Southport Pelagic

I had been really looking forward to this Saturday's Pelagic out of Southport. Mainly because I wanted to have another crack at getting Streaked Shearwater on my list, but also to try out my new lens (Canon 70-300mm). This lens seems to be ideally suited for pelagics because it has some weather proofing, and it seems to lock on to flying birds pretty well. 300mm is enough reach for pelagics because the birds come in pretty close. Sadly the forecast clear skies and calm seas  didn't correspond to reality and it was quite rough heading out to the shelf with several rain showers.

Wedge-tailed Shearwater

Wedge-tailed Shearwater

Most of the shots suffered from the poor light conditions but I was happy with some. As expected the most common sea bird at this time of year is the Wedge-tailed Shearwater with dozens around the most for most of the day.                                                                                                                                                                      









The next most common bird was the Flesh-footed Shearwater, a quite similar bird, but with a more substantial look about it with a two toned bill and flesh coloured feet.

Flesh-footed Shearwater

When we stopped to burly at the shelf the boat was rolling about a bit and, as usual, some of the the poor punters succumbed to the dreaded seasickness. One poor fellow from Canada spent the day lying on the deck in a foetal position. He asked us to prop him up if any Tahiti Petrels made an appearance and eventually they did and I hope he went home happy. When we get international birders on the boat its usually the Tahitis they're after...Southport probably being the easiest place in the world to see this beautiful seabird. I never tire of trying to get better shots of these birds.

Tahiti Petrel

Actually it was a pretty quiet day species-wise with only one other Petrel species making an appearance: the Great-winged Petrel. The subspecies we see here is the "Grey-faced Petrel" or gouldi. It will surely be split in future, being quite different from the other race seen mainly down south.

Great-winged Petrel

No other Pterodroma Petrels turned up which was a little disappointing so we headed back inshore rather earlier than normal. This meant, however, that we would have a little time to look for inshore species such as Buller's and Streaked Shearwaters, which was exactly what I wanted. 

                                                                                                                                                                   

Hutton's Shearwater

After a long and boring trip back across "No-Man's Land" (the vast area between the shelf and the inshore waters where you don't see squat), we finally started seeing birds again and after a while large rafts of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters just off the coast.

Streaked Shearwater

Among these we found a few Hutton's Shearwaters and finally some Streaked Shearwaters!!! We couldn't get very close and my photos are rubbish but any day you see a new bird is a good day.

Kedron Brook Wetlands

Kedron Brook Wetlands is an excellent birding site just near Brisbane Airport. Brackish lakes, grasslands and mangroves are the dominant types of habitat. It should be possible to get over sixty species without to much trouble...especially when the lakes are dry enough to have mud margins for the waders. Occasionally there are Eastern Grass Owls present. Today I managed 57 species in three hours. I arrived at 0500 to the sounds of  a multitude of Mangrove Gerygones. I don't think I've ever heard so many at once. Also Reed Warblers and Grassbirds.

Mangrove Gerygone

The Mangrove Gerygones (God I hate that name) are reasonably easy to see, but they rarely leave the mangroves so it's hard to get a clear shot. Today I found some associating with, of all things, a group of Yellow-rumped Thornbills. I've never seen them here before and I usually think of them as an inland bird. If you look closely you can see I've shot them on the same branch.

Yellow-rumped Thornbill

In a couple of weeks I'll be on Christmas Island, where one of the bird families that creates a lot of interest   is the swift family (Apodidae). This is because scarce vagrants are a real possibility, and given the difficulty of identification, good photographs are invaluable. For this reason I was happy to get the chance to practise some swift shots, with large numbers of White-throated needletails passing over. I don't know how some photographers manage to get razor sharp images of theses birds. Anyhow, if I can get a shot of a rare vagrant that's about this standard it should be useful enough.

White-throated Needletail

Maiala Again

Wompoo Fruit-Dove




 

                                                     Today I wanted to spend some time up at Mt Glorious so I could practise my flash photography. I've never been that keen on flash photography for a few reasons. In the hands of an amateur like me the shots can look a little unnatural, plus there is the added complication of deciding on settings etc. One problem I struggle with is called "steel eye". That's where the birds eye reflects the flash and the bottom half of the eye looks like its suffering from cataracts! There are two solutions: (1) you move the flash further from the camera sensor so the reflection doesn't travel into the lens; or (2) you adjust the shot in photoshop. Both remedies are a bit of  a drag in my opinion. But I have to get better with flash because I think I'm going to need it in the rainforest of Christmas Island (only two weeks away). The first bird I came across was this Wompoo Fruit dove feeding on palm fruits. Why is there a shadow on the bird's neck?






          I normally have a bit of a walk around the picnic area first because the trails are just too dark in the early morning. This time I came across a Russet-tailed Thrush out in the open. I'm always a bit tentative making the call on this one. They are very difficult to identify from Bassian Thrush which also can occur here. When you get a good picture you can use the shape of the buff tips of the upper wing coverts (I think that's what they're called). In Bassian there is a shaft in the middle making them look spear shaped.

Noisy Pitta (Juvenile)

I'm pretty sure I've photographed both species here.

       One of the first birds I found after entering the rainforest proper was a juvenile Noisy Pitta. This is the first time I've seen a juvenile. I was hoping to get a nice shot of an adult...the juvenile looked a bit scruffy! Anyway, as is usually the case with juveniles, this guy was a bit stupid and posed long enough for me to work out my exposure settings and get it nearly right. Later I came across and adult and got a record quality shot (the flash was a bit bright and washed out the colours a bit).

Noisy Pitta

    Another species I've had trouble getting decent shots of is the Australian Logrunner (probably because I shy away from using flash). For starters they're a bit hard to find sometimes, and the other thing is that they hang around in the darkest places. The good news is that when you do find them though they are often so preoccupied with scratching about you can get quite close to them.

Australian Logrunner (Male)

OK, that's on the year list.

       From Maiala I headed up to Wivenhoe Lookout to have another try at photographing Striated Thornbills. They are very common here, but getting them to stop long enough for a photo is the problem.  Most of the shots turned out a bit over-exposed but I managed to salvage them in photoshop.

Striated Thornbill

The only other species I shot here was an Eastern Spinebill. He posed nicely but when I realised he didn't have a tail I lost interest and went home.

Eastern Spinebill

D'Aguilar National Park (Maiala)

Paradise Riflebird (Immature male)

Situated to the west of Brisbane in the D'Aguilar Range, this National Park is the closest area of rainforest and wet schlerophyll forest to the Brisbane CBD. It is a great place to see rainforest pigeons, bowerbirds  and Noisy Pittas. On a recent trip I was lucky enough to witness a Paradise Riflebird practising its mating display. I say "practise" because the bird was an immature one. He seemed to have all the right moves though! I watched him for about 20 minutes, during which time he manage to attract two females. Unfortunately they were the wrong species!     First to visit was a female Regent Bowerbird, and later a rather bemused looking Satin Bowerbird.
       

Regent Bowerbird (Male)

The main aim of the trip was to get most of the Rainforest species on my new year list. I only dipped out on a couple. The three scrubwrens are usually easy here (Large-billed, Yellow throated and White-browed); three species of Bowerbird are seen here (Green Catbird, Satin Bowerbird and Regent Bowerbird), the Regents are the least numerous, but on this morning I saw several. The pictures are not great but they are not as tame as the ones at Lamington!.

I saw four species of rainforest pigeon, with probably my best ever views of Rose-crowned and Wompoo Fruit-Doves. There were a few Topknots around...still haven't managed a decent shot of these, and the ever-present Brown Cuckoo-Dove. I usually see Wongas as well but not this time.

Wompoo Fruit-Dove

Red-legged Pademelon

The only mammals I've seen up here are Red-necked and Red-legged Pademelons. They are both quite shy here (whereas the Red-necked at least are tame at Lamington). So I was quite pleased to be able to get a shot of a Red-legged, though the picture was a little grainy due to the high ISO setting.