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Water is a precious resource in the Australian deserts, so watering holes like this one near Georgetown are incredible places for concentrating wildlife. Two of our most bird diverse excursions were on our mornings in this region. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Australia. A voyage to the land of Oz is guaranteed to be filled with novelty and wonder, regardless of whether we’ve been to the country previously. This was true for our group this year, with everyone coming away awed and excited by any number of a litany of great experiences, whether they had already been in the country for three weeks or were beginning their Aussie journey in Darwin.
Given the far-flung locales we visit, this itinerary often provides the full spectrum of weather, and this year that was true to the extreme. The drought which had gripped much of Australia for months on end was still in full effect upon our arrival at Darwin in the steamy Top End, and Georgetown was equally hot, though about as dry as Darwin was humid. The warmth persisted along the Queensland coast in Cairns, while weather on the Atherton Tablelands and at Lamington National Park was mild and quite pleasant, a prelude to the pendulum swinging the other way. During our final hours below O’Reilly’s, a system came through bringing with it strong winds (and a brush fire warning that unfortunately turned out all too prescient). Our arrival to Tasmania was greeted with a damp chill in the air and lines of rain squalls. The mountains, as one would expect, were cold as well, and as we pulled into our lodging here, we were met by white stuff coming down from the sky, in the form of fresh spring graupel. We figured that that would be the crescendo of the weather swing, but the climate see-saw’s tilt to the other side really culminated a couple of days later, when we found ourselves in a legitimate blizzard! Despite the various logistical (and dress code) challenges the weather provided, it didn’t prevent us from having a heckuva lot of fun and seeing more than a heckuva lot of birds.
Our days in Darwin produced some real goodies, starting off with coastal/riparian specialties like Red-headed Myzomela, Australian Yellow White-eye, Chestnut Rail, Torresian Kingfisher, Broad-billed Flycatcher, and Beach Thick-knee in all its larger-than-life (and most other shorebirds) glory. As for the rest of our bounty of birds up in the top end, we skipped out on clouds, and instead procured silver linings for our rainbows: scope views of a cooperative Rainbow Pitta, an incredibly tame Silver-backed Butcherbird, and a cooperative Silver-crowned Friarbird. A Great Bowerbird and its bower were fantastic (and it’s possible that the bower drew more attention than the bird itself), and just seconds after we began our search for the tricky Black-tailed Treecreeper, we found a group of them! We even got to throw in an audible at the last moment: capitalizing on some recent intel, we switched around our planned itinerary a bit for a chance to head south of Darwin to see some Gouldian Finches! This rare nomadic resident of Australia’s interior is not often seen near the coasts, but the drought had pushed them to a watered field at a caravan park south of Darwin. We chanced that despite the season’s very first rain, which often sends nomadic vagrants back to the interior, having just happened the afternoon before, the finches would still have the habit of coming in for at least one more morning. We left early, arriving before daybreak (and having a great Large-tailed Nightjar experience on the way there), and after some tense waiting saw somewhere in the vicinity of 50 Gouldian Finches, many flying over, but several in different plumages coming down into the trees around us. Phenomenal! We also connected with some not-always-easy Northern Rosellas, Pacific Emerald Dove, and Bar-breasted Honeyeater to boot. On the way home, we swung by Fogg Dam, changing the size of our target birds from tiny to huge, and seeing hundreds of the impressive Brolga and several Black-necked Storks (also known as the Australian Jabiru).
Heading to the east coast of Queensland, we birded the Cairns area for a bit, then made a long drive inland to get to the unique desert habitat around Georgetown. To try and constrain Georgetown to the description of “desert” isn’t entirely fair though, as the termite-mount laden landscape has patches of grassy savanna, and more heavily wooded dry forest- it really is unique. This dry landscape also happens to host a whole lot of cattle, and with cattle come cattle dams (called tanks in the American west). These dams are scattered widely over the landscape, and are separated enough from each other that these watering holes provide excellent oases for birds, which is our main focus when we’re birding out in this part of the country. On the way out to Georgetown we came across a several dry country and regional specialties, including Emu (with adorable young chick!), Australian Bustard, and Fairy Gerygone. During our two days in Georgetown, Apostlebirds dominated the landscape, but were liberally supplemented with some other fantastic birds including (but not limited to) Channel-billed Cuckoo, Squatter Pigeon, Diamond Dove, Yellow-tinted Honeyeater, Blue-winged Kookaburra, Latham’s Snipe, Common Bronzewing, Yellow-billed Spoonbill, Red-browed Pardalote, more Blue-faced Honeyeaters than you’d ever think could fit into a single tree, and a special experience involving walk away views of a Red-backed Kingfisher. One of the highlights of the area is often the finch show, and amongst the good numbers of Double-barred Finches we found Zebra Finch, Black-throated Finch, and Masked Finch.
Going from the brown landscape of Georgetown to the lush rainforest of the Atherton Tablelands was striking. The Tablelands are essentially the breadbasket of Australia, with better soil than anywhere else in the country. Therefore, much of it has been cleared for agriculture, but with a few patches of rich rainforest still intact. The birds weren’t the only highlights here, as significant amounts of our attention were directed at Sugar Gliders, Lumholtz’s Tree Kangaroos, Long-nosed Bandicoots, Red-necked Pademelons, Boyd’s Forest Dragon, and of course the incomparable Platypus! The birds were fantastic too though, with Wompoo Fruit-Dove, Pied Monarch, Tooth-billed Bowerbird, Black-breasted Boatbill, Bridled Honeyeater (finally) and Mountain Thornbill haunting the forests. Atherton Scrubwren, Golden Bowerbird, and the tough to find Fernwren were some of the specialties which in a normal year could’ve taken the prize for best bird of the region, but this wasn’t a normal year. Our biggest bird highlight here was a young male SOUTHERN CASSOWARY, which sprinted up the road shoulder to us and then spent about 45 minutes curiously walking around with the group inside the forest as we continued birding. This was a fantastic experience, and one which will be remembered for life by every single one of us.
When we got back to Cairns, those who wanted to came out for an afternoon walk along the Esplanade to look for shorebirds, and were rewarded not only with more excellent views and identification studies of a pile of interesting shorebirds but with a juvenile Asian Dowitcher which finally materialized as we were all on our way back to the hotel. Our final day and a half in northern Queensland provided us with the range restricted White-browed Robin, the nomadic Banded Honeyeater, Pale-yellow Robin, Macleay’s Honeyeater, and a male Victoria’s Riflebird on its display perch.
The next leg of our journey was down to Lamington National Park, where our base of operations was the one-of-a-kind O’Reilly’s. Our time at O’Reilly’s was filled with incomparable views of an array of fantastic birds. For starters there were the obligatory Regent and Satin Bowerbirds, Australian King-Parrots and Crimson Rosellas perching on our heads and scopes, and Superb Fairywrens boldly belting out their jumbled songs within feet of us. We saw Australian Logrunners, typically shy, out in the open, the oft-skulking Eastern Whipbirds at our feet, and Rufous Fantails, Eastern Yellow Robins and Yellow-browed Scrubwrens practically begging for food. Throw in Paradise Riflebird, Rose Robin, and a fantastic study of an Albert’s Lyrebird walking around the forest digging for food while using its versatile vocal repertoire to serenade us with some very unique sounds, and the grounds of O’Reilly’s seemed to have it all. Despite the richness of the grounds, we were able to pry ourselves away and explore the forests below the lodge, unearthing such gems Noisy Pitta, Red-browed Treecreeper, Varied Sittella, Bell Miner, White-eared Monarch, a brief view of some Glossy Black-Cockatoos flushed up by a Gray Goshawk, and the furry cherry on top: A Koala!
We scooted down the mountain and out of Lamington amidst high winds and made our escape to Tasmania before the major brushfires broke out across the region, finding ourselves in the much cooler environment of Launceston by midday. Despite the sporadic wetness from above, we immediately began picking up some Tassie endemics, such as Green Rosella, Yellow Wattlebird, and Black Currawong. The next day, as we headed west, we found some very cooperative Cape Barren Geese and a couple of Musk Ducks before continuing uphill, picking up Pink Robin and Tasmanian Thornbill along the way. Our couple of days in the mountains dodging the aforementioned sporty weather was enriching and restorative, as we got to experience the primeval fern-dominated forests that used to cover so much of Tasmania, but are scarcer by the year. These forests, while not technically cloud forests, really do have that ethereal ambiance usually reserved for the various cloud forests of the world. In addition to more endemics and difficult to see birds (Scrubtit, Flame Robin, Brush Bronzewing, Olive Whistler, Crescent Honeyeater, Striated Fieldwren for just a taste), our mammal experiences were off the charts. By day we saw Tasmanian Pademelons, Common Wombats and Short-beaked Echidna (including once when the two species were just feet apart!), and then by night we supplemented even more pademelons with Common Brushtail Possum, Spotted-tailed Quoll, and the mystical, magical, almost mythical Tasmanian Devil. This all would’ve been enough to declare a resounding success, but we still had our full day on Southern Tasmania’s Bruny Island in front of us. The trip to Bruny was a perfect cap on a fantastic three weeks of birding. Once we made it across to the island (the ferry ride provided Australasian Gannet and Black-faced Cormorant), we quickly found our final Tassie endemic, the Forty-spotted Pardalote - in fact, we found 160 spots worth of them! Also in the area, near a Pallid Cuckoo putting on a good show, and above a Flame Robin attending two fluffy nestlings, we found the rare Swift Parrot. These special Parrots migrate across the Bass Strait to the Australian mainland every southern fall, and come back again to Tasmania every spring to breed. Other highlights, including Black-headed Honeyeaters feeding fledglings, great views of Spotted Pardalote, a good study of the endangered Hooded Plover, fun with two species of oystercatchers, and a good show put on by a “Tasmanian” White-capped Albatross not-too-far offshore, took us through the rest of our time on the island, and we retired for a lovely final dinner in Hobart.
We both wish to thank you all for your convivial companionship during this cross-continent exploration of the land down under. We formed and cemented some splendid friendships during the course of the tour, and we hope to see you again in this sprawling yet small world of birding. Until then, fare thee well!
-Doug & John
KEYS FOR THIS LIST
One of the following keys may be shown in brackets for individual species as appropriate: * = heard only, I = introduced, E = endemic, N = nesting, a = austral migrant, b = boreal migrant
Southern Cassowary is always one of the star attractions of our time in northern Queensland, but rarely do we have an encounter like the one this year. This young male cassowary walked out of the forest and trotted right up to the group. Our initial nervousness (Cassowaries can sometimes be aggressive and dangerous) eventually switched over to bemusement as the cassowary hung out adjacent to the group during our time in the forest, curiously monitoring what we were doing in the area, and at one point even sitting down on its haunches as it watched us watch other birds! Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Fairywrens are one of the hallmarks of Australian avifauna, and we saw three species. The most obliging of the three, on the strength of the friendly (to anthropomorphize) individuals at O'Reilly's, was Superb Fairwywren. Superb indeed! Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Scrubfowl are easier to see, and less shy, in Northern Australia than perhaps any other place on the planet. Orange-footed Scrubfowl was one of two species of Megapodes (the mound builders) which we ran across on the tour, this one beautifully photographed by participant Becky Hansen,.
Australian Ibis is often called a "garbage bird" by Aussies, because of the boldness they show in search of food around well-populated areas. When they're scrounging for scraps with dirty bodies and folded wings and they may not look like much, but watch them in flight and they're really quite striking, from their crimson-lined capes to the finely patterned black barring on their tertials and even down to their stripey shoes. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Everyone who stayed up to watch for them on the Tasmania extension got some nice experiences watching Tasmanian Devils come around to our cabins after dark. This iconic species has been in dramatic freefall over the past decade or so as a cancer-causing virus has ripped through the population, making them very difficult to see in the wild. Thankfully, there are conservation efforts afoot on several fronts, from isolating disease free populations from diseased animals to figuring out how to cure and prevent the cancers. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
There are two species of lyrebirds, well known for their exceptionally accurate mimicry of the environments in which they live, and on part two we target the more range-restricted of the two: Albert's Lyrebird. We had great luck early on our first morning of searching, finding this young male Albert's (it is much rustier-colored overall than the colder-toned Superb which inhabits forests to the south) using its strong claws to search the leaf litter for food, while also serenading us with some of its odd but beautiful vocal repertoire. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Australian Logrunner is a great bird with a great (and appropriate) name. We saw a pair on multiple days at O'Reilly's, though they were doing a lot more leaf tossing than log running. The female has more color, showing off this fancy orange throat where on the male there is merely a continuation of the white belly. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Satin Bowerbirds have a real affinity to blue and purple shades, and the males collect blue objects at their bowers to entice females to come hither. Given the blue tones of the males, and the vibrant purple/blue eye of both sexes, this is perhaps fitting. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
We got good views of the endangered Hooded Plover on Bruny Island. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Koala! After we stopped alongside the road below O'Reilly's to see some Glossy Black-Cockatoos flying over the valley, Judith looked up and spotted this Koala lounging in a neighboring tree. What a fantastic animal. Photo by participant Becky Hansen.
The landscape of the dry savannah-like landscape around Georgetown is certainly one of the most distinctive landscapes we run into on this tour, with some sections being dominated by rock-hard termite mounds as far as the eye can see. Photo by participant Libby Zimmerman.
Among the twelve (for now) species which are truly endemic to Tasmania, Forty-spotted Pardalote is the most range-restricted, and we connected with it at very close range early in our visit to Bruny Island. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Gouldian Finch is a species in decline, as well as one that doesn't tend to be seen near many human-inhabited places. This year, due to the intense drought across the continent, some dry country species dispersed farther towards the coast. Just before the tour, we got word of a flock of Gouldian Finches coming to a holiday park south of Darwin, and we were able to squeeze a visit into the schedule just as the first rains of the season came. We were able to see a few dozen of these striking finches just before they moved back into their preferred interior habitats. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Rainbow Bee-eaters were very widespread in our travels. Often lost in the ooing and aahing over the colorful brilliance of their plumage is just how voracious they are in their quest for insects, and we saw a good many dragonflys meet their demise in a Bee-eater's bill. Photo by participant Becky Hansen.
What's better than a regular-sized Emu? A regular-sized Emu accessorizing itself with a miniature one! Check out the intricate head patterning on the very young Emu we encountered on our way out to Georgetown, it's like a maze was inked into its downy coat. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Channel-billed Cuckoo is a fantastic bird, and we had one hanging around us for some of our first morning in the Georgetown area. Between the resonant call, unusual flight style, and interesting proportions (including that bill- oh my!), the species has a really prehistoric feel to it. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Looking out from the mountains separating the fertile Atherton Tablelands from the coastal plain which encompasses Cairns and stretches to the shore of the Coral Sea beyond, it is hard to imagine that you are just a few hours drive from the deserts of Georgetown. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Red-browed Treecreeper is often a difficult species to track down. As a matter of fact, it seemed more like this bird tracked US down than vice versa. It just appeared in front of us as we were in the midst of our great birding along Duck Creek Road. We got to watch it doing treecreepery things, as it examined every nook, cranny, and contour of the neighborhood tree bark in its quest for insects. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
We had a blast watching the antics of the very social Apostlebird. They roamed around the Georgetown area in raucous troops (indeed, often numbering twelve individuals), and were often very confiding while we watched their interactions with fascination. Photo by participant Becky Hansen.
Black-headed Honeyeater is another Tassie endemic, and we had many encounters with this species, but none more memorable than the experience on Bruny Island of watching this adult being followed around by two hungy, hungry chickos! Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
We had a great view of this Red Kangaroo in the Georgetown area, as it foraged in a culvert near the road. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
We saw Blue-faced Honeyeater in other locations around the north, but Georgetown provided the best experiences with them by a large measure. A charismatic flock of these oversized honeyeaters were swarming around the edges of Durham Dam on our great morning there. Watching two dozen of them comically line up on surrounding branches and put their heads together as if in a sports team huddle was one of the most interesting (and inexplicable!) behaviors we witnessed of any of the fauna we encountered. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Red-backed Fairywren was our most widespread species of fairywren, and this didn't detract from the wow factor we felt every time we saw a male in its slick black-and-red plumage. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
This Mertens' Water Monitor was acting very territorial at Howard Springs. Photo by participant Libby Zimmerman.
Varied Sittella showed very well in the forest below O'Reilly's. Like pardalotes, sittellas spend much of their time flitting around high up, hiding among sittella-sized leaves or moving too quickly to get good views of. The views we had this year were atypically fantastic! Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Clayton was able to wrangle views of a couple of excellent Lumholtz's Tree Kangaroos during a lunch stop in the Atherton Tablelands. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
We found a pair of Striated Pardalotes investigating this nest hole in a clay wall along the road in rural Tasmania. These were just about the best views possible of a pardalote, given their usual propensity for being in the very tops of tall Eucalyptus trees where they blend into the tops of the swaying trees as if they were just another leaf. Photo by participant Becky Hansen.
Rufous Fantails always seem curious, but this one at O'Reilly's seemed even more inquisitive than usual. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Another species during our phenomenal morning's birding below O'Reilly's was this stonking male Variegated Fairywren. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
You'd be hard pressed to find something more adorable than a Sugar Glider! We had a neat experience with a couple after dark on the Atherton Tablelands. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Yellow Wattlebird is another of the Tassie endemic honeyeaters, but by far the largest. We got to see a couple with wattles even longer than this individual's! Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
We saw several bowers of Great Bowerbirds, each with a different assortent of precious artifacts laid out as if a red carpet in front of their avenue bowers. Here we almost fit participant Jim Jackson into the bower to try his hand at a bowerbird one-two step. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
Short-beaked Echidna is yet another in a long line of unique Australian land mammals. This individual was more confiding than many, as it didn't seem particularly concerned with our presence. Instead of burying its head in the ground and just showing its spiky bits, which it often does when in the vicinity of larger animals (such as humans), this one went on foraging with gusto. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
MAMMALS
Whiptail Wallabys are also known as Prettyface Wallabys, for reasons that are evident when you see one. This one paused with some grass in its mouth to see what we were all about. The joey in its pouch was happily ensconced though, and the only evidence, aside from the pouch bulge, of its presence was the tail hanging down out of the pouch. Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
In Tasmania, we found ourselves enveloped in fabulous landscape after landscape, from snow covered mountains, to the ethereal rainforests reminiscent of tropical cloudforest, to the fern-dominated open lands and even to the sunny coast of Bruny Island. It was a wonderful few days to wrap up a fantastic tour! Photo by guide Doug Gochfeld.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
Totals for the tour: 353 bird taxa and 24 mammal taxa