Cooloola Visit

For those who are thinking of visiting the Cooloola area to look for Ground Parrot at the T&T site, think again – there’s good news and bad. Around 4:00pm on Tuesday, Meg and I turned our car into the Cooloola Way road entry (16 km west of Rainbow Beach) – only to find 2 large signs saying “Road Closed”. There was indications that cars had recently been along it. However, wanting to do the right thing, we parked and walked a little way along – didn’t hear any parrots, owls or quail. Yesterday, we rang the Gympie Council and found that yes, the road was officially closed, but it actually was open for 3 kilometres where a huge locked gate and dirt mounds were in place to stop all traffic. We were allowed to go that far. So, we returned there again and at the 2.9km mark, we turned left (east) onto the track and drove down along it for the required 1.7km distance. We had been there about 2 years ago. However, the big change now is – within the last week, the entire southern side of the road, for as far as you could see, has had a really ‘hot’ burn go through and now it is bare, blackened soil with a couple of twigs sticking up. We did walk all around that whole area but few birds were seen and none of the targets were heard. Very disheartening. The northern flora is still intact. We stayed there for an hour and a half, past dusk and early evening, but no luck at all. Brian & Meg Johnson _______________________________________________ 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