19th October 2014 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

Weather Report

One day we had 6.5mm in a short shower, this was the total rain fall for the last two weeks. With the humidity dipping down to 34% and lots of sunshine and temperatures reaching 32ºc which is unheard of for this time of year, the rain did little to settle the dust.

Last Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-

These can be found on the Eremaea eBird site. 5th- 11th October and 12th- 18th October The first week had 104 species recorded and the second week 110.

Morning and Evening Guided Walks:-

Morning bird walks produced between 54 and 66 species which was very good for 2½hrs. Highlights were two male Superb Fruit-Dove in a tree beside Bushy Creek, male Common Koel, male and female Double-eyed Fig-Parrot feeding in Cluster Fig and nesting nearby.

Double-eyed Fig-Parrot - female at nest

A Noisy Pitta was seen most mornings and two Great Bowerbird were attending a very well constructed bower. 

 

Great Bowerbird Bower

White-throated Honeyeater were building a nest and mating plus a Lemon-bellied Flycatcher was sitting on its tiny nest, the smallest of any bird in Australia. This one is about 10m off the ground.

Lemon-bellied Flycatcher - on nest

(The full morning walk species lists can be found on the Eremaea eBird site. Click on Explore Data then Hotspots and type in Kingfisher Park – you will then see the Lodge in the drop down menu. Click this on and a map will appear with two markers, click these and you can have access to all our records. It sounds long winded, but it is really easy. Alternatively you can click this link which will take you directly to Hotspots http://ebird.org/ebird/hotspots).

One highlight on a night walk was the eclipse of the moon, we watched it as we went spotlighting and ended up in Geraghty Park to have great views of the event as we listened to two Australian Owlet-nightjar calling to each other. 

Eclipse Of The Moon

Other good sightings were a very brief glimpse of a Lesser Sooty Owl as it flew over and away from us, Giant White Tree Rat, Green Ringtail Possum, Water Rat and three Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko on one night.

Other Birding Highlights:-

One Female Black-necked Stork in a lagoon behind Geraghty Park as well as two Latham's Snipe along the edge, both species not seen for many months. One Australian Pelican flew over the Lodge on the 17^th October, probably heading for one of the lagoons along McDougall Road. A Grey Goshawk was seen to fly into a tree, adjacent to the Lodge orchard, carrying an Eastern Water Dragon and luckily the camera was at hand to whiz off a couple of shots before it moved off clutching its meal.

Grey Goshawk with Eastern Water Dragon

Pacific Baza have been around but not regularly and a pair of Brown Goshawk were circling over the Lodge one morning. Red-necked Crake was seen briefly late one afternoon as it was getting dark at the Crake Pool, it was also heard on several occasions. Pigeons and doves have been around to take advantage of fruiting trees and vines; those seen were Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Wompoo Fruit-Dove, Superb Fruit-Dove, Torresian Imperial Pigeon and Topknot Pigeon plus the regular Emerald Dove, Bar-shouldered Dove and Peaceful Dove. Lesser Sooty Owl was seen about 4.00am perched in a tree near our bunkhouse and heard on numerous other occasions. Barking Owl have been vocal with one roosting high up in a eucalypt tree near the bunkhouse one afternoon. A pair of Papuan Frogmouth have made a nest in a fern on a tree branch at a nearby private property, they laid on the 10^th October and usually take about 40 days to incubate.

Papuan Frogmouth - female on nest

Dollarbird returned on 16^th October along with Brush Cuckoo. Also on this day the Cicadabird started calling. Lovely Fairy-Wren were seen by our neighbours Carol and Andrew Iles (our local bird guides) in their garden, they also saw a Red-necked Crake run under their veranda. Spotted Catbird have been coming to the feeder to gather fruit and head off with it so they maybe feeding young. 13 species of honeyeater were seen and Black-chinned heard. The Eastern Whipbird mentioned in the last blog is still hanging around the area calling whilst it visits all the adjoining rainforest habitats as well as the Lodge grounds. Barred Cuckoo-shrike have been visiting the fruiting trees in and around the Lodge, mainly Blue Quandong. Groups of Spangled Drongo have been passing through the area on their southern migration with up to 50+ seen at a time. Black-faced Monarch are around in increasing numbers and calling and a single female Leaden Flycatcher was heard and seen, the first for seven weeks. A few Pale-Yellow Robin have been seen feeding fledged young whilst others are still sitting on nests. A Bassian Thrush was still around the grounds in the first week but was not sighted in the second.

Further Afield:-

Mt. Lewis is still producing all the 12 “Wet Tropic” endemics but not all at once! One Blue-faced Parrot-Finch was seen near Abattoir Swamp but no reports of them up on Mt. Lewis yet. Maryfarms between Mt. Molloy and Mt. Carbine has displaying Australian Bustard, still at least eight Australian Pratincole and Carol Iles saw an injured Oriental Plover with the pratincole. Photo courtesy of Carol Iles.

Oriental Plover- broken wing

Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo were seen around the Mowbray National Park in Julatten on several occasions. Abattoir Swamp has been good for honeyeaters and White-browed Crake. Up to 12 Spotted Whistling-Duck have been reported at Keatings Lagoon near Cooktown, 2 hours north from the Lodge.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

The Water Rat seen in Bushy Creek whilst on a night walk was the most exciting mammal over the two weeks followed by the elusive Green Ringtail Possum seen once. Three Giant White-tail Rat were seen one night; they have not been seen much lately so must have woken up. Platypus have been very cooperative appearing in the morning and late afternoon with up to two. Boyd's Forest Dragon and Major Skink have also been appearing with the warmer weather. Several snakes have also woken up with sightings of Australian Scrub Python, Slaty Grey and Green Tree Snake – one in our downstairs toilet was a surprise. Just having a look around in the first photo before it retreated back inside. It eventually left by the window with a bit of encouragement and headed for the rainforest.

Green Tree Snake

Green Tree Snake

 

Thanks to Carol and Andrew Iles our roving bird guides for helping with the bird lists and area sightings. If you need any guiding in our local area contact us and we can put you in touch with them, contact through our secure bookings and enquiries web page. 

 

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

16th December 2012 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

Over the past two weeks the weather has been sunny with some patchy cloud and a light shower resulting in only 3mm.

The minimum temperature over the two weeks were relatively cool for this time of year with a minimum of 18.2ºC which was slightly less than the previous two weeks. The maximum temperature was a very warm 33.0ºC, which was higher than the previous two weeks and much hotter than normal. The humidity was still high, up to 91% and even lower than the previous two weeks 40% which was a record that did not stand for long, beaten by 37% for the last two weeks.

Bird sightings for the first week were 94 seen plus 10 heard. The second week had slightly more sightings, 99 seen plus 7 heard. Mammal and reptile species were 24 seen and 2 heard.

The last two weeks bird lists are on the Eremaea Birds Website for Week1 and Week2 plus morning walk lists can also be found at this link on Eremaea Birds

Birding Highlights:-

A Little Eagle was seen over the Rex Highway by our bird guiding neighbour Carol Iles within our 1.5km area; there are occasional sightings of this bird but only one every few years. They are more often seen in the Mt. Molloy area. Pale-vented Bush-hen have become quite regular at our neighbours, with sightings most days in their garden between the house and Bushy Creek. We have seen them several times from the Platypus viewing area along Bushy Creek and heard them at night along the edge of the adjacent cane field. A Papuan Frogmouth was heard calling from Mt. Kooyong Road one night and tracked down to an overhanging branch. It was not our regular (ex-regular!) female but a smaller, possibly male, frogmouth. We did spotlight our female Papuan Frogmouth in the orchard one night when she was seen hawking for insects. 

Papuan Frogmouth

Our Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher are always a highlight and this year even more so. With the extremely dry weather they have delayed any nesting activity and are flying around and perching out in the open for the many photographers to snap away. We've not found any sign of termite mounds being dug into, although our neighbours say one of their mounds have signs of digging. We did find one of the regular termite nest mounds had been broken into and destroyed by, presumably, a Short-beaked Echidna. There are a few adjacent mounds which they can use so hopefully they will choose one of them.

Birding Lowlights:-

Murder in Reception

A Spotted Catbird flew into the reception feeding area, chased and caught an unfortunate Red-browed Finch next to the reception desk where it killed it on the floor. It then flew out and proceeded to eat it. Another Spotted Catbird (maybe same one?) was also photographed in the orchard with a large nestling in its bill. Spotted Catbird are the greatest of predators around the Lodge for small birds.

Spotted Catbird

Also a Laughing Kookaburra was seen to fly into a clump of leaves on the edge of the orchard and emerge with a Dusky Honeyeater in its bill. Definitely a bird eat bird world especially if you are a small bird.

Other Sightings:-

Two pairs of Green Pygmy-goose have been regular in one of the McDougall Road lagoons along with a single Hardhead and several Australasian Grebe. Many species of pigeon and dove were again around feeding on a few fruiting trees, we have seen Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Emerald Dove Peaceful Dove, Bar-shouldered Dove, Wompoo Fruit-Dove, Superb Fruit-Dove, Pied Imperial Pigeon and Topknot Pigeon over the last two weeks, quite impressive. Other waterbirds such as Australasian Darter, Little-Pied Cormorant, Great Cormorant, Little Black Cormorant, White-necked Heron, Eastern Great Egret and Intermediate Egret have only been around in ones or twos. A Great-billed Heron was once again seen in Bushy Creek and contrary to our theory of them coming down the creek systems from the Gulf of Carpentaria it maybe that they are present all year around in the Rifle – Bushy Creek system as there have been records for most times of the year. Cattle Egret are still colouring up into breeding condition with few numbers around each week. Raptor numbers have also decreased with a few Whistling Kite and Black Kite sightings along with the resident White-bellied Sea-Eagle family. A Brown Falcon was again seen and heard flying across Geraghty Park whilst we were going to see an Eastern Barn Owl one night. 

Brown Falcon

Red-necked Crake have again been heard without being seen but a Buff-banded Rail was seen foraging around the edge of one of the McDougall Road lagoons late one afternoon. A pair of Bush Stone-curlew with their chick, who were in and around the local nursing home, have moved up to the Lodge grounds. They have been seen and heard most nights coming around the units and working the camping area, the chick is very cute! The Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo reported as being heard last blog were seen for most of the past two weeks foraging in the eucalypt trees around the Lodge and Geraghty Park, at least 17 birds were present. Double-eyed Fig-parrot were also seen foraging in the camping area on some fruits for a few days before disappearing. Channel-billed Cuckoo are around but not calling, two were seen perched in Geraghty Park and several others flying over. Barking and (Lesser) Sooty Owl have only been heard but Eastern Barn Owl have been regularly seen. This one was roosting in the open, look who's in the background, our indicator bird - the Pale-yellow Robin!

Eastern Barn Owl

Blue-winged Kookaburra have been spasmodic with sightings and also calling as have been Noisy Pitta who don't seem to have started nesting yet. Red-backed Fairy-wren have been along McDougall Road while Lovely Fairy-wren have only been heard in our neighbours garden. Large-billed Scrubwren have been very active as food resources have become scarce with the dry weather. This one is very intent on finding something.

Large-billed Scrubwren

The regular honeyeaters have been joined by Helmeted and Noisy Friarbird over the last week as they search for flowering plants which are becoming scarce. Macleay's Honeyeater continue to feed their offspring banana at the feeder. Late in the second week McDougall Road put on a great display of honeyeaters, those present were:- Yellow-spotted, Graceful, Bridled, Yellow-faced, Dusky, Scarlet, Banded, Brown and Macleay's. Quite impressive to have nine honeyeater species in two trees, especially the banded which is rare this close to the Lodge.

Both Barred Cuckoo-shrike and Cicadabird are very vocal as well as being seen at the moment. Black-faced Monarch have been very quiet and maybe trying to breed like Spectacled Monarch who are sitting on a nest. Pied Monarch have come out of hiding and have been seen and heard around the grounds along with Yellow-breasted Boatbill. This image is of a female coming into land with a fly for it's youngster.

Yellow-breasted Boatbill - female

Lemon-belied Flycatcher are vocal in the eucalypt trees adjacent to the Lodge and in Geraghty Park while Pale-yellow Robin are feeding recently fledged young. A pair of Olive-backed Sunbird have started to build their third nest this season, pretty determined pair.

Further Afield:-

11 Spotted Whistling-Duck were reported from Wonga Beach and were easily seen from the road. Please view from road and don't trespass on private property. There have been problems with neighbours previously at this location in past years. A Red Goshawk was reported from the outskirts of Hopevale near Cooktown; they have been reported at Cooktown Airport previously – not sure which flight they were waiting for! At least five Sarus Crane were along Emerald Creek Falls Road, Mareeba mixed in with a flock of Brolga, this is quite a late sighting as most sarus have gone north-west at this time of year. Crested Pigeon were at Mareeba where they have become established. Their range extension has seen them move onto the Atherton Tableland area where they have been regularly seen.

Crested Pigeon

Mt. Lewis has been turning up most of the “Wet Tropic” endemic birds including a sighting of a male Golden Bowerbird. Also of interest was a Satin Bowerbird with a bower, something that used to be quite common in the 1990's but not seen in recent years as the bowerbirds have become scarce here. Also up to six Blue-faced Parrot-Finch have been seen on the mountain, on the lower slopes there have been sightings of (Lesser) Sooty Owl and Papuan Frogmouth. Banded Honeyeater have been turning up regularly in the area over the last few weeks from Hurricane Station to the north back to Mt. Molloy and into Julatten near the school and along McDougall Road. David Crawford (Chook) from Close-up Birding Adventures had one in his garden near Mt. Molloy for the first time.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

There were 24 sightings over the last two weeks which was slightly down on the previous two weeks. JCU students had around ten sightings of Australian Scrub Python over an eight day period, that's probably because they are up all night looking! Up to five Red-legged Pademelon (small rainforest kangaroo) were seen in the orchard at night along with two at the Crake Pool one morning. Good to know that this once common species in the Lodge grounds are hopefully making a come back.

Red-legged Pademelon

Possums have again proved elusive with only a couple of Stripped Possum sightings but Platypus have been performing well with two adults and a juvenile showing most days in Bushy Creek. Spectacled Flying-fox have been taking advantage of fruiting Lychee and Mango trees, knocking plenty of fruit to the ground where Australian Brush-turkey and Orange-footed Scrubfowl have also been taking advantage and mopping up the fallen fruit. Frogs have again been calling but to no avail as their predicted rain has never eventuated but a few individuals have come out of hiding to be seen at night including, Jungguy Frog, White-lipped Tree Frog and Roth's Tree Frog. Several Boyd's Forest Dragon have been making appearances, one was on hand outside reception to welcome a group of Japanese guests much to their delight. Major Skink have been around with one making forays to the feeder for banana before disappearing back under the eating area floorboards.

Mystery Bird:-

Not too difficult :-) it was a female Fairy Gerygone. 

Fairy Gerygone - female

This is the only gerygone with a mainly yellow underbody. The female could possibly get confused with a White-throated Gerygone but their habitat preferences are generally different, white-throated in open woodland and Fairy in rainforest. However there can be overlap especially in areas of woodland adjacent to rainforest, such as Geraghty Park across the road from the Lodge where we have seen both species. The female fairy has less white under the chin which merges into the rest of the underbody, white-throated has a much more prominent white patch covering the chin and all of the throat which is sharply demarcated from the mostly yellow underbody. The fairy also has a obvious narrow white eye-ring. One obvious problem with looking at images of birds is that you don't get much sense of size, this is especially noticeable when guests show us Graceful and Yellow-spotted Honeyeater images which makes identification even more difficult.

Bird Signs:-

Birds, in particular kingfishers, take advantage of man made structures such as road signs and others, probable because they are generally out in the open allowing the bird to have 360º vision. Around the Lodge it is mainly Laughing Kookaburra sitting on signs with the occasional Forest Kingfisher joining in. Here is a selection of kingfishers.

That's all for another two weeks by which time we hope you will have had a great Christmas break. Thank you to all our readers and guests who have visited us during the year. We have certainly enjoyed your company and making friends with you all. Here's to a happy new year and one that will bring you all many great birding highlights. If you have not visited why not?!

Keith & Lindsay.

Birdwatchers Lodge in Far North Queensland, Australia.

The blog is running slightly later this week due to computer problems – failure to load Windows XP and changing operating system over to Windows 7 which is very time consuming. On top of all this our network decided it did not like the new router and would not log onto the guest network for more than 10 seconds! Even a local IT specialist could not get what is normally a simple set up (even we've done them in the past) so at the moment we do not have Wi-Fi for guests, only the guest computer in the library. Also we are going away for a holiday! Just over two weeks in Victoria, birding and family history. Our friends Kath & Dave from Cooktown will be looking after the Lodge which is something they have done before. So no regular blog for a few weeks. Anyway onto this weeks happenings.

36mm of rain fell during the week 0.5 fell at the beginning of the week and 35.5mm fell on the last two days, in between it was dry, overcast and sunny. The minimum temperature was down to 21.4ºc and the maximum up at 30.4ºc. The humidity varied between 70% and 96%.

Bird species were hiding this week with only 85 seen and 11 heard. 18 mammal and reptile species were seen and three frog species heard. The weeks bird list is on the EremaeaBirds website and morning walk lists can also be found at this link on Eremaea Birds

Highlights:

The return of Bridled Honeyeater from higher ground up on the mountains with around 40 foraging in flowering eucalypts along McDougall Road, also along here was White-checked Honeyeater, another species we have not seen for several months. 

  

Bridled Honeyeater

Another returnee in the same location was a Northern Fantail. Rufous Fantail was again seen in the orchard for a second week and maybe the first of the returning bird who also come down off the mountains along with a few southern migrants.

Other sightings:

Pied Imperial and Topknot Pigeon are still around with up to 50 Topknots. Cattle Egret numbers are building up with many flying over the Lodge on their way to shepherd the local cattle. Four raptors around over the week, Black-shouldered Kite, pair of White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Whistling and Black Kite. Red-necked Crake have quietened down and were only seen once moving through the rainforest, did not see the juveniles. Scaly-breasted Lorikeet returned in good numbers as more trees have started to flower and Double-eyed Fig-Parrot have been flying over. Eastern Koel have become vocal and Channel-billed Cuckoo have been flying over but only still one or two. We have not seen the larger groups gathering, as in past years, before they head north. (Lesser) Sooty Owl was heard calling in the Lodge grounds twice during the night but no opportunities to track it down at a reasonable time. Eastern Barn Owl however were again around Geraghty Park but only one pair not the usual two pairs we normally see. 

Eastern Barn Owl

Azure Kingfisher has been zipping up and down Bushy Creek and through the rainforest. Noisy Pitta was only heard but more snail shells were found near it's “anvil”, a flat stone used the smash the shells against. Spotted Catbird have also gone quiet but have been feeding on berries from a vine behind the units which is better than stealing baby birds. 13 honeyeater species which is the best for a while; plenty of flowering trees. Interestingly a Macleay's Honeyeater was seen on the edge of the orchard rainforest and cane field with a band on its leg. We used to have one around the feeder for several years which was banded but this one disappeared about 18 months ago and was the only one that had been banded in the vicinity of the Lodge, maybe this was the same one as nobody has been banding around here for at least 7-8 years. Cicadabird are still around and calling as are Grey Whistler who have intensified their calling but they are keeping out of sight. Black-faced Monarch are still around and both Pied Monarch and Yellow-breasted Boatbill have been showing. 

 

Yellow-breasted Boatbill

 

Lemon-bellied Flycatcher have been hanging around the eucalypts on the edge of the Lodge grounds and coming down quite low.

Lemon-bellied Flycatcher

Metallic Starling numbers are still declining and Mistletoebird was seen in the orchard with a recently fledged juvenile.

Further Afield:-

A quick look at the Brady Road lagoon north of Mareeba turned up plenty of Magpie Goose, 50+ Plumed Whistling-Duck, a couple of Pacific Black Duck, one Australasian Grebe, one Little Black Cormorant, two Little Egret and Australian Hobby who was busy putting up the Magpie Goose and two Black-fronted Dotterel. There was also a crakey thing in the grass but not sure which one it was.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

Striped Possum were seen several times and heard growling and Fawn-footed Melomys, Yellow-footed Antichinus plus Northern Brown Bandicoot were at the seed feeder.

Yellow-footed Antichinus

Frogs were not very active, White-lipped Tree Frog decided to camp in our downstairs toilet block and Dainty Green Tree Frog fired up one night all calling in unison. A Brown Tree Snake decided to investigate our neighbour upstairs front room of their house but was persuaded to leave by a big stick!

Other Wildlife:-

This female Hercules Moth was found on the ground in the orchard and rescued. It was put in a place out of the way where all the guests could look at it. This moth is one of the largest moths in the world with a wing area of up to 14,000 square mm and are mainly found in the rainforest during the wet season. They fly like clumsy bats as we found out one night so time ago when we spotlighted one thinking it was a bat until it landed at our feet. They are not often seen with only one or two sightings in a year.

Hercules Moth - female