VISITED SITES

Below is a list of the sites we birded. The Complete Guide to Finding the Birds of Australia by Thomas and Thomas proved to be a very useful source of information on most of the birding sites. In the files of birding-aus mailing list we found a lot useful information for specific sites and species.

Kiama
Since the only scheduled pelagic trip did not fit in our itinerary (due to bad timing) we spent a few hours seawatching from the Kiama headlands. We picked up 3 species of Albatrosses: Black-browed, Atlantic Yellow-nosed and Wandering.

Barren Grounds
A well-known but cold birding site near Wollongong. We heard a few Ground Parrots in the heathland on the first track to the right past the car park but were frustratingly unable to see them. Close to that same car park we had a few satisfying encounters with the rather skulking Eastern Bristelbirds. They eventually hopped in front of us on the main track. Beautiful Firetail was seen on both days along the track to the Illawara Lookout. Near the Wardens House we heard our only and very shy Pilotbird.

Prospect Reservoir
Reportedly there were some Swift Parrots around which we couldn't find on a stop en route. The reservoir is situated in the greater Sydney area, just south-east of the M7-M4 junction.

Blue Mountains
The famous Blue Mountains can be found about 100 Km to the West of Sydney. Since the Pierces Pass was closed to public (due to a bushfire) we missed both the sough after Pilotbird and Rock Warbler. We tried our luck without success in the nearby Echo Point and Three Sisters area. At dusk we easily found a cooperative Lesser Sooty-Owl in the touristic Jenolan Cavesat.

Capertee Valley
The star bird for this site is definitely the Regent Honeyeater which is very variable in appearance due to their dependence on flowering yellow box eucalyptus. Normally they start to arrive in October so we sadly missed them. Plum-headed Finches on the other hand were easy to find among the other finch-like birds. The area near the Glen Davis Cemetery held a few Diamond Firetails. Near the campsite of Glen Alice we saw a few Diamond Firetails. On the way into the valley we saw Hooded, Flame and Scarlet Robin.

Dharug NP
A short visit to this national park produced a very cooperative Rock Warbler at about 1 km along the Old North Road. A short stop near the picnic site was good for 3 Glossy Black-Cockatoos.

Dorrigo NP
The main reason for a stop at this less known park was the future split of ssp boreus from Forest Raven (Relict Raven). We kept scanning all corvids until we had one convincing Forest near the entrance of the park. A short stroll in the forest itself was amusing.

Sundown NP
Since we still missed Speckled Warbler we did a small detour to this park where it didn't take long before we had a few of these nice birds right behind the end of the parking lot. On the campgrounds a flock of Turquoise Parrots was more than welcome since the Capertee birds were didn't show too good.

Lamington NP
It might have been due to the less suitable period, but this park was a lot of hard working for few birds. Regent and Satin Bowerbirds were too easy at the bird feeders. We had an extremely skulking Rufous Scrub-bird in the thick undergrowth along the ridge path not too far from the Wanungara Lookout. Albert's Lyrebirds were encountered occasionally mostly along the Border Track. Among the more common Olive-tailed Thrushes we were able to pick out Russet-tailed Thrush on two occasions. Night birding was far from productive with only Southern Boobook, Australian Owlet-Nightjar and Marbled Frogmouth.

Brisbane area
Birding the Brisbane area felt a bit like a multiple twitch. An early morning walk in the mangroves near Wynnum easily produced our only target: Mangrove Gerygone. We continued to the Sherwood Forest Park where we eventually taped out the reported couple Spotless Crake. The JC SLaughter Falls area was good for the resident pair of Powerful Owls. 2 adults and two chicks were seen roosting in their favorite trees. When coming from the car park you go straight till the open grassy area. There you go right on a smaller trail untill you see an obvious platform. Search in the trees in the gully only just past that platform.

Dayboro - Samsonvale area
In the Dayboro area we were showed around by resident birder Tom Tarrant. A long staying female Red-backed Kingfisher was seen near Samsonvale, a pair Tawny Frogmouths gave daylight views in the trees on the parking of the local cemetery, White-eared Monarchs were picked up near Dayboro, our only Striped Honeyeater for the trip was scored literally at tea time from the balcony of Tom's house, etc... Easy birding!

Mt Mee
Since three of us missed out on the the Spotted Quail-Thrush we decided to give it a last try. After a bit of taping one bird responded and showed itself very well and so we left the area without more birding...

Mt Glorious
Strange enough we had missed the Paradise Riflebird at all previous good spots. And so we did in this area. A Regent Bowerbird was the only bird worth mentioning.

Conondale NP
Not wanting to gave up on the Riflebird lead us to a last and desperate attempt in the Conondale NP. The very first bird we saw when we drove up the first parking lot was a tame and beautiful male Paradise Riflebird that flew right in front of our car and started climbing up the trees on the car park. No idea how the park itself looked like...

Inskipp Point & Noosa Plains
Coming directly from the Riflebird in Conondale we arrived late afternoon and went straight to the well-kwown Noosa Plains where we flushed a Ground Parrot within 5 minutes. It was on the right hand side of the well-known jeep track off Cooloola Way in a dry area with relative short grass about 200m before the track makes an obvious bend. A stunning Black-breasted Buttonquail was seen shortly after we started to wander around in the scrub right behind the very last car park on Inskipp Point at dawn the next morning. A few Mangroves Honeyeater and the fairly common Brush Wattlebird were seen in the same area, while a Beach Thick-knee was seen on the beach.

Port Alma
We inserted a very quick stop en route to see the localized Yellow Chat. Take the A1 up to Banjool (40 km south of Rockhampton) where there is a sign-posted turnf-off to Port Alma. About 500m before the only big salt factory on the left start checking the barbed wires and drain vegetation. We had about 10 birds between poles 31316 and 31318.

Eungella NP
Near the gate at the end of Chelman's Road we immediately found a single Eungella Honeyeater foraging at the forest edge.

Mt Spec & Paluma
The rainforest in this area holds some nice tablelands endemics. Both the ground-dwelling Chowchilla and Fernwren were found along the McClelland Lookout Trail (???). The famous Ivy Tea Cottage feeders in Paluma were closed down but there are some new ones at the tavern opposite the car park near Witt's Trail. These attracted several Riflebirds, Catbirds and Honeyeaters, but these can be readily seen in the forest as well.

Mission Beach
Southern Cassowary! There were plenty of warning sings. Our only bird of the trip was seen crossing the jeep track that leads to the Licuala State Park. Enigmatic!

Atherton Tablelands
We camped at Kingfisher Park which was the base for exploring the tablelands. In the garden a nice pair of roosting Papuan Frogmouths was seen. In the trees in the nearby public Geragthy Park we had a family of 3 Australian Masked-Owls. A nice group of 6 Blue-faced Parrotfinches was seen along the first forested part of the track opposite the Sides Road, which is Just before Abattoir Swamp (coming from KP). Near Yungaburra we were able tot spotlight a Greater Sooty-Owl. On Mt Molloy we did a bit of raptor watching from a peak and were soon rewarded with a sublime Square-tailed Kite. Mt Lewis held the most species we were after. After a 10km drive up the mountain we reached a park fence and parked the car. The walk to the dam was good for several Fernwrens, Chowchillas, several groups of Mountain Thornbills and Atherthon Scrubwrens and strangely the very only Bower's Shrike-Thrush of the trip. A Tooth-billed Catbird was only the second after one we had before near Lake Eacham. Along the Tinaroo Creek Road we found some Squatter Pigeons without difficulties. At the Emerald Creek Falls we birded around the parking lot and had 2 White-browed Robins and an sought-after Rufous Owl. We visited several lakes (and ponds on which we saw a variety of ducks and other waterbirds, but none too exciting ones. On the way up to Cape York we made a quick stop at the bridge over the McLeod River and soon found 3 White-gaped Honeyeaters.

Musgrave area
Laying in the southern part of Cape York Musgrave is an easily reachable and reliable spot for the endemic and endangered Golden-shouldered Parrot. A flock of 28 birds was seen feeding along the main road, a few km past the turn-off to the Artemis station. About 1km before the obvious bend in the otherwise straight road was a gate were they fed on the surrounding flowering trees. A breeding pair of Red Goshawks was an unexpected bonus! 18 km on the road from Musgrave into Lakefield NP a road forks off left to Lilly Vale. Take left and from here around 1 km further the nest can be seen right above the road. We also had our only Red-browed Pardalote over here. Black-backed Butcherbird is not uncommon from here onwards. At the Lotus Bird Lodge (between Musgrave and Lakefield NP) we did some relaxed birding and saw 2 roosting Papuan Frogmouths, Green Pygmy-Goose

Iron Range NP
High up on the peninsula Iron Range holds a few species which are more typical for the Papuan region. We experienced little difficulties getting there but it all depends on the weather conditions. Most of the goodies can be seen in the park between Cook's Hut and Rainforest Camp. The best bird we had was the endemic Frill-necked Monarch. We only saw one Trumpet Manucode which proved to be harder to find than the Magnificent Riflebirds. Palm Cockatoots were seen daily, most of them just outside the forest. Double-eyed Fig-Parrot, Red-cheeked and Eclectus fly around all the time. Early morning Yellow-billed Kingfishers were calling and are fairly easy to tape in. A Northern Scrub-Robin was taped in at the first suitable spot. In the same area we taped in a nice Marbled Frogmouth, but owls seemed rather unresponding. We only saw one Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo. Green-breasted Honeyeater, Pale-yellow Robin, Yellow-legged Flycatcher and Tropical Scrubwren were seen in small numbers around Cook's Hut. The Fawn-breasted Bowerbird was seen on a few occasions in the dry woodland outside the park. The endemic White-streaked Honeyeaters were encountered near the first larger creek just past the turn-off to Frenchman's Road, coming out of the park. Tawny-breasted Honeyeater was more confined to forested gullies outside the park. In the mangrove area near Portland Roads we taped in a Mangrove Robin and saw some Varied Honeyeaters as well. A nice Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove was our first and only for the trip.

Lakefield NP
On the way back to Cooktown we drove through this park to pick up some species we missed earlier. We explored some mangroves near Annie's Creek and easily found some Red-headed Honeyeaters. Inside the park itself we bumped into our only 3 Emus for the trip. The park produced a lot of Finches: Crimson (near Kennedy River) and Masked were seen in small numbers, while Star and Black-throated were encountered in bigger numbers. It took a lot of searching before we found a Black-breasted Kite. Spotlighting at dusk on the Nifold Plains resulted in several very cooperative Australasian Grass-Owls and a blinded Red-chested Buttonquail. Spotlighting the woodland area revealed 2 Tawny Frogmouths.

Cooktown area
We did a bit of unscheduled early morning birding around Cooktown hoping for an unexpected bird to show up but we saw nothing worthy of mention.

Kuranda area
As we had some time left we tried to get better views of a Cassowary. We arrived just too late to see a female with chicks wandering around on the premises of the Cassowary House. Along the Black Mountain Road we were surprised to find a flock of foraging Blue-faced Parrotfinches.

Cairns area
Like in the Brisbane area we did some easy birding and went to many spots for particular species. A Sooty Oystercatcher was eventually found on the rocky beaches near the Pine Creek Yarrabah Road on the other side of the bay. At the Centenary Lakes near the botanical garden we saw 2 Little Kingfishers and spent a lot of time to get a glimpse of the sporadically calling Red-necked Crake. The well-known esplanade held a lot of waders of which a Beach Thick-knee was the best. An overflying Gray Goshawk was only our second bird fro the trip and thus a nice bonus.