30th March 2014 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

We are back online after being away since the beginning of the month, our friends Kath and Dave looked after the Lodge for us and kept the bird records for the three weeks while we were on holiday, thanks to them for doing such a great job. Their records plus the last weeks are summarised below.

Weather Report

Rainfall over the period we were away amounted to 172mm which we know from our travels to SE Queensland, Northern New South Wales and Lord Howe Island would be most welcome there as it was very dry when we were visiting. Hopefully this last week has put some useful rainfalls in those areas. In addition the last weeks rainfall was 59.5mm on six rainy days. For the year so far we have recorded almost 1100mm. Temperatures ranged from 19ºC to 29ºC.

Bird Sightings:-

The past four weeks sighting were around 100 species per week.

Birding Highlights:-

Three Cotton Pygmy-goose in one of the McDougall Road wetlands in the first week of March. Wompoo and Superb Fruit-Dove were both seen and heard, in addition a pair of Superb Fruit-Dove were spotlighted roosting on 29/3 in the rainforest. No sightings of Papuan Frogmouth in the Lodge grounds, but three were roosting nearby in the last week of March. Two Black-necked Stork have been around most weeks. Pacific Baza showed up in the first week and both Brown Goshawk and Collared Sparrowhawk have been in the area. Red-necked Crake have been seen over the last three weeks, including three recently fledged juveniles with two adults, pottering around in the rainforest. This sighting means that this pair have bred a second time this season. Pale-vented Bush-hen have been showing each week with at least nine seen in the last week of March. This juvenile bird is about two months old and is one of five survivors from a clutch of six.

Pale-vented Bush-hen - juvenile

Both Buff-banded Rail and White-browed Crake were seen along McDougall Road. Red-tailed Black Cockatoo were around for the first two weeks of March, but have not been seen or heard since. Cuckoos have been quite obvious with the highlight a flock of 30+ Channel-billed Cuckoo, which usually gather in groups of immatures at this time of year to fly north. Other cuckoos seen or heard were Pheasant Coucal, Eastern Koel and Little (Gould's) Bronze-Cuckoo. A pair of Barking Owl returned for a couple of weeks, but moved off when they realised they had cleaned the area out of food when they were here before for 18 months! 

 

Barking Owl

Lesser Sooty Owl has been heard most weeks, but not seen. Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher numbers appear to have decreased since we were away as we have not seen or heard many, but we have seen a few adults and a few juvenile birds so they are still around to be observed. 

 Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher - juvenile

13 species of honeyeater were seen including Lewin's Honeyeater who have returned from higher altitudes where they breed. A White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike was seen feeding a juvenile and both Barred Cuckoo-shrike and Cicadabird have been seen. A Grey Whistler was seen feeding a recently fledged young; would like to know where they nest as we have never found one in nearly nine years. 

 

Grey Whistler

Little (Rufous) Shrike-thrush, Leaden Flycatcher, Black-faced Monarch and Lemon-bellied Flycatcher were also seen feeding juveniles. Grey-headed Robin have returned from the mountains behind the Lodge and both Fairy and Tree Martin were seen along McDougall Road. Metallic Starling are still with us, but will be leaving soon to head north or maybe just go down to the coast where they are all year now. Red-browed Finch were seen breeding which seems to be an all year event! Australian Pipit have also returned to the area.

Further Afield:-

Australian King-Parrot and White-eared Monarch were both seen along Pinnacle Road, Julatten. 

 

Australian King-Parrot - male

There were up to four Yellow-billed Spoonbill at Lake Evan (Brady Road Swamp), 4km north of Mareeba in the last week of March, not a common bird in our region. Two Latham's Snipe were seen at Ferraro Road, Port Douglas. Eastern Yellow Wagtail were being seen at Tinaburra Boat Ramp, Lake Tinaroo (Atherton Tableland) and adjacent areas until about mid-March with up to 14 bird present. Little Kingfisher were reported from Centenary Lakes and Kewarra Beach, both sites in Cairns.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

Sightings have been a little patchy with occasional Fawn-footed Melomys, Yellow-footed Antichinus, Red-legged Pademelon and Striped Possum. Regulars include Boyd's Forest Dragon, Eastern Water Dragon, Spectacled Flying Fox, Jungguy Frog and White-lipped Tree Frog. Eastern Tube-nosed Bat has also been seen regularly. A Platypus was spotlighted in Bushy Creek on 29/3 and was the first seen for about five weeks. Our neighbours reported a Macleay's Water Snake on Mt. Kooyong Road also on the 29th; it was having difficulty moving on dry land.

Bird Trails Tropical Queensland Brochure:-

A new brochure for 2014-2015 has just been released with updated information on the best birding sites, birding guides and places to stay in the Daintree, Cairns Highlands (Tablelands), Julatten and Mission Beach areas. It can be downloaded from here.

We hope to have the camp ground and bunk house opened again by next weekend, 5-6th April, weather permitting!

10th October 2010 Report

 

Temperatures this week were similar to last week 21.0-27.4ºC, as was the rainfall with 16mm spread over 3 days. Sunny periods amongst the overcast conditions allowed the birds to be more active and obvious Bird sightings were slightly down on last week but considering the weather conditions they were quite good with 81 species seen and 10 heard. Mammals and reptiles were 20 species seen, one less than last week. 

 

A few species turned up this week which we had not seen for a while around the area, Brahminy Kite was flying over the Rex Highway near Geraghty Park, a Pale-vented Bush-hen was also crossing the highway near McDougall Road (about 1km away towards Mt. Molloy), at least two Australian King-Parrot were around the lodge grounds for two days, (the image below shows two juvenile A. King-Parrot having a rest).

 

 

 Australian King-Parrot

 

 

Two female Red-backed Fairy-wren were foraging on grass alongside the highway opposite Geraghty Park, a Noisy Friarbird was foraging in grevilleas in the Lodge grounds for two days and a Northern Fantail was flitting around the edge of the Lodge grounds along Mt. Kooyong Road one morning. All these species have not been recorded for at least two months.

Other observations of interest during the week were continued calling of several Superb Fruit-Dove in the Lodge grounds, but still unable to track one down! Two Pied Imperial Pigeon flew over Mt. Kooyong Road during a morning walk and Topknot Pigeon numbers continue to build up. Papuan Frogmouth has been calling every night and seen once perched over the cook shed calling. Not been at the regular roost area in the orchard this week so must have found another quieter spot. Australian Owlet-nightjar was calling early one morning at the start of a morning walk, but not found. A single Little Black Cormorant was fishing in Bushy Creek one morning, spotted on a morning walk. Pacific Baza continues to sit on a nest and a Brahminy Kite was flying over Geraghty Park in the vicinity of an old Brahminy Kite nest which has not been used for several years. A Bush Stone-curlew has been taking advantage of the uncut sugar cane to roost in it during the day, but that can't last for long as the cane will be harvested soon. Double-eyed Fig-Parrot were seen twice over the week, once in the Lodge grounds and then near the neighboring nursing home foraging in a Cluster Fig. Noisy Pitta continue to be noisy and seen around the grounds, sometimes with a lot of searching. Spotted Catbird are not popular at the moment and are being chased off by nesting birds, especially Spectacle Monarch trying to protect their eggs and chicks - catbirds are great nest robbers. The White-throated Gerygone was again in Geraghty Park at the beginning of the week, but not heard towards the end. A Noisy Friarbird was calling over several days as it fed in some grevilleas, they are occasional visitors to the grounds. White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike have been active in Geraghty Park, gleaning insects and taking nectar from the flowering callistemons (Bottlebrush). 

 

White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike

Barred Cuckoo-shrike are around as are Cicadabird with both male and female seen well. At least one Rufous Fantail is still around and Black-faced Monarch are calling well and being seen mainly when bathing in Bushy Creek. A Pied Monarch was seen along Bushy Creek collecting nesting material from some introduced bamboo near the nursing home. 

 Pied Monarch

A full bird species list for the week can be found here

Spotlighting was curtailed somewhat by inclement weather arriving at when it was time to go out, however, one trip produced excellent views of a Striped Possum and a sleeping Boyd's Forest Dragon hanging onto the side of a small tree. Earlier in the week the wet weather triggered masses of flying termites to emerge from their nest mounds and this Boyd's Forest Dragon had a field day lapping up the insects as they emerged. 

 Boyd's Forest Dragon on termite mound

Boyd's Forest Dragon

 
Also feeding on the termites were Red-browed Finch. Platypus are still being seen regularly in Bushy Creek along with several Eastern Water Dragon.

Further afield the Mt. Lewis road was having some roadworks performed on it, trying to fill in the holes after the wet weather. Several ground thrush were seen, but not identified on Mt. Lewis but they were probably Bassian Thrush, the status of Russet-tailed Thrush on Mt. Lewis has yet to be resolved 100%. Despite some field guides saying you can tell them apart by the amount of white in the tail this is not so, the white outer tail feather patches are very variable in size in both species, some birds show no white. Australian Bustard continue to put on a show at Maryfarms with their display antics as do the Great Bowerbird in Mount Molloy who are also displaying.