Drongo, Pale-headed rosella & Others at Shelly Beach

I can still hear my Year 9 English teacher's words ... "You great spangled drongo!" These days I know what that is!

Just north of the Caloundra headland I reckon there's a birding mini-hotspot in Shelly Beach.

The headland itself is a short walk from the Shelly Beach picnic area. Here various shorebirds can be seen at the right season, time and tide. The road down into the Shelley Beach car park passes through a pocket of coastal subtropical forest. Here I have seen large numbers of Rainbow lorikeet (and the odd Scaly breasted lorikeet), Eastern whipbird and various honeyeaters.

The car park itself has provided me with sightings of Blue-faced honeyeater, Pale-headed rosella and Pied butcherbird. There are also the more commonplace Australian white ibis, Australian magpie, Magpie lark as well as introduced species.

Walking along the coastal trail northwards from the car park there is another section of coastal subtropical habitat and a small gully. Here I have seen Spangled drongo, Australasian figbird, Red-backed fairy wren, Leaden flycatcher and Australian Brush-turkey.

None of the birds featured in today's post are readily seen in my home state of Victoria so I do enjoy catching up with them!

I love the curves of this bird! Spangled drongo, Shelly Beach (Caloundra, Qld)

Pale-headed rosella stopping over in a Shelly Beach Norfolk Island pine.

Australian Brush-turkey roosting

I was annoyed that a sneaky group of Australasian figbird got away from me without a decent shot. Here is a female (or immature bird).

The following images are from previous visits to Shelley Beach (all in the month of May). We start with Blue-faced honeyeater and Brown honeyeater.

Red-backed fairy-wren (female / immature)

Below are a couple of Leaden flycatcher shots from an old compact digital camera (caught without the proper equipment!).

A great little birding spot! Did I mention that it's also a little easy on the eye and that the water's positively warm compared to Bass Strait?

Shelly Beach image from a Sunshine Coast accommodation website

As seen through the lens of Rachel Richter photography

Caloundra headland and Shelly Beach by SKYePICS

Bird on!

Double-barred finch - gorgeous at Geikie Gorge

Double-barred finch are the sort of bird which cannot help but look gorgeous. We enjoyed the company of this group of about 15-20 birds at Geikie Gorge in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in August this year.

That's going to ruffle a few feathers!

It knows it looks good!

A photo shoot can be thirsty work after all! In our 1.5 hours at Geikie we also saw Rainbow bee-eater, White-bellied sea-eagle and honeyeaters amongst others. You can see the full list here.

When visiting Geikie it is worth knowing that there are boat tours (departure times didn't sync with the hours we had allowed unfortunately).  We walked the 1.5 hour "Reef walk" which takes you along the gorge's eastern walls up the flood plain to where the gorge wall meets the river. A better option may be to combine a boat tour with the shorter loop walk which breaks off from the Reef walk and rises into the limestone ridges. You can find out more about Geikie Gorge here.

Rainbow bee-eater

Brown honeyeater

White-gaped honeyeater

Rufous-throated honeyeater demonstrating its identifying feature

Finally, a few shots showing the environs ...

and a few Red-tailed black cockatoos to boot!

 Bird on!

Nitmiluk's small packages

Next a series featuring the smaller birds seen around Nitmiluk during our stay in late July 2012. Firstly a mistletoebird feeding and squashing the juice from small fruits.

Also busy feeding, my initial impression was that this bird must be a lifer! It looks so different from anything back home.  It gradually dawned on me though that this was the northern colouring of Striated pardalote.

Rufous whistler 

Back-off please! Brown honeyeater (and again below). 

Finally, I think my first ever photo of Leaden flycatcher. Maybe the next one will be in focus - nice shot of the bark though don't you think!?!

Bird on!

Birding Banka Banka, NT

Via this blog I continue to enjoy re-living the recent family road trip through the NT and Kimberley! This post relates to the stop-over at Banka Banka Station on the Stuart Highway, Northern Territory. This old cattle station also serves as a basic but friendly camping ground. There is the opportunity for walking a nature trail to nearby Cudjenbra Waterhole 2-3km north either via a small ridge or along the arid plains.

Views from the small ridge just west of the campground on the Stuart Highway

Cudjenbra Waterhole, Banka Banka Station

There is a creek crossing on the plains walk to the waterhole. This provided excellent habitat for honeyeaters, trillers, finch, dove (everything really!)

Pied honeyeater - crappy photo but a great sighting for me!

Grey-headed honeyeater - common I know but another lifer for me!
Below - Brown honeyeater 

The honeyeaters were all seen in the creek habitat pictured above. Also shot here were the trillers, dove and zebra finch just visible below.

White-winged triller (male eclipse)
Below - Peaceful dove, zebra finch

I also remember the morning's walk for twice being freaked by airborne surprises.

Firstly while alone about a kilometre from the campground in pre-sunrise gloom I was approached by a single black kite. This was followed by about 10 kites circling around me 5-10 metres up. The whole scene was in total silence and with the shock and tricky light I was totally unable to take any shots that could capture the moment!

Black kite #1 

The second experience was while on the ridge. Unaware of anything approaching I suddenly heard a strange wind rapidly approaching from behind. Heard for just a second before it was atop me the noise was the rush of 100 tiny wings from a flock of budgies again only 3-4 metres above and around me! My first budgie experience in the outback!

A small part of the buderigar flock now circling more distantly.

Pied butcherbird calling from this tree on the highest point of the ridge (you can see him at the left of the tree). He let me get quite close but wouldn't move that annoying twig out of the way! 

Pied butcherbird

It's a pretty short Eremaea list but all in all, quite a memorable 16 hours (arrived at 5pm, out at 9am!). Thank-you Banka Banka.

Bird On!