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:-
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Barn Owl - juvenile |
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| 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 10th 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.
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| Lewin's Honeyeater ssp. mab |
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| Lewin's Honeyeater ssp. mab |
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| 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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