on a hanging vine, the first we have seen for the season. The adults are still vocal and flying around and pouncing onto the ground for insects. Rainbow Bee-eaters are still around in small numbers as are Dollarbirds. Noisy Pitta juveniles are around (at least two) and adults are vocal, one even calling at 3.30am! Spotted Catbird have been around with one coming to the feeder near the reception but chased off by Pale-yellow Robin and Spectacled Monarch who also saw off a Black Butcherbird lurking in the undergrowth one morning. 

 Spectacled Monarch

Both male and female Cicadabird were seen during the week calling. Lemon-bellied Flycatcher have been active in the Queensland Blue Gums (Eucalyptus tereticornis) in the adjacent Geraghty Park and the Metallic Starling nests, also in the park, now seem to be abandoned by the birds who are still around the area feeding themselves in preparation for the return journey to Papua New Guinea.

Not much else to report further afield but our roving reporters Carol and Andrew saw some Varied Sittella going to roost in a tree over Bakers Road in Mt. Molloy. This is a species which is not common in the area but has been seen around Abattoir Swamp, nearby Wessel Road and even in McDougall Road near the Lodge grounds on one occasion. They are more common on the southern and western Atherton Tablelands in the more open woodland areas such as found around Lake Tinaroo Dam and further west at Kaban.

A Little Shrike-thrush was disturbed in the orchard trying to catch the stick insect pictured below. The stick insect was rescued to survive another day. A quick look through “The Complete Field Guide to Stick and Leaf Insects of Australia” Brock and Hasenpusch (2009) failed to find the species but given more time it probably could be found there somewhere!

 Stick Insect sp.

Spotlighting this week found Northern and Long-nosed Bandicoot plus Bush Rat as well as the previously mentioned Eastern Barn Owl and Australian Owlet-nightjar. The bandicoots have been scarce over the last few months and only in the last week have a couple of Northern Brown bandicoot started to re-appear at the seed feeder. It was a quieter week for reptiles but we did find a sloughed skin from an Amethystine Python which was 3.42m (just over 11ft long) in an area we have found two previous skins, must be a traditional place to leave skins. As in previous weeks Striped Possum was heard during the night growling but not seen.

As reported in the last blog there has been plenty of action in a Golden Cane Palm (introduced species) with birds coming and going to feast on the ripening seeds. We've put together a few photos of some of the visitors below. 

 Eastern Koel (Female/juv)

 

Eastern Koel (Male)

 

Australasian Figbird (Female)

Australasian Figbird (Male)

 

Macleay's Honeyeater

 In addition to these birds there were Metallic Starling (juvenile in background of the male figbird photo), Lewin's, Yellow-spotted and Blue-faced Honeyeater plus Rainbow Lorikeet.