BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="birdboybowley" data-source="post: 1203525" data-attributes="member: 60953">That's one hell of a backyard you've got there C!The following day, after faffing around all morning we finally set off northwards for the Iron Range, via a quick stop at Repco for a new air filter on the advice of a local garage (which had an Eastern Spinebill fluttering around inside it!). We stopped for lunch at Mt Carbine and found Latham’s Snipe, Yellow and Bridled Honeys round the lagoon. We hit the dirt near Lakeland but still managed to keep up a good speed over the corrugations. A bit stony in places and with a few huge dustbowls that threatened to swallow the car, but on the whole, not too bad. Weirdly there were random stretches of bitumen, complete with road markings, that would run for a few kms, then back to the dirt again...most odd! Why not keep tarmacking from the end of the highway?!? We had a slight detour into Coen to find the medical centre as Dawn had picked up another tick on her (she was tick and leech-bait all year!) but they said it was ok and not a bad one. We saw three Australian Bustards along the road and we eventually pulled into Musgrave Station and camped up for the night. Dawn and Jack kinda had a personality clash – this is gonna be a fun few days! We went out spotlighting later and had point-blank views of a couple of Papuan Frogmouths hunting beneath the lights from a termite mound, so close that we could hear their bills snap shut as they preyed on the moths! Cool! A Southern Boobook was also seen very well. Had a chat with some guys and they said access road into the Iron Range was closed because of the unseasonal heavy rains...so now the whole trip was looking shaky. Went to sleep in a very bad mood....Up early and saw Black-backed Butcherbird, Olive-backed Sunbirds, Blue-winged Kookaburra and Great Bowerbirds then spent the rest of the morning on the phone talking to everyone and their dog, talking to people returning from Chilli Beach who said that we’d be ok if we had a winch...WTF?! We got conflicting answers from everyone until the ranger from the Iron Range got back to us and said so long as we didn’t go to Chilli Beach (where there was a huge mudhole complete with a trapped jeep!) we’d be ok. That put pay to any chance of finding Fawn-breasted Bowerbird! Dawn finally got the tick off her with the help of another lady and her tweezers! So, now much later than we expected, we set off northwards again. We refuelled at Archer River Roadhouse and 40kms later we turned eastwards onto the Portland Road. Now this was an atrocious road – average speed was about 25kph, full of huge ruts that I needed to be guided over, river crossings with unbelievably steep and slippery exits, boulders...and then the bloody rain started. We did see a few flocks of Australian Swiftlets with at least one Glossy Swiftlet with them.We reached Mt Tozer where we consulted the map and decided to push onto the campsite as it didn’t look too far, even though the light was failing fast. After several more creek-crossings and heavier rain we hit the rainforest proper and the road deteriorated even more, to the point where as we came up over a rise and the road began to slope sharply downwards I tried to turn the corner and the wheels locked and the car slid uncontrollably downhill until I managed to steer into the muddy verge. So there we were, literally in the middle of nowhere, hadn’t seen another car for hours and we were stuck on a seriously muddy road in the rainforest....At a loss at what to do I shakily walked away to have a bit of a mental breakdown....and let Dawn and Jack argue. Then we heard an approaching car which Jack tried to flag down but instead it came steaming round the corner and basically ended up in the back of ours! Unsurprisingly it was full of our drunken ‘cousins’ on their home to the Lockhart Community. After a lot of shouting I got in the Moomin and with a drunken Aborigine shouting in through the window to “...stick the f****ng car into f****ng first and keep f****ng moving mate...” off I went and thankfully made it down in one piece! The locals slid down sideways and then sped past with not a care in the world – maybe being totally pissed is the only way to drive up here!?! Dawn and Jack literally slipped down the road and we were all now smiling in relief! We washed ourselves down in the next creek crossing as we were covered in thick sticky mud and met a whole group of cars heading back up the way we’d come. They said the road wasn’t too bad but were unsure of where the campsite was...we drove on for a bit more and then gave it up as a bad job. So we found a nice little pull off next to a creek that gave us a little privacy and camped up. Unfortunately we were joined by a million mozzies. Then it began to rain again....and our thoughts turned to the road conditions as we had to go back the way we’d come in....what a day!The rain fell most of the night, and the following morning it had let up a bit, but the road was a quagmire. A Little Kingfisher zipped along the creek and a loud Palm Cockatoo flapped overhead. We decided to get back up the hill and bird the rainforest there, so on the advice of the guys the previous night, put the Moomin into 4L, stuck her in 2nd and didn’t stop at all and slipped and slid all the way to the top again. Phew, thank God that’s over! We parked off the road as another car pulled up driven by a couple of birdos. We found out the campsite was about another 20kms from where we were – damn!! Oh well, they told us what they’d seen there and what they hadn’t and said that this part of the forest would be as good as any other and they also said we should hide our jerry can if we went walkabout – just in case! No sooner had they disappeared round the corner, movement over the car proved to be a smart Yellow-legged Fly and movement in the forest turned into a cracking pair of Trumpet Manucodes – both birds those guys needed!! Some luck, finally!Stunning Magnificent Riflebirds were everywhere, their reverse wolf-whistle calls echoing all around. A raucous screech signalled the presence of another couple of beautiful Palm Cockatoos flying over and we also found confiding Frill-necked and Spectacled Monarchs, Wompoo and Superb Fruit-Doves, Graceful, Green-backed and Yellow-spotted Honeys, perky White-faced Robins, Barred Cuckoo-Shrike, Grey-headed Whistler, Varied and White-winged Trillers, Helmeted and Little Friarbirds, Rainbow and Scaly-breasted Lorikeets, Yellow Oriole, Pheasant Coucal, and Yellow-breasted Boatbill. Dawn found a track that was marked with pink tape that led to a stunning waterfall which was a good vantage point over the forest. We had an excellent pair of Red-cheeked Parrots over and then, just as we were about to leave, a beautiful male Eclectus Parrot flew over calling. The rain began to fall again in earnest, so a bit dejected, we headed back to Mt Tozer to sleep up for the night, where a Large-tailed Nightjar was seen over dinner.We headed back in the rain, stopping at a few promising looking sites for White-streaked Honey but failed miserably. We had a crazy Emu run out at us on the way back to Archer River and then onto Musgrave where we had a welcome leg-stretch and finally we stopped at Windmill Creek and failed to find any Golden-shouldered Parrots. We refuelled at Hann River and by 2000hrs, after a long gruelling drive that Dawn coped with admirably, pulled into the Palmer River Goldfields Roadhouse for the night, the rain still falling.So that was my Cape York adventure – the rain really did ruin it for us, but we did get lucky and managed to see most of the birds we wanted. The biggest dips were the honeyeater and parrot, no-one had seen Yellow-billed Kingfisher or Northern Scrub-Robin that we spoke to and we were too early for the pitta, so I guess it could have been a hell of a lot worse!Also the rain did the vid camera in so no grabs at all : (Ads</blockquote>

Verification