Lamington National Park birding trip

We had to gently explain to our beautiful guest that we do not feed the wildlife here

A  male regent bowerbird sitting on our picnic table and a dispute between a rosella and a bird of paradise were two of the memorable events at our first birding trip for 2012  to the O’Reilly’s section of  Lamington National Park.

Red-browed finches, crimson rosellas and king parrots awaited us when we first alighted from the tour vehicle, the finches seeking scraps from the parrot-feeding area.

Our walk through the forest to the treetopsproduced the usual three species of scrubwren (white-browed, yellow-throated and large-billed), brush turkey, eastern yellow robin  and logrunner. We could hear noisy pittas, black-faced monarchs and eastern whipbirds but failed to spot them.  We did also see lewin’s honeyeaters, brown thornbills, pied currawongs and satin bowerbirds.

In the botanic gardens section was either a female or an immature male paradise riflebird (the world’s only subtropical bird of paradise) having some kind of dispute with a crimson rosella in one of the trees.

rifledbird&rosella

The riflebird seemed to have the most formiddable ‘weapon’ but suddenly flew off to another group of trees.

Our picnic was keenly watched by several birds, and we were joined by the beautiful fellow in the picture above, but he finally got  the message that we weren’t feeding him.

A stroll down Wishing tree track to the little swinging bridge above the pretty gully of  treeferns revealed either a Bassian thrush or a russet-tailed thrush (we saw him to briefly to be sure), a red-legged pademelon (they don’t come out of the forest as often as the red-necked) and finally a glimpse of the monarch.

Bridge in ferny gully, Wishing Tree Track

Our birdlist for O’Reilly’s that day included  paradise riflebird, regent bowerbird, satin bowerbird, green catbird, eastern whipbird (heard), logrunner, yellow-throated scrubwren, white-browed scrubwren, largebilled scrubwren, brown thornbill, black-faced monarch, noisy pitta (heard), Lewin’s honeyeater, eastern spinebill, thrush (russet-tailed or Bassian), rufous fantail, red-browed finch, pied currawong, Australian magpie (in the open grassy area), Torresian crow (ditto), crimson rosella, king parrot, wonga pigeon, white-headed pigeon (heard), fan-tailed cuckoo (heard) and (of course) brush turkey.

We called at Eagleby Wetlands on our return trip to Brisbane, where we saw a pair of swans with young cygnets (they may look like ducklings but we agreed they were not ‘ugly’)

Swans and cygnets at Eagleby Wetlands January 2012

Other birds we saw that day at Eagleby included azure kingfisher sitting prominently on an exposed tea-tree branch above the water, greater egret, cattle egret, wood duck, hardhead duck, black duck, grey teal, purple swamphen, dusky moorhen, Eurasian coot, masked lapwing, little black cormorant, darter, rainbow lorikeet, crested pigeon, welcome swallow, noisy miner, magpielark and red-backed fairy-wren.

Walking is the only way you’ll visit this area – there are no roads, and I recall it as my first experience, in my early teens, of looking out across a landscape that is probably much the same as the Aboriginals viewed long before the coming of white explorers.

Last month Darren and I walked from Binna Burra to the circuit(altogether the walk is more of a “figure 9″ than a circuit, coming back along the stem on the return journey) with two keen bird photographers from USA and two students from Griffith University.

This is a great walk for variety of habitat.  It could be done in three hours on energetic walking, but then you would miss so much of what makes it special.

The routes starts in the warm subtropical rainforests of the Border Track from Binna Burra  but you see changes in the forest as you gradually (very gently) climb upwards (e.g. more treeferns), then start heading down again.

There is one little gully apparently kept just a bit cooler than the surrounding area by the water running through and the local wind pattern, so I was surprised when I first saw  Antarctic beech trees growing here – they are more typical of the cool, high-altitude rainforest

As the rock type changes from basalt to rhyolite you find yourself walking through open forest.

A little further you can either follow the sign that points towards Dave’s Creek or (as we often prefer) head to the left to do the circuit in the opposite direction.

Suddenly you come across Surprise Rock looming up from the forest – a good spot to sit for a mid-morning snack

The view from here is great, and that day we had some very active spinebills nearby feeding on banksia flowers

One part of the cliff gives a new meaning to “rockface” and seems awed by the view

Another 20 minutes’ walk brings you suddenly to a very resistant type of rhyolite which supports only mallee heath.

This day it was alive with spinebills and Lewin’s honeyeaters feasting on banksia nectar

There’s a bit of relentless uphill walking on the return journey, but not really steep, and it’s pleasant to sit for a while and take a break while surrounded by forest.  And certainly worth it to experience the variety of habitat and scenery on this route.

The cold mornings don’t make it feel like springtime just yet,but birds and other animals seem to be getting ready for the breeding season.  For winter-breeders, like the osprey and the lyrebird, it is already nearly over, but others are just stirring now.

Last week we arrived at Eagleby just in time to see a pair of very amorous swans.

In the rainforest along the Border Track near Binna Burra early this week, we heard a strange grunting and saw two female red-necked wallabies pursued by an excited male.

Somewhere in the distance the strange wailing Siamese-cat calls of the green catbirds was another sign of things stirring – you just don’t hear them much during winter.

Spotted pardalote at Daves Creek

Further down the track towards Daves Creek was a spotted pardalote which hopped around the shrubs in the open forest.  Usually you hear these gorgeous little birds all day and never see them, as they pursue insects way overhead in the canopy of eucalypts and other trees. Since this one stayed so long in the shrubs  I assume he (or she) was waiting for u to leave so eh could on with burrowing into a soil bank to make a nest (extraordinary to think of these tiny birds with their tiny bills doing this).

Eastern spinebills flitted around nearby, feasting on banksia nectar, every now and then a couple pairing off for a dash through the air, typical of honeyeaters in courtship mode.

Regent bowerbird at O'Relilys

The following day we visited another section of Lamington National Park, at O’Reilly’s Guest House.  Two weeks earlier we had searched unsuccessfully for bowerbirds, which generally head down into the valleys for winter (although we occasionally saw a female or young male that had stayed on the mountain during the cold months).  This time, I was just explaining to our guests that we were unlikely to see many, if any at all, when I saw a brilliant flash of yellow go past and sure enough, it was actually a male regent. Excitedly, I dashed over, still holding a handful of corn chips which were part of my rather unhealthy breakfast that morning (we had left Brisbane at 4.30am), and suddenly there were three regents on my arm stealing the chips.  I’m not sure whether the staff member who came out of the lodge with a handful of raisins believed me when I said the feeding had not been intentional (especially when some of the birds that came to him were diverted by the striking  colour of my chips and repeated the performance).  A little embarrassing, and I wanted to tell him that I had actually written and spoken publicly about not feeding the wrong foods to birds, and had written about this in a policy on tourist-wildlife interactions for Wildlife Tourism Australia, but he walked off before I had a chance to do so.

Satin bowerbirds

There were plenty of satin bowerbirds around also – here is one of the adult males with either an adult female or an immature male (difficult to tell until the males start changing colour with maturity – and they take a few years to do so).

We were told that one of the bowers near the lodge had been demolished by a brush turkey and the bowerbird had rebuilt it, but at 90 degrees to its original orientation.  Was this to somehow make it more difficult for the brush turkey?  Easier for the female? An artistic expression he thought more attractive?  A different bird doing it? Or he really didn’t care which way it faced?

satin bowerbird bower

For those who are not aware, the bower is the male’s clever and artistic little structure (which takes him some practice to perfect) to attract the female.  It is not a nest – she builds this and raises the brood on her own while he attracts more females to his bower.

We’re looking forward to more and more bird activity as spring really gets going.