chowchilla
Well-known member
I was picked up pre-dawn from outside my apartment by BF member and fellow Cairns resident DomF. We headed for the hills, quite literally as the wonderful, scenic and undeniably birdy Atherton Tablelands was our destination.
As a few of you may recall from my previous 'Your Birding Day' report, Dom only recently moved to Cairns from Darwin. Naturally he wanted to see the local specialities and had managed to catch up with most of them in the last few months. It was only now however that the opportunity to try for the best Wet Tropics Endemic of the lot had arisen, namely the Golden Bowerbird. Did we manage to catch up with fantastic bird? Read on...
I don't drive and so don't get access to the Tablelands all that often. Opportunities like this are always seized with relish. Our destination was a place called Longman's Gap near Mt Hypipamee, an area of high-altitude rainforest, the only habitat where this species is found hence explaining it's tiny global range.
As we climbed the Gillies Highway, we could hear numerous Chowchillas calling just as it was getting light as is there habit. We crossed the gently undulating landscape of the Tablelands shortly after dawn. En route, a few Black-shouldered Kites were already on the wing. Always nice birds to see. As we climbed still further in altitude, we encountered small banks of fog. This area is apparently fog-bound quite a bit as a road sign warning for fog that we saw later, would testify. Nearing our destination, Dom spotted a Pied Currawong in a tree, a lifer for him. There were also a few Torresian Crows here and there.
By the time we arrived, the air had cleared and we were surrounded by dense almost elfin rainforest. As we got out of the car, we were suddenly seized by the cold. In fact it was freezing! It had never occurred to me just how cold it would get in early April up here; I mean it's still summer! We were both in t-shirts and shorts; year round attire in Cairns and the goosebumps rose on my flesh. Dom commented that apparently it gets below zero here at night in the winter. Reminder to self: bring long pants and a fleece next time...
We headed up a track into the forest. The efforts of climbing up the fairly steep track warmed us up at least. Last time I was here, there was an active bower just below the top of the ridge. We headed off into the forest to try and find it. The forest was very still at first, but slowly a few birds revealed their presence with calls: Dusky Honeyeater and White-eared Monarch are ones that I recall hearing here. For the better part of an hour we searched for the bower without success. I couldn't believe it! I knew we were in the right place and yet the damn thing eluded us. Hard to understand, seeing what impressive structures they are. Golden Bowerbirds' bowers are made of lots of little twigs glued together with spiders' webs and arranged around a fairly large tree and a nearby sapling. A sort of bridge of twigs links the two. This whole affair is then decorated with pale lichen. The result is pretty impressive. It was becoming increasingly clear that this one was going to elude us however...
Now for the record, I know that Bowerbirds usually aren't displaying at their bowers at this time of year, but I was confident they would still be in the vicinity. I saw several of the birds on my last visit. I also wanted to show the actual bower to Dom so he could 'get his eye in' with what they looked like. It was pretty apparent by this time however that the birds simply weren't around, not even their weird scratchy calls could be heard.
As we headed back down the track feeling a bit disconsolate, the forest suddenly came to life with bird calls and birds started appearing either side of the track. We'd hit a mixed bird wave. A couple of White-throated Treecreepers showed well on the side of a low tree before one chased the other down the track and into the undergrowth, Dom's second lifer of the day. A Yellow-throated Scrubwren gave us brief but good views as it hopped out on to the track. Grey Fantails showed well here and these and were soon joined by a Rufous Fantail. Bower's Shrike Thrushes were calling here and there but were very difficult to see. Rather easier were at least two stunning Golden Whistlers, and a mixture of Brown Gerygones and Fairy Gerygones in the canopy. A lot of the scratchy warblings in the avian hubbub however were rather more interesting as they represented two more potential lifers for Dom.
Scrubwren calls can be a bit tricky to disseminate and I wasn't entirely sure what species we had but apart from the YT Scrubwren that had just showed I had a good inkling of what the others were. They were proving to be frustratingly elusive in the very dense understorey however. The odd LBJ would show its wing or its arse before eventually we both got good views of at least two Atherton Scrubwrens, clearly different from their commoner and more widespread cousin the Large-billed Scrubwren.
I was also convinced that I could hear Mountain Thornbill. Dom got his phone out and accessed an app containing the call. At least one Thornbill immediately responded and appeared to be coming closer. They were calling constantly just off the track, but the impossibly dense foliage meant that we had to content ourselves with hoping they would move our way and maybe cross the track affording us views. After a good 20 minutes or so of patiently waiting however, we hadn't had so much as a tail tip by way of movement, and so we headed off to a second spot just down the road where we would try again for the Bowerbirds.
We got out of the car at the second location and headed into an overgrown clearing. The day at least was warming up and I felt more comfortable. A few minute later I felt very uncomfortable indeed! Since I had visited this site last year (having no less than five Golden Bowerbirds flying around us), the vegetation in the clearing had grown up with astounding speed and large areas were now choked with that pernicious super-weed Lantana. Our attempts to penetrate the tangle in order to gain access to the forest saw us struggling gamely to beat a path through it, only to end up scratched and torn by this surprisingly thorny and unpleasant plant. After leaving our legs mottled with blood and a stinging sensation from the numerous gashes, we gave up and retreated. Second mistake of the day after the lack of warm clothing was the fact that we had no machete. A calling Brown Cuckoo Dove was little consolation.
We retreated to the car and considered our options. It was still fairly early and whatever we did with the rest of our day, we still had time to find some good birds. However our only remaining realistic option for the Bowerbirds was Mt Hypipamee National Park just down the road and so it was there that we headed next.
A large number of Scaly-breasted Lorikeets greeted us noisily from the top of a dead tree by the car park. We headed up the trail and into the forest. Hypipamee is a small park surrounded by the much larger Herberton Ranges National Park. it protects an area of rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest around a deep sheer-sided crater about 50 metres in diameter which we had a look at whilst here. It was pretty impressive, looking like someone had pulled an enormous 50 metre wide wine cork-shaped piece of the landscape out and left this huge circular hole in the middle of the forest.
At a bridge over a stream we saw a fruiting tree which quickly revealed a Tooth-billed Bowerbird sitting quietly regarding us. Calling unseen from the top of this tree or one very close was a Superb Fruit Dove. This was joined similarly unseen by at least one Wompoo Fruit Dove calling on the other side of the trail. However the fruiting tree revealed nothing else. However there were some very odd calls coming from deeper in the forest that sounded very Bowerbirdy to me. In fact they sounded rather more like Golden Bowerbird than anything else! They wouldn't show however despite us waiting patiently for some time.
Lewin's Honeyeaters were calling regularly as we headed along the trail and one eventually showed well. Macleays and Bridled Honeyeaters could also be heard. A solitary Brown Honeyeater called near the crater and we managed sightings of at least one more Atherton Scrubwren and the ever stunning Spectacled Monarch.. The best bird here however quite unexpectedly landed in full view right in front of us, a Mountain Thornbill allowing us to clock all its salient features. It was curiously alone however and not in a busy little flock as is their usual habit. Dom's fourth lifer of the day.
We eventually returned to the bridge and the Bowerbirds were still calling. Despite giving it quite some time, including heading off the trail to stand in a clearing of sorts virtually surrounded by them, we didn't get so much as a peek at any of them. I was convinced by now as well that they were Goldens. However it just wasn't to be. Fortunately we are not tourists and Dom was happy to wait until late winter/early summer when the bowers would be active once more and he could then hopefully experience their amazing, very loud and exceedingly weird 'DUNG DUNG DUNG' song.
Despite no Golden Bowerbirds, the day had been an enjoyable one and Dom was four lifers to the good. Certainly not to be sniffed at. So what to do with the rest of the day? I promised Dom another lifer namely Squatter Pigeon if we headed north to Granite Gorge. This was a good contingency plan as this bird doesn't live in dense rainforest but much more open tropical savannah. Despite being a ground bird, I promised Dom he would literally be tripping up over them at out intended location. After coming up blank with the Bowerbirds, I quietly hoped to myself that I wasn't speaking too soon...
We stopped en route at Hastie's Swamp. There were recent reports of Freckled Duck here, a very rare bird for the Far North and a lifer for me. Alas they had moved on a few days back, but we decided to see what was about anyway. The water levels were much higher than the first time Dom and I visited late last year. They'd clearly had good rains this year. From the impressively large hide we had an elevated view of a sizeable expanse of water. It was clearly too high for waders, but a reasonable selection of other water birds were present. Large numbers of Purple Swamphens patrolled the margins; on the water were both Plumed and Wandering Whistling Ducks, Pacific Black Duck, Grey Teal, Hardhead, Australian Dabchick and Eurasian Coots. A few Little Pied Cormorants were in the marginal vegetation. Then Dom spotted some Pink-eared Duck in his scope in the emergent vegetation. With further scanning there turned out to be around a dozen. These are also infrequent visitors to the North but can turn up in numbers on occasion. They are terrific looking birds with bold barring on their flanks and long bills with fleshy flaps on the sides. And yes, they do have pink ears!
We headed north to our final destination of the day, transitioning rapidly to a fairly well-watered savannah landscape that can look like a dustbowl in the drought. At one point we could see overhead literally hundreds of Black Kites. Clearly there was some irresistible feast on the ground near the road. Granite Gorge Nature Park can be accessed from a road that takes you out of Mareeba. A few Crested Pigeons were on the wires demonstrating that their recent influx wasn't a one off. After several kilometres we turned down a dirt track and entered fairly dense bushland. As we approached the reception I saw what I was looking for as two brown blobs hunkered down in the dry grass by the track. We got slowly out as two Squatter Pigeons looked up and watched us from about 5 metres away. Squatters really are lovely birds with a delicate pattern of black and white stripes on their heads and an eye ringed with red. Dom slowly approached to within about three metres for some pics. They showed mild curiosity rather than fear and as soon as Dom retreated immediately resumed feeding. I don't know why, but the ones at this location have always been incredibly tame. Maybe the site owner feeds them.
As we headed back out of the park with Dom's fifth lifer of the day, it was my turn to be surprised by a new bird. We were first distracted by large numbers of small birds flying into the low trees by the track. I got on to one and it was clearly a finch with a lot of dark on its front but it was only still for a second and I was trying to see it through the windscreen. Interesting...
We got out. Most of the little birds resolved into Double-barred Finches, probably the commonest small finch in this area. However Dom also reported briefly getting onto one of the 'other' finches. After a brief discussion we both decided that they were probably Black-throated Finches, a bird which is common enough in the top end but by no means common around these parts. In fact i've never seen them in Queensland. A calling female Red-backed Fairy Wren followed a short while later by a male, were added to the day list. Then Dom spotted a BOP circling over the road. It wasn't a kite but what was it? Too small and short-tailed for a Wedgie... It was very dark in fact. It could only be a Black-breasted Buzzard. This is another bird that is common enough further west but is pretty uncommon this close to Cairns. I had quite unexpectedly just got myself a lifer!
Well that was a pretty satisfying and unexpected end to the day! Dom saw heaps of these birds on his drive from Darwin, but I'd never seen any and this more than made up for the lack of our Golden Quarry.
And so ended a day that didn't turn up our primary target but gave us both lifers to keep us more than satisfied with the proceedings. We returned to Cairns where Dom dropped me off and I headed for the Botanical Gardens, only a minute's walk for me from home, to have one of their amazing Banana Splits and a mug of Cappuccino to celebrate.
Cheers Dom for another successful day, albeit in not quite the way I expected! B
:t:
As a few of you may recall from my previous 'Your Birding Day' report, Dom only recently moved to Cairns from Darwin. Naturally he wanted to see the local specialities and had managed to catch up with most of them in the last few months. It was only now however that the opportunity to try for the best Wet Tropics Endemic of the lot had arisen, namely the Golden Bowerbird. Did we manage to catch up with fantastic bird? Read on...
I don't drive and so don't get access to the Tablelands all that often. Opportunities like this are always seized with relish. Our destination was a place called Longman's Gap near Mt Hypipamee, an area of high-altitude rainforest, the only habitat where this species is found hence explaining it's tiny global range.
As we climbed the Gillies Highway, we could hear numerous Chowchillas calling just as it was getting light as is there habit. We crossed the gently undulating landscape of the Tablelands shortly after dawn. En route, a few Black-shouldered Kites were already on the wing. Always nice birds to see. As we climbed still further in altitude, we encountered small banks of fog. This area is apparently fog-bound quite a bit as a road sign warning for fog that we saw later, would testify. Nearing our destination, Dom spotted a Pied Currawong in a tree, a lifer for him. There were also a few Torresian Crows here and there.
By the time we arrived, the air had cleared and we were surrounded by dense almost elfin rainforest. As we got out of the car, we were suddenly seized by the cold. In fact it was freezing! It had never occurred to me just how cold it would get in early April up here; I mean it's still summer! We were both in t-shirts and shorts; year round attire in Cairns and the goosebumps rose on my flesh. Dom commented that apparently it gets below zero here at night in the winter. Reminder to self: bring long pants and a fleece next time...
We headed up a track into the forest. The efforts of climbing up the fairly steep track warmed us up at least. Last time I was here, there was an active bower just below the top of the ridge. We headed off into the forest to try and find it. The forest was very still at first, but slowly a few birds revealed their presence with calls: Dusky Honeyeater and White-eared Monarch are ones that I recall hearing here. For the better part of an hour we searched for the bower without success. I couldn't believe it! I knew we were in the right place and yet the damn thing eluded us. Hard to understand, seeing what impressive structures they are. Golden Bowerbirds' bowers are made of lots of little twigs glued together with spiders' webs and arranged around a fairly large tree and a nearby sapling. A sort of bridge of twigs links the two. This whole affair is then decorated with pale lichen. The result is pretty impressive. It was becoming increasingly clear that this one was going to elude us however...
Now for the record, I know that Bowerbirds usually aren't displaying at their bowers at this time of year, but I was confident they would still be in the vicinity. I saw several of the birds on my last visit. I also wanted to show the actual bower to Dom so he could 'get his eye in' with what they looked like. It was pretty apparent by this time however that the birds simply weren't around, not even their weird scratchy calls could be heard.
As we headed back down the track feeling a bit disconsolate, the forest suddenly came to life with bird calls and birds started appearing either side of the track. We'd hit a mixed bird wave. A couple of White-throated Treecreepers showed well on the side of a low tree before one chased the other down the track and into the undergrowth, Dom's second lifer of the day. A Yellow-throated Scrubwren gave us brief but good views as it hopped out on to the track. Grey Fantails showed well here and these and were soon joined by a Rufous Fantail. Bower's Shrike Thrushes were calling here and there but were very difficult to see. Rather easier were at least two stunning Golden Whistlers, and a mixture of Brown Gerygones and Fairy Gerygones in the canopy. A lot of the scratchy warblings in the avian hubbub however were rather more interesting as they represented two more potential lifers for Dom.
Scrubwren calls can be a bit tricky to disseminate and I wasn't entirely sure what species we had but apart from the YT Scrubwren that had just showed I had a good inkling of what the others were. They were proving to be frustratingly elusive in the very dense understorey however. The odd LBJ would show its wing or its arse before eventually we both got good views of at least two Atherton Scrubwrens, clearly different from their commoner and more widespread cousin the Large-billed Scrubwren.
I was also convinced that I could hear Mountain Thornbill. Dom got his phone out and accessed an app containing the call. At least one Thornbill immediately responded and appeared to be coming closer. They were calling constantly just off the track, but the impossibly dense foliage meant that we had to content ourselves with hoping they would move our way and maybe cross the track affording us views. After a good 20 minutes or so of patiently waiting however, we hadn't had so much as a tail tip by way of movement, and so we headed off to a second spot just down the road where we would try again for the Bowerbirds.
We got out of the car at the second location and headed into an overgrown clearing. The day at least was warming up and I felt more comfortable. A few minute later I felt very uncomfortable indeed! Since I had visited this site last year (having no less than five Golden Bowerbirds flying around us), the vegetation in the clearing had grown up with astounding speed and large areas were now choked with that pernicious super-weed Lantana. Our attempts to penetrate the tangle in order to gain access to the forest saw us struggling gamely to beat a path through it, only to end up scratched and torn by this surprisingly thorny and unpleasant plant. After leaving our legs mottled with blood and a stinging sensation from the numerous gashes, we gave up and retreated. Second mistake of the day after the lack of warm clothing was the fact that we had no machete. A calling Brown Cuckoo Dove was little consolation.
We retreated to the car and considered our options. It was still fairly early and whatever we did with the rest of our day, we still had time to find some good birds. However our only remaining realistic option for the Bowerbirds was Mt Hypipamee National Park just down the road and so it was there that we headed next.
A large number of Scaly-breasted Lorikeets greeted us noisily from the top of a dead tree by the car park. We headed up the trail and into the forest. Hypipamee is a small park surrounded by the much larger Herberton Ranges National Park. it protects an area of rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest around a deep sheer-sided crater about 50 metres in diameter which we had a look at whilst here. It was pretty impressive, looking like someone had pulled an enormous 50 metre wide wine cork-shaped piece of the landscape out and left this huge circular hole in the middle of the forest.
At a bridge over a stream we saw a fruiting tree which quickly revealed a Tooth-billed Bowerbird sitting quietly regarding us. Calling unseen from the top of this tree or one very close was a Superb Fruit Dove. This was joined similarly unseen by at least one Wompoo Fruit Dove calling on the other side of the trail. However the fruiting tree revealed nothing else. However there were some very odd calls coming from deeper in the forest that sounded very Bowerbirdy to me. In fact they sounded rather more like Golden Bowerbird than anything else! They wouldn't show however despite us waiting patiently for some time.
Lewin's Honeyeaters were calling regularly as we headed along the trail and one eventually showed well. Macleays and Bridled Honeyeaters could also be heard. A solitary Brown Honeyeater called near the crater and we managed sightings of at least one more Atherton Scrubwren and the ever stunning Spectacled Monarch.. The best bird here however quite unexpectedly landed in full view right in front of us, a Mountain Thornbill allowing us to clock all its salient features. It was curiously alone however and not in a busy little flock as is their usual habit. Dom's fourth lifer of the day.
We eventually returned to the bridge and the Bowerbirds were still calling. Despite giving it quite some time, including heading off the trail to stand in a clearing of sorts virtually surrounded by them, we didn't get so much as a peek at any of them. I was convinced by now as well that they were Goldens. However it just wasn't to be. Fortunately we are not tourists and Dom was happy to wait until late winter/early summer when the bowers would be active once more and he could then hopefully experience their amazing, very loud and exceedingly weird 'DUNG DUNG DUNG' song.
Despite no Golden Bowerbirds, the day had been an enjoyable one and Dom was four lifers to the good. Certainly not to be sniffed at. So what to do with the rest of the day? I promised Dom another lifer namely Squatter Pigeon if we headed north to Granite Gorge. This was a good contingency plan as this bird doesn't live in dense rainforest but much more open tropical savannah. Despite being a ground bird, I promised Dom he would literally be tripping up over them at out intended location. After coming up blank with the Bowerbirds, I quietly hoped to myself that I wasn't speaking too soon...
We stopped en route at Hastie's Swamp. There were recent reports of Freckled Duck here, a very rare bird for the Far North and a lifer for me. Alas they had moved on a few days back, but we decided to see what was about anyway. The water levels were much higher than the first time Dom and I visited late last year. They'd clearly had good rains this year. From the impressively large hide we had an elevated view of a sizeable expanse of water. It was clearly too high for waders, but a reasonable selection of other water birds were present. Large numbers of Purple Swamphens patrolled the margins; on the water were both Plumed and Wandering Whistling Ducks, Pacific Black Duck, Grey Teal, Hardhead, Australian Dabchick and Eurasian Coots. A few Little Pied Cormorants were in the marginal vegetation. Then Dom spotted some Pink-eared Duck in his scope in the emergent vegetation. With further scanning there turned out to be around a dozen. These are also infrequent visitors to the North but can turn up in numbers on occasion. They are terrific looking birds with bold barring on their flanks and long bills with fleshy flaps on the sides. And yes, they do have pink ears!
We headed north to our final destination of the day, transitioning rapidly to a fairly well-watered savannah landscape that can look like a dustbowl in the drought. At one point we could see overhead literally hundreds of Black Kites. Clearly there was some irresistible feast on the ground near the road. Granite Gorge Nature Park can be accessed from a road that takes you out of Mareeba. A few Crested Pigeons were on the wires demonstrating that their recent influx wasn't a one off. After several kilometres we turned down a dirt track and entered fairly dense bushland. As we approached the reception I saw what I was looking for as two brown blobs hunkered down in the dry grass by the track. We got slowly out as two Squatter Pigeons looked up and watched us from about 5 metres away. Squatters really are lovely birds with a delicate pattern of black and white stripes on their heads and an eye ringed with red. Dom slowly approached to within about three metres for some pics. They showed mild curiosity rather than fear and as soon as Dom retreated immediately resumed feeding. I don't know why, but the ones at this location have always been incredibly tame. Maybe the site owner feeds them.
As we headed back out of the park with Dom's fifth lifer of the day, it was my turn to be surprised by a new bird. We were first distracted by large numbers of small birds flying into the low trees by the track. I got on to one and it was clearly a finch with a lot of dark on its front but it was only still for a second and I was trying to see it through the windscreen. Interesting...
We got out. Most of the little birds resolved into Double-barred Finches, probably the commonest small finch in this area. However Dom also reported briefly getting onto one of the 'other' finches. After a brief discussion we both decided that they were probably Black-throated Finches, a bird which is common enough in the top end but by no means common around these parts. In fact i've never seen them in Queensland. A calling female Red-backed Fairy Wren followed a short while later by a male, were added to the day list. Then Dom spotted a BOP circling over the road. It wasn't a kite but what was it? Too small and short-tailed for a Wedgie... It was very dark in fact. It could only be a Black-breasted Buzzard. This is another bird that is common enough further west but is pretty uncommon this close to Cairns. I had quite unexpectedly just got myself a lifer!
Well that was a pretty satisfying and unexpected end to the day! Dom saw heaps of these birds on his drive from Darwin, but I'd never seen any and this more than made up for the lack of our Golden Quarry.
And so ended a day that didn't turn up our primary target but gave us both lifers to keep us more than satisfied with the proceedings. We returned to Cairns where Dom dropped me off and I headed for the Botanical Gardens, only a minute's walk for me from home, to have one of their amazing Banana Splits and a mug of Cappuccino to celebrate.
Cheers Dom for another successful day, albeit in not quite the way I expected! B
:t:
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