January 14th: Superb Fruit-Dove

So today Andrew and I ducked up to Yandina, on the Sunshine Coast, to find a Superb Fruit-Dove that had been reported a few weeks back. We fortunately had some local gen (that's short for general intelligence - a military term subverted for birding use), which led us straight to the spot. Being unable to find any "good" habitat for Fruit-Doves from the car, we drove to the end of the road we were on, which was at the top of a hill. There was a huge amount of activity up there, as well as a dog that wouldn't stop barking (at 7am it serves the owners right, we weren't on their property!). Anyway, despite this we saw a good number of rainforest and woodland species, including a Dusky Honeyeater, a bird that is right at the southern edge of its range in the area, and a good get for the day, and Pale Yellow Robin, an inquisitive rainforest specialist (see photo on right). Frustratingly we had Wompoo Fruit-Doves calling from very nearby but couldn't see where they were. Not hearing any Superb Fruit-Doves calling, we headed down the hill to the creekline we had seen earlier. About halfway down the hill Andrew asked me to stop. I don't know if he just thought it looked like a good spot, or if he heard something, but when I killed the car engine, the Superb Fruit-Dove was calling loudly from nearby the car. We cautiously made our way down to the creek edge and snuck up to the tree the bird was calling from. Sadly, it was at the top of an emergent tree, so the canopy of the rainforest along the creekline blocked any views we might have had while the bird was perched. After a frustrating hour of waiting to get a view, the bird finally had enough and flew off down the creekline. Fortunately for me, I got a good(ish) view of the bird as it flew. Sadly for Andrew, he was on the other side of the tree and saw nothing. That's birding for you.

By 9:30 we decided we needed to move on, and headed over to Fairhill Nursery and Botanic Gardens. This is one of my favourite spots on the Sunshine Coast - there a great little rainforest walk (with regular sightings of Emerald Dove), lots of flowering native plants that attract honeyeaters, and possibly the best natural history book shop in Queensland, not to mention locally sourced native plants for sale in the nursery. We went to the cafe for a laid back breakfast, and were fortunate enough to have a male Koel showing well in a nearby tree, and a family of Eastern Yellow Robins playing at our feet in the garden. So cute! The photo to the right is a young bird moulting into adult plumage that took a liking to us and caught ants a metre or so from us the whole time we were there. A quick walk through the rainforest afterwards provided us with out Emerald Dove sighting for the year. After, we headed back to look for the Superb Fruit-Dove again, but with no luck. We did find a Black-faced Monarch, again new for the year.

From here we headed back to Brisbane, but made two more stops. The first was at Point Cartwright, a well-known spot for Wandering Tattler locally. Despite having found the birds there before, and it being a good place for them, I was surprised at just how easily we found a pair of Wandering Tattlers (photo on the right). They were at the rocks underneath the hill the lighthouse was on, and we basically tripped over one as we stepped off the grass and onto the rocks! We had great views and they even called for us just to make extra certain of the ID. Our second stop was a quick jaunt to Tinchi Tamba wetlands near Boondal. This is a spot that Brolga can turn up at, but sadly on this occasion we had no luck. We will no doubt check here a few more times during the year, as neither of us know a good spot for Brolga (or indeed any other spots).

So that was it for our day trip, several new year birds including a big one for me (Superb Fruit-Dove), as well as some great views of some rare birds.

Total birds to date: 184

Photo 1: Pale Yellow Robin, Yandina
Photo 2: Eastern Yellow Robin, Fairhill Botanic Gardens
Photo 3: Wandering Tattler, Pt. Cartwright