Thornbills and Bluebonnets

One of the things I need to do this year to achieve my goal of 350 species is to get out to some of the peripheral areas in my region. This includes a place called Lake Broadwater, a wonderful reserve south-west of Dalby. I planned to head out there with a number of local birders, armed to the teeth with scopes to look for waterbirds at the lake. Sadly, unlike every other waterbody in south-east QLD, Lake Broadwater is bone dry, and several of the target species we were planning to see on the long trip out there were impossible. Despite this disappointment, we did manage to see quite a few great birds on the day.

We started out with a couple of lazy year ticks on the drive through the Lockyer Valley, with a flock of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos (#275) perched by the highway, and a Spotted Harrier (#276) cruising slowly over grasslands as we whizzed past. Stopping for some fuel at Dalby gave us Yellow-throated Miners (#277), another easy (but expected) year bird, as well as being our first of many honeyeaters for the day.

When we reached Lake Broadwater, a quick stop at the lake itself confirmed the futility of trying for waterbirds - there was only a tiny little bit of water left at the boat ramp and the rest of the lake was just gone. So without wasting any time we headed down to the belah and cyprus forest south of the lake to look for our target dry country species. Within a minute of stopping we had Yellow Thornbill (#278) and Inland Thornbill (#279), and these two species were possibly the most abundant birds for the day. A Red-capped Robin (#280) male flitted over the track, giving us our next target for the day. This was the first of quite a few Red-caps for the day, with at least eight pairs being seen during the day, sometimes associating with Eastern Yellow Robins. The circuit walk produced some great bush birds as well as some surprises. A frustrating encounted with a bird that looked like it might have been a Western Gerygone led us to a feeding flock of birds, including Brown and Scarlet Honeyeaters. Further down the track we had a very young Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo being frantically fed by Yellow Thornbills, with Rufous Whistlers and Grey Shrike-Thrush calling loudly from the area.

Our group got split up for a little while as some of us chased butterflies and others pressed on down the track. While I was split from the group, I found a White-eared Honeyeater moving through the trees, our only one for the day. Getting back to the others, we found out they had seen a Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater (#281), a difficult bird in SEQ and one I wasn't sure where to look for. I spent a frustrating few minutes looking for it, before one of the others called me from further up the track and pointed another one out in a clump of mistletoe. Our next wave of birds was all small birds, an amazing cluster made up of Speckled Warblers, Weebills, and Yellow-rumped, Yellow, and Inland Thornbills. Then someone saw our last target bird for the day, a Chestnut-rumped Thornbill (#282), somewhere in the flurry. Somehow, everyone but me managed to see this first bird, and I was left to trudge around dejectedly checking all the little birds in the area with no luck. Fortunately, someone came to my rescue again, and found a little flock of them moving through the bush about 100m from where we started looking. Feeling like a bit of a chump, but very grateful to see this difficult SEQ bird, I hurried over and got great views. All the karma I got for seeing the Black Cockatoos at 100km/h from the car was surely used up by now.

A quick stop back at the lake to eat lunch meant I had a chance to wander through the long grass trying to flush quail or button-quail. Sadly, this produced nothing except a few Singing Bushlarks, a bird we had at Coolmunda Dam earlier in the year, so after this we moved on to the Jandowae area. On our way we had a great encounter. Driving through an area of particularly lush grassland we saw a couple of small brown things scurry across the road. Screeching to a halt, we piled out of the car looking for what had to be a quail of some kind. Sure enough, we flushed a beautiful Stubble Quail from the grass, and then another. I had some more great views of this bird in flight. I was jealous when a few minutes later, Laurie and Andy managed to see one on the ground wandering through the grass, but it was a new species for both of them so I was also very happy for them.

Jandowae is famous in this region as being the home of Painted Honeyeater, a long-shot bird on the day, but one that we have to get this year to reach our target. While there is very little woodland left in the region, the back roads near Jandowae have some remnant Brigalow forest running along the roadside reserves, in some cases heavily loaded with mistletoe. It is the mistletoe that attracts the Painted Honeyeaters, along with some rarer birds such as Black Honeyeater having been seen occasionally. However, on this trip, it wasn't the right time of year for such things, and it was more of an exploration as neither Andrew nor I had been out here before and we wanted to get our bearings. It did produce a couple of new birds for the year, with White-winged Chough (#283) finally putting on an appearance after being strangely absent til now, and Singing Honeyeater (#284) being fairly common in the area. We also lucked onto a small flock of Zebra Finches (#285) which was great, though we would have got these in the Lockyer Valley had we needed to. Our final new bird for the day was found as we were driving home in the late afternoon, with many parrots flying around the road, including Pale-headed Rosellas and Red-rumped Parrots. In amongst these, we found a pair of Bluebonnets (#286) that flushed off the road, and we managed to get some great views for Andy, who hadn't seen them before.

In all it was a great day with 12 new species for me and 11 for Andrew (the Spotted Harrier was one he'd already seen). While the day didn't go remotely as planned, we still got a lot of dry country specialties that we had to get at Broadwater, and we managed to scout out where to go in Jandowae for later in the year.

Total birds to date: 286

Photo 1: Grey Fantail, Lake Broadwater
Photo 2: Satin Azure, Lake Broadwater
Photo 3: Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Jandowae
Photo 4: Singing Honeyeater, Jandowae

January 19th: White-eared Monarch; Spotted Quail-Thrush

I couldn't choose just one bird for this blog entry, because both of the birds listed in the title were fantastic, and I was very happy to find them. A friend of mine from Broome was in town and wanted to go out birding, so Andrew and I planned a day out in the Samsonvale/Mt Glorious area. We started the day at Lacey's Creek, about 20km north of Dayboro. It's a great little area, with a creekline at the bottom of the hills and a dirt road leading up to a great little rainforest area. On the way up the hill is woodland, and as we drove up through it, we flushed a Spotted Quail-Thrush from the road. The bird was a male and seemed to be by itself. With a bit of patience we managed to get fantastic views of the bird at the top of the ridge by the track before losing it when it came back down and crossed the road again. Spotted Quail-Thrush probably aren't that rare in the right habitat near Brisbane, however they are extremely shy and any day you see one is a good day.


We got to the rainforest at the top quite early, and were fairly disappointed with the amount of activity going on. I think it was quiet because the spot we were in was on the west side of the mountain, so hadn't received any sunlight yet. Nonetheless, we managed Brush Cuckoo and Striated Thornbill for the year in the eucalypt woodland past the rainforest area. Coming back to the car from the woodland, we heard a call none of us could place immediately, in the undergrowth on the side of the track. Some careful looks and an epiphany from Andrew led to us seeing a family of Noisy Pitta moving through the forest on the downhill slope from the road. Andrew's epiphany was that the call sounded a lot like Black-and-Crimson Pitta from Borneo; a bird we had seen and heard just a few months ago. A flurry of butterfly species made the rest of the walk interesting, and just as we were about to reach the car we flushed a White-eared Monarch from the side of the track. This is a fantastic bird for SEQ, though easy to see if you put in enough effort. The first bird we saw gave great views at the top of a Hoop Pine by the track before flying off. Closer to the car still, another pair of the monarchs flew overhead. Between the White-eared Monarch and the Spotted Quail-Thrush it had already been a great day - two more semi-difficult birds off the list early in the year.

Our birding was far from over though. Our next stop paid a visit to the Azure Kingfisher spot I photographed two juveniles fighting at a few weeks back. Sure enough, an adult-plumaged Azure Kingfisher was sitting right near the bridge over the creek, in the near-exact same spot. A quick and unsuccessful poke around the Dayboro area for Oriental Cuckoo and we moved on to Gold Scrubb Rd. Bird-wise, the site was fairly disappointing, though we did add Great Cormorant to the year list, and a few woodland species to the day list. Notable sightings here were a Purple Crow butterfly and a juvenile Eastern Brown Snake.

Our morning of birding over, we headed into Samford for lunch at the Buzz Stop Cafe, across the road from the pub. It's run by a friend of Andrew's and the food was excellent. Next time I'll try the coffee too. Once lunch was over, we made our way up the hill to Mt Glorious for some more rainforest birding. New Holland Honeyeater was predictably hanging around near the cafe at the top, an easy spot for a bird that is at the far north of its range. It was also bird #200 for the year. Maiala, just past Mt Glorious, is an old stomping ground of mine, being the first place I saw many of the rainforest birds that are common around Brisbane. It is them most reliable site for Russet-tailed Thrush in the region, and it didn't disappoint on this occasion either. Early on we missed it at the easy parts of the track, however about halfway around the circuit I spied a bird in the canopy of the rainforest, ducking into an enormous Crow's Nest Fern. Putting my bins on the bird the last thing I expected was a ground-dwelling rainforest floor specialist, but sure enough the stripey face of a Russet-tailed Thrush was poking out from behind a frond. I suspect that it has a nest in the fern, as I can think of no other reason it would be 30m off the ground. We also saw a Regent Bowerbird male flying along the trail, and a male Satin Bowerbird, dancing and singing to court a female. Logrunner was the last of the year ticks we saw at Maiala, and we moved on to our next stop, Boombana.

On the way we stopped and finally saw Bell Miners, a species we had heard a number of times already but not bothered to track down until now. At Boombana itself, we got extremely lucky and saw a flock of Barred Cuckoo-Shrikes moving through the canopy near the picnic ground. This is another uncommon species in the region and I've very glad we caught up with them early. Bellbird Grove was a short hop down the road, and we stopped briefly to look for Buff-rumped Thornbill, a bird we found quite easily off to the side of the road. While we were looking for them, we also disturbed a female Spotted Quail-Thrush, making it our second sighting of the species that day.

Our final stop for the day was JC Slaughter Falls at Mt Coot-tha. We got there on dusk to look for White-throated Nightjar, and we weren't disappointed. Not only did we get some nice low passes over the clearing we were standing in, but the bird actually landed in a dead tree by the nearby water, affording the best views I've ever had of this species. It was a great way to finish off a great day's birding, with some amazing birds and good company.

Total birds to date: 210

Photo 1: Spotted Quail-Thrush at Lacey's Creek
Photo 2: Channel-billed Cuckoo at Lacey's Creek
Photo 3: White-throated Nightjar flying at JC Slaughter Falls
Photo 4: White-throated Nightjar perching at JC Slaughter Falls