14th December Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

14th December 2014 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

Weather Report

At last some rain to report, a big storm dumped 61mm on one day plus a further 16mm on 4 days. A few more storms have been in the area but seemed to miss us. Humidity was up to 95% with lots of sunshine and temperatures reached 33ºc on one day but generally lower with the cloud cover and passing storms.

Last Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-

These can be found on the Eremaea eBird site. 30th November - 6th December and 7th- 13th December The first week had 107 species recorded  and the second week 99.

Birding Highlights:-

A first for our 1.5km reporting area was a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper reported by Carol Iles our roaming bird guide. Carol saw it in one of the McDougall Road lagoons. The McDougall Road lagoons are on private properties and viewed from the road, they have had quite a few good waterbirds on them over the past two weeks. These were, 38 Magpie Goose, 8 Wandering Whistling-Duck, Pacific Black Duck, Grey Teal, 2 Australasian Grebe, Little Black and Pied Cormorant, Australasian Darter, 2 Australian Pelican, Great, Intermediate and Cattle Egret, 1 White-faced Heron, 1 Glossy Ibis, Australian White Ibis, Royal Spoonbill, 1 White-browed Crake and 1 Comb-crested Jacana. Good selection of waterbirds. A few more raptors have been around these past two weeks with Spotted Harrier, Collared Sparrow Hawk, Black and Whistling Kite plus 2 White-bellied Sea-Eagle. Red-necked Crake are continuing to appear at the Crake Pool in the afternoon, usually between 5.30 and 6.30, where It has been bathing. We say it as we have only seen one at a time. Pale-vented Bush-hen has only been heard over the last week a few times and that was in the distance down stream from the Lodge along Bushy Creek. One pair of Bush Stone-curlew have one off spring and have been keeping quiet over the last month. 

Bush Stone-curlew - adult and juvenile

 

At least six Wompoo Fruit-Dove have been around as has a similar number of Superb Fruit-Dove but they are much more difficult to see than the wompoo. 

Superb Fruit-Dove - male

Topknot Pigeon have disappeared over the last week and the numbers of Pied Imperial-Pigeon have also dropped. Brush Cuckoo are in full song, triggered by the oncoming rain showers and both the Australian Koel and Pheasant Coucal have been calling.

Lesser Sooty Owl have again been around but not every night but when they have been here they are calling and showing well. There is a pair which hopefully will stay around and breed in the area next year. Also Barn Owl and Barking Owl have been heard and seen. Our pair of Papuan Frogmouth who have been sitting on a nest since 10^th October have abandoned it about a week ago with not sign of any egg having been hatched. It is the first time that this pair have tried to nest in the Lodge grounds so maybe inexperienced, certainly judging by their unconventional nest which had some very large branches in it. Normally their nests are made of not many small twigs, similar to a pigeons nest. The good news is that another pair in the area now have a quite sizable chick. They started sitting on the 4^th October, incubation time is 40 days and the time up to the 14^th December must make the chick about 25 days old. Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher have started to dig out their nests in the termite mounds on the rainforest floor and have been showing well, perching for the photographers. We have not checked out all the 40+ termite mounds on the property yet but at least 4 mounds have been dug. Last year we had 8 pairs nesting, hopefully we have at least this number this year. 

Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher

Now that the Double-eyed Fig-Parrot have finished nesting they have become hard to see with only a few observed flying over. At least one pair of Noisy Pitta are in the Lodge grounds and are being seen usually early morning. One bird was seen carrying nesting material. Lovely Fairy-wren visited our neighbours bird bath one day, lucky them. 13 species of honeyeater were recorded with a Helmeted Friarbird being the most unusual. Brown-backed Honeyeater were seen nesting in Geraghty Park. Yellow-breasted Boatbill and Pied Monarch have been calling and seen but the monarch has been proving more elusive than the boatbill. Barred Cuckoo-shrike have been calling and a few have been nest building. Common Cicadabird have also been vocal and Australasian Figbird have been sitting in nests. No sightings of Black-faced Monarch nests yet but they have been calling a lot, probably waiting for more rain to fall. Pale-yellow Robin are still nesting and posing for photographs. This one was taken to see how good the Canon EOS 7D MKII is at handling high ISO and was taken at 3200 ISO, not to bad for noise at this size and crop. It is certainly way ahead of the original 7D which showed lots of noise about 800 -1000 ISO.

Pale-yellow Robin

Metallic Starling are also continuing to add to their colonial nests with more adults and juvenile birds joining in at their colony. Olive-backed Sunbird are also nesting, hope this nest is successful after their last one failed.

Further Afield:-

A very strange sighting of an Australian Brush-turkey with a purple collar was had on Mt. Lewis, the report is on the Eremaea Birds site  with a very fuzzy image.

http://www.eremaea.com/BirdlineRecentSightings.aspx?Birdline=5 . It is possibly the Cape York race 'purpureicollis' which only occur as far south as Shiptons Flat (just south of Cooktown). There is some conjecture as to how this bird arrived this far south, it has been suggested that it was released here or walked across the mountain ranges as they are not good fliers. I guess we will never know. Blue-faced Parrot-Finch is on most guests wants list at this time of year and usually they are not too much of a problem, however, this year has been very dry and grass growth has been retarded with no seeding as yet. Mt. Lewis is the favourite place to look but so far this season the little finches have been hard to find. Four is the most seen at any one time but 1-2 has been the normal when they are present. There has been few sightings over the last month with only one seen occasionally except on the 13^th December when two were seen early in the morning (before 7.00am) at the 10km clearing on Mt. Lewis. Hopefully the start of some rain will encourage the grasses to grow and start seeding. Also at the 10km clearing a pair of Barred Cuckoo-shrike were building a nest. Spotted Whistling-Duck have been in the news for our region lately with sightings at Wongaling Beach, near Mission Beach south of Cairns, Keatings Lagoon near Cooktown, 10 at Cattana Wetlands in Cairns and at least 6 reported by Murray Hunt, who runs Daintree Boatman Nature Tours, at a lagoon alongside the Daintree River. 

 

Spotted Whistling-Duck

A Wedge-tailed Eagle was seen at Abattoir Swamp, an uncommon visitor.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

A Short-beaked Echidna was seen in the Lodge grounds one night, the first for about six months. They have not been seen much this year with only 3-4 sightings. Frogs have been out enjoying the humid conditions with Jungguy Frog, White-lipped Tree Frog, Northern Dwarf Tree Frog Roth's (Laughing)Tree Frog, Desert (Red or Naked)Tree Frog, Dainty Green Tree Frog and Cogger's Frog all seen plus Green Tree Frog heard. Our Platypus have been performing in Bushy Creek even when the level rose and it became muddy for a while after the 61mm of rain we had. An Australian Scrub Python was seen a couple of times but no other snakes were seen.

Spiders:-

Spiders seem to like the warmer weather with many species out and about. Plenty of Wolf Spider and Huntsman, including Grey Huntsman and this unidentified huntsman which was on the ceiling near our kitchen one night, another one of this species was spotlighted on a log beside Bushy Creek whilst we were on a night walk.

Huntsman sp.

Huntsman sp. - showing two rows of four eyes

Also seen was a Giant Silverback, one of the trap door spiders which has previously featured in our blog.

Fish:-

Bushy Creek has many fish species beside the Platypus in it, this Coal Grunter is just one of them.

Coal Grunter

Abattoir Swamp update:-

Many of you would have visited Abattoir Swamp over the last few years and found the boardwalk to the hide in a state of disrepair. It got to the stage where it was closed off due to safety concerns. We sent a four page submission to our local council asking them to repair it but they said they had insufficient funds to do the remedial work. So we asked our local Julatten and Mt. Molloy Association of Residents and Ratepayers (JAMARR) to look into it. The outcome was that the council approved JAMARR to repair the bridge using volunteers. This has now been done and is awaiting the council engineers to sign off on it and re-open it. Thanks to all those involved in repairing this important part of the birding communities infrastructure in our area.

Abattoir Swamp Hide and Boardwalk

This will be the last blog for 2014. We would like to wish everyone a great and safe Christmas and New Year. Also thanks to the many wonderful guests we have had over the past year and for all the positive comments about the blog - Keith & Lindsay.

 

24th August 2014 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

Weather Report

The first week had 32.5mm of rain which fell over six days, the second week had no rain just sunshine. Temperatures ranged from a cool low of 13.2ºC up to 23.8ºC which is about average for this time of year.

Last Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-

These can be found on the Eremaea eBird site. 10th - 16th August and 17th - 23th August The first week we had 106 sightings and the second week 112, pretty good numbers!

Morning and Evening Guided Walks:-

Morning walks (2½ hours) produced between 43-55 species, the lower count was due to rain disrupting the walk. The 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/hotspotshttp://ebird.org/ebird/hotspots.

Again we saw up to 11 Barn Owl on night walks and one Barking Owl. Mammal sightings were good with two Tree Mouse (Prehensile-tailed Rat) on one night, Fawn-footed Melomys, Eastern Horseshoe Bat and Northern Blossom Bat, two Striped Possum and both Long-nosed and Northern Brown Bandicoot. Frogs seen were Jungguy Frog, White-lipped Tree Frog, Red Tree Frog, Roth's (Laughing)Tree Frog, Dainty Green Tree Frog, Cogger's Frog and Cane Toad. Several Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko were also found.

Other Birding Highlights:-

Both Green and Cotton Pygmy-goose have been along McDougall Road as well as up to three Australian Pelican and White-necked Heron. Pacific Black Duck have been along McDougall including these two who were loafing, thought we would put in an image of these birds as some of the more common birds tend to get overlooked.

 

Pacific Black Duck

At least 32 Straw-necked Ibis were foraging in a cut cane paddock adjacent to the Lodge; straw-necks are not as common as Australian White Ibis around Julatten. Black-shouldered Kite have been regulars with one adult and two juveniles seen. A Pacific Baza was seen one day at the front entrance to the Lodge but not seen since. Also flying over the Lodge were a pair of Grey Goshawk being chased by a pack of Blue-faced Honeyeater. Another blue-face was seen chasing a Whistling Kite over Geraghty Park, this time it was hanging onto the tail of the kite! Other raptors seen were Wedge-tailed Eagle, White-bellied Sea-Eagle and over 50 Black Kite foraging in and around cut cane paddocks including this immature bird. 

 

Black Kite - juvenile

Red-necked Crake have started to call so we know they are around but only one sighting over the last two weeks. Wompoo Fruit-Dove have also been calling and being seen as a few more trees start fruit. Topknot Pigeon are still flying over in small flocks and very occasionally dropping into the Lodge grounds. An Australian Owlet-nightjar has been heard calling around the Lodge grounds and also in the vicinity of a previous daytime roost site but has not been seen. The two Papuan Frogmouth continue to roost in the Lodge grounds with four more seen roosting nearby. This is the male with the female hidden by the leaves in one of the Lodge mango trees about 6-7m up which is higher than they normally roost which is more like 4-5m.

 

Papuan Frogmouth

Two Azure Kingfisher have been seen along Bushy Creek flying along and perching near the Platypus viewing area, which has a nice new seat after the previous one was washed away in the flood caused by Cyclone Ita in March. Both Nankeen Kestrel and Australian Hobby have been seen around the Lodge. Scaly-breasted Lorikeet numbers have dropped off as the Queensland Blue Gum are finishing flowering but at least one pair are nesting in these trees and Double-eyed Fig-Parrot have been seen flying over since they, and the Australasian Figbird, have finished off the fruiting figs. Barn Owl have juveniles who have been sitting up in their nests dozing during the day like these ones were. 

 

Barn Owl - juvenile

Barn Owl - juvenile

Noisy Pitta have started to call and have been seen around the Lodge grounds, we still think we only have one bird present. There has been a couple of sightings of Lovely Fairy-wren in the grounds, one along Bushy Creek and another at the Crake Pool. Fourteen species of honeyeater were seen and one heard, which was only four less than the total recorded at the Lodge. Again Pied Monarch and Yellow-breasted Boatbill have both been calling well and being seen. Barred Cuckoo-shrike have made a few appearances but have not been regular. Golden, Grey and Rufous Whistler have all been seen in and around the Lodge as have Northern, Rufous and Grey Fantail. Only a couple of sightings of Leaden Flycatcher over the two weeks but Lemon-bellied Flycatcher have been around with up to six seen at a time. Victoria's Riflebird were seen in the first week but not in the second so they might have left. A Tawny Grassbird was briefly seen in an adjacent cane paddock where it was calling. Metallic Starling returned on the 10^th August from Papua New Guinea with numbers continuing to increase along with the nesting activity at their colony in Geraghty Park.

Further Afield:-

Blue-faced Parrot-Finch are being seen infrequently near Abattoir Swamp with only a couple of birds seen. Australian Bustard are displaying at Maryfarms between Mt. Molloy and Mt. Carbine and a single Australian Pratincole is still present at this location after about 3 weeks. Mt. Lewis is as good as ever with bird guide Doug Herrington from Birdwatching Tropical Australia reporting five male Golden Bowerbird seen in one visit! All other “Wet Tropic” endemics were found here in the last two weeks, even more reason to stay at Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge! Our roving bird guides Carol and Andrew Iles reported Tawny Grassbird, White-eared Monarch, Shining Flycatcher and Red-winged Parrot from Julatten as well as an Australian Hobby whizzing down Mt. Molloy main street. Freckled Duck are still at Hasties Swamp near Atherton and have been almost continuously for the past two years, they were joined by an estimated 2000 Magpie Goose this week.

 

Identification of odd Looking Lewin's Honeyeater:-

The first two images of a meliphagous honeyeater were photographed at Malanda on the Atherton Tableland at about 900m, the third more typical Lewin's  was photographed at the Lodge, they are all ssp. mab, which occurs in Far North Queensland.

After some discussion with a few local and interstate experts it was agreed that this bird is an odd looking Lewin's, it certainly had the Lewin's call. It has an odd shaped ear patch, which is a lot smaller than a normal Lewin's of the ssp mab. The ear patch looks more like a Graceful. The lower mandible is slightly curved like a Graceful and not straight like Lewin's  the length of the bill looks slightly longer in these comparison images than Lewin's. The underparts don't have as much streaking as Lewin's and the face is less grey than a Lewin's. It is possible this could be a Lewin's/Graceful hybrid as there altitudinal range does overlap (Graceful usually occur below 600m). Note:- Lewin's Honeyeater ssp. mab does not have the distinct crescent shape to the ear patch of southern birds but a slightly less shaped crescent as shown in the 3rd image.Thanks to the experts for their comments. 

 

Lewin's Honeyeater ssp. mab

Lewin's Honeyeater ssp. mab

Lewin's Honeyeater ssp. mab - typical

Reptiles and Mammals

In addition to the mammals and reptiles mention on night walks we had other interesting sightings including Red-legged Pademelon, Agile Wallaby, Platypus with two regularly showing, Water Rat, Green Tree Snake and Australian Scrub Python. Over the two week we had 17 mammal species and 12 amphibian/reptiles.

Insect:-

This interesting beetle turned up at the reception area feeder one evening, it is a Carion Beetle Diamesus osculans. In Australia there are only three species in two genera mainly found in forested areas within 300km of coastal areas in eastern and northern Australia. This species is also found in Papua New Guinea and in Asia. (info. From “A Guide to the Beetles of Australia” George Hangay and Paul Zborowski). This is the first one we have seen in the Lodge grounds.

Carion Beetle

Thanks to our bird guide neighbours Carol and Andrew Iles for helping to compile the weekly bird lists, don't forget to contact them if you need any bird guiding.

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