I keep thinking about this, and wondering if it would be worth it.
Has anyone been on it? What did you see, and how bad was the humidity?
Thanks for any thoughts anyone has about it.
Sonja ===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Sonja
Can only, concur with previous posts. We were in Bamaga early Jan 2008 and caught the end of a tropical cyclone in the Gulf. Klaus and back then he had Keith Fisher and Lloyd Nielsen to help and were all fantastic, in not only finding birds but sharing their immense knowledge. We saw all the endemics and FIFO’s. The weather was – apart from the cyclone – fine. Rained in brief but heavy showers. Plenty of sun. Humidity high yet surprisingly bearable but your optics will take some adjusting when leaving your air conditioned cabin. Lots of fogging up and carry plastic bags. Can’t remember mozzies but some were troubled by sand flies.
Do go to Parau Island for Pale White-eye and other goodies. My wife also took a flight to Boigu, off PNG, and picked up some others. Personally I think that’s cheating but she won’t listen. On the way home stopped at Kingfisher Park and that was something special in the wet but much cooler.
It’s different but you will enjoy it.
Chris Gregory
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================
Hi Sonja,
I went in Jan 2010 for the Bird Week, with Klaus. I was in a super group and loved being with Klaus – lots of fun and special birds. Can’t think of any “dips” off the top of my head. The temp and humidity was bearable, and we’d get wet from short and swift showers now and again – nice cooling effect
BUT, have protective bag for camera, binos, etc.
What you have to decide is, HOW important is the wildlife to you, and can you cope with warm climes in casual gear. And, yes, you can “do your own thing” with friends, for instance – but Birding Week is a concentrated week with expert help. At that time of year, no option but to fly in to Bamaga. Sonja, mossies were not too bad, and sandflies on the coast occasionally bothersome. Check for suitable deterrents. Wear quick-drying light-weight gear, longs if necessary.
You can also see some of the birdlife in Iron Range at a different time, including the 3 species not usually seen further north. Read the company website, including the bird-lists.
Good luck and regards, Peter Madvig, Sydney
Hi Sonja,
Raja and I went to Cape York once in October (2010) and once in December (2009). Both times the weather was very pleasant up there (I think it may get a bit wet there in late Jan/Feb; when did you go, Tony?). Also, in contrast to Tony, we never had problems with mozzies up there. Although, be aware of sandflies. Birding, mammalling and herping is great up there! We saw all bird endemics in a few days during our December trip. December is also great for both reptiles and frogs. We missed out on a couple of mammals though. We caught up with Spotted Cuscus on our second trip (October) but still need Gray Cuscus and Rufous Spiny Bandicoot. It’s great up there – I certainly would go a third time!
Cheers,
Nikolas
P.S. Here is what I posted to birding-aus after the two trips (December 2009 and further down October 2010):
December 2009 trip:
Cairns – Michaelmas Cay – Kuranda – Julatten – Yungaburra – Cairns – Lockhart River – Cairns. We had 242 bird species this year (compared to December 2008 in the Cairns/Townsville area only: 248 species – total for both trips combined: 285 bird species) 27 mammal species this year (combined with last year: 35) 29 reptile species (combined with last year: 32) 12 amphibian species (combined with last year: 14) 18 butterfly species
In the Cairns area we focused on high altitude mammals (Striped, Daintree River, Herbert River, Lemuroid Ringtail Possum) rather than birds (and consequently dipped on some birds again – e.g. Little Kingfisher, Beach Stone-Curlew, Laughing Gull), but saw some nice “old friends”: e.g. Golden Bowerbird, Lesser Sooty Owl. In Iron Range we tried so see all the “specialty” bird species and saw all of them, but dipped on some “less special” ones (e.g. Rufous Owl, Little Kingfisher, Beach Stone-Curlew). Some birds such as Northern Scrub Robin and Marbled Frogmouth were surprisingly easy and we got them several times on different spots. A bit tricky was YB Kingfisher which we heard almost everywhere, but which only showed once. BTW to my ears their calls are totally different from Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo which we heard about as often. The Cuckoo sounds more like a Fantail Cuckoo, the Kingfisher’s short call sounds more like that of an Ash-throated Flycatcher (in America), the Kingfisher’s long call is unique and unmistakable. We saw Trumpet Manucode only twice and heard it five or six times. There were still 9 actively calling RB Pittas, one of which showed well. In addition to the known FB Bowerbird we found a “new” one right at Lockhart River Airport. The only bird we only saw fly by were Marshall’s Fig-parrots. Herps were great. Three species of python, three species of monitors, Frilled Lizard, Boyd’s Forest Dragon (the latter not in Iron Range)… lots of Litorias and other frogs. The amphibian downside was that we saw 12 species and not 11 – but there was no way to overlook No. 12: Cane Toad. Mammals: great in the Atherton Tableland, but in Iron Range we had our big dip of the trip: we did not only dip on Gray Cuscus, but also on Spotted! Can’t believe it! This is the excuse to come back! We heard flapping sounds at night which we believe might have been hovering Bare-backed Fruitbats.
Cheers,
Nikolas
Highlights from our trip to Northern QLD, 3rd to 16th October, 2010:
Sun, 10/03 Cairnsarea to Davies & Tinaroo/Emerald Creek Mon, 10/04 Davies Creek to Artemis/Musgrave Station Tue, 10/05 Artemis/Musgrave Stationto IronRange Wed, 10/06 IronRange Thu, 10/07 IronRange Fri, 10/08 Iron Range Sat, 10/09 IronRangeto Lakefield NP Sun, 10/10 Lakefield NP Mon, 10/11 Lakefield NP to Shipton’s Flat Tue, 10/12 Shipton’s Flat Wed, 10/13 Shipton’s Flat via Daintree to Kingfisher Thu, 10/14 Kingfisher to EttyBeach Fri, 10/15 Etty Beach through Atherton Tablelands to Cairns, then to Davies/Tinaroo Creek Sat, 10/16 Davies/Tinaroo Creek to Cairns
Observers: Nikolas Haass & Raja Stephenson (Sydney), Steve Kacir (Philadelphia, USA), Chris Engelhardt & Andrea Grzywatz (Luebeck, Germany), Martin Cachard (Cairns – Sun, 10/03, Sat/Sun, 10/09-10, Fri/Sat, 10/15-16)
Birds (252 species this trip including the IronRangespecialties [resulting in our personal total of 316 for the Wet Tropics/Cape York]): Southern Cassowary (Etty Beach) – one of the top targets for our friends! All Frogmouths Black-breasted Buzzard (Lakefield NP) Red Goshawk (Lakefield NP) – one of our top targets! Displaying Sarus Cranes (Lakefield NP and Emerald Creek Road) Calling Red-necked Crakes (Kingfisher Park) Beach Stone-Curlew (Chilli Beach and Etty Beach) Little Curlew (Lockhart River Airport) – great “bonus”! Painted Buttonquail (Davies Creek Road) Marshall’s Double-eyed Fig-Parrot (Portland Roads) – my best-ever looks at this taxon! Golden-shouldered Parrot (Artemis/Musgrave) – one of our top targets! Rufous Owl (Cairns) – one of our top targets, only heard Little Kingfisher (Davies Creek) – high elevation! Yellow-billed Kingfisher (Cook’s hut and Chilli Beach) – good looks! White-gaped, Yellow-tinted, Bar-breasted, Rufous-banded, Banded and White-streaked HEs Black-backed Butcherbird (Artemis/Musgrave) – one of our top targets! Zitting Cisticola (Lakefield NP) Black-throated Finch atropygialis (Lakefield NP) Masked Finch leucotis (Lakefield NP) – only suboptimal looks Star Finch (Lakefield NP)
Mammals (22 species this trip [resulting in our personal total of 46 for the Wet Tropics/Cape York]): Platypus (Kingfisher Park and Tarzali Lakes) – one of the top targets for our friends! Northern Quoll (Davies Creek) – one of our top targets, only suboptimal looks Common Spotted Cuscus (Cook’s hut) – one of our top targets! Northern Bettong (Davies Creek) – one of our top targets! Bennett’s Tree-Kangaroo (Shipton’s Flat) – one of our top targets! Northern Nail-tail Wallaby (Lakefield NP) – one of our top targets!
Reptiles (25 species this trip [resulting in our personal total of 43 for the Wet Tropics/Cape York]): Freshwater Crocodile (Musgrave Station) – one of the top targets for our friends! Frilled Lizard (Lakefield NP) – one of the top targets for our friends! Spotted Python (Iron Range) Black-headed Python (Iron Range and Lakefield) Water Python (Iron Range) Amethystine Python (Shipton’s Flat) [this time we dipped on Green Python, after we had good numbers last summer] Brown-headed Snake (Iron Range) Eastern Taipan (Iron Range)
Amphibians (10 species this trip [resulting in our personal total of 18 for the Wet Tropics/Cape York]): Litoria bicolor, gracilenta, xanthomera and others Mixophyes coggeri Rana daemeli
Hi Sonja, I went on it some years ago with Klaus, Peter, and Gordon. They were very good at making sure that everyone got to see the local endemics , I think I got ten or twelve. But the climate was ( for me) horrendous, and so were the millions of mozzies. I have no need to but I wouldn’t go again.
Tony