Australia's Unique Wildlife: Birds and Beasts Down-under

[Tom Kellie]

 

 

 

~ @janzin

 

The Flying Fox image is magnificent. Hats off to you for such high quality photography.

 

The bower image takes me back more than half a century to the kitchen table in my family home.

 

We'd sit there reading, often with books about ‘Birds of the World’. It was fun to imagine such fascinating organisms all over the globe.

 

Reading about bowerbirds was interesting, as the notion of a bird collecting objects of a certain type made sense to us.

 

We collected tumbled pebbles, coins, postage stamps and sea-smoothed glass shards.

 

Yours is the first image I've ever seen of such a bower. My parents would have liked it as much as I do.

 

Tom K.

[janzin]

Thank you so much @Tom Kellie Yes the bowerbirds are a fascinating group--although it sad that they are collecting so much plastic. I have to wonder what the bowers looked like before plastic--I imagine mostly feathers and flowers and stones.

[jilm]

Love the flying foxes and the Rainbow Lorkeets are magnificent....what a great report you are giving us.

[janzin]

I realize I'd better pick up the pace or I'll never finish this report before my next trip (leaving in 10 days for Kenya!)

 

After a night at the comfortable Ibis Katherine hotel, we headed out very early to Nitmiluk National Park--formerly known as Katherine National Park. This was actually to be our last day with Laurie in the Top End, but we had a lot left to pack in.

 

Our first and very important stop was a "secret" waterhole that Laurie knew where Gouldian Finches and other birds would gather in the early morning.  As we got out of the car, and started walking through the brush to the waterhole, we got a very very good omen...

 

 

Gouldian Finches, Laurie counted at least 50-60 in the flock. But only a few of the colorful adults. Let's hope they are heading to the waterhole.

 

We reached the waterhole--which wasn't so "secret" after all, as there was another birder already there. The waterhole was really a jumble of rocks with some remnant puddles...in a few weeks, it would probably be dry. Anyway, we all sat quietly and waited for the birds to come in to drink. We were rewarded!

 

 

 

 

 

The Gouldian Finch actually has three color morphs. The most common, seen above, is the black-faced. But we were also lucky enough to find a red-faced!

 

 

There is a Yellow-faced as well, but that's very rare and found further into the interior.

 

Another striking finch who came around was this Long-tailed Finch.

 

 

And here, we had great looks at the Hooded Parrot, a highly-sought endemic which occurs only in the Top End of the Northern Territory.

 

 

 

The female Hooded Parrot is not quite as colorful, but still pretty.

 

 

As we returned to our car, we found some Crimson Finches that posed nicely for us. We hadn't seen these by the water (although we saw them earlier in the trip, in Darwin.)

 

 

Female

 

 

Well that was a great start to the day!

 

Next stop was Edith Falls, just up the road in the park. This is really more of a swimming spot and at this time of year, there wasn't much to the falls.

 

 

However, we got a great bird in the parking lot. In fact, this was one of the few times Laurie ran back to the car to get his camera, as he said he didn't have great shots of this gorgeous raptor.

 

This Pacific Baza had just caught some lunch--a large grasshoper.

 

 

After eating...

 

 

We also found another Great Bowerbird here.

 

 

Not much else and it was getting into the hot part of the day, so we continued to lunch and then our final destination before heading into Darwin: Litchfield National Park.

 

This wasn't for any particular birds but more for the scenery of the park itself. It is well know for its waterfalls, and a very unusual feature: giant termite mounds!

 

 

This type of mound is called a Cathedral termite mound. Some of these large mounds are over 100 years old, and still "alive" with termites.

 

 

Another type here is what is called the "magnetic termite mound", because they are constructed to align with sun: with their thin edges pointing north-south and broad backs east-west, to keep the interiors cooler.  They are actually built by a particular endemic species: Amitermes meridionalis, commonly known as the magnetic termite or compass termite. There are hundreds of these mounds just lined up in the surrounding fields.

 

 

We made a final stop at a waterfall overlook.

 

 

On our way back to Darwin--one more life bird! Saw this soaring and jumped out of the car to grab some flight shots.

 

 

But sadly, it was now time to say goodbye to Laurie and the Top End. One final night in Darwin, back again at the Club Tropical Resort, and onward tomorrow to our next destination--Cairns and Tropical North Queensland!

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2019 by janzin

[jilm]

what an incredible time you are having and seeing so many birds and mammals...and your photos of them are beautiful...

[Galago]

@janzin Really enjoying this. I'd love to go to the Top End - Gouldian finches!!! Great shot of the Pacific Baza with a grasshopper. Looking forward to reading about your experiences in QLD.

[lmonmm]

Loving the pictures of the bats....I follow a woman on FB...Batzilla the Bat ....who rescues these beautiful mammals in Australia and have learned so much. They really are amazing. Looking forward to more

[Atdahl]

@janzin, wow what a great report!  As usual, your pictures are fantastic.  I am thinking about Australia in 2020 possibly so this report is timely.   I can't wait to read more.

[Treepol]

@janzin what a great site for Gouldian finches, and lovely photos. Those Hooded parrots are amazing - I love the aqua and yellow.

 

Great shot of the Pacific Baza!

[Kitsafari]

brilliant shots of the gouldian finch and the pacific baza. i spent time admiring the clarity in the gorgeous colours of the finch and the sharp eyes of the baza. I've expected nothing less having seen many of your shots!

[janzin]

We arrived in Cairns mid-afternoon and were met by our new guide, Steve Potter of Bellbird Tours. We'd actually met him in the US, at the American Birding Expo, so we already knew that we liked him Although he is not as serious a photographer as Laurie Ross, he is definitely into photography and always carried his Canon with 100-400 lens, so that was a good fit for us. Of course, it goes without saying that he is an expert birder and well-acquainted with the birds and hot spots of the area (although he lives in South Australia--Adelaide--so this wasn't his home turf.)

 

A brief word about Cairns. Cairns is the gateway city to both Tropical North Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef, so there are quite a lot of tourists and there was a lot of construction going on along the waterfront. However, it is still a pretty small city and has a laid-back, small town feel in a lot of respects. Lots of backpackers. The main street fronting the water is chock full of shops, restaurants, bars, and a few hotels.

 

After quickly checking into our waterfront hotel and dumping our luggage, we started out with a walk along the waterfront boardwalk, or as its known, the Cairns Esplanade. This stretch is great for bird watching when the tide is right, because it becomes a giant mudflat for shorebirds, gulls, pelicans, terns, etc. But the tide has to be just right; too low and the birds are too distant; too high and there isn't enough mud. We were lucky in that the tide was pretty good for us both times we were there--on this first afternoon, and also on our last morning of the trip when we returned to Cairns.

 

In the interest of expediency and non-repetitiveness, I'm going to combine the birds we saw here at both ends of our time in Cairns, into this one post.

 

The view of the esplanade, at a low tide, so you can get an idea:

 

 

Some of the birds we saw on the flats. 

 

Black-fronted Dotteral. This small plover has an interesting behavior, he wiggles his foot over the sand which I imagine brings up the insects/crustaceans he is feeding on. You can see his foot lifted in motion here.

 

 

 

 

Lots of Australian Pelicans!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the shorebirds we were able to see with the scope were too distant for photographs. We did pick up several non-photographable life birds such as Far Eastern Curlew, Grey-tailed Tattler, and others.  But not all the good birds along the waterfront are on the flats. In fact, the trees along the Esplanade are a magnet for several target species, including some honeyeater species we saw nowhere else!

 

All of the following birds were seen along this short stretch of Cairns Esplanade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And large groups of Rainbow Lorikeet! You can easily see that the ones here in Queensland look very different than the "Red-collared" we saw in the Northern Territory. Here, the hind neck is green.

 

 

 

At the end of the boardwalk, there is a small park that borders an area of mangroves. We spent some time here trying to get Mangrove Robin, a very skulky bird of the mangroves which we'd tried to get in Darwin, but missed.  This was the one spot we got eaten alive by little biting midges (not mosquitoes, in fact we never saw a mosquito on the entire trip, I don't think.) But it was worth the bites because in the end, after much effort, we did get a good look at the Mangrove Robin! Unfortunately though he kept his back to us, so no decent photos.

 

Another good bird we saw in the dense mangroves was Sacred Kingfisher.

 

And this Willie Wagtail seemed to follow us wherever we walked.

 

 

A nice staghorn fern in the mangroves.

 

 

We only had one night in Cairns but there were a couple more stops to make before heading up to the Daintree.

Edited February 1, 2019 by janzin

[janzin]

We stopped first at a huge tree in downtown Cairns that had a very large colony of Flying Foxes. Kind of hard to see, but they are in there.

 

 

 

Sadly, I have read that recently due to an extreme heatwave this past November in Cairns--with record high temperatures--much of the local bat colonies died off--with bats just dropping from the trees.   I suspect that this colony may have been one of those impacted.  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-19/heat-wipes-out-one-third-of-flying-fox-species/10632940

 

Our next stop was a coastal area where Steve expected to find some closer shorebirds. Unfortunately, when we arrived, there wasn't a bird to be found! Likely due to some fishermen (and a dog) who were up the beach.

 

 

However, driving back up the road from this spot we had some lovely looks at Rainbow Bee-eater.

 

 

Next we headed to the Cairns Botanical Gardens, which abuts another park called Centenary Lakes. A very pretty spot.

 

 

Along the many ponds and lake here we saw a few good birds.

 

 

 

 

 

Including this beauty!

 

 

 

After some time spent here, and a picnic lunch, it was time to head further north, to Daintree. This wasn't a very long drive--under two hours or so. Most of the drive is along the coast, but there aren't many places to stop for views on the narrow, winding road.

 

 

Soon we were driving through the rainforest and it was nearly dark when we reached our destination for the night, the Red Mill Inn in Daintree. This inn caters to birders and is well located to walk to our Daintree River cruise the next morning.

 

But before that, just a couple of neat frogs that were pointed out to us by the very sweet owner! These tiny frogs live in the grasses right in front of the inn. They are really tiny--the size of a fingertip. There are several species that look quite similar and while the owner did tell us which these were, I don't quite remember so I am not ID'ing them to species level.

 

 

 

And there was one more resident frog...this one not quite so small--which has made its home in a frog-shaped decoration on the porch!

 

 

Tomorrow, our sunrise cruise on the Daintree river.

 

 

 

Edited February 1, 2019 by janzin

[jilm]

I bet we are getting close to the end...not something I am looking forward to...what a great journey you are taking us on, and the photos are wonderful...

[janzin]

22 minutes ago, jilm said:

I bet we are getting close to the end...not something I am looking forward to...what a great journey you are taking us on, and the photos are wonderful...

 

Not really...still have another five or six days to go But I'm trying to consolidate a little so I can finish!

[Galago]

@janzin Now that brings back some memories. Oh the bites I got in the mangroves! And sitting on the boardwalk with the local birders as they told me about all the birds there was fun. You've taken some amazing photos and I am soooo envious of your Mistletoebird sighting - mine was a quick flash. Your photo of the Olive-backed Sunbird with the feather is extraordinary, a real contender for one of those photo of the year awards. And the White-lipped tree frogs have shifted - when I was at Red Mill they were on a picture frame and in an uplighter lampshade in the sitting room. Cool frogs, aren't they. I love the way the white stripe around the mouth turns them into Kermit's cousin.

[TonyQ]

An amazing section in the Top End. The birds and your photos are stunning.

I really enjoyed seeing the Rock Art as well- fascinating.

[monalisa]

On 1/18/2019 at 3:52 PM, janzin said:

 

 

Umm hello?! No love for the bush turkey?  Ha ha ha! 

 

These are amazing photos @janzin!! You've captured Australia's birdlife so beautifully!! I too adore the fairywrens. As a kid the "little blue-heads" that flew around our yard every now and then were my favourite.

There are a lot of birds I didn't even know existed. I feel like I need to see a rose-crowned fruit-dove now. Those look super cool!

 

 

[janzin]

2 hours ago, monalisa said:

 

Umm hello?! No love for the bush turkey?  Ha ha ha! 

 

These are amazing photos @janzin!! You've captured Australia's birdlife so beautifully!! I too adore the fairywrens. As a kid the "little blue-heads" that flew around our yard every now and then were my favourite.

There are a lot of birds I didn't even know existed. I feel like I need to see a rose-crowned fruit-dove now. Those look super cool!

 

 

 

haha I wondered if anyone would notice the Brush Turkey I do have a better photo from later on so I didn't really point it out.

 

You are so lucky to live where there are so many beautiful birds! Of course, we have many as well--but generally take them for granted.

[janzin]

3 hours ago, Galago said:

@janzin Now that brings back some memories. Oh the bites I got in the mangroves! And sitting on the boardwalk with the local birders as they told me about all the birds there was fun. You've taken some amazing photos and I am soooo envious of your Mistletoebird sighting - mine was a quick flash. Your photo of the Olive-backed Sunbird with the feather is extraordinary, a real contender for one of those photo of the year awards. And the White-lipped tree frogs have shifted - when I was at Red Mill they were on a picture frame and in an uplighter lampshade in the sitting room. Cool frogs, aren't they. I love the way the white stripe around the mouth turns them into Kermit's cousin.

 

@GalagoOur first sighting of the Mistletoe bird was actually in the same spot as the biting midges--and it was a fairly quick and distant flash as well. I was very frustrated trying to get a photo, so when we saw them again in the Centenary Lakes we spent quite awhile chasing them around until we could get a decent shot. We got lucky, they are beautiful birds!

 

So I guess those White-lipped Tree Frogs seem to be permanent residents of the Red Mill. But it was hilarious seeing the frog within the frog!

[janzin]

The next morning we had scheduled a 2 hour, sunrise cruise on the Daintree river with the top boat guide, used by all the birding tour companies: Murray Hunt "The Daintree Boatman" http://www.daintreerivertours.com.au/

He's a birder himself, and very attuned to the needs of photographers as well. Of course, he knew and remembered Steve from prior visits.

 

As before, we got to the dock bright and early to be the first on line so that we could sit right at the front of the boat. This is a smaller boat, maximum 10 people; the only other customers that morning was a group of five or six Chinese photographers. I think they had planned to be first on the boat so seemed a little miffed that we had the front seats but heck, we were there first!

 

Some of the specialties here we had already seen in the north, like the Azure and Little Kingfisher. But there was some other targets that would be new, including Black Bittern, Great-billed Heron, and Papuan Frogmouth...not the same Frogmouth we saw in Darwin.

 

The scenery wasn't as spectacular as the Yellow River Cruise. But we did get some great birds and more photo ops.

 

The Azure Kingfisher was a little distant here.

 

 

But the Little Kingfisher allowed a close approach!

 

 

 

 

 

And we found a cool (and harmless) tree snake. The only snake we really saw on the trip.

 

 

A beautiful spoonbill posed nicely.

 

 

And we found one of our target species: the Papuan Frogmouth. A pair, in fact!

 

 

And then another on a nest!

 

 

Alas, we dipped on Black Bittern and Great-billed Heron. These are very difficult to find and can depend on the tide and water levels. Or we were just unlucky   Oh well, maybe next trip

 

After the cruise we returned to the Red Mill for an excellent breakfast. A short walk up the road from the lodge produced one new bird...and a colony of Metallic Starlings.

 

 

This Pheasant Coucal darted across the road and I was just able to catch it in the long grass.

 

 

The original plan for the afternoon was to head down to our next lodging in the Atherton Tablelands, at Yungaburra. But I expressed a little disappointment to Steve--where was the actual tropical rainforest? I felt like we hadn't see it yet. The area of Daintree seemed more temperate forest and farmland. Could we go up to the actual Daintree Rainforest reserve, which was a little further north?

 

Steve readily agreed and said we had plenty of time to do so. I also had a secret agenda--which I will reveal. I had read about this unique ice cream place, The Daintree Ice Cream Company, which was across the river and not far from the reserve. Now, those who know me know that I will travel for ice cream Luckily by this point in the trip we had discovered that Steve also enjoyed ice cream and in fact we often stopped for a mid-day snack; every gas station and cafe had a cooler for ice cream bars and Australia has a fantastic selection, especially the large Magnum bars in a million flavors...but i digress Anyway this Daintree Ice Cream company was supposed to be really special--we'll come to that later.

 

Heading north required a short ferry trip--there is no bridge across the river. We headed up to the river ferry, taking our picnic lunch. The ferry itself is a unique and fun experience, its a cable-pulled barge that goes back and forth continually. Its only about a five minute ride. That's it below with the cars on it.

 

 

This photo was taken as we were sitting on the ferry, you can see the cable mechanism. And the Cassowary decoration! (Taken through the car window so hence the blue tinge...it was too hot to open the window lol.)

 

 

Once across it was just a short drive to the rainforest reserve. Here we actually had one primary target bird: the Noisy Pitta.  We heard it a few times on the trails but the forest is really dense here. This was the tropical forest I'd imagined! (iPhone photos just to give an idea.)

 

 

 

 

Pretty difficult to find any birds in here, but Steve managed to locate our target--it was calling. Finally he was able to call it out a bit into the open. It was so dark in this forest that I was forced to use flash, which I try to avoid but I wanted at least a record shot.

 

 

There was a beautiful butterfly.

 

 

Otherwise, the forest was pretty quiet as it was midday now, and getting quite hot. So we agreed it was time for lunch--and ice cream!

 

We headed another 10 minutes up the road to the Daintree Ice Cream company. Steve had never been here before! But I had done my research They have a large orchard and all of their flavors are fruit-based and made from their own trees. Every day they offer only four flavors in a single cup--you have no choice! First we ate our picnic lunch at some tables they had...and then it was time for ice cream! So good! You can see the flavors we had on the sign below: I really liked the wattleseed, very nutty and unusual. But they were all great.

 

 

A few of their other flavors (this is only half the sign)

 

 

Anyone visiting this area MUST make this stop! Unless you hate ice cream https://daintreeicecream.com.au/

 

While we were enjoying our ice cream, a male Olive-backed Sunbird entertained us on some protea flowers. We actually hadn't seen a photograph-able male yet so I was torn between my ice cream melting and the bird. I managed to handle both, though.

 

 

After this, it was time to start the drive back, across the ferry again, and on to Yungaburra where we would spend the next two nights.

 

Edited February 2, 2019 by janzin

[Zubbie15]

Ah, Daintree Ice Cream Company, that brings back memories.  So many flavors I’d never even heard of!  

 

It it seemed like you didn’t see many mammals in the Top End, did you expect more?  I know in our case we were a little disappointed in how many mammals we saw - the only appreciable mammals were when we left Ubirr after sunset, and the kangaroos and wallabies appeared in the dusk. It made driving interesting, that’s for sure!  I definitely wish we’d had a guide during I time in that area, we definitely. Issued some intersting spots due to a lack of knowledge of the area.

[Galago]

Did the same river trip but that photo of the Little Kingfisher - just superb! I remember the tree snake, it's a good one, isn't it? Looking forward to hearing about Yungaburra.

[Atdahl]

Beautiful pictures Janet and well done getting the PItta picture.  I will have to remember that ice cream shop.  You haven't talked about seeing a Cassowary yet...hopefully you did.  I guess we will just have to wait and see. 

 

Alan

[janzin]

1 hour ago, Zubbie15 said:

Ah, Daintree Ice Cream Company, that brings back memories.  So many flavors I’d never even heard of!  

 

It it seemed like you didn’t see many mammals in the Top End, did you expect more?  I know in our case we were a little disappointed in how many mammals we saw - the only appreciable mammals were when we left Ubirr after sunset, and the kangaroos and wallabies appeared in the dusk. It made driving interesting, that’s for sure!  I definitely wish we’d had a guide during I time in that area, we definitely. Issued some intersting spots due to a lack of knowledge of the area.

@Zubbie15 Cool that you visited the Daintree Ice Cream Co., wasn't it fantastic! I'm glad I read about it beforehand--on TripAdvisor I think--otherwise we wouldn't have known to go.

 

We really didn't see that many mammals in the top end as we did in Queensland...in part, we didn't do much night birding/mammaling there, as Laurie said it wouldn't be too productive. I did forget to mention that we VERY BRIEFLY saw a Dingo...just run across the road up ahead of us.  No time for a photo.

 

But stay tuned because we still have lots of mammals to report from Queensland

 

10 minutes ago, Atdahl said:

Beautiful pictures Janet and well done getting the PItta picture.  I will have to remember that ice cream shop.  You haven't talked about seeing a Cassowary yet...hopefully you did.  I guess we will just have to wait and see. 

 

Alan

 

Yes, @Atdahlyou'll have to wait and see

[janzin]

For those of you who are tired of birds, this next post will be mostly mammals

 

Originally we were supposed to arrive at our next stop, Yungaburra, more like mid-afternoon, but because we went up north for the Pitta (and the ice cream ) we didn't arrive in the area until after 4 p.m. We were a little worried because the original plan was to have tea at the Nerada Tea Plantation---for the express purpose of spotting a very special mammal that resides on their property.  And they close at 4 p.m. But Steve said, no worries, we should be able to see the Lumholz's Tree Kangaroo right from the entrance road.

 

We parked on the side of the road and started scanning the trees.  And before too long, we found it!

 

 

This tree kangaroo is only found in Tropical North Queensland. As its name suggests, it is well adapted for living in trees...although it can hop on the ground as well.

 

 

We also saw a young one with a joey but it was too buried in the leaves for a good photo.

 

Off to a great start in the Atherton Tablelands (which is what this area is called.)  We continued on to our lodge outside of Yungaburra: Chambers Wildlife Lodge.  This was the most incredible place--we specifically requested to stay here because I'd read about their night viewing station where a variety of night critters come for feeding.  And @Treepol highly recommended it The grounds are also fantastically birdy. By the time we arrived, dusk was approaching so we settled into our rooms and got ready for dinner. Dinner was in town, just 10 minutes away, at the historic Yungaburra Hotel.

 

But the real fun commenced after dinner. We were super excited to park ourselves at the night feeding station. Steve supplied a bottle of wine and we sat with our cameras, our wine, and waited. The lodge spreads honey or a sugary solution on the trees to attract the nocturnal mammals. You are actually very close to the trees where the food is spread--I was using my 70-200mm lens.

 

Here's what we saw!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think my favorite though, were the Sugar Gliders. These glide much like flying squirrels...but they are marsupials. I tried hard to catch one gliding but it was impossible because they don't give any warning, they just suddenly jump/fly from one tree to another! In the photo below, you can see the "flying" membrane between the limbs.

 

 

 

 

 

We must have sat there for two hours watching the antics of these cute creatures.  Tomorrow, we have a full day in the area to search for some specialty birds and a very, very unique mammal....

Edited February 5, 2019 by janzin