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Wednesday, 16 October, 2013

 

I slept in until 5:30 this morning, but I was out before 6:30 for one last shot at the Black-breasted Button-quail.  I drove out to the point for the third time, and I started one final search.  My first pass through the area got me nothing, and I didn’t see any terns of interest when I got to the water at the end of the point, either.  The tide was quite high, and the terns and shorebirds must have been roosting somewhere, but I have no idea where.

 

I resumed the search, concentrating on an area where a birder from Victoria had seen them last November.  I did see platelets in that area, which was encouraging.  Platelets are saucer sized circular spaces where the button-quail have cleared away the leaf litter as they forage, looking for bugs under the leaves, I presume.  I crept cautiously around and was eventually rewarded with the sight of a little round bird scurrying away from me.  I got just two glimpses of it, as it skedaddled through the undergrowth.  I went around to where I could observe the area I last saw it heading toward, and stood there for 15 minutes, hoping to see it again.  No luck on that.  While I stood there, I considered what I had seen.  Considering the location, the habitat, the behavior of the bird, and the shape and size of the bird, I decided it had to be a BLACK-BREASTED BUTTON-QUAIL.  It was a most unsatisfactory look.  I would give it a D minus, barely passing, but I decided it was good enough to count.  I have no doubt at all that it was a BBBQ, and I definitely saw it, so I’m going with it.  I guess I finally won the battle, but it was an unsatisfying victory.  So, I had avoided getting skunked again, but just barely.

 

After that, I went back to the car, after looking around a little more, hoping to catch another view of one.  Back at the car, I played the song of the Red-backed Fairy-wren, where I had seen them yesterday, so I could try for more pictures, to include the female.  A couple of small birds flew in, but they turned out to be Red-browed Finches.  That was fine with me, because I hadn’t had any pictures of that species this year yet.  Here are a couple of shots of that little cutie.

 

 

I played the fairy-wren song one more time, and the pair of them immediately flew in and posed for me.  They were grooming each other and sitting next to each other almost the whole time.  Here are two pictures of the pair of them. The female is the plain one, of course.

 

 

I love fairy-wrens, they are such delicate little creatures, and the males are all very colorful.

 

With that, I boogied back to Debbie’s Place and packed up.  I had already had brekkie before I left, so I made myself some lunch for today, and checked out.

 

I didn’t have far to go today, only about 120 miles, so I had plenty of time.  I filled the car with petrol in Maryborough and bought an iced coffee drink, as I was yawning.  I had slept well and long, but driving seems to lull me to sleep anyway.  The coffee drink took care of that.

 

I took a back road into my destination, which was Bundaberg.  The countryside was partially forested, with some of the forests being lumber farms, basically, with non-native trees.  There were cattle in places, and I saw the first of the many sugar cane fields that I will be seeing off and on for the next 800 miles or so, as I go up the coast.  Sugar cane means molasses, and molasses means rum, and I’m staying in Bundaberg tonight and tomorrow night, the home of the rum I like to drink over here, Bundaberg rum, known as Bundy.

 

One reason I took the back road into Bundaberg was so I could take the 12 mile spur to the ocean, to the little seaside town of Woodgate Beach.  There isn’t much there, but I had read about a boardwalk hike on which people had reported a couple of birds I could use, so took the cutoff to Woodgate Beach and found the hike.  Here is a picture of the start of it, to show the habitat.

 

It was lunch time by then, and the sign indicated a picnic table, presumably at the start of the boardwalk, which was 200 meters (yards), so I took my lunch along.  When I got to the table, it was in the sun, though, and the temperature was in the mid 80’s, so sitting in the sun didn’t appeal to me.  I walked out onto the boardwalk to see if there were any birds around, but the habitat wasn’t great, and I didn’t hear or see any birds.  I walked as far as some water and took this picture, to show the habitat.

 

It looked like a reasonable place for crakes, so I played the calls of a couple of crakes, but got no response.  I headed back to the car, deciding to try the beach instead.

 

The street along the ocean, called The Esplanade, was all park on the ocean side, and there were tables from time to time.  I found a table in the partial shade, with a view of the ocean, and took my humble lunch up there.  Here is a picture of my lunch spot.

 

 

It was a great place to eat lunch, listening and looking at the waves.  The only bird I saw the whole time was one tern that flew by, and I couldn’t identify it.  It had a black bill, so it was probably a Gull-billed Tern.  After I ate, I drove up to the other end of the beach, to see if there were any birds up there.  There weren’t, but I got this picture of Woodgate Beach.

 

That was taken from a boat launch ramp, and while I was standing out there, a Whistling Kite flew up the beach, and I got a couple of pictures I like.

 

 

I’m calling it a Whistling Kite, but I have said repeatedly that I am terrible at identifying Aussie raptors, so any correction would be appreciated.

 

So, I used the public conveniences at the beach, and I headed for Bundaberg, after my refreshing little lunch stop at Woodgate Beach.  I doubt that many Americans ever see Woodgate Beach, or many Aussies either, for that matter.  On the way back to the main road, I saw a raptor on a power pole, and I turned around and went back to see it better.  The light was terrible, coming from behind the bird, and it was hard to distinguish the facial markings through my binoculars.  Rather than break out my scope, I took pictures instead.  That was difficult with the backlighting, too, but I knew I could process the pictures so I could at least see the markings on the face.  When I left there, I had hopes that the bird was an Australian Hobby, a bird I have only seen once before, in 2006.  Unfortunately, when I processed my pictures, it turned out to be a Brown Falcon, I think, which was disappointing.  Here it is, just in case I am wrong in my ID of it.

 

That is taken at 50X, and then cropped out of the center of the frame, and my binoculars are only 10X, which is why I had a hard time seeing the facial markings.  In addition, I had to process the picture heavily, to even see that much.  My camera is an effective tool that helps me identify birds, time and time again.

 

I drove on into Bundaberg, and I checked into my new home away from home.  I’m staying at a caravan park here, in a one room cabin.  It is pretty basic, but it is clean and the a/c works well.  It has everything I need, although I expected a stove top, so I could boil eggs.  I noticed there were pans, though, and I looked further and found an electric two-element hotplate, so maybe I can use that to boil my eggs.  It has a microwave, of course, and the little fridge has a freezer compartment that has already made me some ice for my Bundy rum and orange-mango juice drinkie, which is coming up soon.  I checked in about 2 PM, and once I got settled, I went through my pictures from today and processed them.

 

Once I got that done, at about 4 o’clock I went out to the Woolies just down the street to stock up on vittles.  The caravan park is just across the street from the airport, which is where I have to go tomorrow morning for my flight to Lady Elliot Island.  It is just a day trip, and I will have about 6 or 7 hours on the island, which is quite small.  On the way to Woolies, I drove through the airport, checking out where I need to go in the morning, and where I can park.

 

I stocked up on food and got another bottle of Bundy rum, since my second duty free bottle is half gone now.  I wouldn’t want to take a chance on running out, of course.

 

So, I only got the one bird today, the unsatisfying, D minus view of the Black-breasted Button-quail.  That brings me to 262 species, of which 18 are lifers.  I won’t have any trouble tomorrow seeing something new, but the next day is very likely to be my day to get skunked.  Oh well, one day at a time.

 

HOT NEWS FLASH!  While I was making my little drinkie, I realized that I was hearing a bird that I knew, calling repeatedly.  I had heard it at Ken’s house, and it is very loud and very distinctive.  I grabbed my binoculars and camera and went outside to look for it, as it was one I needed still.  When I got out there and went to where it sounded like it was, it went quiet.  However, I noticed some lorikeets in the trees, and I took a look at them.  The first ones I looked at were Rainbow Lorikeets, but I kept looking.  Soon I saw a couple of SCALY-BREASTED LORIKEETS, a species I knew lived in Bundaberg and hoped to see here.  The light was fading, and I didn’t want to spend too long trying for pictures, as I wanted to find the bird that had been calling – the one that had dragged me out there.  This is the best I could do in the fading light and short time I had, of the Scaly-breasted Lorikeet.

 

Meanwhile, the loudly calling bird had started up again.  I found the tree it seemed to be in, but I couldn’t locate the bird.  I walked around the tree and under it, and it stopped calling from time to time, which didn’t help any.  Finally I located it, and it was exactly what I thought it was, an AUSTRALIAN (or COMMON) KOEL.  I had only seen the species twice before, according to my records, and I can’t even remember where that was.  It was very dark under the tree, and there were lots of branches in the way, which interfered with focusing, but I got a couple of very poor pictures of this bird that I had especially wanted to see on this trip.  The koel is a type of cuckoo, and it migrates north in the winter and comes back in the spring.

 

 

As you can see, it is a fairly large black bird with a red eye.  This is a male.  The female is brown with spots, a black cap, a barred tail, and also a red eye.  My records show that this is only the second time I have seen a male koel.  Australians are very aware of this bird, as it will call all night, I understand, or maybe it is only early in the morning, but it can be rather irritating, I guess, as it can be very loud and very persistent when it calls.

 

So, to update my numbers for the day, I saw THREE new species today, bringing my totals to 264 species for the trip, of which 18 are lifers.

 

Tomorrow is one of my adventures for the trip.  Something different.  I have booked a day trip to Lady Elliot Island, a small island in the Great Barrier Reef.  I am supposed to fly over there in a 9 or 13 passenger airplane (depending on how many people have booked the flight, I understand) and spend 6 or 7 hours on the island.  I expect to add 6 to 8 species to my trip list, with a possible total of as many as 10.  Four or five of those should be lifers, with a maximum of about 6, I think.  So, it should help my totals considerably.  Snorkeling is included in my day trip, and if I get the birds taken care of early enough, I may even give that a shot.  I expect to take lots of pictures tomorrow, but I might not get the report written until the next day, since I won’t be back here until about 5 PM.  It ought to be interesting.