Lamington National Park 31/07/2015

During a quick trip up to the Gold Coast this week, we decided to take the opportunity to visit Lamington National Park. The main aim was to see some of the rich birdlife that the Queensland Hinterland is renowned. We left Redlands area in the late afternoon and passed through Beaudesert and Canungra before a 35klm climb up a very winding road up to O'rielly's Ranforest Retreat. We arrived around 7.00pm in the evening to a slightly misty cool evening and an almost full moon.

Since our stay was one night only, next morning to orient ourselves we decided to take the early morning birdwalk - a short walk around the Guesthouse and the surrounding rainforest, starting at 6:45am the walk is a great introduction to the birds of the surrounding area. 

Walking track at O'Reilly's Forest Retreat

Out front of O'Reilly's Retreat the bird action didn't disappoint with Regent and Satin Bowerbirds, Crimson Rosellas and King Parrots to greet us..

Regent Bowerbird

 

Regent Bowerbirds

 

King Parrot

 

Female Bowerbird

 As we progressed along the walking tracks we passed by unattended bowers, these being situated quite close to O'Reilly's, it seems the birds here are not too perturbed by the presence of humans, probably because of the reliable food source around the resource.

Bower

 Unfortunately no sign of the Satin Bowerbird in his Bower. Further along the walk the presence of numerous other forest birds didn't disappoint, birds sighted included, White-browed Scrubwren, Yellow-throated Scrubwren,  Eastern Yellow Robin, Eastern Whipbird, Lewins Honeyeater, Female Golden Whistler..

White-browed Scrubwren

Yelllow-throated Scrubwren

Eastern Yelllow Robin

Eastern Whipbird

 

Lewins Honeyeater

Progressing further along the track we were rewarded with presence of two Logrunners scrummaging through the wet sclerophyll forest floor, they didn't mind our presence whatsoever.
A lifer for me and great to see these pretty little birds!

Logrunner

Logrunner

Moving along, our guide suggested we might be lucky and see a Noisy Pitta, sure enough a little further along the track there it was standing quietly just off the walking track, since it was so dark in the forest in the early morning, getting a good shot proved difficult, luckily he remained still long enough for me to capture the following images, exposure was 1/8 sec @ f/5.6 ISO 2000.

Noisy Pitta

Noisy Pitta

Seeing the Noisy Pitta and Logrunners a real highlight and bother lifers for me on this trip! After breakfast around 9.30am, we did the Treetops walk and a few other walking tracks for an hour or so and didn't see a great deal other than Yellow Thornbills, Yellow Robins, Whipbirds and another Logrunner, but no sign of a Riflebird, Catbird or Alberts Lyrebid! I decided head back to the Bower to see if the Satin Bowerbird might be around and there he was, woohoo!

Satin Bowerbird attending his bower

A short and sweet half day at O'reilly's was richly rewarded, we then headed down to the
mountain and stopped off at the Canungra Hotel for a spot of lunch.

Canungra Hotel

 Sitting out in the beer garden enjoying our lunch I noticed a fair bit of bird activity in the nearby trees, so I reached for the camera and got another lifer, a Blue-faced Honeyeater.

Blue-faced Honeyeater

 
All in all (being it was a last minute decision to drive to Lamington from the Gold Coast),  the trip exceeded all expectations!! Well worth it and several lifers for me to boot!

Russell Island 30/07/2015

On Thursday 30th of July 2015 I had the opportunity to travel to Russell Island Queensland, a half day trip,  it quickly became evident that Russell Island is a great birding location. Russell Island in Redland City is the biggest of the Southern Moreton Bay Islands, situated between the mainland and North Stradbroke Island in the state of Queensland, Australia. The island is eight kilometres long (north-to-south) and nearly three kilometres wide.

Access is via an efficient Ferry service from Redlands making its way to Russell Island - Macleay Island - Karragarra Island and Lamb Island, about 15 minute journey.


Russell Island Ferry

A quick walk around the town revealed many birds and obviously a great birding location: Noisy Friarbirds flitting around the tree canopy around the town were in healthy numbers.

Noisy Friarbird

Driving around the Island we stopped at several locations, where to my surprise Bush Stone-curlews in groups of 2 - 3 appeared unperturbed by our presence, going about there business of resting during the daylight hours.

Bush Stone-curlew


Whilst our visit was short, it was well worth the effort and now looking forward to returning to spend more time in the future.