Sunshine Coast Game On (notwithstanding that global pandemic)

Powerful Owl

There's plenty of doom and gloom about right now with the Covid-19 pandemic wreaking havoc around the globe. The virus is believed to have originated in the so-called wet markets of central China, where huge numbers of domestic animals and wildlife are slaughtered in unhygienic circumstances, allowing deadly pathogens to jump from animals to people. Much the same thing happened years ago with the SARS virus in China but the Chinese learned nothing from that experience. Ebola and HIV are among other devastating diseases to have their origins in the human consumption of wildlife. We can expect more of the same.

But enough of that for the moment. Here on the Sunshine Coast, The Game is on again this year. Through BirdLife Australia's Sunshine Coast Facebook page, birders photograph as many species as possible locally in the calendar year. It's a challenge and it's fun. I decided to make a Big Year of it in 2018, photographing 310 species in the region. Last year the so-called Zone of Happiness was extended substantially westward to the South Burnett, so 2020 looked like a good time to have another stab. The New Year began well enough, with interesting birds on the Maroochy River floodplains in early-January including Horsfield's Bushlark, Brown Songlark, Pallid Cuckoo and Oriental Cuckoo.

Brown Songlark

Conditions inland due to a prolonged drought presumably forced some of these species towards the coast. A Black Falcon turned up for a couple of weeks and I was happy to see it near Bli Bli.

Black Falcon

A Freckled Duck which had been hanging around Lake Alford in Gympie late last year was still about in January; that was one species I missed in 2018.

Freckled Duck

A pelagic trip of Mooloolaba in January came up with the goods including the first White Tern and Masked Booby recorded for The Game as well as Sooty Tern and loads of Tahiti Petrels.

Sooty Tern

Masked Booby

A late-January visit to Jimna was rewarded with fine views of White-throated Nightjar and Australian Owlet-Nightjar.

White-throated Nightjar

Also in the Jimna-Yabba Road area was Brown Treecreeper, a species that could be recorded for the first time this year in the Zone of Happiness because it is found only in the newly expanded western portion of the region.

Brown Treecreeper

Other good birds here and further along the road to Kilcoy included Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, Dusky Woodswallow, two parties of feeding Glossy Black Cockatoo, Weebill and Buff-rumped Thornbill - the latter another species recorded for the first time locally in 2020 due to the zone's westward expansion.

Buff-rumped Thornbill

Glossy Black Cockatoo

Back on the coast, some of the more skulking waterbirds were showing in January including Baillon's Crake at Parklakes and Spotless Crake at Ewen Maddock Dam.

Baillon's Crake

A second pelagic trip off Mooloolaba for the year in February was as productive as the first with Long-tailed Jaeger, another first for The Game, being seen along with Streaked Shearwater, Bridled Tern and Pomarine Jaeger.

Streaked Shearwater

Long-tailed Jaeger

An adult female Australian Little Bittern at Parklakes in early-February was a welcome find as this is one of the more difficult species to see, let along photograph.

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Australian Little Bittern 

February was a good month to clean up shorebirds including Wandering Tattler at Alexandra Headland, Red Knot at Kakadu Beach and Common Sandpiper at Pacific Harbour.

Wandering Tattler

February saw heavy rains over the region, putting an end to the prolonged dry and providing new food sources in expanding flooded areas for our resident White-winged Tern population.

White-winged Tern

Then later in the month, another new record for the region, the recently split (Asian) Gull-billed Tern turned up at Toorbul (found by Helen Leonard); the bird was kind enough to remain in the region for a few more weeks.

(Asian) Gull-billed Tern

The mega record of the year came in late-Feburary when Jane Cooksley discovered the famed Kenny, a Kentish Plover, in the Noosa River estuary. The bird was still there this week.

Kentish Plover

Early March saw a trip to the Tin Can Bay-Cooloola Cove-Inskip Point area, a favoured stamping ground. Radjah Shelduck showed nicely at the Tin Can Bay golf course, as it did in 2018.

Radjah Shelduck

Inskip Point was excellent for shorebirds with Sanderling, Black-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover and Terek Sandpiper all seen.

Sanderling

Also in early-March, a drive up the beach from Noosa North Shore to Double Island Point, Cooloola was productive with Common Noddy (Species Number 200 for the year) and Lesser Crested Tern showing.

Brown Noddy

Closer to home, Eastern Barn Owl was in its regular haunt at Valdora while Charlie Moreland Park, as ever, produced the rainforest specialties such as Pale-yellow Robin and Paradise Riflebird.

Paradise Riflebird

Eastern Barn Owl

As March marched on, the looming menace of Corvid-19 was rearing its ugly head in spectacular fashion. It became obvious that lockdowns and travel restrictions would be the order the day so we embarked on a four-day camping trip through the western part of the region while camping remained possible. Common Bronzewing showed nicely at Goomeri Bush Camp.

Common Bronzewing

Then it was on to Nanango, where in woodland east of the town, two more species not available in 2018 – Superb Fairywren and Brown-headed Honeyeater – were chalked up in short order. Red-rumped Parrot was seen on the outskirts of Blackbutt in the same area where I found the species several years ago.

Brown-headed Honeyeater

We moved on to Yandilla, a spot which proved highly productive in 2018. A drive up Mt Kilcoy Road in Conondale National Park turned up the hoped for Red-browed Treecreeper.

Red-browed Treecreeper

Later in March, before the travel restrictions started biting, I visited Beerwah where I tracked down a roosting Powerful Owl in the same area where I had a pair in 2018. One of that pair was believed to have been the victim of vehicle collision and the birds were not recorded during the 2019 breeding season. However, a single bird (presumably the one I saw) has been heard repeatedly by locals in recent months; whether it is the survivor of the 2018 pair is unknown.

Powerful Owl

I visited Conondale National Park where excellent views of Sooty Owl and Marbled Frogmouth were the order of the night,and Imbil State Forest, where a male Black-breasted Buttonquail was bagged.

Black-breasted Buttonquail

Sooty Owl

By this time, at the end of March, I was supposed to be leading a birding trip to Ghana, but that's another story. With April now well advanced, movement everywhere is very much restricted by the Covid-19 lockdown. Some scope remains for birding as hiking, kayaking and other outside exercise continues to be permitted. My tally for the year stands at 266. Hopefully images like this will help lighten the mood a little.

Marbled Frogmouth