Just returned from a great trip with my wife Jane to FNQ between May 25 and June 5. A few days on the Atherton Tablelands, a visit to the lava caves at Undarra and the last few days on the coast around Port Douglas and Cape Trib. We saw over 140 bird species and having just read Laurence Knight’s excellent article in the latest issue of “Wingspan” on Bogey Birds, I can report we knocked off a few of ours. Here are some of the highlights.
Grey Whistler. On the walk around Lake Eacham.
Golden Bowerbird. A female (I think – may have been a juvenile – see photo) at Hypipamee. About 20m from the crater on walk down to river. Someone reported a male on the road in, just the day before.
Fan-tailed Cuckoo. Undarra. Many savanna bush birds here but this one was not on the resort’s extensive birdlist for the area.
Fernwren. At the top of the longer walking track at Mossman Gorge. Interesting as this was a bogey bird and most guides have it as a bird found above c 600m. This bird I estimate was at no more than 250m. I guess it is not unusual for rain forest highland birds to descend during winter. Almost all FNQ Eremeae reports of Fernwren are from Mt Lewis and none from MG. S&D reports it as a “not a well-known species”
Yellow and Scarlet Honeyeaters. Big Mitchell Creek, Mt Molloy.
Grey Goshawk. Jindalba Boardwalk. Cape Tribulation. A bird we have chased to no avail across the western plains of Sydney, where it is regularly reported. Now we see it high in the rain forest canopy being harassed by a pair of Black Butcherbirds. Grey morph.
Little Bronze-Cuckoo. Port Douglas. Along the dirt road that runs beside the resort railway. In a small stand of mangroves by the wire netting fence.A juvenile and though fully grown was still being attended to by its Mangrove Gerygone foster parents. Confusion reigned back at the ranch because S&D had Goulds as separate and Slater had them combined and both guides had different Latin names. Internet access finally showed that C&B had them merged. We had previously seen Goulds so sadly no new tick but good sighting all the same.
Bush Stone Curlews. Port Douglas. On the cross street leading to the Surf Life Saving Club. Every night we were there a group of half a dozen would mournfully wail their way down the street around 10pm. Wonderful sight and sound and they seemed quite at home with the revellers leaving the SLSC.
Cairns Esplanade. Wrong time of year but still a special place with a few over stayers. BT Godwits, Sharpies, BF Dotterels, Whimbrel, RC Plover, Great Knot (we are pretty certain) and Varied HE on boardwalk plus Egrets (Reef and Little) and Pied Oystercatchers.
White-browed Robin. Nope didn’t see this and now is our number one bogey bird for the region. But hey this just means we have an excuse to go back to this fabulous part of the world!
A few photos of the birds can be seen at this link
https://picasaweb.google.com/cgregory123/FNQMay2011
Cheers
Chris Gregory ===============================
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Hi Martin, Chris,
As a rainforest guide in the region for two years in the mid 90’s, I had the enviable job of guiding guests from a nearby lodge around the Mossman Gorge circuit 3 or 4 mornings a week. We would arrive at the Gorge around 7:15 in the morning, so was often the first vehicle in the carpark. Being the first group around the circuit certaintly had advantages for seeing wildlife, and I have some great memories from those walks, including the beautiful Boyd’s Forest Dragons, displaying male Riflebirds and facing off with the odd feral pig.
I have 4 records of Fernwren from my time tin the Mossman Gorge, in May, June, July and September of 1996. At the time I was also of the opinion that this was a seasonal migration down from the higher altitude areas above the gorge itself.
There were a couple of other species that I’d classified as altitudinal migrants. I had two records of Chowchilla, another highland species, in May 1995 and September 1996. Grey-headed Robin also fell into this catagory, with only 5 records, all between May and July of 1996.
A beautiful place in a fascinating part of the world. I hope to get back up to visit before too long.
Regards,
Steve Mannix ===============================
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Hi Chris
Sounds like you had a really good trip. Your photos are great. I especially like the riflebird & Fernwren images!
Your Fernwren record at Mossman Gorge is an important one – I’m unaware of any other records there for this species. But you are right, it is a good spot for some other high altitude birds at this time of year – Bridled HE’s & Grey-headed Robin are other species that I’ve had there in the cooler months. Fernwren do occur at lower altitudes at Mt Lewis in winter.
It looks like the Bronze-cuckoo image is of an imm Gould’s race, especially from the amount of rufous in the tail. Sorry, but it’s foster parents would have been Large-billed Gerygones, as Mangrove G’s don’t occur here in this part of Wet Tropics.
If you got any pics of the waders at Cairns Espl, you can send them to me so I can help confirm what you think may have been Great Knot – I would not be surprised if a couple of first year birds are there at the moment.
Next time you come up here, go to Emerald Falls for the White-browed Robin. There is at least one resident pair that lives in the riverside gallery beside the picnic ground – they bred successfully there last season.
A good spot for Grey Goshawk in your neck of the woods is along the Pacific Hwy on the light poles between Nords Wharf & Swansea, south of Newcastle. I used to live at Nords & used to see them on most days, esp early & late in the day.
Cheers for now
Martin Cachard Cairns 0428 782 808
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