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) King Brown Snake (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 Cheers,
Nikolas
