Papuan birders 2008 list

[Papuan birder]

January 1st
suburbs of Cairns, Queensland, north-east Australia

A very eventful day the first day of the New Year for me. Started up with some garden birding and scoping through the forests around our house for about an hour or so. Was then planning on going to Cairns and managed to make a few stops at a few lakes and grassland areas on the way.

1. Yellow Oriole
2. Rainbow Lorikeet (closeby garden, neigbhours feeding over 40 daily)
3. Scaly-breasted Lorikeet (5 turned up in the group with Rainbow Lorikeets)
4. Willie Wagtail
5. Leaden Flycatcher
6. Spangled Drongo
7. Torresian Crow
8. Australian pipit
9. Rufous songlark
10.Golden-headed Cisticola
11. House Sparrow
12. Black-shouldered Kite
13. Rock Dove
14. Brown Quail
15. Brown Honeyeater
16. Rufous Whistler
17. Australian Brush-turkey (1 heard in the morning, seen late in the afternoon)
18. Cattle Egret
19. Great Egret
20. little Egret
21. Rufous Night-heron
22. Dusky Moorhen
23. Buff-banded Rail
24. Manded Duck
25. Pacific Black Duck
26.Grey Teal
27. Darter
29. Pied Cormorant
30. Galah
31. Common Koel
32. Blue-winged Kookaburra
33.Red-browed Pardalote
34. Southern Boobook
35. Diamond Dove
36. Pacific Baza
37. Common Starling
38. Tawny Grassbird

[Papuan birder]

January 2
Suburbs of Cairns, Queensland, north-east Australia

As I saw large number of waterbirds around a lake north of Cairns on 1st January I decided to go back there, birded for roughly an hour and saw mostly the same species but a few new ones was added.

39. Bush-hen
40. Little Grassbird (unusual far north, apparently two birds present the last 2 weeks or so)
41. Black-chinned Honeyeater
42. Great-billed Heron
43. Laughing Kookaburra
44. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
45. Little Black Cormorant
46. Australian Pelican (just a single one)

[Papuan birder]

January 4th
Cooktown, Queensland, north-east Australia

A friend of mine from Sweden was are staying with me for the next two weekss, he has seen most of Australia already but had yet to visit some of the northernmost parts so I planned to take him to the northern tip of the continent, took the car to make it more funny. On 4th January we started our journey up north, first stop was Cooktown, I didnt see much during the drive north, and nothing new. Well in beutiful Cooktown I had about 30 minutes to bird while my freind was away buying food other supplements.

47. Black Swan
48. Collared kingfisher
49. Striated Pardalote
50. Wedge-tailed Shearwater
51. Sooty Tern

[Papuan birder]

January 5th
Lakefield National Park, Queensland, north-east Australia

After buying all neccesary stuff in Cooktown we slowly continued our journey northwards, and after a rough and long drive we finally arrived in Lakefield National Park, a place which I somewhat fall in love with Lakefield NP, its such a beutiful place. We tented about 2km outside the park. My swedish freind is very much into reptiles so he took of early in the morning. I didnt wake up before it was almost mid-day and I had no choice but head out in the field in search for birds, we would unfortunely leave Lakefield NP already the same day, it was very hot and sunny and I didnt see much, not much shelter and it was very though birding, I didnt see much but managed to get a few good ones, hard to find elsewhere.

We left Lakefield late in the afternoon.

52. Helmeted Friarbird
53. Red-winged Parrot
54. Wedge-tailed Eagle (a big, BIG bonus and something I didnt expect)
55. Zitting Cisticola (first one in Australia for me)
56. Masked Lapwing
57. Wandering Whistling-duck

[Papuan birder]

January 6th
Lakefield to Coen, Queensland, north-east Australia

We had left Lakefield late in the afternoon the day before to contiune our journey northwards to get to a small town named Coen, which meant that we had to drive mostly on pitch black roads to get to the town,which is located in the right in the middle of Cape York Peninsula.

We made several stops along the road during the night in search for night active animals, quite a risky operartion as several night actice snakes which is higly venomous is found in this area, we found several northern death adders and has a quite close encounter with one to my freind big joy.

We made totally 7 stops along the road which mean plenty of oppurtunities to search for night active birds. Will probably show to be the most rewarding night birding on this trip. We arrived in Coen early in the morning, was not much to see in this small town but we had decided to try and spend the day here and explore the area abit as well to get some well deserved sleep. There was several small freshwater lakes surrounded by large and open grassfields around Coen which seemed reabile for birds, I woke up in the afternoon and went out birding on my own.

58. Red-backed Buttonquail (my first ones in Australia)
59. Barking Owl
60. Australian Masked Owl
61. Tawny Frogmouth
62. Spotted Nightjar
63. Mistletoebird
64. Bar-shouldered dove
65. Peaceful Dove
66. Little Eagle
67. Hardhead
68. Radjah Shelduck
69. Plumed Whistling-duck
70. Magpie Goose
71. Great Cormorant
72. Yellow-tinted Honeyeater (few records from Cape York)
73. Little Friarbird
74. Lewins Honeyeater
75. Gouldian Finch (bird of the year so far)
76. Chestnut-breasted Mannikin
77. Pied Butcherbird
78. White-breasted Woodswallow
79. Australia Figbird
80. Magpie-lark
81. Grey-crowned Babbler
82. Graceful Honyeater

[Papuan birder]

January 7th
Mungkan Kandju National Park and closeby area north-east of MK NP, Queensland, north-east Australia

We left Coen early and the target this day was Mangkan Kandju National Park, located slighly north of Coen. We brought a man named John with us to Mungkan Kandju, he has has lived parts of his life inside the park and know every corner of it, and as there is very limited info about this park we soon realized that his knowledge proved valuable. We saw plenty of birds througout the day, but unfortunely very few new ones. We had seen most previous days outside Coen and in Lakefield NP. We did however see a good number of mammals and reptiles new for both me and my friend.

The whole day was spend in Mungkan Kandju, by the afternoon we drove John back to Coen and once again continued to drive north, tented about 4km north of the National Park, with strong hopes of reaching Iron Range NP already the next day.

83. King Quail
84. Great Bowerbird
85. White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike
86. White-throated Honeyeater
87. Blue-faced Honeyeater
88. Oriental Pratincole

A very meager list so far, I hope it will start to build up as we get too Iron Range National Park where we will be at least 4 days.

[Papuan birder]

Mammal list for 2008

I have several harmless traps spread across my garden to catch small mammals, reptiles, insects etc, has proven to be very sucesful

1. House Mouse (in my house)
2. Short-beaked Echidna (in my garden)
3. Brush-tailed Phascogale (Cairns Suburbs)
4. Eastern Blossom Bat (Cairns Suburbs)
5. Black-footed Tree Rat (Cairns Suburbs)
6. Red-cheeked Dunnart (in my garden)
7. Common Brushtail Possum (in my garden)
8. Black Flying-fox (outside Cooktown)
9. Spectacled Hare Wallaby (Lakefield NP)
10. Dingo (Lakefield NP)
11. Cape York Rock Wallaby (Lakefield NP, new species to me)
12. Northern Brown Bandicoot (between Lakefield and Coen)
13. Northern freetail Bat (between Lakefield and Coen)
14. Cinnamon Antechinus (between Lakefield and Coen, new species to me)
15. Common Ringtail Possum (between Lakefield and Coen)
16. Grassland Melomys (between Lakefield and Coen)
17. Agile Wallaby (between Lakefield and Coen)
18. Little Red Flying-fox (between Lakefield and Coen)
19. Antelope Wallaroo (Mungkan Kandju NP)
20. Northern Nailtail Wallaby (Mungkan Kandju NP)

[Papuan birder]

January 8th
Arriving in Iron Range NP, Queensland, north-east Australia

We left the tent site early in the morning, we was quite tired and none felt like driving any large distances but as we wanted to reach Iron Range NP (or at least close to it) the same day we forced ourself up and we was on our way. The road up to a few km north of Mungkan Kandju NP was in good condition but after some hour we had to turn down a road in less good shape, the car good stuck a few times and it took us several hours do drive the fairly short road, the road conditions is unusul bad we have been told now.

We stopped about half way along the road to sleep for some hour, and there after birded about an hour in a closeby forest. Was easy to notice that we now was in a area whith a rich birdlife. By the early evening we were really tired of driving and choosed to stop for the day, Barn owls heard near but none seen. We were happy with the day as we was only a few km from Iron Range NP and was excited about the next day

89. Northern Fantail
90. Shining Flycatcher
91. Restless Flycatcher
92. Black Kite
93. Lemon-bellied Flycatcher
94. Black Butcherbird
95. Olive-backed Sunbird
96. Singing Bushlark
97. White-winged triller
98. White-rumped Swiftlet
99. Brown-backed Honeyeater
100. Yello Honeyeater
101. Varied Sitella
102. Collared Sparrowhawk
103. Horsefield Bronze-cuckoo
104. White-throated Honeyeater

[Papuan birder]

January 9th
First day in Iron Range National Park, Queensland, north-east Australia

We wake up in the morning, left the car by the tent site and walked the last 6km as the road was in to bad condition to continue driving. The first day inside the park was amazing and we got a large number of species in our first day here, had lunch with us in the park and spend 6 hours of birding.

105. Pied Heron
106. Glossy Ibis
107. Purple swamphen
108. Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
109. Australian Reed-warbler (possibly Oriental)
110. Little Shrike-thrush
111. Olive-backed Oriole
112. Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
113. Varied Triller
114. Channel-billed cuckoo
115. Metallic Starling
116. Silvereye
117. Crimson Finch (the near endemic evangelinae race)
118. Double-barred Finch
119. Masked Finch
120. Welcome Swallow
121. Little Woodswallow
122. Yellow-breasted Boatbill
123. Grey Whistler
124. Eclectus Parrot (amazing views, first time in Australia for me)
125. Brush Cuckoo
126. White-streaked Honeyeater
127. Spotless crake
128. Little Pied Cormorant

[Papuan birder]

January 10th
Second day in Iron Range National Park, Queensland, north-east Australia

Was to be our second day in this park, we moved our tent 4km closer to the park entrence so that we didnt have to walk such a long way every time. We spend most of the morning around a large freshwater lake located about 1km before the park, we saw mostly waterbirds similar to the previous day, but a few new ones added. We birded the entire day in the park and mostly spend time in more open habitat in order to get some woodland species.

129. Eurasion coot
130. Intermediate Heron
131. Australian White ibis
132. Straw-necked ibis
133. Bush stone curlew
134. Brown Goshawk
135. Dusky honeyeater
136. broad-billed flycatcher
137. Black-faced Monarch
138. orange-footed scrubfowl
139. Yellow-legged flycatcher
140. Rufous fantail
141. Pied Currawong
142. Cicadabird
143. Yellow-spotted Honeyeater

[Papuan birder]

January 10th
Third day in Iron Range National Park, Queensland, north-east Australia

The third and one of the last days in the park, we started the day with two hours of night birding in order to get some owls and nightjars, was not very succesful as we had hoped and didnt get many species. Morning and mid day birding around the lake, birding in the forest during most of the daya and spend the last hours of daytime to bird along the coastal part of the park, we put up the tents north of the park early in the evening, quite tired so no time for night birding unfortunely.


144. Rufous Owl
145. Papuan Frogmouth
146. Australian Grebe
147. Green Pygmy Goose
148. Red-necked Rail
149. White-browed crake
150. Royal Spoonbill
151. Black-necked Stork
152. Osprey
153. Brown cuckoo-dove
154. Emerald dove
155. frill-necked Monarch
156. Red-backed Fairy-wren
157. Little kingfisher
158. Green-backed Honeyeater
159. Red-headed Myzomela
160. Banded honeyeater
161. Whistling kite
162. Red-footed booby
163. Lesser frigatebird
164. Mangrove Heron
165. reef egret
166. Beach stone curlew
167. Pied oystercatcher
168. Swamp Harrier
169. White-bellied sea-eagle
170. White-faced heron
171. Red-cheeked Parrot
172. Lovely fairy-wren

[Papuan birder]

January 11th
Fourth day in Iron Range National Park, Queensland, north-east Australia

This was our last day in Iron Range NP, we had a amazing time but now it was time to leave this amazing place and move on, we however had a single day left in the park and we had not see any cassowary yet, this as well as a few other rare species was the goal for the day. An hour night birding in the early morning but not much new species added, most of the rest of the time was spend birding in the forest.

173. Superb Fruit-dove
174. Brown Falcon
175. White-faced Heron
176. Black Bittern
177. Black-throated Finch
178. Fairy Gerygone
179. Wompoo Fruit-dove
180. Southern Cassowary
181.Rufous-banded Honeyeater
182. Red-bellied Pitta
183. Magnificent Riflebird
184. Spotted Harrier
185. Azure Kingfisher
186. Silver-crowned friarbird
187. Tawny-breasted Honeyeater
188. Black-winged Monarch
189. Barred Cuckoo-shrike
190. Tree martin
191. Large-billed scrubwren
192. Large-tailed nightjar
193. Northern scrub-robin
194. Rose-crowned fruit-dove

[Papuan birder]

January 13th
outside Bramwell, Queensland, north-east Australia

195. Weebill
196. Bar-breasted Honeyeater
197. Black-backed Butcherbird

[Papuan birder]

January 14th
Between Bramwell and Jardine River National Park, Queensland, north-east Australia

198. Australian Kestrel
199. Grey Shrike-thrush
200. Pied Imperial-Pigeon
201. Australian Bustard
202. Black-winges stilt
203. Square-tailed Kite

[Papuan birder]

January 15th
Jardine River National Park, Queensland, north-east Australia

204. Eastern Rosella
205. Fan-tailed Cuckoo
206. Noisy Friarbird
207. Varied Honeyeater
208. Star Finch
209. White-eared monarch
210. Palm Cockatoo
211. Black-breasted Buzzard
212. Pheasant Coucal
213. Rainbow bee-eater
214. Sacred kingfisher
215. White-throated Gerygone
216. Large-billed Gerygone
217. Spectacled Monarch
218. Trumpet Manucode

[Papuan birder]

January 16th
Jardine River National Park, Queensland, north-east Australia

The second day in Jardine NP, we spend a few hours inside the park in the early morning. We did however mostly search for mammals and reptiles this second day and I didnt pay attention to most of the birds, therefore not many new birds added. We did spot two distant cranes flying over a small river tributary, unfortunely unable to id exactly which species.

219. Little Tern
220. Grey Goshawk

[Papuan birder]

January 17th
Bamaga, Queensland, north-east Australia

Arrived in this beutiful city in the middle day, after having spent a few hours at a bat roost along the way, another beutiful place and one of of the northernmost communities in Australia. We once again spend most of the day searching for mammals and reptiles and had little time for birding, Brahminy Kite being the only new bird added.

221. Brahminy Kite

[Papuan birder]

January 19th
Bamaga, Queensland, north-east Australia

A few hours of birding in the outskirts of the town showed to be quite rewarding, mostly species we had seen earlier during the trip but several being much more numerous here than many places elsewhere.

222. Red-browed Finch
223. Fairy Martin
224. Brown Treecrepper
225. Forest Kingfisher
226. White-throated needletail
227. Shining Bronze-cuckoo

[Papuan birder]

January 20th
Northern Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Queensland, north-east Australia

A days trip out to the Great Barrier Reef for some scuba diving and to watch marine life.

228. Streaked Shearwater
229. Wilson Storm-petrel
230. Masked Booby
231. Great Frigate bird

[Papuan birder]

January 22th
Bramwell, Queensland, north-east Australia

After having visited the northernmost tip of Australia and spending another day in Jardine NP (no new birds) we started to head back towards Cairns again. Back in Bramwell in which we only night birded for two hours.

232. Barn Owl

[Papuan birder]

January 23th
North of Weipa, Queensland, north-east Australia

233. Little Corella
234. Dollarbird
235. Yellow-billed Kingfisher

[Papuan birder]

January 25th
Lakefield National Park, Queensland, north-east Australia

236. Squatter Pigeon
237. Silver Gull
238. Painted Buttonquail
239. Gull-billed Tern
240. Australian Hobby
241. Bailons Crake
242. Brolga Crane
243. Red-backed Kingfisher
244. Noisy Miner

[Papuan birder]

January 27th
north of Staaten River National Park, Queensland, north-east Australia

After having left Lakefield NP we set out for another Queensland National park, a place which I hadent visited before but my friend know the park very well as he had searched for reptiles in this area several times in the 1990s. The time it took to travel to Staaten River NP may have been spoiled as we didnt see much during these two days, and in the end we never birded in the park itself but stuck to a few promising areas just north of the park instead. But I got my first lifer of the year and a bird which I have wanted to see for a long time, the Golden-Shouldered Parrot, so the time it took to get to this area was very well worth it.

245. Australian Pratincole
246. Peregrine Falcon
247. Rufous-throated Honeyeater
248. GOLDEN SHOULDERED PARROT
249. White-browed woodswallow
250. Australian Magpie

[Papuan birder]

January 30th
north of Cairns, Queensland, north-east Australia

After nearly a month long roadtrip in the northern parts of Queensland I returned to my house outside Cairns late in the afternoon. My last day out in the field with my swedish friend who was to heading towards northern Territory later in the day, we spend the remaning hours of daylight to search for wildlife around a small swamp, mainly in searches for turtles but also on outlook for other animals.

251. Blue-faced Parrot-finch (2 females, first time in Australia)
252. Grey Fantail
253. Cotton Pygmy-goose
254. Yellow-billed Spoonbill
255. Scarlet honeyeater

[Papuan birder]

February 1st
coastal Cooktown, Queensland, north-east Australia

A days visit up to Cooktown allowed about an hour of birdwatching in some remaning patches mangrove forest/beaches.

256. Caspian Tern
257. Mangrove golden whistler
258. Mangrove Robin

[Papuan birder]

February 2th
Cairns Suburbs, Queensland, north-east Australia

259. Yellow-faced honeyeater

[Papuan birder]

I have not been updating my list for a LONG time and thought it was about time to catch up.

February 23th
Just north of Cooktown, north-east Queensland, Australia

I was out looking for dolphins with a good friend of mine for a few hours about 20min north of Cooktown, saw plenty of sea-birds including over 30 frigate birds as well as quite a few Masked Boobies, the only new bird for the day was a distant Brown Booby.

260. Brown Booby

March 5-19th
Melbourne and Eastern Victoria, Australia

In March I was lucky enough to be travelling to the state of Victoria in Southern Australia for business, it was only my second visit ever to Victoria (my first visit was in 1997). As the main reason for my visit on Victoria was in business I spend most of the weeks in Melbourne and I didnt have much time to bird during my first week there unfortunely but I soon I had a few hours off I rented a car and drove to some area 30min-1 hour outside Melbourne. The last week I didnt have much to do and most of the last week was spend looking for birds in the eastern half of Victoria. There is quite a few near-endemics found in Victoria and I missed out on alot of them on my 1997 visit becuase I didnt know where to go then, though I have caught up with most of these near-endemics in New South Wales since (1999, 2001 and 2002) so I had already checked of most endemics found in this region, but that didnt stop me for trying for them in Victoria as well, and in the end I got a fair share of birds during my visit.

261. Eurasian Blackbird
262. Spotted Pardalote
263. Crimson Rosella
264. Diamond Firetail
265. Yellow-tufted Honeyeater
266. Australian shelduck
267. Hoary-headed Grebe (at last!!)
268. Australian Spotted Crake
269. Chestnut Teal
270. Australian Shoveler
271. Pink-eared Duck
272. Red-kneed Dotterel
273. Banded Lapwing
274. Whiskered Tern
275. Crested Pigeon
276. Little Raven
277. European Goldfinch
278. White-browed Scrubwren
279. Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo
280. Brown Thornbill
281. Beutiful Firetail (Bird of the trip!!!!)
282. Ground Thrush
283. Tree Sparrow
284. Mallard
285. Stubble Quail
286. Little Penguin
287. Black-faced Cormorant
288. Cape Barren Goose
289. Musk Duck
290. Blue-billed Duck
291. Painted Snipe
292. Pacific Gull
293. White-eared Honeyeater
294.White-plumed honeyeater
295. Hooded Robin
296. Eastern shrike-tit

[Papuan birder]

March 28th-April 2nd
Port Moresby, south-east Papua New Guinea.

So, was I back in my homecountry for the first time in 2008, I had felt homesick for quite some time and it feelt really great to be back again!

March 28th

The first days of my home coming I spend with family and relatives just outside Port Moresby, the place where I lived for the first of my 20years:t:

I had much time to catch up together with the family so virtually no time for birding, just a few minutes back and forth from the local food grosery and birds seen in my parents garden. And after being spoiled by birding along the northern coast of Papua New Guinea for the past year I couldent help being disapointed about the little amount of birds I saw during these few days, trapping pressure is surely taking its fair toll on the birds. And many birds found in this part of New Guinea is also found in Australia, where I had seen them earlier in 2008.

About the first I saw on the day upon my arrival was a few boys trying to catch Munias and Fairywrens (and other small grassland species) in a remaning patch of grassland just outside the airport entry, I stopped closeby to buy some fruits (about 20min) and was happy to see that the boys seemed really lousy at what they were doing, they were jumping around with hand nets and some sticks and according to the shop owner they had been jumping around in the patch of grassland since early in the morning but he hadent seen them catching anything apart from some snake and a few rats.

During my short stop at the fruit market I managed to see a few birds, 3-4 cattle egrets swarming around a water buffalo and a distant Black Kite. I had no hope to find much else considering the trapping going on nearby.

In the late afternoon I heard the call of white-winged fairywrens in my parents garden and with great effort I managed to see 1 white-winged fairywren, this day must go into the records as the most lousy birding day I have ever had

297. White-winged Fairywren.

April 1st.

The following days I saw several other species, including Brahminy Kite, House Sparrow, White-bellied cuckoo-shrike and Wandering whistling-duck, but all of them seen previous in Australia and most of them just only briefly flying over my parents neighbhourhood anyway. I had heard the call of Grey Crow on several occasions during the past days but no luck spotting any, a Kookaburra seen parched on a wire above the road running through the village, but then I spotted it!!! a small, blackish bird feeding on some flower in a high bush, it disapered into the bush several times but finally choosed to take its escape as I approached the bush, it was a male Black Sunbird, dont think I have ever been so happy to see a Black Sunbird before.

298. Black Sunbird.