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.

 

30th November 2014 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

Weather Report

Plenty of threatening clouds but only 1mm of rain managed to find our rain gauge. Humidity dropped down to 43% and up to 95% with lots of sunshine and temperatures reaching 31.3ºc but generally lower with the cloud cover.

Last Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-

These can be found on the Eremaea eBird site. 16th – 22nd November and 23rd - 29th November The first week had 106 species recorded and the second week 107.

Birding Highlights:-

The main contingent of Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher arrived overnight on the 20^th of November (one had arrived on 31st October) which is two days after the previous late arrival record. Since then they have been pairing up and calling a lot as they sort out their territories. Most guests have been seeing them. A Pale-vented Bush-hen turned up in our neighbours garden on 23^rd November, this photo is from earlier this year of an adult feeding one of its six chicks. Hope they breed around here again this season.

Pale-vented Bush-hen - Adult and chick

A big surprise was six Brolga flying from the coast in a westerly direction over the Lodge grounds on the 26^th November. Not sure where they would have come from but this is only the second record we have had in 9½ years. A Glossy Ibis turned up at one of the McDougall Road lagoons at the end of the second week, this is a rare bird in our immediate area. Other waterbirds have been around in small numbers, Magpie Goose, Wandering Whistling-Duck, Green Pygmy-goose, Grey Teal were seen and a Black Bittern was heard. An adult Nankeen Night Heron was along Bushy Creek one morning whilst we were conducting a morning walk. Raptors have been scarce with only Black, Whistling and Brahminy Kite plus White-bellied Sea-Eagle seen over the last two weeks. Red-necked Crake has been appearing at the Crake Pool most late evenings and once at 8.00am. One spent 45 minutes one evening foraging around the pool. One of the McDougall Lagoons had a Comb-crested Jacana swimming around which was quite unusual as they are mainly seen walking over the water lilies. Pigeons and doves have once again been showing well with Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Emerald, Peaceful and Bar-shouldered Dove, Wompoo and Superb Fruit-Dove, Torresian Imperial-Pigeon and Topknot Pigeon all seen. Little Bronze-Cuckoo have again been around in a small flock of 6-8 birds. All have been of the race gouldi, this one was foraging in the orchard.

Little Bronze-Cuckoo - male

Other cuckoos that have been seen were Australian Koel, Channel-billed Cuckoo and Pheasant Coucal. Night birds have been a bit elusive with Lesser Sooty, Barn, and Barking Owl seen plus Australian Owlet-nightjar heard. Also seen was Papuan Frogmouth who were either roosting in our orchard or sitting on their nest. This one was sitting on a recently hatched chick.

Papuan Frogmouth - male

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo have also been nesting with two large chicks seen peering out of a nest hollow. Double-eyed Fig-Parrot have also been nesting and as reported in the last blog feeding young. We thought the young had fledged but after not seeing the adults at the nest for 1½ weeks they were back and little voices were heard from inside the nest. Noisy Pitta have continued to be noisy but have retreated into the rainforest within the last few days which may mean they are going to nest. Lovely Fairy-wren were heard on the edge of the orchard but not seen but Red-backed Fairy-wren were seen on a fence along the highway near Geraghty Park. 13 honeyeater species were seen and one heard, 11 of these were seen in one red flowering Callistemon (Bottlebrush) whilst we were on a morning walk. The most impressive was a male Scarlet Honeyeater who came down out of the tall trees to give everyone fantastic views. Blue-faced Honeyeater were seen feeding juveniles, the males blue face is really bright in breeding condition.

Blue-faced Honeyeater

Also a Helmeted Friarbird was heard for one day, this species does not usually come to our western side of the Great Dividing Range. Several pairs of Yellow-breasted Boatbill have been calling and seen. One pair of White-breasted Woodswallow were seen building a nest and a White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike was seen sitting in a nest. Both Barred Cuckoo-shrike and Common Cicadabird have been calling and seen. A female Australasian Figbird was seen sitting in a nest in a Queensland Blue Gum tree. Torresian Crow were seen chasing a Channel-billed Cuckoo, which may have left their nest unattended for the female channel-billed to lay her eggs in it. A Pale-yellow Robin was another bird seen sitting on a nest. These nesting birds must think the rain is coming along with an influx of insects as at the moment insects are very few and far between. Metallic Starling are also powering ahead with their nests and their colony is looking a bit better with at least 80-100 birds present.

Further Afield:-

A Baillon’s Crake was seen along the edge of the bund wall at Lake Mitchell by Ota Yu, one of the local Japanese birdguides. Also at Lake Mitchell, Carol Iles (our local bird guide) reported six Cotton Pygmy-goose, which are becoming a difficult species to find in our area. Several Yellow Wagtail were reported from Tinnaburra waters boatramp area on Tinaroo Dam, near Yungaburra. Mt. Lewis was a good as ever with most endemics being seen again, also a Shining Bronze-Cuckoo was reported by several people being fed by a Mountain Thornbill at the clearing 10km up the road. One Blue-faced Parrot-Finch was seen at the end of the 2nd week. Further north of Mt. Carbine Black-throated Finch and Squatter Pigeon were along the Kondaparinga Road to Hurricane Station. Maryfarms between Mt. Carbine and Mount Molloy had Banded and Rufous-throated Honeyeater (uncommon) as well as Australian Bustard who are still displaying.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

Two Australian Scrub Python were seen whilst on a night walk, the first for several weeks. A Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko was out during the day behind the cookshed, which is unusual. This one has an original tail.

Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko

Frogs have been anticipating rain and calling a lot, those seen were Jungguy Frog, White-lipped Tree Frog, Northern Dwarf Tree Frog, Dessert Tree Frog, Dainty Green Tree Frog and Cogger's Frog. Also Cane Toad was seen and Roth's (Laughing) Tree frog was heard. A Striped Possum was seen on a night walk high up feeding on the flowers of a Black Bean (Castanospermum australe) tree, this was a first for nearly three weeks. Northern Broad-nosed Bat decided to invade our bedroom with three finding there way past the fly screens. After a midnight chase we managed to get two out, the third was found in the morning and removed. Also in the office was our local Yellow-footed Antechinus who pays regular visits but just has a look around and leaves. Fawn-footed Melomys (small rodent) was seen foraging in a Sugar Apple tree in the orchard one night. At least four Red-legged Pademelon are around the Lodge grounds as well as several Agile Wallaby.

Insects:-

A few Longicorn Beetle have been appearing, this one was on the wall of the units before being re-located to the rainforest.

Longicorn Beetle sp.

A few Katydid have also been seen.

Wader ID:-
The mystery wader from the last blog is a Pectoral Sandpiper. This species differs from the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper with it's more upright stance showing a longer neck, slightly downcurved bill which is slightly longer than the head. Its breast pattern is a distinctly demarcated from the whiter lower breast , weaker supercillium, legs are yellowish, and the bill is olive with a darker tip, whiter more distinct eyering and greyer crown. These are some of the distinguishing features.
Photo, Doug Herrington

Pectoral Sandpiper

 

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. 

 

3rd November 2013 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers

Weather Report

Only three rain events over the last two weeks, one of 1mm, another 1.5mm and the best was a very welcome 12mm; apart from that it has been dry and hot with temperatures up to 30ºC. Overnight temperatures were quite pleasant dropping down to 18ºC. Humidity dropped to 55% but went up into the low 90's.

Past Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-

Bird sightings for the first week were 103 seen and 6 heard, second week sightings were 108 seen and 5 heard. The last two weeks bird lists can be found on the Eremaea Birds Website:- 20th- 26th October and 27th October - 2nd November.

Morning walks were good with between 55 and 64 species for 2½hrs.

Birding Highlights:-

A small flock of at least six Varied Sitella were seen whilst on a guide morning walk in a patch of woodland along the Rex Highway from Geraghty Park, this was a first for a morning walk and one of a few sightings within our 1.5km bird list area. Two Papuan Frogmouth, male and female, were found roosting in the orchard and have been there for nearly two weeks – lets hope they make a good pair and start breeding. One of them was calling at mid-day on one occasion. An Australian Owlet-nightjar has been seen emerging from its daytime roost in the evening on a couple of occasions and also seen, whilst we were on a morning walk, sitting in its hollow enjoying some sun. A juvenile Pacific Baza was seen around the Lodge but only for a day, hopefully the adults have been breeding nearby. One of our tour groups were sitting down to breakfast one morning when a Red-necked Crake strolled by, this certainly woke them up and breakfast was interrupted as they all had excellent views of this bird as it moved about the rainforest – a lucky break for them! We also saw Red-necked Crake in the rainforest near our water pump on several occasions at the Platypus viewing area beside Bushy Creek. A Dollarbird was heard on the 21^st and then several have been seen since, this was the first record for this season. A male Eastern Whipbird has been around for a few weeks, mainly in the rainforest around the orchard – lets hope this occasional visitor stays around for the summer wet season.

Eastern Whipbird

No more sightings of Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher since the initial report of one at the Lodge from 16-18th October, must have passed through the area. Other sightings included Wompoo Fruit-Dove who have been showing well around the Lodge grounds and two Pied Imperial-Pigeon who landed in a fruiting fig tree near the back entrance to the Lodge, the first for a few weeks. Superb Fruit-Dove have only been heard yet again. A pair of Pied Imperial-Pigeon flew into a neighbours fruiting fig tree one morning, the first for a few weeks. A Large-tailed Nightjar was seen flying over Geraghty Park whilst waiting for Barn Owl to appear, this is the one and only sighting for several years although we have heard them calling. A male Black-necked Stork was in one of the McDougall Road wetlands for a day before disappearing. A juvenile Pacific Baza was around the Lodge for an afternoon but not seen again and a White-bellied Sea-Eagle was on the ground beside a recently cut cane paddock. A Purple Swamphen was seen in one of the McDougall Road wetlands and our local pair of Bush Stone-curlew continue to raise their chicks. 

Purple Swamphen

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo are still in their nest hollow but no sign of any chicks yet. Channel-billed Cuckoo have been calling and flying over most days and Brush Cuckoo have also been calling. Barking Owl are still around but seem to be traveling further afield in the evenings as they have not been seen in the Lodge grounds very often. Azure Kingfisher are up and down Bushy Creek and often perch near the Platypus viewing area. A pair of Dollarbird have been in Geraghty Park, often together on an exposed branch and calling, hopefully looking for a nesting site in one of the tree hollows. At least two pairs of Noisy Pitta have been calling at all hours of the day and night and are still spending a lot of their time up in the trees where they do most of their calling. 16 species of honeyeater have been recorded over the two weeks; still with us are the Bridled Honeyeater, lots of Scarlet Honeyeater and the occasional Noisy and Little Friarbird. Barred Cuckoo-shrike are still regularly seen around the Lodge as are Cicadabird. Rufous Whistler have been very vocal over the past few weeks in the adjacent drier woodland areas. 

Rufous Whistler - male

An immature brown coloured Black Butcherbird has been seen in the Lodge grounds along with an adult. 

Black Butcherbird - immature

Spangled Drongo have been migrating through the area with some seen heading south. Northern Fantail has been back in the Lodges rainforest which must look like woodland to them as it is so dry. Black-faced Monarch, both typical birds and the ones with varying degrees of black in their primaries, have been calling but no nests sighted yet. Pale-yellow Robin have been the most prolific breeders so far this season with juveniles out of the nest being fed by parents, chicks in nests being fed, bird sitting and still nests being built. This bird had a nest between two hanging vines which were moving in the wind in a very precarious way, however it survived and the chicks fledged successfully.

Pale-yellow Robin

Only one or two Grey-headed Robin left around the grounds with all the others migrating back up into the mountains behind the Lodge. Metallic Starling are still busily and noisily building nests as well as hatching chicks judging by the number of empty egg shells under their nests.

Further Afield:-

A Grey Falcon was reported from Maryfarms between Mount Molloy and Mt. Carbine along with a Little Eagle. Several other Grey Falcon sightings have been made in the district over the last few years with several of them very convincing, no images as yet however. Maryfarms also turned up a couple of other unusual species for the area, a Black-breasted Buzzard and Black-faced Woodswallow. A very unusual sighting was of a banded Honeyeater at 950m on Mt. Lewis, seen by David (Chook) Crawford from Close-Up Birding Adventures, this goes with the Budgerigar seen earlier in the year at the same location! A few Satin Flycatcher have been reported, one a male on Mt. Lewis, another a female along Pinnacle Road in the Mowbray National Park. A Peregrine Falcon was just north of Mareeba at Lake Evan (Brady Swamp) where a pair of Nankeen Kestrel were nesting in a dead tree hollow. Also here was this Golden-headed Cisticola.

Golden-headed Cisticola

Lake Mitchell (between Mareeba and Mount Molloy has been regularly getting up to four Cotton Pygmy-goose and Abattoir Swamp has been good for crakes with White-browed, Spotless and Ballion's being seen near the hide. 

Spotless Crake

Also here was this Tawny Grassbird which obligingly popped up out of the grass.

Tawny Grassbird

The boardwalk leading to the hide is dangerous as it is in a bad state of disrepair with one section collapsed and quite a few boards missing on the walkway. Nearby Mt. Lewis has turned up the 13 Wet Tropic endemics over the last two weeks plus a lot of other birds including a few sub-species. Black-chinned Honeyeater were near Sides Road in Julatten. Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher have been seen in the Julatten area and one report had one in Cairns at the Barron Falls National Park at Rainforest Estate in Kamerunga. So they must be arriving at the Lodge any day now. A few White-throated Needletail sightings have been reported, two (1st for season) on Monday 28th October at McDougall Road and 100+ at Clacherty Road on 2nd November, both in Julatten.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

After recently being told about Australian Brush-turkey attacking Lace Monitors on another property in which the turkeys pecked off the end of the tail this behavior was witness on our only Lace Monitor. A turkey was chasing and pecking the tail but luckily the Lace Monitor managed to get up a tree before any serious damage was done – those pesky turkeys! Here is the monitor heading up the tree, notice it is shedding its skin.

 

Lace Monitor

 Both Red-legged Pademelon and Agile Wallaby have been around the Lodge with the pademelons mainly seen in the rainforest and the wallaby seen hopping past the reception area and up the main entrance road. Stripped Possum was seen in our neighbours garden and in the Lodge grounds where one was running up and down tree branches with its tail in the air, probably scent marking. We nearly ran over another one as it crossed the Rex Highway, it looked like a Meerkat (a small mammal belonging to the mongoose family and often the subject of wildlife films) with its tail held erect. The Platypus are still being regularly seen by those who get up early or watch until last light. Boyd's Forest Dragon, Eastern Water Dragon and Major Skink are all very active at the moment. The only snake for the two weeks was several sightings of Green Tree Snake.

Other Wildlife:- 
After one rain event several of the terrestrial termite mounds released what seemed like millions of winged termites. This created a feast for the birds who quickly snapped up these high protein morsels.

Termite sp.

How would you like to own and operate Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge and enjoy a fabulous lifestyle?

 

Click here for sale details