e across a very English looking garden by the creek. I peered over the fence and sure enough a Blackbird flew off a path in the garden into the trees. A bit more waiting and I saw a few more birds playing around in the bushes. On a subsequent visit a few days later, I managed great views of a male foraging in leaf litter. The embarrassment at specifically looking for this bird is that not only is it a feral, but I've advocated for their removal from SEQ a few times, so to go looking for them makes me squirm a little inside. But hey, they are here under their own steam, and can be legitimately ticked so they were bird #296.From Stanthorpe I headed out to Old Wallangara Rd for a second bite of the cherry. This area was very good to Andrew and I earlier in the year, with birds like Diamond Firetail and Hooded Robin, but I thought maybe it had a little more to give, and boy was I right! On arrival at the site I had a flurry of birds moving around the area, starting with a gro
up of Hooded Robins chasing each other from tree to powerline to fence to ground to tree again. Diamond Firetails were common and vocal, with Double-barred Finches also making an appearance. A pair of Southern Whitefaces suddenly appeared, a great new bird for the year, and they foraged for the rest of the morning in the same area, giving great views.At this point I would like to point out a rule I've followed since being a guide at Broome. That rule is always put your binoculars on a bird, even if you're sure it's one you've already looked at. Today this paid off bigtime, as I put a robin in my bins I was sure was one of the Hooded Robins, and it turned out to be a male Scarlet Robin - a very early winter migrant to the area. While I was confident of getting these in June, actually having it on the list is a relief as it's one I couldn't afford to miss. High over the fields some Wedge-tailed
Eagles cruised by, and White-plumed and Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters played in the nearby trees. Suddenly another surprise - two cuckoos started calling. The first, in clear view in the fields, was a Pallid Cuckoo - a late stayer. The second, a Fan-tailed Cuckoo that I had to go searching for, an early winter arrival. I can't say I've had these two species calling together before, but both were new for the year and finally raised my total to #300 for the year!My time at Old Wallangara Rd was over, but there was one more surprise left for the day. My goal on this weekend was quite simple: Turquoise Parrot, Squatter Pigeon, Superb Lyrebird. One easy bird (the parrot) and two very hard ones. The Squatter Pigeon had already come my way the previous day, and I'd missed the parrot in the morning when I hoped to get it, but I had all afternoon to try and track down a Lyrebird. I'd been gathering gen over the previous few months to try and
work out how I would see one on the QLD side of the border, a difficult feat most people agreed. The best advice I could get was "ask a park ranger", so armed with this intent I had lunch at the picnic grounds in Girraween and waited for the ranger station to open for the day. The news wasn't great - nothing calling, no real sites to check out. As an afterthought, I was told to check the Underground Creek track near Dr Roberts Waterhole. I figured I had an afternoon to kill so I may as well at least try. Walking through the forest I saw lots of interesting birds - Striated and Brown Thornbills were common, and New Holland and White-eared Honeyeaters were making a racket. A single call had me hunting for a possible Western Gerygone, but I couldn't find it and wasn't 100% sure that it wasn't a White-throated, so I eventually moved on.Walking along the track I reached the Underground Creek site without finding anything else of note. On the way back I noticed a section of leaf litter that had
been thoroughly worked over. Thinking that was promising for Lyrebird I hung around there for a little while. While I was waiting, I heard a Grey Shrike-Thrush calling in the distance. Except, it wasn't really doing it right, with lots of gaps between calls, and a few other things that didn't really sound quite kosher. So I thought hey, why not check, it *could* be a Lyrebird. So I walked up the little gully the call was coming from, and as I got closer, I started to hear some different calls interspersed amongst the Shrike-Thrush - Crimson Rosella, Satin Bowerbird, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo and others, all classic Lyrebird mimicry fodder. I started to get pretty excited at this point, but I was presented with a conundrum. The rules of my year say I have to see the bird, and this one was calling from dense low scrub. There was basically no way I could manage to get close without scaring the bird off. As I started on my chosen course, expecting failure, a Lyrebird ran through the undergrowth to a point just metre
s in front of me, raised its tail, and began to dance and sing. It was electric! I had seen Lyrebirds perform before, and had better views of the show (this bird was quite obscured by bushes, though I could see its tail quite clearly), but I have never been so close to a Lyrebird performing, and I could hear every little click and whirr, chirp and squeak the bird made. I sat frozen for ten minutes while the bird performed. Another male was singing nearby, and what might have been a female or another young male foraged for food nearby. The whole experience was just magical, one of those moments that stay with you forever.After it was all over I headed back to the picnic area and made my way down Junction Track hoping for a lucky sighting of Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, but no such luck. No matter, I'd made it to 300 birds for the year, knocked off a major and very difficult target, and had a memorable experience to boot! What a day!
Total birds to date: 302
Photo 1: Southern Whiteface pair, Old Wallangara Rd
Photo 2: Hooded Robin male, Old Wallangara Rd
Photo 3: Hooded Robin pair, Old Wallangara Rd
Photo 4: Scarlet Robin male, Old Wallangara Rd
Photo 5: Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, Old Wallangara Rd
Photo 6: Superb Lyrebird
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