5th October 2014 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

This weeks blog features some of the other wildlife we have in the Lodge grounds in addition to the birds. It highlights the amazing diversity to be found in even a small area such as our 5ha's if you are prepared to look closer.

Weather Report

After almost having a dry month a few showers arrived on the 29^th giving us 9 mm of rain . Before this event we had more sun, temperatures slightly warmer than previous weeks, down to 15.5ºC and up to 28.0ºC, excellent birding weather. Humidity was 70%+.

Last Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-

These can be found on the Eremaea eBird site. 21st - 27th September and 28thSeptember - 4th October The first week had 108 species recorded and the second week 101.

Morning and Evening Guided Walks:-

Morning walks produced between 46 (photography morning) and 63 species, some of the highlights were:- Nankeen Night-Heron was seen foraging along Bushy Creek carrying a prey item. Grey Goshawk soaring above, Azure Kingfisher perched, Great Bowerbird at his bower, 

 

Great Bowerbird - at his bower

 

also Barred Cuckoo-shrike feasting on small figs, Bassian Thrush (uncommon) along Bushy Creek and a Platypus performing in Bushy Creek for great views on several occasions.

 

(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).

Evening walk highlights were Barn Owl, Fawn-footed Melomys eating banana from a bunch growing near the units, Red-legged Pademelon, Giant White-tailed Tree Rat, Striped Possum, Platypus, five different frog species, Northern Leaf-tail Gecko – one on the ground and another on the side of a tree and Boyd's Forest Dragon. Also this interesting Centipede which is 150mm (6”) long was seen on the edge of the rainforest. Centipedes are mainly nocturnal and are predatory feeding on a range of prey items such as worms, reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, bats and birds. 

 

Centipede sp.

 
Other Birding Highlights:

Two Cotton Pygmy-goose have been intermittently showing along McDougall Road in one of the lagoons (within our 1.5km reporting area). An Osprey was a surprise flying over Mt. Kooyong Road one afternoon - not many records from adjacent to the Lodge. Pacific Baza have been around infrequently and were seen displaying over the Lodge one day when they locked feet and spiraled down to tree top level before breaking off. A Wedge-tailed Eagle was seen over the Lodge on at least two occasions, also around have been both Grey and Brown Goshawk, often pursued by Blue-faced Honeyeater. Red-necked Crake have been making more appearances at the Crake Pool with one or two birds arriving just before it gets dark around 6.15pm but not every night. This juvenile Emerald Dove has been coming to the reception area feeder for at least the last two months and has been chasing away the adult doves.

Emerald Dove - juvenile

Wompoo Fruit-dove are starting to come into fruiting Blue Quandong trees which are just getting ripe, up to three have been seen so far. Superb Fruit-dove was heard calling on the 29^th September in the Lodge grounds but not seen, first one heard for 4-5 months. At least one male and one female Australian Koel have been around the Lodge and our neighbours garden. Lesser Sooty Owl was around for a few nights, first heard calling on 25^th September, but not seen. A large Peregrine Falcon (as opposed to the smaller superficially similar looking Australian Hobby, which is fairly regular in our area) was seen twice when it flew over our neighbours garden early one morning before being seen over the Lodge grounds later the same morning. Not many records of Peregrine Falcon in our area. Our single Noisy Pitta is still around on it's own with no sign of our usual two adult pairs which normally return in September - November to breed. Plenty of honeyeaters around 12 seen and one heard. 

This shot is of a Graceful Honeyeater showing an unusually curved bill (they are normally slightly down-curved), slight diffuse yellow stripe on the belly and the blue/grey eye, some of the features to help separate it from Yellow-spotted Honeyeater which has straighter lower mandible and a brown eye. Very distinctive calls between graceful and yellow-spotted honeyeaters which visitors would be well advised to learn before they visit.

 

Graceful Honeyeater

An Eastern Whipbird was heard calling on the 26^th September from a patch of rainforest between the Lodge and the Rex Highway. This species rarely comes into our immediate area and in nine years we have only had one or two birds in the Lodge grounds. Black-faced Monarch were heard calling for the first time this season on the 29^th September.

Further Afield:-

A Spotless Crake was seen at Abattoir Swamp by Doug Herrington from Birdwatching Tropical Tours. Up to seven Australian Pratincole have been reported along West Maryfarm Road north of Mt. Molloy along with displaying Australian Bustard. Birds found nesting in and around Julatten include Graceful Honeyeater, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Fairy Gerygone, Pale-Yellow Robin, Metallic Starling and Mistletoebird. 

 

Graceful Honeyeater Nest

Mistletoebird Nest - female still building

Up to three Blue-faced Parrot-Finch have been found near Abattoir Swamp but they should start moving off and up into the mountains very soon. Mt. Lewis continues to show most of the 12 "Wet Tropic" endemics including Golden Bowerbird, but roadworks and some rain has made the road only suitable for four wheel drive vehicles at the moment. As this is being written (4th Oct.) there is still a grader working on the road with a water truck. Rufous Owl is still being reported from Cairns Esplanade.

Reptiles and Mammals:-

Yellow-footed Antichinus have been seen in various parts of the Lodge grounds during the day darting around on the ground. Agile Wallaby have joined the Red-legged Pademelon at night to browse in the orchard with at least three seen. Striped Possum is not visiting our South American Sapote tree any more as the flowers have nearly finished, but one was seen in a nearby tree which has just started to blossom, another was seen in a tree above the campground cookshed. The Platypus have been showing well both in the evening and early morning with up to two swimming up and down Bushy Creek at the viewing area. Up to six Northern Brown Bandicoot have been visiting the reception area feeder, good to see increased numbers over the last few weeks. Frogs got excited when we had a few millimeters of rain with up to six species seen – Jungguy Frog, White-lipped Green Tree Frog, Roth's (Laughing) Frog, Desert (Red) Tree Frog, Dainty Green Tree Frog and a large Cane Toad. Northern Leaf-tail Gecko have re-appeared as mention in the night walk report as have Major Skink who have been anticipating warmer weather. The Australian Scrub Python mentioned last blog left it's tree trunk home at the end of the second week and has not been relocated.

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.

Insects:-

A clicking sound was heard in the office one morning which was traced to a Click Beetle. It was relocated outside and continued clicking as it bounced into the air. This clicking and bouncing into the air is mainly used to avoid predation, but as this one was doing trying to right itself after in fell onto its back. The violent "click" that bounced the beetle into the air is caused by a spine which is snapped into a corresponding notch on the beetle. A further more explicit explanation of how this works can be found on the Wikipedia site. 

 

Click Beetle sp. - on its back

Click Beetle sp. - right side up

A Mango tree which is covered in flowers at the moment is attracting hoards of bees to the pollen. Not sure of the species of bee but have been told previously that we have Italian Honey Bees here. This species of bee was introduced into Brisbane in 1880.

Bee sp. (?)

Butterflies are not easy to photograph as they fold their wings when landing unlike moths which generally hold them open. We have a good variety of butterfly and moth in the Lodge grounds but many of them are confined to the canopy of the rainforest which also makes it difficult to photograph them let alone see them. However this Common Aeroplane (White-banded Plane) Phaedyma shepherdi was very co-operative. A full list of species recorded at the Lodge can be found on our website.

Common Aeroplane (White-banded Plane)

Arachnid:-

The Giant Silverback spider or Brush-footed trapdoor spider(Genus Idiommata, family Barychelidae) has featured in the blog before, at the beginning of 2014. It is only the second one we have found here, this one was smaller than the previous one, but still very impressive. They are not aggressive but can inflict a nasty bite so best to steer clear of them!

Giant Silverback spider

 

Giant Silverback spider

Plant:-

The Northern Pencil Orchid – Dockrillia calamiformis was formerly known as Dendrobium calamiforme and Dendrobium teretifolium var. fasciculatum is an epiphytic or lithophytic (A plant that grows on rock and derives its nourishment chiefly from the atmosphere), orchid which occurs in rainforest and humid open forest in Cape York and North eastern Queensland. In our area it is mainly seen hanging off the trunks or branches of trees, this one was on a Mango fruit tree. The flowers, which appear in August through to November, are fragrant and pollinated by small bees.

 

 

Northern Pencil Orchid

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!

15th December 2013 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge

Weather Report

Over the last two weeks rainfall has again been patchy and light with falls of 3mm on three occasions but towards the end of the second week a front came through just after midnight, which dumped 30mm in 45 minutes along with a thunder and lightning show, then the next night was even more spectacular. A thunderstorm was right overhead and was very noisy but the rain was not as heavy as the day before with only 23mm. This added up to 62mm for the two weeks. Temperatures were again up to 30ºC. Overnight temperatures were only dropping down to 21ºC. Humidity dropped to low 60% but went up into the low 90%.

Past Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-

Bird sightings for the first week were 93, 87 seen and 6 heard, second week sightings were 99, 94 seen and 5 heard. The last two weeks bird lists can be found on the Eremaea Birds Website:- 1st- 7th December and 8th- 14th December.

Birding Highlights:-

Not much to report on the waterbird front as showers in the area created many temporary waterholes which attracted the birds away from our area. A Peaceful Dove was nesting high up in a tree (20m) on the edge of Geraghty Park, the nest was unusually large and stable in a fork on a branch, quite unusual for a dove!
 

Peaceful Dove

Our neighbour Carol (bird guide) reported 10 White-throated Needletail heading over her house and the Lodge grounds on 8^th December. A single Black-necked Stork appeared for a day along McDougall Road and most of the Cattle Egret have coloured up into breeding condition and left the area with just a few still hanging around. One highlight was a Black-breasted Buzzard flying over Geraghty Park and the Lodge on the afternoon of the 4th but it has not been seen since. Pacific Baza have been building a nest in the area, hopefully it will be successful. White-bellied Sea-Eagle have been calling after keeping quiet for several months, not sure what that is about. Red-necked Crake have been calling and seen; on the morning of the 5^th one foraged around the Crake Pool for more than 30 minutes giving everyone good views and photo opportunities. Pale-vented Bush-hen have been calling all around the Lodge with at least six pairs but as usual have been difficult to see. One was seen flying across the top of grass alongside Mt. Kooyong Road and another late one afternoon foraging along the edge of the same road and the Lodge grounds. Scaly-breasted Lorikeet were seen at a nest hollow feeding nestlings in Geraghty Park and Double-eyed Fig-Parrot were also flying around the park and Lodge grounds. 

Scaly-breasted Lorikeet - at nest

Barn Owl have been the only owl seen over the two weeks, even the Barking Owl have gone quiet or moved away. Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher are continuing to dig out their nests with some completed. We have counted at least seven with a possible two more nests which may have been started but not continued on with. Rainbow Bee-eater have returned after an absence of nearly two months when a group was seen flying over McDougall Road. Noisy Pitta are still keeping quiet around the Lodge grounds but have been heard calling across Bushy Creek and near the local nursing home. We suspect our two pairs are nesting somewhere within the grounds as they have occasionally been seen foraging on the edge of the orchard. Red-backed Fairy-Wren have been along McDougall Road and Lovely Fairy-wren have been heard around the Lodge grounds but not seen. Striated Pardalote have been heard calling for the first time in a month and may have been nesting. Honeyeater species have been a bit less with only 11 seen over the past two weeks. Graceful and Macleay's Honeyeater have been feeding recently fledged young with banana. White-winged Triller is a rarity in our area so it was a surprise to see a female in a flock of Bee-eaters along McDougall Road! This scrawny looking bird was walking around on Mt. Kooyong Road just down from the Lodge, it is an Australasian Figbird. It was obviously out of the nest too early as it could not fly, only hop and flutter its wings. After moving it off the road the adult birds came down to feed it, hopefully it survived. 

Australasian Figbird - fledgeling

A pair of Spangled Drongo was seen building a nest about 5m up in a eucalypt tree in Geraghty Park. Northern Fantail has been in Geraghty Park and Lodge grounds as has been Leaden Flycatcher. Black-faced Monarch has been building a nest in our neighbours garden and Spectacled Monarch are sitting on nests in the Lodge grounds. Pied Monarch have been calling and showing well most days unlike the Yellow-breasted Boatbill who have been calling spasmodically and showing occasionally. Pale-yellow Robin are sitting on nests and feeding juveniles who are hanging onto the adults like limpets! Metallic Starling are as busy as ever, building nests and feeding nestlings. Olive-backed Sunbird are having fun chasing off their reflections in the guests car windows and mirrors, this one has both a window and a wing mirror to chase!

Further Afield:-

Ian “Sauce” Worcester from Daintree River Wildwatch reported 5 Spotted Whistling-Duck on a couple of his early morning birding trips on the Daintree River, he sent this image of the ducks.

Spotted Whistling-Duck

On 5^th December a group of Japanese guests were lucky to encounter an adult Southern Cassowary along the Mt. Lewis road at about 600m. The bird moved directly towards them before turning into the rainforest and disappearing, they managed to get images and video of the event. Cassowaries are not common on Mt. Lewis but are occasionally seen a few times each year. Blue-faced Parrot-Finch sightings have been patchy with only a few birds seen. Lake Evan (Brady Road Swamp), on private property but can be viewed from the road, about 4km north of Mareeba has had a few interesting birds over the last two weeks,. We saw a Common Sandpiper, 5 Glossy Ibis, a Yellow-billed Spoonbill with 5 Royal Spoonbill and over 500 Magpie Goose, full list can be found here. Ferrero Road Wetland, Port Douglas, also on private property can be viewed from the road, also had a few interesting birds on it. There was 40 Wandering Whistling-Duck, an Australasian Grebe sitting on a nest near the island in the centre and 5 Pied Heron, full list can be found here.

Wandering Whistling-Duck

Australasian Grebe

Cattana Wetlands, Cairns, was also visited but it was only a very quick visit due to time constraints, full list can be found here.

Abattoir Swamp:-

Just a note about this site which is only 6km from the Lodge. There is a path from the car park onto a boardwalk which leads to a hide, unfortunately the wooden boardwalk is in a bad state of repair and is quite dangerous. Our local council repaired some damaged boards and supports last year with what appeared to be untreated timber. They were very quick to respond to our complaint and had it repaired and inspected within a week but this year is a different situation. Our current council is being de-amalgamated so have put any works that need doing which fall into the new councils responsibility on hold. We will have a new council on 1^st January but they are already saying they have no money so if/when the boardwalk will be repaired we don't know. We will certainly be asking that it is repaired as it is an important part of the local birding infrastructure. We just had to remove a dumped washing machine from the car park as we have had no response from the council to remove it. Hopefully something can be done to get the hide access fixed and we can once again enjoy looking out for crakes and other waterbirds. Currently the hide is home to a Brown Tree Snake and an Australian Scrub Python. This image shows the boardwalk and hide in better times.

Abattoir Swamp Boardwalk and Hide

Reptiles and Mammals:-

Red-legged Pademelon continue to occupy the rainforest during the day and venture out into the orchard at night where they are usually seen. Northern Broad-nosed and Little Bent-wing Bat have been taking shelter under the windows of the office block at night, especially during the storms. Frogs have woken up and have been calling prior to and during the rain storms, mainly White-lipped Green Tree Frog and Dainty Green Tree Frog. Our regular male and female Boyd's Forest Dragon have been in the rainforest area in front of the units most days. One day they were very close to each other so maybe some baby dragons might appear!

Fungi:-

The wetter weather has encourage fungi to start appearing, these are just a couple of them.

Fungi sp.

Fungi sp.

Insect:-

Also a few beetles have also started to come around which is something that has declined over the years we have been visiting and running the Lodge. This one was out during the day. Not experts on beetles but this one looks like one of the Chaffer beetles (?).

Beetle sp.

This will be the last blog before Christmas so we would like to wish all our followers, past and future guests and anyone else who happens upon this blog a safe and happy Christmas and New Year. We have had a great year and have met some fantastic people. We have also enjoyed showing our birds and wildlife to all our guests and to those of you who cannot make it showing what we have through the blog. This is one of our favourite Christmas birds from the past.

20th September 2013 Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge.

Weather Report

Warmer weather over the past two weeks with a few storms around but we missed most of them and only received 8.5mm rain. Temperatures ranged from15ºC to an extreme of 32ºC which is one of the highest temperatures we have recorded here. Along with this was extremely low humidity of 36% which is also a record. High temperatures and low humidity resulted in quite large bush fires in the area but not near us.

Past Two Weeks Bird Sightings:-

Bird sightings for the first week were 103, 95 seen and 8 heard, second week sightings were 98, 92 seen and 6 heard. The last two weeks bird lists can be found on the Eremaea Birds Website:- 6th - 12th October and 13th - 19th October.

Morning walks were between 42 and 54 species seen and heard, the lowest number was a photography walk.

Birding Highlights:-

A single male Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher was seen on the 16^th Oct, one day later than the earliest sighting we have had in eight years. One called on the 18^th and another sighting was had on the 19^th. So at least one has made its way back from the Fly River delta in Papua New Guinea, let hope his mates are not far behind.

Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher

Another excellent sighting was of a Lesser Sooty Owl perched above the road to reception on the 7^th October, which was 24 weeks since the last sighting. This was seen by two of our guests whilst they were spotlighting a White-tailed Rat and noticed something nearby, lucky them. Not heard or seen it since. At least two Red-tailed Black Cockatoo flew over the Lodge one evening at 6.30 calling. This is only the second record we have had here in eight years for October; we suspect they were attracted to the area by the bush fires as we have seen them feeding on burnt seeds previously. A Little Kingfisher was seen near the Crake Pool late one afternoon, the first for several months. A Cicadabird of the southern buzzy call race was in the orchard calling on the 9^th October, this is another first for the Lodge. Although this race is quite common in more open woodland areas such as Abattoir Swamp (6km away) we have not had it here, only had the coastal race which does not have the buzzy bit in its call.

Cicadabird - male

Birds reported building or carrying out nesting activities over the past two weeks were, Papuan Frogmouth which we suspect is nesting as the male has been the only bird seen over the past two weeks which would suggest that the female is sitting on a nest nearby during the day, as this is the normal breeding time. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo are continuing to sit on their nest in a tree hollow and Noisy Pitta was seen carrying nesting material, which is about a month earlier than normal. A White-throated Honeyeater was seen sitting on a nest, Macleay's Honeyeater carrying banana away from the feeder who is probably feeding young, Black-faced Monarch seen carrying nesting material, Pale-yellow Robin, one pair building nest and another pair feeding juveniles. The colony of Metallic Starling has increased in numbers with new arrivals building new nests alongside existing nests built by the early arrivals, who have already fledged the first clutch of the season and are adding to their nests. Plenty of immature birds from the first seasons clutches are helping out with the nest building. Olive-backed Sunbird have recently fledged nestlings and as ever the Red-browed Finch are busy building new nests. Quite a busy time of year.

Wompoo and Superb Fruit-Dove have been around, mainly calling and rarely seen. Cattle Egret numbers have dropped and the odd Straw-necked and Australian White Ibis are still around. A pair of Pacific Baza showed for a day and promptly disappeared but both Whistling and Black Kite were ever present. Red-necked Crake was heard in the Lodge grounds but only seen a couple of times in our neighbours garden. Buff-banded Rail was seen foraging around the edge of Bushy Creek in the grass late one afternoon and a pair of Bush-stone Curlew are still looking after two youngsters which are growing up fast. Brush Cuckoo have really started to get excited at the prospect of rain and are calling every day now unlike the Barking Owl who have not been heard every evening. The have still been heard intermittently but don't seem to be spending as much time around the Lodge although one was found roosting adjacent to the orchard in the rainforest. Azure Kingfisher is regularly being seen flying along or perched in Bushy Creek. Lovely Fairy-wren have been seen in our neighbours garden but not in the Lodge grounds which they seem to avoid! Having said in the last blog that both Lewin's and Bridled Honeyeater had left they turned up the day after the blog was published. Only one Lewin's and a couple of Bridled have been around for a day or two. Blue-faced Honeyeater were seen noisily chasing a raptor off the premises one afternoon and again harassing two roosting Barking Owl across Mt. Kooyong Road. Barred Cuckoo-shrike are moving around the area in response to fruiting trees and have been seen around the Lodge several times. Grey Whistler, Yellow-breasted Boatbill and Pied Monarch have all been vocal but Grey Whistler has been hiding and not seen as often as the other two species. 

Pied Monarch

Spangled Drongo numbers have increased as they migrate through the area and a Northern Fantail has been heard on the edge of the rainforest and along Bushy Creek. 

Spangled Drongo

A few Grey-headed Robin are still around but most have moved back up onto the mountains behind us. A few Chestnut-breasted Mannikin have started to re-appear to join up with the flocks of Red-browed Finch.

Further Afield:-

Yellow-billed Spoonbill have been in the area with up to three on Lake Evan (Brady Road Swamp) 4km north of Marreba, also here were a Marsh Sandpiper and two Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. At last an excuse to put in a wader shot!

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

Another Yellow-billed Spoonbill was on a dam along the Kondaparinga Road north of Mt. Carbine in a dry woodland area. White-browed and Spotless Crake are still being seen at Abattoir Swamp (6km from Lodge). Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo were heard on the lower slopes of Mt. Lewis and Banded Honeyeater have been seen near Mt. Molloy. Mt. Lewis has sprung to life with a little bit of rain, most of the endemics have been seen over the last week including a female Golden Bowerbird and a Lesser Sooty Owl. A trip up Mt. Lewis one morning had to be cut short due to rain but we did see Chowchilla, Atherton Scrubwren and Grey Fantail, race keasti.

Reptiles and Mammals:

A Yellow-footed Antichinus was seen whilst on a morning walk scurrying around in the rainforest adjacent to the orchard. The Lace Monitor reported in the last blog has been seen regularly patrolling around the camping ground and units much to the delight of our guests. This one is about 1m long.

Lace Monitor

Lace Monitor

Up to five Red-legged Pademelon were seen one night browsing in the orchard which is good news as long as they don't nibble our rainforest plantings! Agile Wallaby have been around with one in our orchard and another four seen near a cane paddock. A fish eating bat Large-footed Myotis was roosting in our neighbours property. A large male Striped Possum was seen whilst on a spotlighting tour; this was the first seen in the Lodge for several weeks. A Platypus continues to be seen in Bushy Creek but few frogs have been tempted out after a few showers of rain. Those that have were Stoney Creek Frog (Litoria jungguy), Desert Tree Frog (Litoria rubella), Cogger's Frog (Mixophyes coggeri) and a few Cane Toad. A Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko was on the veranda outside one of our units early one evening and had to be rescued and released on a nearby tree in the rainforest. A great sight for our guests to see this magnificent creature who are masters of disguise.

Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko

Boyd's Rainforest Dragon have been around the unit with at least two and Major Skink are also moving around with at least five seen around the grounds. A green Tree Snake was seen disappearing into vegetation near one of our two bedroom units which made the occupying guests day.

Other Happenings:-

During the week we had the Australian Wildlife Sound Recordist Group (AWSRG) workshop for six days of talks and their AGM. We gave a presentation on the birds and other wildlife around the lodge, other talks were about the Fuscous and Yellow-tinted Honeyeater around the Herberton, Kaban and the Wondecla area as well as areas further north up onto Cape York. Quite a confusing story where these birds do not fit the species type but have subtle differences. Do we have 3 species/subspecies of Cicadabird was the subject of another talk. Again very interesting with birds from various regions of Australia having quite different calls. Insect calls and recent insect discoveries in our region was another interesting talk. Other speakers talked about the ways and means of recording wildlife sounds and preserving them into the future. It was a very social and interesting six days. If you are interested in sound recording we would urge you to join the group and check out their website.

AWSRG relaxing during a talk