AUSTRALIA - HOLIDAY/RECCE TOUR - DAY 42 - NOV 7TH - NOOSA HEADS

WALLACE PARK - MACDONALD LAKE - SUNSHINE BEACH

OUR FINAL DAY IN AUSTRALIA HAD ARRIVED AND OH SO QUICKLY!!  It was another beautiful day, cloudy at first but it soon cleared.

WALLACE PARK

A free guided birding walk is offered every Thursday at Wallace Park so we decided to join one today. We arrived late but so did most other people, the guide had a clipboard with a list of species on it, he had one arm in a sling and wasn’t wearing any binoculars, things didn’t bode well! The group amassed and 15 minutes after the designated start time we assembled and made our introductions, the group ranged from tourists with not a clue about birds to regulars with not a clue about most birds.

two shots from Dawn - Noisy Friar

 Anyway, one good thing did come of the 85 minute walk and that was the sighting of at least 5 Tawny Frogmouths, I pointed out the first after the leader walked right beneath it, the next two were on a known nest and the last two were well found by one of the regular walkers. The usual count is around 20 species for the walk, I noted 25 species, the leader spent most of his time talking about gardening, motorbikes and fishing, he saw about 10.

 

male Tawny Frogmouth at the first nest site - Dawn

parent with chick - taken by Dawn

 

One South African participant knew of a good place nearby for water fowl and gave me the directions, so after a nice coffee and biscuits Dawn and set off to MacDonald’s Lake which was about 10km away.

 The water level of the lake was very low but it held a nice selection of birds, here is the list:

1.       Black Swan

2.       Magpie Goose

3.       Little Black Cormorant

4.       Little Pied Cormorant

5.       Australian Darter

6.       Australian Pelican

7.       Royal Spoonbill

8.       White-faced Heron

9.       White-necked Heron

10.   Eurasian Coot

11.   Dusky Moorhen

12.   Purple Gallinule

13.   Black-winged Stilt

14.   Masked Lapwing

15.   Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

16.   Red-kneed Dotterel

17.   Forest Kingfisher

18.   Australasian Grebe

19.   Pacific Black Duck

20.   Australian Wood Duck

21.   Grey Teal

22.   Whiskered Tern

23.   Caspian Tern

24.   Willie Wagtail

25.   White-breasted Woodswallow

26.   Welcome Swallow

27.   Fairy Martin

 A walk along a tree-lined lane produced Noisy Friarbird, Figbird and a another ‘lifer’ in the shape of a Pallid Cuckoo, what a great find, I got a few pictures of it but none were good enough to put on the blog, this will probably be my last new bird for the list.

 

Black-winged Stilt - note black nape

 

 That little excursion finished my Australian birding, boo-hoo! I hadn’t quite reached my target of 300 species but I was close at 280. This wasn’t bad considering I had a total of only 6 days birding with local guides, the rest I had to eke out for myself.

 

a much better shot of the aptly named - Red-kneed Dotterel

For the rest of the day we enjoyed a relaxing time on the beach, the setting was lovely, white sand, turquoise sea and a beautiful blue sky. The sunset was a subtle blend of pinks, magenta and crimson red, ah bliss!

another distant shot of the White-necked Heron I could never get close to this species

We ate a local fish restaurant, both of us chose barramundi, a delicious white fish it went down well with a couple of beers.

Terrapin sp.

 We now had 5 days left, 3 of which were to be taken in Singapore whilst the other two would be spent travelling. My target for Singapore is 50 species.

280.   PALLID CUCKOO