SUNSHINE COAST RAMBLES

The break in our travels during mid year found us back on the Sunshine Coast for a while, where I visited a few of my local haunts. There were some big seas and on shore winds prevailing, so I headed up the coast to try a spot of sea-bird watching. Apart from a few Australasian Gannets and a tern or two  there wasn't much about. 

Point Arkwright

Point Perry rockscape

The sewage treatment plant at Maroochydore had a few waterbirds present, some loafing on the grass banks and others busy feeding in the nutrient rich waters.   

Chestnut Teal & Pacific Black Ducks

Black-winged Stilt

Out at the Maroochy Wetlands Sanctuary some of the local passerines were making the most of the winter sun.

Maroochy River & Mt.Coolum

Welcome Swallow

Willie Wagtail

Scarlet Honeyeaters

A visit to Parklands Forest Reserve yielded some close up views of some inquisitive members of the Malurus family and a shrike-thrush posing as a treecreeper.

Variegated Fairy-wren - male

Variegated Fairy-wren - female 

Little Shrike-Thrush

Along the north shore of the Maroochy River at Mudjimba, a far off shape on the sand banks turned into a Beach Stone-Curlew through the field scope. I had read a report of a sighting by Greg Roberts in a post he published on his excellent blogsite http://sunshinecoastbirds.blogspot.com.au/, which gave me the incentive to look for this enigmatic wader.

Maroochy River - north shore

Beach Stone-Curlew

A much better image below by Ian Montgomery at: http://www.birdway.com.au/

Cheers and Happy Birding

A MORNING AT EWAN MADDOCK

Back in June I joined my local birding-watching group for their monthly outing, this time to Ewen Maddock dam at Landsborough. It was a crisp start but warmed up by mid morning, a lovely day.

At bird call after the walk we had totted up over 60 species, in a couple of hours.

Having lived nearby for quite a few years this is one of my favourite places and with a bird list of over 160 species it's great place to visit and one that comes up with the occasional rarity, such as Oriental Cuckoo, Baillon's Crake, Musk Duck and Australasian Shoveler.  

Sunshine Coast Bird Observers Group

I only managed to get a few average shots of some of the more co-operative birds such as this pair loafing on one of the ponds near the causeway.

Pacific Black Ducks

The moorhen was one of a small group pottering around on the Salvinia weed that infests some parts of the lake.

Dusky Moorhen

 A pair of Forest Kingfishers were busy hunting around the edges of the water and one sat still long enough for a picture, albeit at the furthest reach of my cameras focal range.

Forest Kingfisher

This bigger hunter was also watching for prey over the water, acting like a real kingfisher!

Laughing Kookaburra

I was also able recently to visit Maroochy Wetlands Sanctuary and did the shorter wheelchair access walk. There were at least three male Golden Whistlers trying to outdo each other with their vocal prowess.

Golden Whistler

 And Scarlet Honeyeaters abounded, chasing each other through the tangled undergrowth.

Scarlet Honeyeater

Meanwhile back at home I have been hearing the call of a Noisy Pitta frequently over the last few weeks.

This is the first time in my three years here in Kureelpa I have heard this bird and getting to see it has proved impossible so far. It only calls a couple of times on dawn or dusk and it only responded once to my use of playback. I am assuming it may be roosting overnight in our backyard and heading to more suitable habitat to feed during the day. Seeing as I'll probably never get a photo of this elusive dweller of the rainforest I have posted a picture from Ian Montgomery's fantastic site http://www.birdway.com.au

Noisy Pitta

BACKYARD PICS

My first ever blog! So please excuse my amateurish attempts, 

but I will try to make it as interesting as possible. 

A friend has just purchased a new digital SLR and has lent me his old Panasonic FZ20, a 12x optical zoom point and shoot. So I've taken a few shots from my back verandah up here at beautiful Kureelpa, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, Queensland.

Scarlet Honeyeater

We've had lots of these visiting the flowering shrubs the last few weeks. 

Spangled Drongo

A favourite of mine with it's scolding calls and mimicry of birds such as Grey Butcherbird,

 Lewins Honeyeater and Pale-headed Rosella.

Lewins Honeyeater

A resident species with its machine gun calls, is one of the first to start off the dawn chorus.

Varied Triller

We have a pair that regularly visit. I think this one is the male.

All the photos above were taken at  the 12x optical range. I'm looking at purchasing one of the newer "bridge" cameras on the market with optical zooms that go up to 30x but was wondering about camera shake when photographing at that range.