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| Part of the birding crew - Saturday afternoon. |
A small group from Birdlife Sunshine Coast did a little birding trip for the weekend of the 21 to 23 May travelling from Nambour to Kilcoy to Murgon to Gympie and home. Successful birding and socialising was the aim of the weekend and I think it is fair to say that that was achieved.
"Thanks for a really enjoyable weekend, both for birding and socially. I got two lifers - one each day (White-bellied cuckoo-shrike and Spotted Harrier). So that was an extra buzz. I appreciated all that I learnt about raptors and those pesky little thornbills".
"Thank you for a wonderful weekend away in the Kilcoy, Murgon areas. It was great and I really enjoyed every part of it - the social side, birds, walks etc".
- Participants' comments and not just made up by me...
After one participant dropped out because of illness 15 people boarded the Burnside SHS bus for a jaunt around the western edges of the Conondale Ranges.
Friday night took us to the town of Kilcoy where most enjoyed the noisy atmosphere of the local pub on Friday Fifteen Dollar Steak night. The pub was filled with people from properties where I am sure steak is not an unusual treat. However all of the noise of the pub was comparatively welcome. Road work began after dusk right outside of our Hotel and the noise of jack hammers, generators more than punctuated our sleep. The Hotel, to their credit rang and offered an apology the following morning. It clearly was not their fault but they were embarrassed that they could not have warned us.
So sleepy birders begun Saturday with a picnic in the park and a quick perusal of birds there. I now realise that I have no recollection of any birds at the park and remember my only real consideration was a mumbled plea for coffee…
I do however remember calling Striped Honeyeaters from gums some 100 metres distant from the bus as we drove off.
First destination on the road north from Kilcoy was the now deservedly famous Yabba Road – a road with a few species uncommon further east; Yellow faced, Fuscous and Yellow tufted Honeyeaters, Dusky Woodswallow, Speckled Warbler, Brown Treecreepers, Jack Winter, Varied Sitella to name a few. Crested Shrike tits, Restless Flycatcher, Grey Shrike Thrushes plus all three lorikeets; Little, Scaly breasted and Rainbow rounded out our list. The Diamond Firetails continued their invisibility sadly.
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| Speckled Warbler [John Kooistra] |
Peach Trees hosted our lunch stop. We did not have long to bird here however but a few day birds were encountered; New Holland Honeyeater and Rose Robin being the standouts.
Further north F Galetly Road proved an important stop. Lifers for some including Yellow Thornbills, Weebills and White breasted Cuckoo Shrikes were seen as were Paradise Riflebird and Regent Bowerbirds.
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| Weebill [Robyn Combes] |
On the ridge top was some remnant dry vine thicket which clearly was home to Black breasted Button quails as evident by some recent platelets.
Kinbombi Road and then Kimbombi Falls and then Kimbombi Dam added mammals in the form of Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Whiptail Wallaby. On the dam some seven shovelers were the stand out among a small range of waterfowl. The Falls are home to Herberton Rock Wallabies but on this occasion they were invisible.
Murgon was our Saturday evening destination. The Motor Inn was ok with the food and wine average.
Sunday began with another brekky picnic. This time with a view from a ridge looking southwards towards Murgon. Superb Blue Wrens were strangely invisible but vocal. Kestrels were seen here too.
Travelling east towards Goomeri we picked up Spotted Harrier, WT Eagle, Kestrel, Brown Falcon, Brown Goshawk and Black shouldered Kites as well as good views of Superb Blue Wren.
Goomeri, home to the Goomeri Bakery among other things had Yellow and Yellow rumped Thornbills and our House Sparrow tick for the weekend.
A quick re-visit to the Kimbombi district again netted a decent flock of Red rump Parrots – some twenty birds and our weekend’s first White winged Choughs. The dam did not add any new birds but better views, thanks to the changed positioning of the sun, of the common species there.
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| Galah and the aptly named Red rumped Parrots [Robyn Combes] |
A few stops at wetlands in Gympie added White Pygmy Goose, Darter, Magpie Goose, Reed Warbler and Yellow tailed Black Cockatoos to our weekend Tally of 136 [by my count].
Birds seen:
- Australian Brush Turkey
- Brown Quail
- Magpie Goose
- Black Swan
- Australian Wood Duck
- Cotton Pygmy-Goose
- Grey Teal
- Pacific Black Duck
- Australian Shoveler
- Hardhead
- Australasian Grebe
- Great Crested Grebe
- Rock Dove
- Spotted Dove
- Brown Cuckoo-Dove
- Crested Pigeon
- Peaceful Dove
- Bar-shouldered Dove
- Topknot Pigeon
- Tawny Frogmouth
- Australasian Darter
- Little Pied Cormorant
- Great Cormorant
- Little Black Cormorant
- Australian Pelican
- White-necked Heron
- Eastern Great Egret
- Intermediate Egret
- Cattle Egret
- White-faced Heron
- Little Egret
- Australian White Ibis
- Straw-necked Ibis
- Royal Spoonbill
- Black-shouldered Kite
- White-bellied Sea-Eagle
- Whistling Kite
- Black Kite
- Brown Goshawk
- Grey Goshawk
- Spotted Harrier
- Wedge-tailed Eagle
- Brown Falcon
- Nankeen Kestrel
- Purple Swamphen
- Dusky Moorhen
- Eurasian Coot
- Black-winged Stilt
- Black-fronted Dotterel
- Masked Lapwing
- Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo
- Galah
- Little Corella
- Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
- Rainbow Lorikeet
- Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
- Little Lorikeet
- Australian King Parrot
- Crimson Rosella
- Pale-headed Rosella
- Red rumped Parrot
- Pheasant Coucal
- Shining Bronze-Cuckoo
- Fan-tailed Cuckoo
- Laughing Kookaburra
- Rainbow Bee-eater
- White-throated Treecreeper
- Brown Treecreeper
- Regent Bowerbird
- Red-backed Fairy-wren
- Variegated Fairy-wren
- Superb Fairy-wren
- Speckled Warbler
- White-browed Scrubwren
- Brown Gerygone
- White-throated Gerygone
- Striated Thornbill
- Buff-rumped Thornbill
- Brown Thornbill
- Yellow Thornbill
- Yellow rumped Thornbill
- Weebill
- Spotted Pardalote
- Striated Pardalote
- Jacky Winter
- Lewin's Honeyeater
- Yellow-faced Honeyeater
- Fuscous Honeyeater
- Yellow Tufted Honeyeater
- Bell Miner
- Noisy Miner
- Brown Honeyeater
- New Holland Honeyeater
- White-throated Honeyeater
- White-naped Honeyeater
- Blue-faced Honeyeater
- Noisy Friarbird
- Little Friarbird
- Striped Honeyeater
- Eastern Whipbird
- Varied Sittella
- Crested Shrike-tit
- Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
- White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike
- Golden Whistler
- Rufous Whistler
- Little Shrike-thrush
- Grey Shrike-thrush
- Australasian Figbird
- Dusky Woodswallow
- Grey Butcherbird
- Pied Butcherbird
- Australian Magpie
- Pied Currawong
- Grey Fantail
- Willie Wagtail
- Torresian Crow
- Restless Flycatcher
- Magpie-Lark
- White winged Chough
- Apostlebird
- Paradise Riflebird
- Rose Robin
- Eastern Yellow Robin
- Golden-headed Cisticola
- Australian Reed-Warbler
- Tawny Grassbird
- Silvereye
- Welcome Swallow
- Tree Martin
- Common Myna
- Mistletoebird
- Double-barred Finch
- Red-browed Finch
- House Sparrow
- Australasian Pipit
Mammals seen
Eastern Grey Kangaroos
Whiptail Wallaby
Red necked Wallaby
Eurasian Hare
Other fauna: Common Eastern Froglet - Crinea signifera - heard
Butterflies:
Common Crow
Monarch
Lesser Wanderer
Large Grass Yellow
White Migrant
Meadow Argus
Black Jezabel
Scarlet Jezabel
Small Grass Yellow
White-banded Plane
Glasswing
Southern Pearl White [thanks to Michele Grant]
Kind Regards
Ken Cross
