164) Sundown

A highly exciting siting of Turquoise Parrots!  These beauties were high on our sought-after list for our weekend at Sundown National Park, located to the southwest of Brisbane, just north of the New South Wales border in the Granite Belt/New England area, known for its wine and apples.  The camping was very peaceful, only three other camping parties, and blissfully quiet except for the welcome sound of birdsong.  And a very noisy rutting deer of some type that had no peace, with much grunting and gnashing of teeth all night.  We thought it was a koala, boy were we wrong!





We finally saw a flock of seven turquoise parrots in the magic of the golden afternoon light, they feed quietly and inconspicuously on the ground, with the most decorous behaviour, unlike other raucous parrot-cousins.  Their colours were simply brilliant--I'd call them sapphire, emerald and topaz parrots, myself.














The restless flycatchers kept us in good company, snatching bugs from the mid-air, and milling around our campsite with very companionable "zzzting" noises.

The deep blue colours of the Azure kingfisher are somewhat astonishing when you see them darting about next to a still spot on the river.  We were happy to see two of these little guys (or guy and gal, hopefully!), chasing each other under a little overhanging bank next to a pool.









Another prize find, we spotted these plum-headed finches on the drive home, when we stopped along a road next to a vineyard near Girraween National Park, where we've had good birding luck before.  These birds cooperatively rested and gave us a great look.  It's the only time we've ever seen this species of finch, so they're not common near us.







Awww... there were dozens of kangaroos and wallabies lounging all about in the shade of the sparse trees in the grassy meadows.  The several little joeys we saw were adorable, we think these are Eastern Gray Kangaroos.  

One of our favourite birds are the grey-crowned babblers.  They are one of the social Aussie birds, living communally in a small family party.  They travel about together, noisily chattering and babbling to each other as they busily forage about.  They have a big stick nest that they all commune in together, and raise chicks cooperatively.














Another social bird, the Apostlebirds also live together in a family group, travelling about in a gregarious manner, chattering and wheezing noisily.  Very fun birds to see and watch.  We are not sure what this bunch was doing in the road but they provided a good look!








A "wow" sunset at Sunset!  Nancy searched unsuccessfully for platypus in the "Broadwater," while Dirk stayed in camp to photograph the pretty sky and rainbow. We didn't have much rain, though, it was quite dry, and seemed like it had been awhile since much rain had fallen, though we saw signs of the 2011 floods, with great piles of wooden debris many meters from the current riverbed, indicating the extent of the floods.  The now-dry driftwood made a fabulous campfire, with minimal effort involved in firewood collection.

We were quite excited to see a Frogmouth (they are NOT owls) during our night-spotting tour.  We thought he/she might be a marbled frogmouth given his reddish-orange eyeshine, but the habitat is not right (they live in subtropical rainforest) so he must be a more common tawny frogmouth.  During the daytime these birds are camoflauge artists extraordinaire, remarkably striking poses so that they resemble a broken branch, complete with mottled bark and lichens.








The man with a plan for the capturing the wily pardalote in action (see result, below).  Pardalotes are not known as being "cooperative" photographic subjects.  They are tiny and "highly caffienated" (Dirk's words).   They are stubborn in flitting about at high speed, HIGH up in the canopy, and being approximately the size of a eucalyptus leaf, they are often hidden from view, and difficult both to spot and to keep track of.  They do have a distinctive loud call for such a tiny bird, so sometimes we're able to pinpoint them by their calls (or at least find the tree they are in!).  But for such beautiful little gems, they're not nearly vain enough about wanting to get their picture taken!

(Monopod allows use of big glass and better-beamer with chicken arm!)

A juvenile spotted pardalote, not quite prime plumage, but still quite striking!


















Weekend bird list--60 spp
courtesy of E-Bird: http://www.ebird.org  check it out!
Little Black Cormorant                           
Little Pied Cormorant                           
White-faced Heron                           
Masked Lapwing                           
Peaceful Dove                           
Galah                           
Little Lorikeet                           
Crimson Rosella                           
Eastern Rosella                           
Pale-headed Rosella                           
Turquoise Parrot                           
Australian King-Parrot                           
Red-winged Parrot                           
Southern Boobook                           
Tawny Frogmouth                           
Azure Kingfisher                           
Laughing Kookaburra                           
White-throated Treecreeper                           
White-browed Treecreeper                           
Brown Treecreeper                           
Superb Fairywren                           
Variegated Fairywren                           
White-eared Honeyeater                           
White-plumed Honeyeater                           
Noisy Miner                           
Brown-headed Honeyeater                           
Blue-faced Honeyeater                           
Noisy Friarbird                           
Striped Honeyeater                           
Spotted Pardalote                           
Striated Pardalote                           
Speckled Warbler                           
Yellow Thornbill                           
Weebill                           
Gray-crowned Babbler                           
Black-faced Woodswallow                           
Dusky Woodswallow                           
Gray Butcherbird                           
Australasian Magpie                           
Pied Currawong                           
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike                           
Golden Whistler                           
Rufous Whistler                           
Gray Shrike-Thrush                           
Willie-wagtail                           
Gray Fantail                           
Magpie-lark                           
Restless Flycatcher                           
Australian Raven                           
White-winged Chough                           
Apostlebird                           
Jacky-winter                           
Hooded Robin                           
Eastern Yellow Robin
Rose Robin                         
Mistletoebird                           
Diamond Firetail                           
Red-browed Firetail                           
Plum-headed Finch                           
Double-barred Finch