2019 - My Birding Year - Zoe Farris

Regent Honeyeater

2019 was my second year Birding, and just as exciting as my first year, 2018. I saw many birds for the first time, and many I get to know the year before, but there were two events stand out in my mind for 2019. The first was the notification that a pair of Regent Honeyeaters were spotted at Springfield Lakes outside Brisbane. I set the satnav without knowing exactly where I was headed and off I went on my first long distance trip to see a particular bird.

Regent Honeyeater

After a few hours driving I arrived and started looking in the few places the birds and been reported. I met a few other Birders and we chatted as we searched. For over two hours we had no luck and my time to return to the Sunshine Coast was drawing near. Disappointed, I headed toward the car, thinking that the trip was still worth it for the experience and meeting other likeminded people, when a call went up. "They are over here!"

The two Regent Honeyeaters were in a small tree by the lake and quickly made their way to the larger tree near the café. With about twenty Birders standing around the tree the birds were comfortably preening and flitting about. I am sure they were enjoying all the fuss.

From what I heard from other, more experienced Birders, this pair were the only ones known to be so far south. And my research showed that they had once been seen up the along the Sunshine Coast and beyond. I spent a few hours watching these lovely birds and counted myself among the lucky group who go to see them.

The second event was an extended one, two months in all. A few blocks from where I live, at Golden Beach, a pair of Tawny Frogmouths had a clutch of three chicks. The nest was very low, touching distance, and right above the main walkway. The pair and their kids had a regular parade of people, kids and dogs passing beneath them, with many walkers stopping for a look. Luckily everyone showed respect for the parents and looked without intrusion. As the babies grew and began to explore their nest, they gathered even bigger crowds of locals and were as interested in the people as the people were interested in them.

Tawny

Tawny Frogmouth fam

junior

Over the next few months the babies grew and started leaving their nest to explore the nearby branches of their tree. On his first day out of the nest the third little one found himself on the Boardwalk hand railing, with dad in a tree nearby, watching. While passers-by kept a safe distance, I had to make the decision to move the little one to a safer spot as a fun run was about to pass through, and I was worried that people and their dogs might accidently scare the tiny Frogmouth. With care I lifted the baby from underneath, with as little contact as possible and moved him to the branch under dad. Unfortunately, a pair of Butcherbirds attacked and he flew off into the mangroves. I retrieved him again and sat him on a long branch and lifted him right up to dad.

From this adventure the family of five Tawny Frogmouths thrived. They spent daytimes resting in the trees near the Boardwalk entrance, learning to sit still, which the chicks were not too good at in the beginning, learning to fly, jumping from branch to branch at first, waiting for mum and dad to bring dinner home.

here's looking at you, kid

Over the two months the young ones grew and started flying off after their parents, and eventually only a few at a time were seen in their 'training trees' as I called them. While they may have stopped in a few times I suspect they went further afield. I was so happy they had a successful hatch and all grew to fledge, and at the same time a sadness at their leaving.

The other thing I have enjoyed has been the amazing people I have met. I didn't attend as many outings as I would have liked but the Mary Cairns Cross day was a special occasion, as I caught up with people I have met previously, but also some newbies, as I has been the year before. I love it when others are around to share and point out birds for each other.

Great experiences, beautiful birds and amazing people are why I took up Birding and I look forward to more and varied adventures in 2020. - Zoe Farris

My 2019 Birding Year – Lauren Tomkinson

Lauren in the field

Ever since I was born, 12 years ago, my parents have been taking me birding.

 My 2019 birding year started off great, I love owls, and in January, on a night drive through Sunday Creek Road, we were lucky enough to find half a dozen fledgling Australian Boobook owls. Sooo cute! Later in the year, on other night-time outings, I also got to see my first Sooty Owls and Masked Owls. I didn’t see any Powerful Owls or Barking Owls this year though, unless you count the beautiful Barking Owl Silo Art which I saw while on holiday at Goorambat in Victoria. 

Sooty Owl [mum]

Masked Owl [mum]

Masked Owl [me]

Fledgling Boobook mum]

Barking Owl - Silo portrait

I also saw my first Marbled Frogmouth this year. I can remember all the way back to 2014, when I was 6 and I went on my first night-time Birdlife Members walk at Charlie Moreland’s and I could hear a Marbled Frogmouth but I couldn’t see it, despite us staying behind for hours to walk the circuit track with Steve and Carol after all the other members had left. So to finally see a Marbled Frogmouth this year, sitting on a branch close to the road was an exciting find.

My Marbled Frogmouth pic

My Boobook

Because I don’t have a facebook page yet, I don’t post in the facebook birdcount challenge, but I do use QuestaGame. This year I competed in the Maroochy Wetlands Eco-challenge for kids. I had competed in previous years but this year I tried extra hard and submitted lots of bird photo’s, although most of them were blurry. The camera I was using was a 2^nd hand Nikon P510 on auto setting, it has a great zoom but unless the birds sit still for me my photo’s are just plain awful. The only good photo I got over the 2 week competition was a Large-Billed Scrubwren. If you identified the sightings you got extra points, a lot of the common ones I knew, the others I had to look up in my bird book and using google. I put a lot of time in submitting photo’s and trying to identify them and I was so excited when I heard I won!

My Large billed Scrubwren

Birding legend!

In September, when my parents took me on a driving holiday I saw lots of birds in the outback on our way to Darwin. I also saw lots of birds at the Corroboree Billabong where we travelled through the everglades on an airboat, but my biggest dip was at Nitmiluk Gorge where I saw, but didn’t get a photo of their rare visitor, a Great Billed Heron.

My Dad goes to Cape York nearly every year for his holidays and next year he is taking me to the Cape and to the Tip of Australia, I am so looking forward to 2020 and all the new birds I will see on the way.

2019 My Birding Year By Michael Dawson

Blsck necked Stork

Growing up I was always more interested in watching and enjoying nature. I would be in the outfield playing that boring game cricket and be more interested in watching the masked lapwings and its chicks.

Nankeen Night Heron

For many years I have watched the abundance of birds, using my trusty old slater field guide trying to quickly identify from memory.

Restless Flycatcher

This year I picked up a camera and gave the “Game” a go. I thought that I would be happy to reach 100 species, I reached it and realised I was enjoying myself, meeting some awesome fellow birders and exploring some birding areas I had never ventured into. So the count went on!

Cattle Egrets

Some of my highlights of the year are seeing a Green Pygmy Goose for the first time, doing a pelagic trip off Mooloolaba and seeing a Masked Booby. To add to my bird identifying skills has been a major bonus as well.

Latham's Snipe

Reaching a total of over 250 species has far outreached my expectations. Will I be back in the game next year?…… Let the birding bug  see where it takes me!

Welcome Swallow

Birding is good for the heart, good for the soul and mind, and seriously better than anything on tv!

MY BIRDING YEAR--- a non-illustrated story - by Russ Lamb

                                             

Writing an annual review of my birding year used to be a regular event, but I somehow fell out of the habit-----until now. The year started well with a trip to Tassie and my first ever Eaglehawk Neck pelagic which produced 6 lifers, a rare event for me these days. Never thought of myself as a petrel-head, but there I was ticking-off both Grey-backed  and White-faced Storm-Petrel, along with Great-winged, White-chinned and  Grey-faced Petrel. A new tubenose in Buller’s Albatross, and the strange sight of a very southern Brown Booby ended a great day on the water. Morepork was also on my target list and I was woken one morning pre-dawn by the classic call, scrambling to find bins, torch etc. However, a  through two hour search of the bush behind the house failed to locate the bird. I was also determined to see a Satin Flycatcher and located a female feeding a juvenile , finally removing lingering doubts I’d harboured about previous Qld sightings of this species. And no trip to Tasmania is complete without casting one’s eye on my favourite robin , the Pink Robin. Because birding has to include dips as well as ticks, I confess to failing to find the Hudsonian Godwit, despite three valiant attempts.

The highlight of the year was the Cape York trip from Weipa to Cairns guided by Ken and Steve. Although I’d birded most of the route previously in 2006 it was great to see again those Cape and Iron Range specialities, with my stand-out species being Northern Scrub-Robin, Yellow-billed Kingfisher and Palm Cockatoo. One whole day in Lakefield NP was all we had but there were memorable sightings of Emu, Brolga, Sarus Crane, Bustard, Black-throated Finch and Black-breasted Buzzard. The trip ended on a high with the sighting of a Black Bittern in Cairns.

A few days over the border in the Byron/Ballina region allowed visits to some of my favourite birding sites. The magnificent West Byron Wetlands gave me Rufous Songlark and Black-eared Cuckoo, species which I hadn’t seen for many years. A Brown Songlark at Lake Chickiba, Ballina was in the same category.

And local birding on the Sunshine Coast was, as always, varied and interesting. My local birding is structured around , but not exclusive to, a number of Birdlife Australia projects. Surveys at the Yandina Creek Wetlands can be a challenge, but one is always rewarded with a wide range of species, Wood Sandpiper being my pick of the year. Monthly surveys at Jabiru Park/Fearnley Hide for the Wetlands Project are always rewarding, with Black-necked Stork regularly seen, and just this month a number of Oriental Cuckoo appearing and easily seen. Some winter nights were spent on the Powerful Owl Project in the Cooroy/Pomona area, following a fairly strict surveying protocol, with unfortunately no PO’s detected. We did however hear Masked Owl behind some houses, and our last night had Owlet-Nightjar calling in three separate locations. I’m also involved in monthly wader/shorebird counts at the Noosa River mouth, always great to get out on the water and observe the changing species and counts over the year. A pair of Beach Stone-Curlew are resident there, and usually seen. And during the warmer months there’s a couple of  National Latham’s Snipe counts to be undertaken.

As in most years, this year I day- guided overseas and interstate birders from the birding-pal website, from Sweden, NZ, USA, Netherlands, Canada and WA. It’s always a pleasure to show visitors our great habitats and birds, and this year Black-breasted Button-Quail and Regent Bowerbird headed the list. And our last Birding Sunshine Coast mid-week outing produced the spectacular sight of around 200 White-throated Needletail drinking and bathing on the wing over Ewen Maddock Dam.

So a varied year, with many good birds and even better company. I look forward to seeing many of you out there in 2020 

Top birds seen on the Sunshine Coast for 2019

Below are a variety of opinions, in no particular order...

1. Australasian Bittern photographed over Coolum industrial estate by Gillian Matthew. And then again over Parklakes  by Gary [and Deb] Quirk - an excellent record [and photo] of a specie not really expected here.

   

   Australasian Bittern over Coolum [G. Matthew]

   

   and again over Parklakes [Gazanddeb]

2. Great Bowerbird [not seen by me] photographed near Montville by Gillian Matthew - an unbelievable record [though i clearly believe it as i have seen the pic!] What is such a bird doing in Montville!? The nearest population is probably as north as Bowen. This is a specie that does not migrate, as far as i know not particularly nomadic, is a bird of lowlands and not hills, drier forests and scrubland not closed forests....Therefore everything about this record seems 'weird'. It is great that birds do not read the books and continue to amaze and confound.

   

   it is a Bowerbird and it is great [G. Matthew]

3. Bar breasted Honeyeater seen briefly at Lake McDonald in January was another mega for the Sunshine Coast.
4. Blue winged Kookaburra - again an interesting vagrant - one of the first SC records. Some records on ebird are almost certainly false.

   

   Blue winged Kookaburra

5. Banded Lapwing - an unexpected dryland bird that turned up to play croquet in Caloundra. Thanks are due to Terry Kirkland for getting the word out in a timely fashion!

   

   Banded Lapwing

6. Oriental Cuckoos seemed to be almost common in 2019 with multiple sightings at multiple sites - surely a new bird for many! 

   

   Oriental Cuckoo [P Fraser]

7. A long staying Freckled Duck at Gympie caused many to drive north.

   

   Freckled Duck in Gympie [Steve and Carol Popple] 

8. A huge flock of Plum headed Finches at everyone's favourite birding locale - Finland Road was a pleasant and amazing surprise. Again a dryland specie turning up near the coast.

   

   some Plum-headed Finches

9. Other dryland species turning up included Rufous and Brown Songlarks and Pallid Cuckoo on Finland Road. As well as Stubble Quail. 

   

   amazing shot of a female Stubble Quail at Finland Road [G. Matthew]

   

   Pallid Cuckoo

10. How could I forget? First ever record of Wood Sandpiper on SC at Yandina Creek Wetlands in January.

    

    YCW Wood Sandpiper

11. Diamond Firetails [and with it a great little suite of species – Brown Treecreeper, Dusky Woodswallow, Jacky Winter, Fuscous and Yellow tufted Honeyeaters, Rufous Songlark etc etc]  recorded near Jimna as the SOH extended controversially further west.

    

    Diamond Firetail

12. F Galegar Road also has a great little suite of spp – Weebill, Striated, Yellow and Buff rumped Thornbills, Speckled Warblers, Red tailed Black cockatoos etc etc]

    

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13. Pelagics off Mooloolaba yielded Long tailed Jaeger and Masked Booby along with other species such as Wedge tailed, Short tailed, Flesh footed, Huttons, Fluttering,  Shearwaters, Wilson’s Storm Petrel, Tahiti Petrel etc. Special thanks to Greg Roberts and Richard Fuller for continuing to organise these trips.

    

    Composite pictures of a Long tailed Jaeger [R Fuller et el]

    

    Masked Booby [G. Matthew]

14. Black tailed Native hen recorded at the year’s end on Cove Road, Stanmore.

    

    Black tailed Native hen

15. Hoary headed Grebe recorded on Kinbombi Falls Road in the northern parts of the zone by Paddy Colley and Gillian Matthew.

    

    Hoary headed Grebe [G. Matthew]

16.   Not so much unusual birds, we know they're there. Just damn hard to see. Several brilliant pictures of Ground Parrots and Pale-vented Bush-hens (and even chicks).

    

    Pale vented Bush hen [S. Harrison]

    

    wonderful image of a Ground Parrot in Cooloola [Ian 'Christopher Robin']

All non attributed pics taken by Ken Cross

2019 - MY BIRDING YEAR - GILLIE MATTHEW

2019 – my BIG YEAR in Birding.

Gillie Matthew

As birding years go, 2019 was excellent!  The four big-ticket items on my list, three with over 255 species on the list, are more than plenty to inspire my continued birding:  Thailand, Bowra, Cape York and Far North Queensland and ‘The Game’.

In February I travelled to Thailand with Eagle Eye to see the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Mrs Hume’s Pheasant and 287 of their beautiful feathered friends.  What a trip that was and it was made extra special by our local guide, End, who worked extremely hard to create a complete experience, even buying us absolutely beautiful street foods. From Bangkok we went to Phetchaburi, Kaeng Karachan, Doi An Khan, Doi Inthanon National Park, Khao Doi National Park and back to Bangkok.  I bought a hide from the manufacturer that has been useful at Toorbul.

 

Mrs Hume’s Pheasant and two Mountain Bamboo-Partridges, Doi Ang Khang, Thailand

Black-and-red Broadbills, Kaeng Krachan, Thailand

August was beautiful at Bowra and the shearer’s quarters were comfortable.  Paddy and others from the Sunshine Coast just happened to be there too.  Although the list was more modest (139), for a week-long trip it was spectacular!  The parrots, the honeyeaters, the chats, the babblers, the fairy-wrens: too many fabulous birds to nominate a single highlight.

 

Spotted Quail-thrush, Bowra

Crested Shrike-tit, St George

In October Ken and Steve showed off Far North Queensland’s spectacular residents of which the Golden Bowerbird was my absolute favourite.  As we explored Weipa, Iron Range, Lockhardt River, Mt Lewis, Atherton and afterwards Michaelmas Cay, my list tallied almost the same number to the trip around the Thailand’s environments.  How special does that make our Australian birding? 

 

Golden Bowerbird adds a small fruit to his bower, Atherton Tableland

Golden-shouldered Parrot, Artemis Station

“But you should!” Ken told me when I said I wasn’t interested in playing ‘The Game’.   He was so persuasive, ‘The Game’ became my big-ticket item number three.  That decision jettisoned me into a flurry of racing around the region at every opportunity looking for every variety of locally occurring bird, all the while armed with my camera. 

‘The Game’ has had a huge impact on my life:

·         Carl can now comfort with me with a whole vocabulary of phrases when I come home frustrated about my photos or inability to find a bird, and can identify quite a list of ‘ducks’;

·         My camera just wouldn’t do and was eventually upgraded, thereby negating my need to do weight training at the gym;

·         Having resisted for years, Adobe is now a ‘must-have’ and I don’t know how I ever lived without Lightroom;

·         My lounging about time has vanished;

·         I have made some great friends and increased my network; and

·         Importantly, I have learned so much about where to find birds locally! 

It’s funny how it goes.  Some birds were easy.  They are as familiar as the local landscape - magpies, miners, lorikeets and, because I live near the Maroochy River, cormorants and terns.  Others were really hard requiring travel, new techniques and multiple visits.  Among this lot are the Eastern Ground Parrot and that elusive Pale-vented Bush-hen which I still don’t have this year.  Some required overcoming sea-sickness while focussing on the bird, the sky, the sea, the bird, the sea, the sky and oh I feel crook even thinking about it.  Some have been just plain lucky finds.  For me the best of these are the Australasian Bittern and the Great Bowerbird.

 

Great Bowerbird, Montville

 

Australasian Bittern, Coolum Industrial Estate

I often laugh about the paparazzi when word goes out about an exciting find and we all race out to see it.  Truth is, though, it is so wonderful that we share our knowledge and experience. We are so lucky to have such a group and all hail Ken for his wonderful leadership.  Thank you everyone who has shared with me.  I appreciate it!  Maybe I will play again next year, maybe not.  But whatever I do and wherever I do it, birding will continue to be part of what I do, just as it has since I was 16 when my brother and I rode our bikes out birding on the Townsville Town Common.

Playing the Game in 2019 - Steve and Carol Popple

Gympie hosted a Freckled duck

This is our fourth year playing “The Game”; trying to photograph the most birds within the Sunshine Coast “Zone of Happiness” and as the year draws to a close and the opportunity to get a new bird reduces, it’s timely to reflect on the year that was. 

This year the boundary of the Zone was extended west to Nanango and up to Goomeri bringing some new species into play.

At last Jimna was available for birding and our first trip there was amazing; the minute we pulled up in the car there were birds everywhere. Within 30 minutes we had added Brown Treecreeper, Speckled Warbler, Yellow-tufted Honeyeater and Dusky Woodswallow, and after some concentrated searching, a Diamond Firetail was found; certainly one of the highlights of the year. 

Jimna was added to the 'Zone' allowing Diamond Firetail to join the ranks of the pictured!

We took two weekend trips to Yarraman during the year doing our bit to support the rural economy discovering not only birds but the Nanango markets on the first Saturday of each month (well worth visiting). 

Hot on the trail of new birds meant a lot of eBird researching which turned up a host of interesting sites. Stopping at Blackbutt we spent a lot of time looking for Red-rumped Parrots, previously recorded there by Greg Roberts. After a couple of hours of fruitless hours searching we finally snagged a pair of birds flying over the road. One quick Uturn later searching resumed before they were found, fortunately perching briefly near the Sports Ground. 

Red rump pair

Yarraman Weir area gave us good sightings of Weebill and Superb Fairywren with Nanango giving up Brown-headed Honeyeater, Buff-rumped Thornbill, Apostlebirds and plenty of Common Bronzewings.

As usual the uncommon birds added spice to the year with the Blue-winged Kookaburra near Yandina Wetlands, the Freckled Ducks at Gympie (took 2 goes to get that one), Banded Lapwing at Caloundra (also took me 2 goes, lucky Carol only works 5 minutes away so she got it easy) and the Oriental Cuckoo influx capping off the list. 

Other highlights of the year included the pair of Peregrine Falcons at Maroochydore that we saw catching Rainbow Lorikeets effortlessly, the Black-breasted Buttonquail at Inskip Point, finally getting Ruddy Turnstone after 4 years of trying and the pair of Brolgas at Gunalda.

Every year there are some misses the biggest for us this year was TopKnot Pigeon in a normal year we have flocks in our garden feeding on Camphor Laurel berries this year no fruit = no birds! Noisy Pitta for the second year running also gave us the slip.

Will we be back playing again in 2020? The answer is Yes, at worst it is a good excuse to get birding every weekend and nothing is better than that feeling we you get that bird that eluded you in the past. Watch out Greater Sand Plovers 2020 is our year!