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Wednesday, 23 October, 2013

 

I left Townsville this morning and moved north.  I was away about 7:30, I think.  My first stop was Jourama Falls, where I had hopes of picking up a bird or two for my trip list.  I had six potential birds on my target list, based on reports I had seen.

 

The drive in to the park from the highway was unpaved, but smooth and easy.  There were a couple of creek crossings once I was in the park, but it has been so dry that they were no problem.  Just a couple or three inches of water running over a concrete causeway.  Here is a picture looking up one of the creeks.

 

I stopped several places and looked and listened for birds.  I played calls on my phone, too, as that has been so effective so far, with so many species.  As it turned out, I saw a fair number of birds, but nothing ever responded to my playback that I could see or hear.  Here is a picture of the campground at Jourama Falls.

 

I saw some birds there, but nothing new for my trip list.  I moved on up to the end of the road, where there is a trail that leads to a view point of the falls.  The hike was over a mile each way, though, and it was already in the high 80’s, so a hike wasn’t in my plans.  I did walk up the trail for a few hundred yards, though, and I got great views (but no pictures) of a beautiful male OLIVE-BACKED SUNBIRD.  I hope I can get a picture eventually; the bird is fairly common, but it flits around a lot, and a picture is going to be tough.  It was nice to get a trip bird, to avoid being skunked, but I really hadn’t been worried about it today.

 

I saw three Emerald Doves, and I got this picture of one from behind that I like.

 

I saw Spectacled Monarch, Varied Triller, Leaden Flycathcer, and Brown Cuckoo-Dove, and probably other species as well.  After an hour or so, I went on back down the road to the highway.  On the way, I picked up my first two FOREST KINGFISHERS, a bird I expect I will see a lot.  It had started to rain by the time I saw them, sitting on power lines, so I didn’t mess around trying to get a picture.

 

The rain shower lasted for ten or fifteen minutes, but I was driving anyway, so it didn’t matter to me.  I went on in to Ingham, my destination for the day.  I found Woolworths (it was easy, because I had programmed it into my GPS app on my phone before I left home) and I stocked up on groceries.  There was a liquor store there, too, so I got some wine in a box.  There was also a Subway there, so I got a foot-long tuna sandwich for my lunch.

 

It was about noon by then, so I went back to the motel where I am staying tonight, and I asked if I could check in early.  No problem, so I got my stuff moved in, and my food in the fridge.  Then I took my Subway sandwich, some potato chips, a Diet Coke, and some mini-peppers with me to Tyto Wetlands, my birding destination for the day.  I was going to use their picnic area, but it was so bloody hot and humid that I ate my lunch in the car, with the engine running and the a/c blasting away.  When I had finished my lunch, it was about 12:45, so I ventured out into the heat of the day, to look for birds.

 

I had visited Tyto Wetlands before, but it has been several years, and I had forgotten how big it is.  It is a man-made wetlands, and has a main lake with islands, with a lot of land around the lake.  It is half a mile from the car park to the main lake, for Pete’s sake.  The temperature was about 85 to 90, and the humidity very high, so I took it easy.  There are a number of birds I could use that are regularly reported at Tyto, but I didn’t really expect to see the difficult ones.  There were three common honeyeaters that I had missed in Townsville, and I wanted to look for them.  There were several other species I thought I might have a chance at as well.

 

I saw some birds, but none of them were new for me until I saw a couple of YELLOW HONEYEATERS.  I didn’t get pictures of those first ones, but later I got pictures that I like.  Here is a kind of odd one, but I like it.

 

Here is a more conventional pose for the bird, although with the strong backlight, I had to process it a lot to be able to see the features of the bird.  As a result, the color of the bird is probably too yellow.

 

Here is another picture that is different, but I like it.  I guess these honeyeaters must eat fruit, too.

 

I finally made it out to the central lake, and there is a hill there with an overlook of the wetlands, with some benches and shade.  I spent some time there.  Here are a couple of views from there.

 

 

I got a picture of a White-browed Robin, a bird I had said I wanted to get a picture of, in an earlier report.

 

I also saw two or three pairs of GREEN PYGMY-GEESE, another species I had hoped to see at Tyto.  Here is my best picture of a pair of them.  The male is on the left, ahead of the female.

 

I had forgotten how small they are.  They are smaller than most of the ducks.

 

I walked some more, and I played the calls of the other two honeyeater species I was trying to see (besides the Yellow Honeyeater).  I stopped for a while at the bird hide, but didn’t see anything new from there.  I did see a Crimson Finch there, which is a good bird, and I saw several of them today.

 

I continued my walk, and I got this picture of an Olive-backed Oriole, a bird I had seen on my first day of birding south of Sydney, all those weeks ago.

 

A little later I got a picture of a male Rufous Whistler, a common bird that I have seen a lot of, but I don’t think I had gotten a picture before, on this trip.

 

Back at the hilltop view point, I got this picture of a male Darter.

 

I played the honeyeater calls there, and I got a response finally to one of them.  Two or three WHITE-GAPED HONEYEATERS flew in and called back to me.  I got this picture of one of them.

 

So, that was two of my target honeyeaters down.

 

Time was moving on, and the heat and humidity were getting to me, so I headed back toward my car (half a mile away, remember.  Half a mile sounds like nothing, but when you are old, fat, and out of shape, and the temperature is about 90 and the humidity is about the same, it is daunting.)  But, I moved on slowly, playing my bird calls and stopping in the shade from time to time.  There were some birds around, but it was the middle of the day, which is the absolute worst time to try to find birds.

 

I saw a little group of Chestnut-breated Mannikins at the edge of some water, taking baths.  Here is a picture of them.

 

The picture doesn’t do justice to how cute they looked, splashing around.  They were too far away for a good picture, but through my binoculars, they were very pretty.

 

I also got a picture of a duck species I don’t think I have shown before, a Hardhead.  It was quite striking, sitting in the afternoon sun.  It used to be called White-eyed Duck, and you can see why.

 

About that time, I finally got a response to my playback for RUFOUS-THROATED HONEYEATER, as one flew in to check me out.  It didn’t stick around for pictures, but I got a good look at this tiny honeyeater.  That completed the set of three common honeyeaters that I had missed in Townsville, which was satisfying.

 

There were some Brown Honeyeaters who were flying out over the water and splashing in it, then flying back to a tree.  I couldn’t tell if they were drinking or bathing.  Some of them stopped sometimes on a bridge over the water, and I got this picture of one of them when it was a bit wet.  [Correction – it is a Brown-backed Honeyeater.  Thanks, Ken.]

 

So, by the time I got back to my car, it was 3:45.  I had been out there for three hours, and I was ready for air conditioning and coolness.  I drove back to my motel and settled in for the night.

 

I had gotten 6 more species for my trip list, this time without any local help.  That puts me up to 309 species, of which 26 are lifers.  I updated my spreadsheet last night, and it is now indicating that I will end up with about 345 species, of which about 31 will be lifers.  As a reminder, when I left home, I was expecting 300 species, of which 21 would be lifers, so I’m obviously doing extremely well, thanks to all the help I am getting.

 

Speaking of help, tomorrow morning, my Townsville owl guy, Ian, is supposed to drive up here with two of his mates, and they are supposed to take me to Mungalla Station, a relatively new birding site that is owned by an aboriginal group.  It is only semi-open to the public, and not many people know about it, I don’t think.  Ian and a group of Townsville birders saw a lot of great birds there last November, and I’m hoping we can see some of them tomorrow.  I’m really looking forward to it.  We shall see.  I should be able to get something to keep from getting skunked, although you never know.  When we finish at Mungalla, I will need to drive about two hours up the road to Mission Beach, for another one night stand.  The next day, Friday, is probably my biggest risk day for getting skunked, but I have some possibilities that day, too.