Torresian Imperial-Pigeon, Barking & Sooty Owl as the Sunshine Coast avian roadshow rolls on

Torresian Imperial-Pigeon

It's been something of a grim year with Covid-19 but birds are helping to keep us sane. Before the pandemic hit in March, good birds seen locally included Australian Little Bittern, Asian Gull-billed Tern and Kentish Plover. Everyone was in shutdown for several weeks after that, but short visits in the region allowed the birding clock to keep ticking. BirdLife Australia Sunshine Coast's annual birding competition continued apace. A visit to Imbil State Forest failed to produce the hoped for Masked Owl but another Powerful Owl, the second for the year in the region, was a pleasant surprise. Black-striped Wallaby was also good to see here.

Black-striped Wallaby

Powerful Owl

A second visit to Imbil State Forest produced the second Sooty Owl for the year in dry lowland rainforest - unusual habitat for this species, which prefers wet forests at higher altitudes.

Sooty Owl

A pair of Barking Owls obligingly put in an appearance at a daytime roost in the Crystal Waters village near Kenilworth (thanks Ian Starling). The birds were around for several days before disappearing.

Barking Owl

Marycairncross Reserve had close up Russet-tailed Thrush which, although quite common, can be one of the tougher birds to photograph. The grasslands of Finland Road and Burtons Road had multiple sightings of Swamp Harrier and Spotted Harrier.

Russet-tailed Thrush

Swamp Harrier

The newly open-to-the-public Yandina Creek Wetland continued to perform with Black-necked Stork  reliably seen there and other birds recorded including Lewin's Rail and Spotless Crake. I was happy with this Forest Kingfisher.

Forest Kingfisher

A trip out to Miva and Scotchy Pocket north of Gympie was as productive as ever, with good birds including Black-chinned Honeyeater, Rufous Songlark, White-winged Chough and Red-tailed Black Cockatoo. A platypus was seen at Widgee.

White-winged Chough

Black-chinned Honeyeater

Platypus

We enjoyed a three-day campout at Peach Trees near Jimna - the first camping trip in three months due to Covid-19 restrictions. The area around the camping ground had Painted Buttonquail and Rose Robin showing well. A profusion of fruiting regrowth plants following intense fires in the area late last year meant that species such as Olive-backed Oriole and Australasian Figbird were in unusually large numbers along with no fewer than 7 Regent Bowerbirds, normally a rare species here.

Painted Buttonquail

Regent Bowerbird

Up the range in the dry woodland of Yabba Road, the usual suspects were in attendance including Brown Treecreeper, Fuscous Honeyeater and loads of Little Lorikeets.

Little Lorikeet

Fuscous Honeyeater

Now the latest star of the show has made an appearance in the form of a Torresian Imperial-Pigeon. The bird was first seen by Patrick Colley on June 7 perched on wires outside a house in David Low Way, Pacific Paradise. It was feeding in a nearby fruiting umbrella tree with Australasian Figbirds. It disappeared for a while before being refound by Lori Australis on June 11 in the same spot. The pigeon was last seen flying off to the east, towards Twin Waters. On July 14, Carolyn Scott found it on the corner of Ocean Drive and Wattlebird Drive, Twin Waters, feeding on fruiting Livistona palm trees. It flew off and Jane Cooksley found it nearby perched in an Allocasuarina tree in the garden of 12 Barcoola Place, which lines a canal. Thanks muchly to Carolyn for calling me: it sat in the tree for the 20 minutes it took me to get there before being chased away by a Noisy Miner. The bird was seen again today (June 15) in the same spot. This was photographed species Number 285 for me locally for the year.

Torresian Imperial-Pigeon

Patricia Kilroy, who lives across the road from 12 Barcoola Place, reports that the bird has been present in the area for "several months at least, I think about a year". She sees it on average once a week, either perched high in a tree or feeding on the many fruiting palms in the area. She said locals initially thought that an owl had moved into the area because they heard the pigeon's loud owl-like call regularly. It comes in to drink at her bird bath on occasions. Pat got back to me later after talking to neighbours to let me know the bird had been around for "a good number of years".

Livistona palms in Twin Waters

Torresian Imperial-Pigeon is a summer visitor to north Queensland, usually occurring regularly no further south than Mackay. This bird has a coloured head, indicating breeding plumage. There are a couple of other Sunshine Coast records and it is occasionally found as far south as NSW.

Torresian Imperial-Pigeon

Yandina Creek Wetland Open to the Public

BirdLife Australia's Ken Cross and Greg Roberts on the new bridge

The Yandina Creek Wetland is finally open to the public, eight years after efforts began to protect one of the Sunshine Coast's biodiversity hotspots. Unitywater, which acquired the site as part of its nutrient offsets program in 2016, has built an 850-metre elevated bitumen walking track that leads to a bird hide from a new carpark at the end of River Road.

Visitors are able to look out over an open area of wetland that is favoured by a resident pair of Black-necked Storks. Some interesting and scarce birds have been recorded in this part of the wetland including Australian Little Bittern, Black Bittern, Lewin's Rail and Australasian Shoveler. Great Egret, White-faced Heron and many other more common waterbirds are numerous. Several pairs of Black Swan nest in this area. To date, 168 species of birds have been recorded from the wetland.

Black-necked Stork pair seen from the hide 

En route, visitors on the wheelchair-friendly track pass through areas of Allocasuarina and Melaleuca woodland and mangroves adjoining Yandina Creek. Signs at the hide illustrate various bird species, while signs along the path highlight vegetation, tidal influence and other environmental factors. Just a small proportion of the 200-hectare site is accessed from the new facilities, with the remainder off-limits to visitors as Unitywater continues to undertake research and other activities. Those areas that remain off-limits include the main feeding and roosting sites used by migratory and resident shorebirds.

The announcement of the opening today allows the public to take advantage of newly relaxed Covid-19 restrictions that begin this weekend.

New wetland bird hide

The wetland is part of the Blue Heart Sunshine Coast project, a partnership between Unitywater, Sunshine Coast Council and the Queensland Department of Environment and Science to protect and manage more than 5000 hectares of natural floodplain in the Maroochy River Catchment.

Yandina Creek Wetland

Unitywater executive manager of Sustainable Infrastructure Solutions, Amanda Creevey, said plants in the Yandina Creek Wetland took up nutrients and sediments from the water to improve water quality and overall river health, adding: “An added bonus of the wetland is the boost in biodiversity we’re seeing, including increased marine life, mangroves and wetland plants, and birds, with some migratory birds even returning to the site.”

Sign in carpark

Ms Creevey said: “The addition of the trail walk and bird viewing hide means we get to bring the community along for the ride, take a walk with nature and maybe spot some of the incredible creatures here. With COVID-19 restrictions easing we’re proud to provide this environmental facility to our community. We see it as the beginning of an environmental hub in this area.”

The Sunshine Coast mayor, Mark Jamieson, said: “Through the Blue Heart we’re continuing to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability and enhancing our natural assets. Importantly, the Blue Heart is another tangible demonstration of how our Council is working with its partners to strengthen our region’s climate resilience and taking real action to assist our communities to adapt to a changing climate.”

Black Swans seen from the hide

The site was natural wetland before it was drained in the 1920s for sugarcane plantations. It was sold to developers in the mid-2000s after the closure of the Nambour sugar mill. Farm floodgates which controlled the flow of tidal water from Yandina Creek to the site fell into disrepair, allowing the wetland to be created by tidal inflows. The area effectively reverted to its natural state.

I began efforts to protect wetland in the area in 2012 when I proposed to the Sunshine Coast Council that it acquire a 12-hectare property at the end of River Road, near where the new car park has been built. I was struck by the variety of birds in the area including the endangered Australian Painted-Snipe.

In 2014, I put to the council a much larger proposal for the acquisition of three properties covering 212 hectares. Both proposals were rejected. At the same time, I began a campaign to lobby the Queensland and federal government to intervene to deter the landholders from proceeding with their initial plan to convert the site to cattle pasture, and later efforts to re-establish sugarcane plantations.

Great Egret seen from the hide

However, the wetland was drained in 2015 when the landholders rebuilt the floodgates. The view of governments at all three levels was that because the wetland was essentially man-made, it was not worth protecting. However, following spirited efforts by BirdLife Australia and others, and intervention by Unitywater chief Jim Soorley, the site was acquired by Unitywater a year later.

The floodgates were reopened and some were destroyed to make way for a bridge over the canal along the new walking track. A full account of the Yandina Creek Wetland campaign can be found here.

Visitors are warned: mosquitoes can be in considerable numbers at this site, be prepared. Unitywater's efforts to protect this important site are to be applauded. It's a big win for the birds!

White-faced Herons seen from the hide 

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