Trip Reports (1 Viewer)

Hi everyone!!!
I thought it might be a good idea if people could post their trip reports from places in Australia (whether it just be a weekend away or a full month, or even YEAR)

I'd love to hear about ur guys best experiences with birds while on holiday...or maybe even at home!!! :t:

Hope to hear from u guys!!!

Fluffywren ||

Alright, I'll go first.

Last week we took the kids up to a farmstay near Maleny in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.

One morning there was a commotion in a tree near the deck. A currawong was having a go at a pair of adult channel-billed cuckoos.

The currawong soon departed but the cuckoos stuck around. Over the course of the next hour or so it became obvious they were targeting a magpie nest in a large tree which stood by itself on the slope below the house.

The nest was in clear view in a fork of the tree and the cuckoos approached it branch by branch and tree by tree.

Eventually they both took flight and landed on the branch above and to the right of the nest.

That triggered a series of furious attacks from two, possibly three magpies, who dived repeatedly at the intruders to try and scare them away. The cuckoos' tactic was simply to sit tight and weather the storm.

Finally they made their move, with one, I'm assuming the female, hopping into the nest. She was only there for about 10 seconds before the pair of them took flight under renewed attacks.

Swooping low on big grey wings, they contoured away across the hillside with the magpies giving chase.

Does anyone know if this would have been long enough for the cuckoo to lay its egg(s) in the maggies' nest?

For interest, other unusual (for me) birds which I saw at the same place included:

Bar-shouldered doves
Topknot pigeons
A male adult Koel and what looked to be an immature one as well - speckled with rufous crown. Also heard the female calling.
Emerald doves
Brown cuckoo-doves
Two unidentified raptors. One large greyish one gliding and diving over Lake Baroon. Another smaller one being mobbed by a crow over the house.

The doves, pigeons and koels were all seen on the fringes of a patch of rainforest which the farmer has preserved.

Later this week I'm away to Noosa and hoping to see plenty there as well.

Ben

Don't forget there are trip reports in this part of Birdforum, even if they are not sorted by location.

Niels