I recently went birding with Mikael from Sweden around a few spots in the Greater Brisbane area as well as Noosa and the Border Ranges NP in NE NSW.

The target list was short but being this time of year I wasn’t too confident in finding a few things he was after.

First stop was at Sandy Camp Road wetlands straight from the airport. The targets here were Australian Little Bittern and Spotless Crake. Mid morning during a heat wave was not the best time and as such not sight nor sound of these species on the day. A few other birds were around as well as a few Eastern Water Dragons (common around Brisbane).

Next port of call was Dowse Lagoon at Sandgate to look for the long staying Musk Duck which was quickly located in front of the Keogh Street platform along with a few other birds

, butterflies and dragonflies.

An unsuccessful attempt was made for Powerful Owl at Slaughter Falls in the afternoon but a few birds and butterflies were observed.

After dropping Mikael’s gear off at Mountain Rest Birders Cottage we made a trip to Dundas in the late afternoon to try for Plum-headed Finch. No luck with Plum-heads today but several Chestnut-breasted Mannikins . On the macropod front we saw Eastern Grey Kangaroo and a few Whiptail (pretty-face) Wallabies.

After dark we went for the first night drive which was very quiet all round although we did get a Carpet Python and one of Mikael’s targets in the form of a Sooty Owl.  This bird was a little distant but still gave great views sitting in the open calling consistently.

The next day saw us head off early down to the Border Ranges area. En route we had numbers of White-throated Needletails at Beaudesert

, several Red-necked Wallabies on the Queensland side of the border at Cougal, a small flock of Pacific Swift at Lynches Creek low over a paddock and a few other bits and pieces. The target in this area was Rufous Scrubbird and after a moderate search Mikael got onto a bird that made a dash along a fallen log. Despite checking several other territories this was the only bird we recorded over several hours.

Later that day we birded around Mountain House getting a few nice birds while we waited for dusk to get White-throated Nightjar. I was surprised to see a Richmond Birdwing butterfly in the late afternoon here. The nightjars started calling after dark and poor views were had. We then went for a night drive along Northbrook Parkway and were rewarded with Subtropical Antechinus, Greater Glider and Common Ringtail Possum. Two nice species of snakes rounded off the night – Eastern Bandy-bandy and Golden-crowned Snake. Mikael was very proficient with the torch picking up most of the mammals and birds that we saw on the night drives while I drove.

Thursdays main stop was Noosa to successfully see Black-breasted Button-quail. A few other common birds were found here as well with Mikael getting a brief view of a Frigatebird that was most likely Lesser. Plenty of Green Turtles and a few Spotted Eagle Rays – including one individual leaping from the water – added to the experience. Just before Noosa we stopped at Sunrise Beach to look for Glossy Black-cockatoo with no joy but were slightly compensated with a low roosting Tawny Frogmouth.

After leaving Noosa we had a quick look at Jimna for Glossy Blacks but again no luck and this species evaded us for the duration of Mikaels visit. Following on from Jimna we visited a site at the northern end of the D’aguilar Range for Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby. Back at Mountain House for dusk where better views of White-throated Nightjars were obtained. On our night drive we added Common Dunnart and Bush Rat to the list of mammals

, Brown Tree Snake and great views of Marbled Frogmouth sitting out in the open which Mikael picked up with the torch as we drove past. The male flew in while we were there to join the female. Australian Owlet-nightjar was heard as well.

Last day saw us stopping at Wivenhoe Outlook for some skinks in the form of Major Skink, Dark Bar-sided (Martin’s) Skink, and Bar-sided Forest-skink before heading out to Crossdale and getting Plum-headed Finch and a couple of other things. A quick stop at Lowood to peruse the flying Fox colony saw us looking at three species of megabat plus a Koala thrown in for good measure. After this it was off to the airport to drop Mikael off for the next leg of his visit.

I am hoping to add to this post throughout the year with some of the interesting animals sighted in this great reserve. With several great species of fauna and flora found here , I hope to inspire some of you at least to go for a wander around enjoying the various habitats and the inhabitants of this site.

I’ll start with these from the last weekend of April.

Wide-brand Grass-dart (Suniana sunias)	White-banded Line-blue (Nacudaba kurava) female
Black-chinned Honeyeater (Melithreptus gularis)

During July I found myself needing to stay in Lismore for a few days so explored some sites I hadn’t visited before as well as a couple I had birded a few times over the years.

While in town I stayed at Lakeside Lodge Motel  which is a great spot to be based as a naturalist as it is beside Lismore Lake and on the Bruxner Hwy on the west side of town.  Although the lake was almost dry, a Black-necked Stork was observed on several days.

A vehicle was hired through Hertz in Lismore (Contact number (02) 6621 8855) who were great to deal with.

July 21st

Large numbers of Topknot Pigeons were noticed between Bangalow and Lismore during the drive through in the morning.

An afternoon visit to the Three Chain Rd STW at Lismore didn’t provide anything out of the ordinary but was nice birding all the same and Hoary-headed Grebes were nice to see. This site is strictly roadside birding. My eBird list for the visit is here.

July 22nd

Today was spent visiting some sites that I have visited a few times before around Kyogle and Casino. A nice bird on the way to Kyogle was a single Spotted Harrier floating across the road at Leycester

, the early morning light enhancing its already beautiful colours.

First stop was Lake Harrison at Geneva on the outskirts of Kyogle – eBird list here.

After this stop, an enjoyable visit was made to Anzac Park in Kyogle. This can be a great little stop if you’re passing through town and looking for somewhere to pull over and have a cuppa. See here  for a list of the 40 species observed during the visit.

Travelling through to Casino, I made a brief stop at Fairy Hill Swamp where Blue-billed Ducks can occasionally be seen. No such luck today though. See the list here.

Last birding stop for the day was Jabiru  (Geneebeinga) Wetlands at Casino. Usually I stop and walk around the short track but today I birded along Queensland Road beside the reserve. Several Black Swans were on nests, a single Glossy Ibis and some Comb-crested Jacanas were some of the birds recorded. See here for list of birds sighted during my visit.

July 23rd

Not much birding today apart from a stop at Schuster Park in Tallebudgera on my way home to pick up some fresh clothes and food. Here is the list.

July 24th

Today I decided to check out some new sites I hadn’t birded before. It was a great day and I was happy with the choices I made. First stop was Victoria Park Nature Reserve. This place is a little gem. First bird heard calling when I hopped out the car was a White-eared Monarch and one of the first birds I saw when entering the short circuit trail was a Noisy Pitta (the first of four recorded around the circuit). Several Red-necked Pademelons were present in the rainforest. With 30 species of birds recorded during my visit, I look forward to returning to this site in the future.

Next stop was the lookout at Evans Head. On arriving a couple of Humpback Whales were observed in the mid distance with plenty of Australasian Gannets and Greater Crested Terns above the water.

Hoping to get closer to the whales for photos, I made my way out to Goanna Headland which falls within Dirawong Reserve. No luck with the photos but numbers of honeyeaters in the coastal scrub and heath (including Red and Little Wattlebirds as well as White-cheeked Honeyeaters). Australian Pipits were out on the short grass of the headland. Red-backed Fairywrens were present along grassy areas between the scrub and the cliffs. For the list click here.

On the way back to Lismore I stopped at Tucki Tucki Nature Reserve. This reserve is in two parts and I visited the northern section which is along Wyrallah Road at Tucki Tucki. This reserve was created in the 60’s after locals had planted out the area with numerous species of food trees for Koalas in the late 50’s. There is a pleasant circuit walk at the site and I managed to see 27 species during a short time in the late morning.

While having lunch back at the room I enjoyed watching the Black-necked Stork foraging around Lismore Lake.

July 25th

I headed straight to Evans Head this morning and after a quick stop at the boat ramp – where Silver Gulls followed by Little Black Cormorants were the most common birds and a Striated Heron was located – I continued to Chinamans Beach.

A few whales were observed throughout the time I spent in the area here although all distant and I spent my time birding the heath along the road which had views out to sea. Black (Swamp) Wallaby was the only other mammal recorded. White-cheeked Honeyeaters were common with a nest also found containing nestlings. Raptors included Swamp Harrier and Whistling Kite. A flock of 16 Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo feeding in the heath was great to see. Over  an hour and a half 25 species of birds were recorded here.

Returning to Lismore via Ballina

, I stopped at Meldrum Park on the bank of North Creek to check through the waders and terns. Plenty of Double-banded Plovers and some Pacific Golden Plovers were among the waders recorded and Greater Crested Terns were common as to be expected. For the list see here.

July 26th

The only birding I was able to do this morning was 20 minutes at Lake Lismore. Plenty around to keep me interested as can be seen here.

Look forward to being able to get back sometime and revisiting several of the sites.

This reserve is one that I have visited with varying regularity since the 1980’s. It is a 231ha (570 acres) island surrounded by semi-rural residential. It is mostly open forest with some gallery rainforest elements along the creek and contains a wealth of interesting flora and fauna.

On the morning of my most recent visit the temperature was about 6°C on arrival and probably made it to 9°C by the time I left , and overcast for the most part and looking like a small cyclone had been through with fallen trees and branches littering the tracks. I entered at Phelps Road and walked clockwise around the circuit until I reached the top of the ridge before Macginley Road access whereupon I headed bush to intersect with Ironbark Ridge trail. The purpose of this was to check for flowering of Helmet (Corybas sp) and Greenhood (Pterostylis sp) Orchids. I didn’t find any flowering and the colonies of Helmet Orchids, noted by the presence of leaves, seemed to be less common than normal possibly due to the very dry preceding year. After intersecting the Ironbark Ridge track near its northern confluence with the Grey Box circuit, I proceeded along its length to the south hitting the circuit again which I followed back to Phelps Road.

There was enough Narrow-leaved Ironbark (Eucalyptus crebra) flowering to keep several Rainbow, Scaly-breasted and Little Lorikeets and plenty of Noisy Friarbirds happy. Some flowering of Grasstree (Xanthorrhoea latifolia) and Early Black Wattle (Acacia leiocalyx) was also noted. Forest Red Gum (Eucalyptus tereticornis) was in heavy bud near the entrance. Saw Sedge (Gahnia aspera)was recorded fruiting.

On the bird front, 38 species were recorded with honeyeaters well represented with numbers of resident Fuscous Honeyeaters and one of the reserves specialties – Black-chinned Honeyeater – as well as other more common and numerous species. The winter return of Dusky Woodswallow was nice to see as well as another autumn and winter visitor , Rose Robin. An area of very fresh feeding platelets of Painted Button-quail was found but no birds were sighted or heard.

Click here to see my eBird list for the morning visit

Mammal wise there was a single Eastern Grey Kangaroo on arrival, a couple of Yellow-footed Antechinus and a few of the resident Black-striped Wallaby.

I visited this site for the first time on 27/02/16 and returned on the 5/03/16 for another look. Local birder Steve McBride often posts interesting sightings from here so I originally went down to look for any interesting terns, noddies or sulids. Although I had nothing unusual here that morning there was a nice array of birds including several Sooty Oystercatchers, Wandering Tattlers, Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstones and Red-necked Stints plus many Little and Common Terns.

During the following week Steve reported a Red-necked Phalarope which flew in near dusk and was present for a couple of hours the following morning. It repeated this routine on the Friday and at dawn on Saturday a number of Brisbane birders arrived to search for this great find. It was eventually found and enjoyed by all present and even a surfer made his way over to see what the fuss was and Andy quickly asked him if he would like to view the bird in question. To me this is probably the best way to gain tolerance and help educate non-birders that we are not some weird mob rather than (as I’ve seen done) people taking an aggressive attitude straight off the bat when they see people disturbing birds due to ignorance. If people are unaware of the consequences of their actions in these instances

, its best to explain it to them first and then most people are reasonable and will try and change their habits. No-one takes well to being put on the back foot especially when they are unaware of what they have done.

Also on the morning along with numerous waders including Greater Sand-plover, a dark Reef Egret was present, a Common Noddy was observed by some early on and a number of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters were arcing offshore

A visit was made to this site on 2nd January, 2016 after Black-eared Cuckoo had been reported by Chris Burwell on the Brisbane birders Facebook page . This has been a well known spring/summer site for Painted Honeyeater for several years at least and this season there have been plenty around it would seem. The site is across from the Oakey Golf club at the junction of Warrego Hwy and Mount Tyson Road. I am not sure of the status of the fenced off land and as such I have never crossed the fence. Someone told me years ago it was a stock reserve and public land but I haven’t been able to find anything on line at least to confirm this. After saying this there would be nothing birdwise in the reserve that can’t be seen walking along the road reserve parallel with the Warrego Hwy or along Mount Tyson Road.

I arrived at 0620 and after a couple of minutes the beautiful (to my ears anyway) call of Painted Honeyeater was heard. In the two hours I was there I ended up seeing 9 individuals including at least a couple of immature birds. While following up the first Painted Honeyeater I heard a Horsfield’s Bronze-cuckoo give a couple of calls and then a couple of minutes later heard the Black-eared Cuckoo give two calls. These were the only calls I heard from these species throughout the duration of my visit. After birding my way along to the creek I saw a shadow fly over my head and keep going into the woodland before turning around and landing giving me great views of the Black-eared Cuckoo. I watched this bird for several minutes before continuing birding around the creek and back to and along Mount Tyson Road. Other good birds included White-winged Triller and Plum-headed Finch.

On the way home I stopped briefly at the Palms National Park a few kilometres northwest of Cooyar. There is a short circuit through the rainforest. Being the middle of the day it was fairly quiet although some Fruit-doves were active amongst figs and other fruiting trees and several Lace Monitors were present. The most exciting find for me was a single Powerful Owl feather along the track. Despite a bit of a search the bird remained undetected and may have been nowhere in the area at the time of my visit.