Part
II. Brisbane
This continues the blog of an Easter 1986 trip to Australia, based on scant notebook entries and vague memories and illustrated with digitised images of degraded slides taken at the time.
I’d landed in Brisbane after dark on 17 March. I collected my bags and phoned Chris Corben, a birding contact who I hoped I might be able to stay with before going to Lamington. How helpful he was to prove was beyond my expectations but it was not an encouraging start t ber told he
and Tony Palliser were out spotlighting with Paul Noakes. I was invited around anyway and got a
taxi to their house where I was very kindly put up. Chris, Tony and Paul returned having had an
excellent spotlighting session seeing Sooty Owl and Tawny Frogmouth. I was very gripped. Paul was a trainee doctor spending some time working
in a hospital in Brisbane but fortuitously had some time off. Coincidently we both intended going to
Lamington National Park for a few days and our plans would overlap in
Cairns. It made sense to team up where
we could and Paul was to prove an absolutely superb travelling companion.
On
18 March Paul and I caught a morning
bus south from Brisbane to O'Reilly's in Lamington National Park. We arrived early afternoon having seen
Laughing Kookaburras on the way. We
checked in to the camp-site and put our tents up while being distracted by
incredibly tame Brush Turkeys and Crimson Rosellas. It was a pleasant temperature, there did not
seem to be an abundance of biting insects and birds seemed tame and quite
numerous. Even the camp-site ground
was not that hard! I was pretty sure I
was going to enjoy this. We headed into
the forest on one of the trails and finished around the camp-site where some of
the more secretive species came out to feed at dusk. I saw nearly 30 new birds with highlights
Wonga Pigeon, male Paradise Riflebird, Satin and Regent Bowerbirds, Green
Catbird, White-browed and Yellow-throated Scrubwrens, both Bassian and
Russet-tailed Ground Thrushes and best of all 12+ Southern Logrunners (noted as
being ‘cosmic’ and not at all skulking as I was expecting them to be). The only disappointment was that the Superb
Fairywrens were in non-breeding plumage and nor were the Regent Bowerbirds.
 |
| Wonga Pigeon around the campsite |
 |
| |
 |
| Lamington campsite |
 |
| me with Lamington residents, they were quick to spot a free meal |
 |
| Brush Turkey |
 |
| they were a permanent feature of the campsite too |
We
spent a full day long the Border Trail at Lamington on
19 March hoping for Albert’s Lyrebird and Rufous Scrub-bird
(representatives of two small endemic families which occurred from about three
hours out).
I saw one of the former well
and another badly and we thought we might have heard the Scrub-bird which was,
unlike most other species at Lamington, notoriously skulking.
Other birds seen included many of those seen
the previous day (e.g. 30 Southern Logrunners!), 10 White-throated Needletails
over a lookout, King Parrot, Topknot and Wonga Pigeons, an excellent female
Paradise Riflebird, Eastern Whipbird, White-throated Tree-creeper and 6
stunning Easter Spinetails.
A superb day
even if we had some unfinished business with Rufous Scrub-bird.
 |
| Lamington Border Trail views |
 |
| me along the Border Trail |
 |
| identification problems back at the campsite |
 |
| too close to use my binoculars, this Crimson Rosella came to my aid and quickly pointed itself out in my field guide |
 |
| smart birds |
 |
| even though some were not adverse to a bit of thieving |
 |
| while others tried a bit of tug of war |
 |
| they were certainly very photogenic |
We
were almost half-way through our visit to Lamington and as it was the only
site I was visiting where Noisy Pitta could be expected I was getting a bit
anxious as neither of us had seen or heard one (and Paul was very sharp even
if I was not). We decided to spend the 20 March going down to the waterfall
and save a return along the Border Trail for our last day. This proved a good move as we saw a Noisy
Pitta on the edge of the camp-site, the first of three I saw well during the day. We also saw White-headed and Wonga Pigeons,
Satin and Regent Bowerbirds (still no adult males of the latter), Eastern
Whipbird, Green Catbird, Bassian Ground Thrush, Spotted Pardalote and
Red-browed Firetail. I was still
enjoying Southern Logrunners (seeing another 16) and managed to sit in a ravine
for five minutes or more before realising there was a python three metres
away. How unobservant was that! A squirrel glider after dark was fun but we
had no luck with night birds.
 |
| Lamington waterfall |
 |
| the Carpet Python it took me five minutes to notice! |
 |
| another Carpet Python |
 |
| Laughing Kookaburra |
 |
| Australian Magpie |
 |
| Pied Butcherbird |
 |
| Pied Currawong |
 |
| Bassian Ground Thrush |
 |
| Red-shouldered Pachymelon |
 |
| Satin Bowerbird |
 |
| and its bower with a few blue ornaments |
 |
| sunset from Lamington |
On
21 March we headed out early along
the Border Trail seeing another 12 Southern Logrunners, a good flight view of a
Noisy Pitta and a not so good flight view of an Albert’s Lyrebird. We arrived at the scrub-bird area earlier
than previously and heard three birds calling.
We concentrated on the closest and after some time I saw its head very
well and the rest of it badly. Just as
well the head was the best bit! On the
way back we saw 2 Crested Shrike-Tits and 3 Black-faced Monarchs. We packed up our tents, enjoyed more amazing
views of the Brush Turkeys and Crimson Rosellas and caught the evening bus back
to Brisbane. I saw a Tawny Frogmouth briefly
by the road on the way - not the views I had hoped for of such an unusual
looking bird. Back in Brisbane we
returned to Chris Corben’s house where we discussed where we might all go
birding the next day (a Saturday). It
was decided that Girraween offered the best prospects.
 |
| views from the Border Trail |
 |
| Lewin's Honeyeater raiding the sugar bowl in the campsite cafe |
We
were up well before dawn on 22 March
and heading inland for Girraween, about a three hour drive and near the border
with New South Wales. I am not sure that I have
ever had such a mind-blowing day. I saw
over 80 species of which half were new – a lot of new birds to take in, too many if I'm honest. More so as several times Chris or Tony found
a new bird for me before I’d finished looking at the last one. They were red hot and by the end of a long
day I was hard pushed to remember exactly what I’d seen and some of their finer
identification points. All thoughts of
taking photos went out of the window, it was all I could do, and sometimes
more, to keep up. Highlights for me were
Black Swan(!), Musk Duck, Common Bronzewing, Crested Pigeon, Glossy-black
Cockatoo, Eastern Rosella, Red-rumped and Turquoise Parrots, Little Lorikeet, Red-browed
and Brown Treecreepers, 7 new Honeyeaters (including New Holland), female
Spotted Quail-thrush, Dusky Wood Swallow, Hooded and a superb male Scarlet
Robin, White-browed Babbler, Scarlet Honeyeater, Grey Butcherbird, White-winged
Chough, Southern Whiteface, Diamond Firetail and Plum-headed Finch. I did not see most of these species again on
the trip.
Tides
were good for a morning looking at waders and on 23 March Chris took Paul and myself to some coastal and
wetland sites around Brisbane, in particular Lytton, Brighton (home from home) and
Deception Bay. Highlights were my first
Black-fronted Dotterel, Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and Eastern Curlew, 250 Great
Knot (many in full breeding plumage), 30 Grey-tailed Tattlers, Crested and
Caspian Terns. Chestnut Teal, Diving
Whistling Duck and White-eyed Pochard were also new as were Australian Goshawk
and Mangrove Honeyeater. We headed for Mount
Nebo for an evening spotlighting seeing Barn Owl at dusk on the way. Disappointingly there was a rowdy barbie in the area where
they had seen Sooty Owl the previous week and attempts at playback there and
nearby were unsuccessful. We did spotlight
2 Boobooks and 7 Tawny Frogmouths, some of the latter giving amazing
views. Fortunately my disappointment at
seeing one badly when leaving Lamington had been short lived.
Paul
was back to work for a couple of days and then had booked a flight to
Cairns. I decided to take the bus, it
was quite a bit cheaper but took a day and a half and, frustratingly, I could not get a ticket for that
day. I spent two hours in Brisbane
Botanical Gardens on 24 March seeing
an Azure Kingfisher, 50 mostly juvenile Figbirds and 30 Grey-breasted
White-eyes amongst just 12 species. I then read a big chunk of Frank Herbert’s Dune while listening to Neil Young compilation tapes.
 |
| Brisbane City Centre |
On 25
March I caught the bus north along the coast to Cairns. I saw a few big and obvious birds from the
bus but it was often frustrating getting glimpses of things I could not be sure
of and some that I had no idea about. We
stopped at a garage/diner on the outskirts of Childers for an hour’s lunch
break and I wandered off around some grasslands seeing 20 cute Zebra Finches
and a superb male Spotted Harrier, both new for me. We continued on to Gladstone and north
through the night getting as far as Townsville by dawn and arriving feeling completely wrecked in Cairns
around mid-day.
