Sunshine Coast Birdlife Australia Blog : IPSWICH WEEKEND AWAY

Ground Cuckoo Shrike - not on the ground

The Ipswich area generally and Ipswich specifically does not feature on most folk’s travel itineraries. However it was here that we visited for the purpose of birding for the weekend of the 7 and 8 March 2020. And I, for one, am glad we did.

A good mate of mine, Dr Mike Mathieson, who happens to be a zoologist and a botanist plus a damn fine birder agreed to show us around some of the birding sites in his [extended] patch.

The plan was simple. Saturday would be spent, more or less, south and south west of Ipswich in the Scenic Rim area, while Sunday would take us to Gatton and Lockyer Valley for the morning before a trip back home via one birding spot in eastern Brisbane; Sandy Camp Road.With this plan we managed to record some 139 species for the weekend. [Day 1 Ipswich, Boonah, Mt French NP, Cunningham Gap (117 birds) Day 2 Gatton, Lockyer Valley (86 birds) and Day 2 Sandy Camp Rd Wetlands (16 birds)]

Black chinned Honeyeater

Saturday took us first to a little bushy patch on Raysourse Road. This place, I think it is fair to say, does not look much like a birding Mecca but it certainly provided the goods. Almost the first birds seen were a few Brown headed Honeyeaters and Black chinned Honeyeater – both uncommon birds at the best of times and certainly not common this far east. It was accompanied by a another 50 + species including Square tailed Kite, a great flock of Varied Sitella, Fuscous Honeyeaters, Cicadabird, Striped Honeyeater – to name a few.

Square tailed Kite

Folks collecting mud

Vince and Susan

Next down to the town of Boonah for coffees before a trip to the summit of Mount French. While birding was a little slow the views and the butterflies – many of them hill-topping more than made up for it.

Russell and the view from Mt French

Burnside bus on safari

Xanthorrhoea flower spike with Blue Tigers in attendance

said Xanthorrhoea flower spike with Blue Tigers in attendance

Tailed Emperor

Dragonfly sp

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The afternoon involved travelling from wetland to wetland slowly growing our list to its peak of over 100 species. Good numbers of Swan and other waterfowl including Australian Shoveler were recorded.

roadside wetland panarama

Black Swan

Last stop was a short rainforest loop at Cunningham’s gap where we added a few rainforest species to our daily tally. Most notable was an Albert’s Lyrebird however not everyone was lucky enough to get a view. Black faced Monarchs, Golden Whistlers, Southern Logrunners Green Catbirds and Satin Bowerbirds had to placate those who had missed it….

Dinner at the Boonah Pub – Ken’s Kitchen no less – was good and worth recommending.

The birds of the day were a tie between Brown headed / Black chinned Honeyeater and Square-tailed Kite. Other notables included the Albert’s Lyrebird, Australian Shoveler and Southern Logrunner.

Sunday at Gatton and Lockyer Valley also produced some excellent birds. The day, it could be argued, got off to an ordinary start with a visit to Gatton Campus of the university of Queensland. The drought had not been kind and the wetlands had dried out. Recent rains had merely encouraged weed growth rather than the filling of the wetlands so what was once a must-stop-location for a great range and number of waterfowl was pretty poor.

male shoveler

Apex Wetlands, just west of Gatton, had only faired marginally better; sporting a variety of waterfowl including the usual suspects plus Shoveler.

birders in 'action'

Our next stop rocked….Cross Road. Almost straight away we got good views of raptors; Black Falcon [best among them] but also Black Kite, Whistling Kite, Kestrel, Wedge tailed Eagles. Red rumped Parrots, missing at the Ag College appeared here with a few Cockatiels as well as the standard Pale headed Rosellas. Grey headed Babblers appeared briefly. A little further down the road near a wetland we got Weebill, White throated Gerygone, Peaceful Dove, Rufous Whistler, and Speckled Warblers.

White throated Gerygone

Australian Kestrel

Black Kite

The road to Atkinson Dam produced simply wonderful views of Ground Cuckoo shrikes before a good spread of species at the lake itself while folk lunched.

Ground Cuckoo Shrike

You can see these birds walking, flying or perched...... [Slaters] - Picture by Cecile Espigole.

And then the road home with the last stop of the weekend was at Sandy Camp Road. This well-known site was largely ignored as we got our twitch on. Sandy Camp had been home to two White fronted Honeyeaters for a few weeks. These birds are a long way from home as they should be expected about a 1000 km inland. After a few trying minutes [and then some] finally one was found that read our script to sit still long enough for all to get pretty reasonable views. The bird was certainly a lifer for some and a new SE Queensland bird for practically all.