Return to trip reports.I loved Australia. Everyone there was very polite, friendly, happy, and would do anything for you. The sky was blue, the air was clean, and there was so much open space. It was the first birding trip where I really hated to leave and had a homesick feeling when I got back. I think it was because Australia reminds me of how the United States was in the '50s when I was growing up. Things were so optimistic then. But I digress.
My wife Carol and I went to the Brisbane area for eight days, the Cairns area for 14 days, and the Sydney area for three days. We would highly recommend almost everywhere we stayed. Food everywhere great, water and roads great too. Birding was best ever for me.
It is a birding B&B one hour west of Brisbane, near Toowoomba. Bill and Eileen Jolly were wonderful hosts. They met us at the airport and we started birding on the way home. It was a great place to overcome jet lag (7 time zones), the food was great -- they had a very comfortable home. Most of our birding was done in the morning from their veranda, then they drove us everywhere. One day, we saw a platypus (in the stream on their property), a kangaroo, and two koalas! Overall, we saw 135 species in 4 days, including SWIFT PARROT (rarest bird of the trip) and our first of many FAIRYWRENS and HONEYEATERS. It was the perfect place to begin our trip. (They only host birders or naturalists, and they focus on one group at a time.)
This is a family run hotel near the southern border of Queensland, 'way up a windy narrow road in the rain forest, elevation 3000 feet. It is somewhat like Disneyland because you pay once, then all these wonderful things are free -- birdwatching, an activities program every day that includes special hiking tours in the park (including night walks) and great food. Everything is first-class. Glen Threlfo, a top naturalist and photographer, led some birding trips. Every morning you can watch the REGENT and SATIN BOWERBIRDS sweep down to feed on raisins. Another spectacle is the KING PARROT and CRIMSON ROSELLA seed-feeding area, where people can hold out seed for these beautiful birds and literally have them crawl all over you.
Not lots of new birds, but the ones we saw were spectacular: GLOSSY BLACK-COCKATOO, and ALBERT'S LYREBIRD displaying, for example. Pademelons and small wallabies are often seen on the grounds too. They also have an animal viewing area in the dining room where wild creatures, including birds and possums, gliders, etc., come to feast on plates of fruit. They are outside, yet they come into the screened-in area that protects them from predators, while you watch them through large areas of glass while you eat. The people who run the place are very friendly (one man is famous for calling guests by their first names while they are there), and it is very easy to meet other interesting people, since they seat you with others at mealtimes if you like. We met Colin and Jacquie Fenn at O'Reilly's, touring from Britain, and they were wonderful birding companions -- we kept running into them at other birding destinations on our trip.
It was our luck to be there Stargazer's Week, when astronomers were invited to show us various nebulae and galaxies with their large telescopes. I have never, ever seen so many stars. Seeing the Magellanic Clouds for the first time was a real treat.
We rented a car from Avis in downtown Cairns, because it was much cheaper than renting directly at the airport. They allowed us to return it at the airport for no extra charge. We had to focus on staying on the left side of the road, but we got the hang of it pretty soon.
We stayed in Cairns for three days and then returned for one more day later, at the Best Western Acacia Court Hotel for $95 per night (AARP rate gave us a balcony on the 8th floor overlooking the water). As the tide comes in, the birds are right there on the mudflats; most of the 30 or so species that were new for us were shorebirds. One particularly beautiful bird, the RED-NECKED CRAKE, was seen in the Botanical Gardens. We went snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef twice from Cairns, seeing many beautiful species of fish and colorful coral. The boat to Michaelmas Cay, the Seastar II (seastar2@ozemail.com.au), leaves at 7:30am and returns at 5:30pm; the cost is $65 including tax. After a visit to the island, which is home to breeding birds, you travel to the reef and spend the afternoon out there. Later we took a half-day trip to Green Island on the Big Cat, (info@bigcat-cruises.com.au) a large catamaran, for $49 each. The tide was out so snorkeling wasn't good, but some of the birds were BEACH THICK-KNEE and ROSE-CROWNED FRUIT-DOVE.
This is a wonderful, relaxing place to stay, and the two resident guides, Andrew and Carol Iles, are excellent birders. We saw 10 new species each day we were there, and they were beautiful ones, like: LESSER-SOOTY OWL, GOLDEN BOWERBIRD, GREEN and COTTON PYGMY-GEESE, BROLGA, BUSH THICK-KNEE, PACIFIC BAZA, AUSTRALIAN BUSTARD, SQUARE-TAILED KITE, TAWNY FROGMOUTH, BLACK-THROATED FINCH, CHESTNUT-BREASTED CUCKOO. Kingfisher Park's central location allows you to visit many places near the Atherton Tablelands but we never got farther than Mount Lewis. It was often much wetter at Kingfisher Park than slightly south, so if we had rain, we could drive a bit and escape it. Ron Stannard, the owner, certainly makes everyone feel at home. As we left, he was nursing a hurt RUFOUS OWL that Carol Iles had found and rescued along the road.
A popular winter destination for Australians, this is not a particularly birdy place, but Carol had fun snorkeling at the reef. She went out on a great day trip with Wavelength Reef Charters (wavelength@tnq.com.au), $123, who have a marine biologist on board and only take snorkelers. They followed a group of eight Humpback whales for 15 minutes enroute to the reef.
This is at the end of the road, reason alone for us to go there. It's a very reasonably priced and comfortable place to stay. In the small town of Daintree, we met a man who is a dead ringer for Crocodile Dundee; in fact, he recently swam across the Daintree River, braving crocodiles, to raise money for the local high school. The birding highlight, of course, is Chris Dahlberg's cruise along the river. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and we saw LITTLE KINGFISHER and LARGE-BILLED HERON among 50 other species. No crocs, though, as it was too chilly this early in the winter.
This is a rustic and funky bed and breakfast place in the rainforest near Kuranda. It lived up to its name, I saw a SOUTHERN CASSOWARY at close range, a few yards away! He had his five month-old baby with him also. I was in the garden, backing away as the huge bird approached, and Sue, the owner, sharply told me to stand still. I was looking right into the small beady eyes of a prehistoric beast! Mr. Cassowary looked me over closely and luckily decided to walk away. His feet with their huge claws were awesome. The view from the veranda is beautiful, I saw a PIED MONARCH from there, and both VICTORIA'S RIFLEBIRD and SPOTTED CATBIRD come to their fruit feeders, as do Musky Rat Kangaroos.
We first had a day of sightseeing in this beautiful city. The birding highlight of the day came on a ferry trip to Manly. On this 20-minute ride we saw a BLACK-BROWED ALBATROSS, and from a beach on Manly we saw AUSTRALIAN GANNETS. On the following day Trevor Quested, a friend of our friend Brian, took us to Royal National Park where we saw SUPERB LYREBIRD and CRESTED SHRIKE-TIT, along with many others. Then it was off to the bush where we saw birds like the CHESTNUT-RUMPED HEATHWREN. What a wonderful view from the bush -- Sydney in the distance, the ocean in front of us and brilliant blue sky above. Trevor was so kind to give us his time and share his birding expertise.
The actual total was 271 species, with probabilities of 70%, 55%, and 40%. It was less than I had predicted, partly because of spending less than two birding days in Sydney and partly because it was winter and many birds just weren't there. Even so, we certainly enjoyed the good weather that you get in Queensland's winter. Of the 271 birds we saw, 72 were endemics and 241 were lifers. Also I got 13 new families!
In addition to the koala, platypus, and grey kangaroo, we saw wallaby (whiptail, agile), pademelon (red necked), possum (greater glider, sugar glider, mountain brushtail, green ringtail, common striped), bandicoot (long nosed, pointed nose), carpet python, green tree snake, and bearded dragon.
It is a wonderful, attractive, addictive country -- go if you can!
Below is a quick summary of which birds we saw, and how many days we saw them in Brisbane, Cairns, Sydney, and a sum for the whole trip. For a more complete Excel spreadsheet, write to Tom Bishop.
(Birds I missed: Carol saw Speckled Warbler, Jacquie saw Bailon's Crake, Colin saw Cicadabird.)
...... Days seen in: ........
Br Ca Sy All Common Name-comments
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2 2 SouthernCassowary - close encounter
4 1 5 Australasian Grebe
1 1 Black-browed Albatross
4 5 9 Australian Pelican
1 1 Australian Gannet
1 1 Brown Booby
1 2 1 4 Little Black Cormorant
1 1 Great Cormorant
4 3 2 9 Little Pied Cormorant
2 3 5 Darter
1 1 Great Frigatebird
2 2 Pacific Heron
1 1 Great-billed Heron
3 6 9 Great Egret
1 5 6 Intermediate Egret
3 7 10 White-faced Heron
1 6 7 Little Egret
1 1 Pacific Reef-Heron
2 3 5 Cattle Egret
5 5 Striated Heron
3 3 Black-necked Stork - (Jabaru)
2 6 2 10 Australian Ibis - (White)
4 7 11 Straw-necked Ibis
1 1 Glossy Ibis
2 6 8 Royal Spoonbill
1 1 Yellow-billed Spoonbill
1 1 Magpie Goose
1 1 Plumed Whistling-Duck
2 1 3 Wandering Whistling-Duck
3 1 4 Black Swan
1 1 Green Pygmy-goose
1 1 Cotton Pygmy-goose
3 2 5 Maned Duck - (Wood)
2 2 Gray Teal
1 1 Chestnut Teal
3 2 1 6 Pacific Black Duck
1 1 Australian Shoveler
1 1 White-eyed Duck - (Hard-headed)
4 4 Osprey
1 1 Pacific Baza
1 1 Square-tailed Kite
1 1 Black-breasted Kite - (Buzzard)
2 1 3 Australian Kite - (Black-shouldered)
5 5 Black Kite
1 5 6 Whistling Kite
6 6 Brahminy Kite
2 6 8 White-bellied Sea-Eagle
2 2 Gray Goshawk
2 2 Brown Goshawk
1 1 Collared Sparrowhawk
3 1 4 Wedge-tailed Eagle
2 2 Little Eagle
4 1 1 6 Australian Kestrel
1 1 2 Australian Hobby
2 2 4 Brown Falcon
1 1 Peregrine Falcon
5 7 12 Australian Brush-turkey
8 8 Orange-footed Scrubfowl
1 1 Brolga
4 4 Red-necked Crake
1 3 4 Buff-banded Rail
1 1 Spotless Crake
1 1 White-browed Crake
3 2 5 Purple Swamphen
4 2 6 Dusky Moorhen
2 2 Eurasian Coot
1 1 Australian Bustard
1 1 2 Comb-crested Jacana
1 1 Pied Oystercatcher
3 1 4 White-headed Stilt - (Black-winged)
1 1 Bush Thick-knee
1 1 Beach Thick-knee
5 8 1 14 Masked Lapwing
1 1 Pacific Golden-Plover
2 2 Red-capped Plover
2 1 3 Black-fronted Dotterel
1 1 Black-tailed Godwit
1 3 4 Bar-tailed Godwit
2 2 Whimbrel
1 4 5 Far Eastern Curlew
1 1 Common Greenshank
1 1 Terek Sandpiper
1 1 Gray-tailed Tattler
1 1 Great Knot
1 1 Red-necked Stint
1 5 2 8 Silver Gull
1 3 4 Gull-billed Tern
1 1 Caspian Tern
1 3 4 Great Crested Tern
1 1 Black-naped Tern
1 1 Sooty Tern
1 1 Brown Noddy
3 3 3 9 Rock Dove
1 1 White-headed Pigeon
4 4 2 10 Spotted Dove - (Turtle-dove)
3 3 6 Brown Cuckoo-Dove
4 4 Emerald Dove
2 2 Common Bronzewing
4 4 Crested Pigeon
1 1 Squatter Pigeon - edge of range
2 7 9 Peaceful Dove
4 7 11 Bar-shouldered Dove
3 1 4 Wonga Pigeon
4 4 Wompoo Fruit-Dove
1 1 Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove
1 3 4 Topknot Pigeon
1 2 3 Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo - Carol likes
1 1 Glossy Black-Cockatoo
4 1 5 Galah
3 6 3 12 Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
2 2 Cockatiel
2 7 3 12 Rainbow Lorikeet
2 2 4 Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
1 1 Musk Lorikeet
1 1 Little Lorikeet
2 2 Double-eyed Fig-Parrot
4 2 6 Crimson Rosella
1 1 Eastern Rosella
3 3 6 Pale-headed Rosella
1 1 Swift Parrot
5 1 2 8 Australian King-Parrot
2 2 Red-winged Parrot
1 1 Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo
1 1 2 Fan-tailed Cuckoo
2 2 Little Bronze-Cuckoo - (Gould's subsp. seen too)
2 2 Pheasant Coucal - great sound
1 1 Lesser Sooty-Owl
1 1 Barn Owl
1 1 Southern Boobook
2 2 Tawny Frogmouth
2 2 Papuan Frogmouth
4 4 Large-tailed Nightjar - heard
9 9 Australian Swiftlet
2 2 1 5 Azure Kingfisher
1 1 Little Kingfisher
6 8 2 16 Laughing Kookaburra
4 4 Blue-winged Kookaburra
8 8 Forest Kingfisher
1 1 Red-backed Kingfisher
1 1 2 Collared Kingfisher - (Mangrove)
4 4 Sacred Kingfisher
1 5 6 Rainbow Bee-eater
1 1 Noisy Pitta
2 2 Albert's Lyrebird
1 1 Superb Lyrebird
1 1 White-backed Swallow
6 8 2 16 Welcome Swallow -good look
1 2 3 Tree Martin - our first bird
3 2 5 Fairy Martin
1 1 2 Australasian Pipit - (Richard's)
4 4 Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
1 1 Yellow-eyed Cuckoo-shrike
1 6 7 White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike
2 2 Varied Triller
1 1 Olive-tailed Thrush
1 1 2 Russet-tailed Thrush
4 3 7 Golden-headed Cisticola
3 3 Northern Fantail
4 7 11 Willie-wagtail
5 4 1 10 Gray Fantail
4 4 Rufous Fantail
1 1 White-eared Monarch
6 6 Spectacled Monarch
2 2 PiedMonarch
4 4 Leaden Flycatcher
1 1 Satin Flycatcher
1 1 Shining Flycatcher
3 3 Yellow-breasted Boatbill
1 1 2 Jacky-winter
1 1 Lemon-bellied Flycatcher
5 5 Rose Robin
3 3 Pale-yellow Robin
5 1 6 Yellow Robin - (Eastern Yellow)
1 1 Gray-breasted Robin
1 1 Mangrove Robin
1 1 White-browed Robin
1 1 Crested Shrike-tit
3 3 Gray Whistler
3 2 2 7 Golden Whistler
1 1 Rufous Whistler
6 6 Rufous Shrike-Thrush - (Little)
4 1 1 6 Gray Shrike-Thrush
1 2 3 Gray-crowned Babbler - jeffs
2 2 Logrunner
6 3 2 11 Eastern Whipbird
2 2 4 Red-backed Fairywren
6 1 1 8 Superb Fairywren
2 1 3 Variegated Fairywren
2 2 Lovely Fairywren
1 1 Pilotbird
4 4 Yellow-throated Scrubwren
7 1 8 White-browed Scrubwren
3 3 6 Large-billed Scrubwren
1 1 Chestnut-rumped Hylacola
3 1 4 Brown Thornbill
2 2 Yellow-rumped Thornbill
2 2 Yellow Thornbill
1 1 Striated Thornbill
1 1 Weebill
1 1 Fairy Gerygone
2 2 White-throated Gerygone
2 2 Large-billed Gerygone-nest
2 1 2 5 Brown Gerygone-nest
4 1 2 7 White-throated Treecreeper - subspecies
1 1 Red-browed Treecreeper
6 6 Olive-backed Sunbird
3 3 Mistletoebird
3 3 Spotted Pardalote
3 3 Striated Pardalote
5 3 8 Silver-eye
4 4 8 Brown Honeyeater
5 5 Dusky Myzomela
2 1 3 Scarlet Myzomela
4 4 Graceful Honeyeater
5 5 Yellow-spotted Honeyeater
8 3 2 13 Lewin's Honeyeater
2 2 Bridled Honeyeater
2 1 1 4 Yellow-faced Honeyeater
1 1 Varied Honeyeater
3 3 Yellow Honeyeater
1 1 White-eared Honeyeater
1 1 2 Fuscous Honeyeater
5 5 Macleay's Honeyeater
2 2 White-naped Honeyeater
2 2 White-throated Honeyeater
1 1 Little Friarbird
4 4 Helmeted Friarbird
2 1 3 Noisy Friarbird
1 1 New Holland Honeyeater
1 1 White-cheeked Honeyeater
1 1 Tawny-crowned Honeyeater
2 2 Brown-backed Honeyeater
3 1 4 Eastern Spinebill
1 3 4 Blue-faced Honeyeater
1 1 Bell Miner
5 1 6 Noisy Miner
2 2 Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater
1 1 Red Wattlebird
1 1 Brush Wattlebird
2 2 Olive-backed Oriole
4 4 Green Oriole - (Yellow)
2 8 10 Green Figbird
6 1 7 Spangled Drongo
4 4 3 11 Magpie-lark
1 1 Apostlebird
5 5 White-breasted Woodswallow
1 1 Dusky Woodswallow
4 4 Gray Butcherbird
3 1 4 Pied Butcherbird
6 6 Black Butcherbird
7 1 8 Australasian Magpie
6 3 9 Pied Currawong
2 2 Paradise Riflebird
2 2 Victoria's Riflebird
2 2 Spotted Catbird
3 1 4 Green Catbird
1 1 Golden Bowerbird
4 4 Regent Bowerbird
5 1 6 Satin Bowerbird
3 3 Great Bowerbird
8 2 10 Torresian Crow
2 2 Australian Raven
1 1 Little Raven
1 1 Metallic Starling
3 8 2 13 Common Myna
4 4 European Starling
3 2 1 6 House Sparrow
6 3 1 10 Red-browed Firetail
4 1 5 Double-barred Finch
1 1 Black-throated Finch
1 1 2 Chestnut-breasted Munia
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