Hi all,
Just back from a very pleasant family trip up to Far North Queensland which included 10 days at Wongaling Beach and a few days at Townsville.
Birding in the rainforest areas was a little slower than I have experienced up there in recent years, perhaps attributable to the unseasonal higher rainfall over the past couple of months. Nonetheless, I managed a pretty good list of the usual suspects in the rainforest and some really good birds offshore. Also many butterfly spp and several snakes & reptiles (including a couple of Green Turtles).
1. Rainforest around Mission Beach As mentioned, the birding was slow. The forest looks really good however with the extra rain, although the mozzies (thousands), leaches and March Flies made conditions a tad unpleasant! I also dipped on Cassowary this year despite lots of walking on the tracks around Mission Beach. Highlights were Superb, Rose-crowned and Wompoo Fruit-Dove, Noisy Pitta, Red-necked Crake, Spectacled Monarch, Cicadabird, Yellow-breasted Boatbill, Pale-yellow Robin and Chowchilla.
2. Frankland Islands Group Did a day trip out to the Frankland Islands with the family. This is a small Island group about 30km NE of Babinda, the main destination being Normanby Island. Apart from a great day snorkelling with the kids, this was an excellent trip bird-wise with several unexpected sightings. A deep low pressure trough was stationed right on the coast the day we went out, and although the conditions were fine out to sea, there had been steady rain falling on the coast for several days. This weather pattern possibly contributed to higher numbers of seabird closer to shore than normal. Sea was slight inshore, rising to around a 2m swell further out. Highlights were a single Masked Booby (seen diving for fish at Normanby Island), a single Black Noddy (also at Normanby Island), several Bridled Tern (pelagic), Lesser Frigatebird (pelagic) and several Brown Booby (pelagic). On the island itself I also recorded Varied Honeyeater, Beach Stone-curlew, Sooty Oystercatcher, Grey-tailed Tattler, Whimbrel, Lesser Sand Plover, Buff-banded Rail and Osprey. I also had a Black-naped Tern on a boat trip out to Dunk Island a day later.
3. Townsville Common The Common has some good birding and I spent a few hours checking out all the usual haunts there. Highlights were Channel-billed Cuckoo, White-gaped, White-throated and Rufous-throated Honeyeater, Leaden Flycatcher, Brush Cuckoo, Red-backed Fairy-wren, Double-barred Finch, Eastern Koel and many others. Also a spectacular (and noisy!) sight of hundreds of honking Magpie Geese.
All in all, a fabulous family holiday destination with the usual excellent birding (especially for a frozen Victorian in desperate need of some warmth)… Full Trip List below,
Cheers, Greg
Australian Brush-turkey – Townsville Common Orange-footed Scrubfowl – Lacey Creek Magpie Goose – Hundreds, Townsville Common Grey Teal Pacific Black Duck Rock Dove – Townsville Spotted Dove – Mission Beach Brown Cuckoo-Dove – Tam’ O Shanter NP Emerald Dove – Tam’ O Shanter NP Peaceful Dove Bar-shouldered Dove Wompoo Fruit-Dove – Lacey Creek Superb Fruit-Dove – Tam’ O Shanter NP Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove – Tam’ O Shanter NP Pied Imperial-Pigeon Topknot Pigeon – Tam’ O Shanter NP Large-tailed Nightjar – Near Silkwood Australian Swiftlet – Mission Beach Lesser Frigatebird – Single, Pelagic – Frankland Islands Masked Booby – Single, Frankland Islands Brown Booby – Several, Frankland Islands Little Pied Cormorant Great Cormorant Little Black Cormorant Pied Cormorant Australian Pelican Black-necked Stork – Pair, Wongaling Beach Eastern Great Egret – Wongaling Beach Intermediate Egret – Townsville Common Cattle Egret – Common in pastures Striated Heron – Normanby Island Little Egret – Wongaling Beach Eastern Reef Egret – Normanby Island Australian White Ibis Straw-necked Ibis Royal Spoonbill – Townsville Common Eastern Osprey – Normanby Island Black-shouldered Kite White-bellied Sea-Eagle – Wongaling Beach Whistling Kite Brahminy Kite Black Kite Nankeen Kestrel Brown Falcon Brolga – Townsville Common Red-necked Crake – Mission Beach Buff-banded Rail – Normanby Island Bush Stone-curlew – Common around Mission Beach Beach Stone-curlew – Normanby Island, Wongaling Beach Sooty Oystercatcher – Normanby Island Lesser Sand Plover – Normanby Island Masked Lapwing Whimbrel – Normanby Island Grey-tailed Tattler – Normanby Island Black Noddy – Single bird, Normanby Island Bridled Tern – Several, pelagic – Normanby Island area Gull-billed Tern – Townsville Common Black-naped Tern – Single bird, pelagic out from Dunk Is Lesser Crested Tern – Normanby Island Crested Tern – Common Silver Gull Galah – Townsville Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Rainbow Lorikeet Scaly-breasted Lorikeet – Townsville Double-eyed Fig-Parrot – Small flock, Wongaling Beach Pheasant Coucal – Townsville Common Eastern Koel – Townsville Channel-billed Cuckoo – Townsville Common Little Bronze-Cuckoo Brush Cuckoo – Common, rainforest around Mission Beach Azure Kingfisher Laughing Kookaburra Blue-winged Kookaburra – Townsville Common Forest Kingfisher Sacred Kingfisher Rainbow Bee-eater Noisy Pitta – Lacey Creek Spotted Catbird – Rainforest around Mission Beach Great Bowerbird – Townsville Red-backed Fairy-wren – Townsville Common Yellow-throated Scrubwren – Tam’ O Shanter NP Large-billed Gerygone – Babinda Fairy Gerygone – Wongaling Beach Yellow-spotted Honeyeater Graceful Honeyeater Varied Honeyeater – Normanby Island White-gaped Honeyeater – Townsville Common Yellow Honeyeater – Townsville Common Brown-backed Honeyeater – Common Rufous-throated Honeyeater – Townsville Common Dusky Honeyeater – Common Brown Honeyeater White-throated Honeyeater – Townsville Common Blue-faced Honeyeater – Townsville Helmeted Friarbird – Wongaling Beach Noisy Friarbird – Townsville Common Little Friarbird – Townsville Common Macleay’s Honeyeater – Common, Rainforest Mission Beach Chowchilla – Tam ‘O Shanter NP Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike – Townsville Common White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike – Townsville Common Cicadabird – Wongaling Beach area Varied Triller Grey Whistler – Rainforest, Tam O’Shanter NP Little Shrike-thrush – Rainforest, Tam O’Shanter NP Australasian Figbird Yellow Oriole White-breasted Woodswallow Black Butcherbird Australian Magpie Spangled Drongo Rufous Fantail Willie Wagtail Torresian Crow Leaden Flycatcher – Townsville Common Spectacled Monarch – Tam ‘O Shanter NP Magpie-lark Yellow-breasted Boatbill – Tam ‘O Shanter NP Pale-yellow Robin – Tam ‘O Shanter NP Horsfield’s Bushlark – Townsville Common Golden-headed Cisticola – Townsville Common Silvereye Welcome Swallow Fairy Martin – Townsville Common Metallic Starling Common Myna – I Mistletoebird Olive-backed Sunbird Double-barred Finch – Townsville Common Nutmeg Mannikin – Townsville Common, Babinda, Mission Beach Chestnut-breasted Mannikin – Babinda House Sparrow – Townsville Common Australasian Pipit
134 spp ===============================
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