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| Eastern Yellow Robin [Vince Lee] |
Eleven keen birders of various ages
turned-up to explore the Hamilton Rd section of Noosa Trail 7, in somewhat
unexpected chilly conditions. We welcomed some visitors as well from the Noosa
Bird Observers group, checking-out more of their local environment.
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| male Scarlet Honeyeater [Vince Lee] |
Birding
commenced where we parked the cars as there were a profusion of
bottlebrush, grevillia and melaluca trees in full and spectacular blossom,
attracting a variety of nectar-feeding birds. Literally dozens of Scarlet
Honeyeaters swarmed through the blossom allowing the many photographers easy
shots of this often difficult to photograph species. Smaller numbers of Little
Wattlebird, White-cheeked Honeyeaters, Noisy Friarbird and Lewin's Honeyeater
joined in the feeding frenzy. Starting down the trail we then took our usual
detour into Liane Bushland Reserve where Eastern Yellow Robin Robin,
Large-billed Scrubwren and Golden Whistler were constantly calling and on the
move.
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| Golden Whistler [Vince Lee] |
Our sharp-eyed young visitor Spencer found us a Crested Shrike-tit high
up in a Spotted Gum and we were fortunate that it descended to enable better
views and photos. A second bird was later seen some distance away. This site is
usually good for various pigeons and fruit-doves but today we could only
locate a Brown Cuckoo-Dove, and hear Bar-shouldered and Peaceful Doves in the
distance. A couple of folk spied a single Varied Sitella, always fun to watch,
and a new addition to this site's list.
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| Kookaburra [Paul Jensen] |
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| Rainbow Lorikeet [Paul Jensen] |
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| Variegated Fairy Wrens [Vince Lee] |
Back onto the main track we spied White-bellied Sea-Eagle soaring overhead, an
adult and later an immature bird. Small parties of Little Corella and
Sulphur-crested Cockatoos were also overhead, but unusually we saw no
Yellow-tailed Blacks on the day. A couple of families of Variegated Fairy-wren
and Red-browed Finch darted in and out of the trackside grass as we headed to
our end-point, the bridge of a branch of 6 Mile Creek. We noted some severe
erosion on the eastern bank with a number of trees having fallen into the creek
beside the bridge. One birder heard a Logrunner call but we were unable to
locate it. The habitat here is very suitable for Logrunner but this was the
first record at the site.
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| White breasted Sea-Eagle [Vince Lee] |
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| Rufous Whistler [Vince Lee] |
Morning tea
was had back at Lake Macdonald where bird call revealed we had seen or heard 59
species on our morning walk. Most of the group then moved to Jabiru Park for a
further hour's birding where the highlight was a large raft of Australasian
Grebe. Water levels remain high and there's a fair amount of aquatic vegetation
about so species numbers were down.We tallied-up 27 species before calling it a
day around noon.
Russ Lamb
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female Golden Whistler [Vince Lee]
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