Thursday, 12 September 2019

11/09/19 - Wednesday September Outing!

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. 
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. 
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.
Kookaburra [Paul Jensen]
Rainbow Lorikeet [Paul Jensen]
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.
White breasted Sea-Eagle [Vince Lee]
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
female Golden Whistler [Vince Lee]

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