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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Wompoo Fruit-Dove |
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| 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.
