November Blitz Around the Sunshine Coast

Eastern Grass Owl near Yandina Creek Wetlands - Picture by Hendrik Ferreira 

A highly productive one-and-a-half days and an evening of birding around the Sunshine Coast with Hendrik Ferreira and Anton Booysen yielded a veritable spray of goodies including Eastern Grass Owl, Sooty Owl, Large-tailed Nightjar, Marbled Frogmouth, Australian Little Bittern, Eastern Ground Parrot, King Quail, Beach Stone-Curlew, Wandering Tattler, Cotton Pygmy-Goose, Black-necked Stork, Barred Cuckoo-shrike, White-eared Monarch, Dusky Honeyeater, Crested Shrike-tit, Fairy Gerygone, Paradise Riflebird, Noisy Pitta, Russet-tailed Thrush, Little Bronze Cuckoo, Crested Shrike-tit, Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, Little Grassbird and Spotless Crake.

White-eared Monarch

We kicked off at dawn on Day One at Little Yabba Creek, Charlie Moreland Park, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. We soon had a pair of White-eared Monarchs flitting about us side-by-side with Spectacled Monarchs and Black-faced Monarchs.

Paradise Riflebird

A small party of Dusky Honeyeaters foraged on the rainforest edge and a male Paradise Riflebird checked us out. Russet-tailed Thrush, Wompoo Fruit-Dove, White-headed Pigeon, Topknot Pigeon and Australian Logrunner were among other birds present. A Noisy Pitta performed well along a nearby rainforest circuit track. Crested Shrike-tit and Pale-yellow Robin were also here.

Noisy Pitta

We moved on to open eucalypt forest and vine scrub at Moy Pocket, nestled in a loop in the picturesque Mary River. A pair of Barred Cuckoo-shrikes were co-operative and Fairy Gerygone – a species recorded from the hinterland only in relatively recent times - was vocal and easy to track down. Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos entertained as they tore into the flowers of a Silky Oak.

Fairy Gerygone

Another patch of vine scrub near Imbil was our next destination. Here we found plenty of evidence of Black-breasted Buttonquail including fresh platelets but no birds were seen in the time we had available. While having lunch at Imbil, we were startled when a large vehicle came rolling down a hill, crossing the road and knocking down two wooded rail barriers before smashing into a tree a few metres from us, just before it would have otherwise plunged into Yabba Creek. It had been left in neutral with no hand brake on - an unusual diversion from birding.

Runaway Vehicle at Imbil

We headed east to the coast to Alexandra Headland where we found a nice pair of Wandering Tattlers on the sea edge along with a Pacific Reef-Egret. We continued to the mouth of the Maroochy River, spotting a Beach Stone-Curlew feeding on crabs on the seaward side of Goat Island.

Wandering Tattler

Large numbers of Chesnut Teal were at the Maroochydore sewage treatment plant. At Bli Bli Wetlands, a Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove put on a fine show in the afternoon light while we took time out to photograph more common species such as Leaden Flycatcher.

Leaden Flycatcher

Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove

Our final call for the day was a property adjoining the Yandina Creek Wetlands. I reported last week (see here) about some nice waterbirds at this site. This newly discovered spot was again impressive. A Black-necked Stork waded in the shallows as 15 or more Spotless Crakes and quite a few Little Grassbirds called from flooded grasses.

Black-necked Stork

At dusk, a lone Australian Little Bittern was calling vigorously from across a marsh. Then a Large-tailed Nightjar started calling before we saw it briefly flitting about. The nightjar had been roosting in thick vegetation lining a canal which cuts through the wetlands. This species was known to occur as far south as the Rainbow Beach area, 80km north of here, but was found nearby at Bli Bli Wetlands on October 20 this year by Russ Lamb and Pieter de Groot; these two records constitute a southward extension of range. See ebird list here.

Eastern Grass Owl - Picture by Hendrik Ferreira

As the sky darkened and a full moon began to rise, a pair of Eastern Grass Owls appeared overhead in response to playback, putting on an excellent display. We saw and heard the nightjar as we left the wetlands. These latest records strengthen the case for the wetlands to be acquired and managed as a reserve by the local council (see here for how you help this campaign).

Marbled Frogmouth

We headed west to the Blackall Range and Mapleton National Park, where we soon had a Sooty Owl calling in wet sclerophyll forest. We saw the bird in flight twice before finally cornering a brief but good view of it perched. Not much later we had a pair of Marbled Frogmouths calling on both sides of the road, with the female eventually showing nicely. See ebird list here. So we had Sooty Owl, Eastern Grass Owl, Large-tailed Nightjar and Marbled Frogmouth (along with Southern Boobook and Tawny Frogmouth) within a couple of hours.

Birding wallum heath near Noosa

We had just the morning on the second day for birding so it was off for an early start in a patch of wallum heath near Noosa. We flushed a female King Quail, always a difficult species, before our main target – an Eastern Ground Parrot – flew up obligingly from the heath. White-winged Triller was calling and a squadron of White-throated Needletails flew overhead.

Tawny Grassbird

The water level of Lake Macdonald was very low and not much was about although Red-kneed Dotterel and Whiskered Tern were nice. A Grey Goshawk was on a tree nearby where a pair raised a single young last year. Latham's Snipe and Tawny Grassbird were about at the Cooroy sewage treatment works, and Little Lorikeet here was unusual.

Cotton Pygmy-Goose

We found another Black-necked Stork on a farm dam near Eumundi and a pair of Cotton Pygmy-Geese on a second dam nearby. All up, an eventful couple of days.