Hi Tom, Where were your listening posts set up? Depending on habitat, my guess is that Painted Buttonquail would be your most likely candidate. During a couple of weeks surveying the southern part of North Stradbroke a couple of years ago, I regularly came across Painted Buttonquail, particularly in the more mature areas of eucalypt woodland (mostly E. racemosa, with a sparse shrubby understorey, and plenty of leaf litter). I also came across them once in an area being revegetated, although it was an area that had been revegetated relatively recently (i.e with a mix of species rather than some of the older reveg areas which are some sort of acacia monoculture I think). I’ve been back over there a couple of times this year, and it looks like large areas of suitable habitat would have copped it in the fires around New Year. Like Martin, I have also wondered if there are Black-breasted Buttonquail on Straddie. There are a few pockets of what look to be suitable habitat – coastal thicket – on the western side of the island. You drive past some of it near Myora on the way from Dunwich to Amity/Point Lookout, but I’ve never been in there to have a look for them. I don’t know if there are any other suitable areas on the island, but there could be. Incidentally, I’ve also wondered if there are Ground Parrots out there anywhere – there looks to a few areas of suitable habitat. Does anyone else know? Hope this helps! Good birding Nick _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Hi Nick and Tom, From ALA database and our own internal CSIRO database there are only records of Painted BQ from Stradbroke Is. This fits my experience too, not from Straddie, but from nearby Manly West to Redlands to Logan and Coomera Rivers, where I’ve only seen and heard Painted BQs. In any case calls should readily distinguish Painted from Little BQ (one low-accuracy record from the ocean off Point Lookout) and BBBQ. From the Bayside (roughly speaking) of Brisbane there are ~200 BQ records of which ~140 are Painted BQ. Within this 200 there are also Red-backed and Red-chested BQs. There’s certainly lots of good country on Straddie for Red-backs BQs and I reckon their calls can be hard to pick from Painted BQ. For Ground parrots, there are no records between Caloundra (1973, I suspect of low spatial accuracy) and a couple of records near Lennox Heads. Hooroo, Eric Vanderduys Technical Officer CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences Phone: +61 7 4753 8529 | Fax: +61 7 4753 8600 | Mobile: 0437 330 961 eric.vanderduys@csiro.au | http://www.csiro.au | http://www.csiro.au/people/Eric.Vanderduys.html Address: CSIRO, PMB PO, Aitkenvale, Qld 4814. Deliveries: CSIRO, ATSIP, Bld 145 James Cook Drive, James Cook University Douglas Campus, Townsville Qld 4814, AUSTRALIA —–Original Message—– Sent: Monday, 3 February 2014 9:19 PM Hi Tom, Where were your listening posts set up? Depending on habitat, my guess is that Painted Buttonquail would be your most likely candidate. During a couple of weeks surveying the southern part of North Stradbroke a couple of years ago, I regularly came across Painted Buttonquail, particularly in the more mature areas of eucalypt woodland (mostly E. racemosa, with a sparse shrubby understorey, and plenty of leaf litter). I also came across them once in an area being revegetated, although it was an area that had been revegetated relatively recently (i.e with a mix of species rather than some of the older reveg areas which are some sort of acacia monoculture I think). I’ve been back over there a couple of times this year, and it looks like large areas of suitable habitat would have copped it in the fires around New Year. Like Martin, I have also wondered if there are Black-breasted Buttonquail on Straddie. There are a few pockets of what look to be suitable habitat – coastal thicket – on the western side of the island. You drive past some of it near Myora on the way from Dunwich to Amity/Point Lookout, but I’ve never been in there to have a look for them. I don’t know if there are any other suitable areas on the island, but there could be. Incidentally, I’ve also wondered if there are Ground Parrots out there anywhere – there looks to a few areas of suitable habitat. Does anyone else know? Hope this helps! Good birding Nick _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org