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!