This post is only a short one, though not because nothing happened this month. Oh no. July was not a boring month for birding. However the reason why I'm being very brief has to do with where I've been. I left Bundaberg for most of the month to join in on a trip to Kakadu in search of White-throated Grasswrens with Bill and Jack Moorhead! This was an unforgettable and unbelieveable opportunity to travel across half of the country birding every day for three weeks. I won't be writing all about it in this post otherwise you'd be reading this all day, though I will be uploading a trip report soon which shall go into some detail about the whole experience. Keep posted!
In the few days before we left there was still some local birding opportunities to be had. Jane and I spent a half day down near Coonar, specifically the Wildflower Reserve and Sharks Nest. It was a fairly relaxed morning with no real focus, except that Jane wanted to check out the Sharks Nest area - an area along the Elliott River popular with fishermen but also productive for birds in the remnant coastal vine-scrub. The Wildflower Reserve has suffered a major burn, which is a disappointment. The birdlife has completely diminished from the area apart from the Brown Honeyeaters returning to the new Banksia bloom. Towards the far end of the reserve is less damaged and produced some nice bush birds, such as Red-backed Fairywren, White-browed Scrubwren, Golden Whistler, Fan-tailed Cuckoo and Eastern Whipbird. The rest of the morning was spent at Sharks Nest which was quite productive with honeyeaters and friarbirds and up to five Shining Bronze-Cuckoos. Nothing particularly special but it was a nice morning out.
From one morning in Hervey Bay a Red-capped Robin was reported this month, which is an unusual sighting this close to the coast. Though, such a record of this bird is not a first and can be explained by the drought conditions currently affecting the interior.
This month at the Port survey the morning was lovely and crisp, we had beautiful home-made muffins for smoko and there were birds aplenty. Some of the overwintering waders present were Curlew Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint, Common Greenshank, Eastern Curlew and Bar-tailed Godwit, and among them were the resident waders - Red-capped Plover, Black-fronted Dotterel, Red-kneed Dotterel and Pied Stilt. The most special bird during this time of year is Double-banded Plovers which escapes the New Zealand winter on the south-east coasts of Australia... we saw two this morning. Other recurring birds at the port include Gull-billed and Caspian Terns, Chestnut Teal, Mangrove Gerygone, Nankeen Kestrel, Spotted Harrier and Brahminy Kite. What a month this was...
Happy birding;
Brandon
