It was a brutal 3.30am start this morning as we went to Cairns Airport for our flight down to Brisbane. Straight out from the airport and within minutes we were adding new birds at Nudgee Mangroves: Chestnut Teal and Mangrove Honeyeater. From here we headed south to Daisy Hill where we searched unsuccessfully for Koala, but did find a nesting Tawny Frogmouth, complete with downy chick and also added Noisy Miner to our list. After a quick pie for lunch, we headed into the mountains up the tortuous twisting road to O’Reilly’s Rainforest Guesthouse (www.oreillys.com.au). We immediately saw a flock of gaudy Crimson Rosellas amongst which were three Australian King Parrots. But no time to stop and admire these as Regent Bowerbird popped into view on the opposite side of the road – what an introduction to this fantastic place! Having checked in, we headed down to Duck Creek Road where we quickly found our target bird Bell Miner, as a gang of them chimed their distinctive calls in the eucalyptus trees overhead. We then birded the Border Trail late afternoon and again were lucky enjoying superb close-up views of a pair of Southern Logrunners: a cross between a Pitta and a Thrush, one with a beautiful orange breast, its mate with a white breast, with the rest of the plumage cryptically coloured in buff, black and white. They lived up to their name, scurrying about the forest floor and running over fallen logs, often incredibly close to us.
Bird species total: 3601: just 62 to go for the record!
Posted 26th October, O’Reilly’s, Victoria