Report - The Wet Tropics (1-19 May 1999)

People enjoyed this COG-Environment Tours trip so much they wrote a 10-page report on it! Unfortunately space does not permit us to reproduce the full text but here are some edited highlights.

Kay Hahne begins the saga, followed by Rosemary Blemings, David Landon, Murray Delahoye, Glenys West and Jeannie Gray.

Ian Fraser and Margaret McJannett led 18 COG members and friends on an excellent tour of the Wet Tropics and World Heritage areas in northern Queensland from Townsville to Daintree, including the Atherton Tablelands and Michaelmas Cay. The weather, food, organisation, leadership and the friendly group itself combined to make a never-to-be-forgotten experience. One of our main aims was to find new birds, and both Ian and Margaret did a splendid job doing just that. Binoculars were in almost constant use and goals were reached every day: 237 species were seen in total. And we saw and learned about many other interesting things as well! The tropics is certainly a different world from the Canberra area in habitat and species of fauna and flora.

Much of the area we visited is now World Heritage listed and contains over 50% of Australia's birds (370 species), 13 of which are endemic to this area. By the end of our trip Ian had led us to 12 of these (20 pairs of eyes are good for spotting and giving directions to others) and we heard, but did not see, the Lesser Sooty Owl. The endemics we saw were: Atherton Scrubwren, Fernwren, Mountain Thornbill, Macleay's and Bridled Honeyeaters, Grey-headed Robin, Chowchilla, Bower's Shrike-thrush, Pied Monarch, Victoria's Riflebird, Tooth-billed and Golden Bowerbirds (no golden adult males however). Much help is given by having a copy of Lloyd Nielsen's Birds of Queensland's Wet Tropics and Great Barrier Reef - and where to find them.

Townsville

Kay Hahne

The Townsville area has many habitat types: tidal estuaries, mangroves, open grasslands, saltmarsh or saline grassland, swamps, lily pad lagoons, tropical woodlands, eucalypt forests and vine thickets. May is the post-wet season, and it was fairly dry underfoot but water, food and shelter were still abundant and we were rewarded with a great number of species of birds, many new to us southerners.

Highlights included:

• Townsville Town Common, covering 3245 ha of Burdekin-Townsville wetlands, a remnant of the once extensive Bohle River Basin (Brolgas, Magpie Geese, Green Pygmy-Geese, Comb-crested Jacanas (yes, they walk right over those lily pads!), Blue-winged Kookaburras, Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, female Varied Triller on her nest and many others).

• James Cook University campus (Bush Stone-curlews doing their 'freeze like a statue so I won't be seen' trick in one of the carparks, not to mention Great Bowerbird, White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike, Yellow Honeyeater, Scaly-breasted Lorikeets and Blue-faced Honeyeaters).

• The dry lowland rainforest of Mount Elliot (tame Brush-turkeys underfoot; our first tiny White-rumped Swiftlets circling overhead; the Little Shrike-thrush with its warm coppery breast; Yellow-spotted Honeyeaters - so like Lewin's at first glance; Dusky Honeyeater; and, much more colourful, a Spectacled Monarch.

• The Bowling Green Bay wetlands. A big surprise here was an excellent view of a solitary Pied Heron, along with dozens of Black-winged Stilts, two Gull-billed Terns and a few Greenshanks. On our way back there were two Black-necked Storks (Jabirus) looking very slow and stately until they flew off - what a wing span!

• Along Reed Bed Road we saw our first Red-backed Kingfisher, Chestnut-breasted Mannikins and Crimson Finches. After lunch under the trees we looked up and found two Barking Owls staring down at us. Their heavily streaked breasts, huge staring yellow eyes and pale eyebrows were all easily seen.

Ingham

Rosemary Blemings

As we wound up the road from the lowlands to the ranges, plant species became more diverse and we could see how habitats have been cleared for agriculture over many decades.

Highlights included:

• Victoria's Riflebird and Macleay's Honeyeaters at the Ivy Cottage tearooms at Paluma. Nearby a group of Chowchillas foraging in the leaf litter rewarded our efforts, as well as a Tooth-billed Bowerbird, Large-billed Scrubwren and White-headed Pigeon. A lookout in a clearing provided us with two pairs of Wedge-tailed Eagles tumbling in aerial courtship displays, while at our lunch stop the ethereal flights of Ulysses butterflies added to the rainforest atmosphere.

• Jourama Falls (Shining and Lemon-bellied Flycatchers, Pied Monarchs, Northern Fantails, Yellow-breasted Boatbill, White-browed Robin and over 20 Rainbow Bee-eaters dustbathing on the track).

• Scaly-breasted and Rainbow Lorikeets opposite Tony's store in Ingham - and, just 20 m away, a power pole hosting a snuggle of about 50 woodswallows. White-breasted Woodswallows became favourites as they perched on roadside wires surveying the supra-cane world. At times, even during the day, they huddled together in tight, almost fluffy congregations.

• Lumholtz National Park. The spectacular Wallaman Falls are the highest single drop in Australia at 305 m. In the depths of the gorge the vegetation is lush and dense, thriving on the effects of the constant spray. The plateau-like top is less lush than the rainforested approaches. We were elated at finding a male Southern Cassowary and two older chicks working on the remains of a road-kill Brush-turkey. The protective father made marauding circuits of the bus, the stripeless, chestnut-feathered chicks dutifully following until all eventually 'cassowaried' back into the forest's tangle.

• Good views of the Graceful Honeyeater, Yellow-breasted Boatbill and Black Butcherbird.

• Murray Falls (Wompoo Pigeons straight overhead, Rufous Fantails displaying, and later Crimson Finches amongst Chestnut-breasted Mannikins and a Red-backed Fairy-wren). Feeding flocks move quickly amongst the roadside grasses but are worth closer attention for these stunning little species.

• The Licuala Fan Palm walk in Tam O'Shanter State Forest, a remnant of the diverse and amazing palms that have been cleared elsewhere to make way for farming and whose dropped fruit provide food for cassowaries.

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Cairns

David Landon

We were greeted at our caravan park in Cairns by one Yellow Oriole, a flock of Shining Starlings, and a fellow vacuuming the lawns!

Other highlights were:

• The Cairns foreshore (Eastern Curlews, Bar-tailed Godwits and the Grey-tailed Tattler, the latter being a first for many of us; subsequent visits revealed Golden Plover, Red-capped Dotterel, Gull-billed Tern and Red-necked Stint).

• An Osprey at its nest high in a dead tree near the centre of town.

• At dusk, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of flying foxes, after waking up for the night's feeding, gathered in huge flocks overhead.

• Cairns Botanic Gardens (Double-eyed Fig-Parrots, Lovely Fairy-wren, Little Kingfisher and Wandering Whistling-Ducks). We later found a number of Bush Stone-curlews enjoying the peace of the local cemetery and in the evening sunlight at the Botanic Gardens we had fine views of the Orange-footed Scrubfowl.

• Michaelmas Cay, which is a small sandy island about 2 hours from Cairns that is inundated with seabirds: Brown Boobies, Lesser and Greater Frigatebirds, Ruddy Turnstones, Common Noddies, and Sooty, Little and Black-naped Terns.

• Buff-banded Rail and White-browed Crake at the local crocodile farm, where the pleasure of morning coffee was enhanced by the intricate nest of a Yellow-bellied Sunbird hanging over us. Later, we waited in our chosen spot for Mangrove Robins, one of the tour highlights. We enjoyed the company of mosquitoes, Helmeted Friarbirds and a catfish, before, all of a sudden, a pair of robins appeared, with excellent views for all.

• Australian Pratincole and juvenile Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove at the mouth of the Barron River.

My final memory of Cairns was the sight of a Jabiru flying over the suburbs. It is a very large bird, with a wingspan of over 2 m, and someone remarked that it reminded him of a pterodactyl. I wonder when he last saw one of those!!

Yungaburra

Murray Delahoye

After leaving Cairns the COG/ET juggernaut set up camp at the historic Lake Eacham Hotel at Yungaburra on the Atherton Tableland. After a sumptuous meal, spotlighting yielded a (by now common) Barking Owl near the hotel, but few of the expected mammals (where IS that mythical tree kangaroo?). Despite this we discovered fluorescent fungi that illuminated the rainforest floor and heard the calls of the Lesser Sooty Owl and the Rufous Owl.

Birding highlights included: a Grey-headed Robin on nest, Bower's Shrike-thrush and a Spotted Catbird at the Curtain Fig; a huge colony of Plumed Whistling-duck at Hasties Swamp; and Cotton Pygmy-geese at Lake Tinaroo. We had good views of both Brolga and Sarus Crane. As a result of local knowledge volunteered by a ranger, and a bit of bush-bashing/leech-catching, we reached the site of a Golden Bowerbird's bower. We also managed views of a female and young male.

Kingfisher Park

Glenys West

Located on the Windsor Tableland at Julatten, a small rural community between Mossman and Mount Molloy, Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge is set in a rainforest remnant of about 5 ha. There are fields of sugar cane close by, some of which were rainforest until about 3 years ago. Before arrival we knew we were heading for something of a birdwatchers' mecca: some 300 Australian bird species are to be found within a 15-km radius of Mount Lewis and about 100 different species have been sighted within the park alone.

Highlights of our stay included:

• Large numbers of Macleay's Honeyeaters, Blue-faced Honeyeaters and Pale-yellow Robins fluttering around the birdfeeders and water trays near the units, and strolling Orange-footed Scrubfowl.

• Blue-faced Parrot-finches, feeding on paspalum-like grass in an open area of rainforest about 12 km up the Mount Lewis road.

• Squatter Pigeons, a Pale-headed Rosella, Grey-crowned Babblers and a Pacific Baza (Crested Hawk) in the small town of Mount Molloy.

• Papuan Frogmouths in a tree near the nearby nursing home (also a male Yellow-breasted Sunbird darting around in a brilliant orange-coloured bougainvillea).

• Banded Honeyeaters, male Mistletoebirds, Red-backed Fairy-wrens and Red-browed Finches near Abattoir Swamp and Rifle Creek Reserve. Seeing a Square-tailed Kite soaring above and then close by at rest was also special.

The drier country north of Kingfisher Park is flat, dry grassy woodland, dotted with small anthills, with good views of the Dividing Range to the east and west. Highlights included rivers lined with paperbarks and casuarinas and Australian Bustards not far from West Mary Road. Only the heads and necks of many of them were visible in the paddock, which had a lovely reddish-pink tint from the seed heads of the long grass. With the afternoon shadows on the deep blue of the Dividing Range in the distance, it was a great sight.

Daintree

Jeannie Gray

The mountains were shrouded in cloud, and rain started to fall for the first time in many days as we got our first glimpse of the Daintree River. The highlight of this section of the trip was a boat trip on the Daintree River and Bartlett Creek conducted by Chris Dahlberg, who showed us 45 species, including the Great-billed Heron, Papuan Frogmouth and Little Kingfisher. We had close, spectacular and sustained views of Shining Flycatchers, both male and female, and Azure Kingfishers within touching distance. A pair of Brahminy Kites preceded us up the creek for 15 minutes, pausing every so often, and then reappearing. We also enjoyed views of estuarine crocodiles and a gorgeous green and yellow tree snake.

And back to Townsville

Jeannie Gray

On the way back south, we revisited a number of areas in the hope of seeing some birds that had escaped us previously. We were largely unsuccessful in this, though we did hear a new voice: the loudspeaker call of the Wompoo Pigeon.

Farewells included a dinner at Cardwell, with presentations and speeches, including heartfelt thanks to Ian and Margaret and also to the more experienced birdos for their unfailing help and encouragement to the less experienced. The last lunch having been eaten (along with a last delicious ice-cream from the amazing Frosty Mango), we headed for the Townsville airport, feeling sad but more than satisfied at the end of a simply wonderful tour.