232) Birds in Blooms

New Holland Honeyeater

You'd strike a superman-showoff pose, too, if you looked like one of these dashing birds!  As we entered into Giraween National Park there was a frenzy of activity as the New Holland Honeyeaters darted about, enjoying the nectar from a variety of blooming Banksias.  It's a wonder these guys managed to stay still for the split second needed to capture their portrait.

White-naped Honeyeater

Apostlebird

There are three honeyeaters which look very similar.  The field mark for White-naped Honeyeater is the bright red crescent above their eye.  White-throated Honeyeaters look almost exactly the same, but have a blue crescent above their eyes, as do Black-chinned Honeyeaters.  But the Black-chinned Honeyeaters, as you may guess, have black chins, but are also quite rare.







Apostlebirds are companionable social birds.  We love to hear them nattering about, rough and tumble birds.

Little Lorikeet  

We were very pleased to find these Little Lorikeets in winter-blooming Eucalypts. We have heard them before and glimpsed their silhouettes as they flash past overhead at just under Mach 1. We were wondering if they ever actually stop flying! But here they were mixed in with the both Musk and Ray-loes (aka Rainbow Lorikeets).  The lorikeets have brush-tipped tongues to eat both the pollen and nectar from the blooms.

Musk Lorikeet

The Musk Lorikeets were another 'legendary' bird--we didn't think they truly existed, but here they were.  We still marvel that trees bloom year-round, here, and the birds are able to follow and find the blooms among the vastness of the terrain they must need to cover.

The Rose Robins are moving down from the higher-elevation rainforest, and lighting up the open woods where we can enjoy their beauty...












...the female Rose Robins are a bit more subdued with just a hint of delicate pink.

This group of White-winged Choughs were hanging out in our campground.  One bird was the leader, and one bird was sweep--they kept an eye on everyone in between them, calling back and forth to keep contact.















Every bird is our favourite until the next one comes along, but we can't resist exclaiming over the exquisiteness of the Diamond firetails...we were lucky to see several on this trip, only a few birds at a time, though.

Diamond Firetail

231) When the Red, Red Robin comes bop bop bobbin' along

Scarlet Robin

Winter is closing in here Down Under and birds are on the move. The shorebirds have largely left on their huge migrations north. The locals are also moving about - from south to the warmer northern climes, and down from the higher elevations to the coast and lower areas. We headed to Sundown NP via Girraween and were super excited to see this Scarlet Robin flitting about, snatching bugs from a farm paddock. We see them very rarely as we are on the northern edge of their range.  Their plumage is nearly fluorescent, it's that vivid!  This was the first robin of our weekend robin tour.  Just as an aside, the only commonality between global 'robins' is is their sometimes reddish-hued breast.  They are different genera--American robins are thrushes, European robins are chats, and Australasian robins are in the genus Petroica, a genus with unclear relationships to other bird families. 
 

Hooded Robin

Arriving at Sundown, we fairly quickly spotted a Hooded Robin and his lady-friend who are either moving through or are there for the winter.  They are generally not known to be migrants, but we've only seen them at Sundown in winter.

Eastern Yellow Robin

Rose Robin

But we were on a Robin roll and soon picked up on Eastern Yellow Robin who seemed to gleefully follow us around - something we are used to in the rainforest here!  They're fun to photograph because they also seem to like to pose prettily and close-by.

Also on the move are the Rose Robins.  We haven't seen them for a while, but were lucky to spot two at Sundown NP.  According to eBird, their 'detectability' increases in the wintertime.  They prefer the rainforest in the summer months where they are hard to see, but then move into more open forest like in Sundown in the wintertime.  This photo was taken elsewhere as these guys are quick and it's hard to get a good picture!

Mistletoebird

Ok, well not a robin but the flashing red of the Mistletoebird initially *looks* that way. These guys are t-i-n-y and hang out in dense clumps of mistletoe and eat the berries. Easy enough to identify by call, but hard to locate and photograph because they're quite zippy, too.

230 More from the New 'Hood'

Pale-yellow Robin

Pale-Yellow Robin

We went exploring more in our new neighborhood, venturing up to Mt Nebo in D'Aguilar National Park.  It was a glorious autumn day, with a bit of a nip in the air, clear blue skies, and lots of sunshine.  We first went looking for a spotted quail thrush that had been recently sighted, but weren't lucky to spot one today--we'll try another time, because this place made us happy.  Lots of singing birds, some new faces, and some old familiar ones.  We stopped at the fabulous Cafe Boombana for take-out breakfast--divine banana bread and chai latte--then ate surrounded by Bunya pines and nice, old-fashioned stone shelters around the picnic tables at Maiala picnic ground. We've only seen Pale-yellow robins a few times, although they're supposed to be common.  These robins were up on the Maiala loop track, a nice rainforesty walk where we heard Wompoo fruit doves, catbirds, and bowerbirds.

Brown Gerygone

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

We saw lots of Brown Gerygones today...another bird that supposed to be common, but we were happy to finally get a positive id on these guys. Thornbill-sized, and extremely active, they're not so cooperative at staying still long enough to get a good look, let alone enough to focus a camera.  









Many  Yellow-faced Honeyeaters high in the canopy requiring careful sifting to see if any less frequent species had snuck into the flock.




















We we pleased to get a good ID on the Buff-rumped Thornbill. We have seen them but they are small, high-up and fast - a bad combination for getting the detail of the white eye-ring!

Bell Miner

When the bird you hope to photograph won't show what do you do? Take more pictures of the terribly accommodating Grey Fantails that follow you around and invite you to take pics! They seem inquisitive, boisterous and are quite happy to pose!


















We also dipped on another bird we hoped to find at the Wivenhoe lookout, a red-browed treecreeper.  But there were lots of Bell miners to keep us company.  They look a bit sad, but we love the colors of these birds--bright green with bright orange beaks and legs and a triangle behind their eyes.  And their cheerful 'tink-tink' resounds through the forest.

229) Portrait day

Scaly Lorikeet

Although we have some great sites nearby up here in Brisbane, we do miss the Scalie Lorikeets that came to the baths on our back deck. This fine fellow found breakfast in a tree at Sandy Camp Road.

Darter

Comb-crested Jacana

Its the season for the youngsters and boy, that is a face only a parent could love! But the adults back feathers are glorious.





















I can't resist Jacanas with their giant lilly-pad hopping feet. We thought they were insectivores until we got home and saw the fish!

 Nancy and Molly enjoying a snooze in the sun!

228) Shorebird schooling

Eastern Curlews

One of Nancy's fellow PhD inmates requested volunteers to help with a shorebird count up in the Great Sandy Straits of Moreton Bay, where they spend the North American winter (our summer).  The shorebirds are now preparing to fly back north to their summer breeding grounds. We are shorebird novices.  Shorebirds are usually not that accessible to look at, and since most of them aren't in breeding plumage when they're in this hemisphere, they all look alike to many people--various sized birds in shades of grey and brown. So although we doubted we would be much help in the actual count, we went along to keep Rob company and to learn and contribute what we could.

Many birds - something like seven species in this photo! ...we got the 3 Pied Cormorants, 1 Pied Oystercatcher, 1 Eastern Curlew, many Bar-tailed Godwits, and what else?

Rob rented a dingy to approach the roosts from water, both because they are hard to get to, and from the water, we hoped to cause less disturbance to the birds.  In this case, the high tide concentrated the birds on this sandbar (this is only a small section of the sandbar) , where it would be easier for us to count them before they then dispersed to feed in the mudflats as the tide dropped. The first problem is simply estimating a number of birds, before you even try to distinguish species. It takes practice as there are often 600-2500 birds (or more) so you have to develop the skill of estimating without counting. In case they fly before you're done counting, they idea is to start with rough numbers and then refine it if you have more time.

Red-necked stints, Gull-billed terns, Greater and Lesser Plovers

Pied Oystercatcher and Bar-tailed Godwit

 It was great to see small groups of Pied Oystercatchers. Since ANYbody could identify these guys, we were happy to provide counts of them!

Bar-tailed Godwits (breeding and non-breeding plumage,
Red Knots, Great Knots

The next problem is identifying the birds that look - well really similar, to novices like us. I mean REALLY similar. It was a good lesson and surely it would get easier with more practice (like a few years spend peering through scopes at thousands of birds....)



Although we were pleased to see more Red Knots than we expected, unfortunately the weekend count was disturbing for curlews.  Ten years ago surveyors estimated 18,000 Eastern Curlews here; over the weekend we saw less than 2000. There are not that many other places they could be...  Key spots on the East Australasian Flyway have been lost to development and dams on the rivers are preventing sediments from moving downstream and replenishing deltas... If the mudflats are gone, birds can't refuel by feeding in the along the way, and they may not survive the several thousand kilometer journey from Australia to Siberia and Alaska.  

Red-backed Fairywren

Royal Spoonbill in breeding plumage

Definitely not a shorebird, there were also some of our other bush faves - It is impossible to not take a photo of these guys when they drop in and pose!


















Closer to 'home,' it's portrait time at Sandy Camp wetland!

227) Transitioning

Brown Thornbill

Comb-crested Jacana

We are transitioning between living on the Gold Coast and Brisbane, so of course we need to say 'hello' to new birds in new places, and 'good-bye' to some of our friends in places we are leaving behind.  We left the packing and research pressures behind for a short time last weekend and went for a walk up at 'The Gap.'  Only 20 minutes or so from our new home, it was a place we'd been wanting to go to, but was prohibitively far when we lived on the Gold Coast.  We were proud of ourselves for identifying one of the tricky LBBs, a Brown Thornbill, even before Dirk took the great confirmatory ID picture.

Spotless Crake

Red-browed Finch

The comb-crested Jacanas are superbly skilled at 'walking on water'--with those big gangly feet, they can spread their weight across the lily pads as they run around looking for aquatic insects.

Lace Monitor

Dirk has become highly skilled at spotting secretive crakes.  We were chuffed to be (as far as we can tell) the first eBirders to document a Spotless Crake at this locale.














These little finches are firetails, too. 




















This big Lace Monitor was lumbering across the grassy picnic area at Bellbird Grove (where there were no Bellbirds or even Bell Miners).  He was being chased by a Bush Turkey, who perhaps was concerned about the lizard eating turkey eggs for breakfast.  The male turkey scratches together an admirably large compost pile in which the female lays her eggs.  He monitors the temperature over time with his beak, adding or subtracting more debris as needed to maintain just the right warmth level.  When the eggs have incubated long enough, the chicks pop out of the pile, ready to face the world on their own.  What a fantastical place this is!

Purple Swamphen

Dirk knows how much I love the Purple swamphens.  Even though they're quite common, he humored me and took a nice picture, even including this bird's flicky white tail.  Part of the reason I like them so much is their glorious purple colour, and the fact that their scientific name is Latin for 'Purple purple' (Porphyrio porphyrio).  Despite appearances, though, they can be quite aggressive.  I took it upon myself to yell at one the other day that was blithely trying to stand on his former buddy's head and force him under the water.  WTF?!

Magpie Goose

Another superb 'spotting' by Dirk, we were thrilled to find that our Magpie Goose friends  are raising a family at our little local wetland down on the Gold Coast.  But it's bittersweet that we're leaving the wetland behind and won't be able to keep an eye on our bird friends there anymore.  The Magpie Geese are superb parents, and kept a close eye on Dirk as he worked at getting photos.  Luckily he has a big lens so didn't need to disturb them.  The wetland is tiny, and so are the chicks, so we wanted to make sure they had enough space not to get worried. (Update - two weeks later there were only 2 chicks.)

Magpie Goose

The one submerged rock in the place is a popular hangout for many of the resident birds there (ducks and cormorants and dusky moorhens and Magpie geese!).

Superb Fairy-wren (female)

Here's another lady we'll miss seeing at our wetland, one of our buddies, the cheeky fairy-wrens.  With her chestnut-shaded mask, we think she's a real beauty.

Black-breasted Button-quail

We made one last try at Inskip Point to find the Black-breasted Button Quail which has eluded us a number of times. Nancy first located one and later we were able to watch 2 females scratching their characteristic platelets deep in a thicket. No clear photo ops here!

Yellow Wagtail

Lastly, Ebird-Eremea listed an area rarity at a Brisbane wetland. The Yellow Wagtail is found worldwide but seen quite rarely in OZ. This fellow has been seen at this site for about a week so we headed over to see him. He is largely a N hemisphere bird so he is a little out of his normal range. There there seemed to be plenty to eat and the rows of birders (literally) couldn't crowd him.

226) Escape to Sundown

Grey-crowned Babbler

The world has been presenting itself in a stressful manner so we decided to head to one of our favorite hideouts - Sundown National Park. The park itself is not spectacular, the woods are mostly regrowth, the river is not running now and it's damn hot (but blissfully empty of people and noise). So why go? One word-- Babblers! 

These social birds (Grey-crowned and White- browed seen on this trip) demand a smile as they gleefully fling leaves, bark and detritus all around in the search for bugs. There is always a scout out ahead as they traverse the forest, and an 'over-watch' up in a tree watching over the foragers. This trip we were treated to numerous instances of group grooming behavior and what I can only describe as a 'dog-pile' of babblers all companionably sitting on top of each other! Their constant babbling and 'yahoo' duetting  are simply a joy. Over two days we ran across multiple groups and even sat with one flock while we all ate lunch!

We also found another marvelous social bird - the Apostle Bird who merrily (and nosily!) rummage in the litter. No skulking about for these guys!

I was very pleased to get a good look and a photo of a Striped Honeyeater. We see them rarely and usually quite high up in the canopy. After making us wait patiently while standing in the sun for way too long, this fellow finally came out of the leaves and showed us his dramatically stripey head.

A Jacky winter perching on the fence line at the end of a fine day of birding.

Another great surprise were little bunches of Speckled Warblers. We have seen them only rarely--out in the Stanthorpe area on bird surveys, and once in a Brisbane bushland. Nancy was a great spotter as I tried to get close enough for a good photo - if one bird was uncooperative, she could quickly locate another, as they travelled about in flocks of two or three.
















Another nice sighting for us is the Crested Shrike-tit. This fellow was searching the bark for bugs so he provided good poses.  We heard him noisily rummaging about in the bark on the branches above us before we spotted him.
















..a little difficulty getting a very large bug down!















Another highlight was a flock of 12 Diamond Firetails - simply amazing in the sunlight. There was a small water source and the birds moved from feeding to high branches to water - repeat!  We can't get over how beautiful these little finches are.

Not to be outdone, two Double-Barred finches came over to see what the ruckus was about.



















All in all a fantastic getaway to all things birdy.  Eighty-two different species of birds-- many of our favorite birds with great personalities, plus dozens of kangaroos lazily lounging about in the peace and quiet, lace monitors patrolling the remnant waterhole--what a wonderful place!