Weekend Birding - Lockyer Valley - 241009
Up at 4.20 – Gawd – after a few beers last night, not the easiest thing to do… Meet at Rob’s at 5.00. Stu already there, he’s driving and we’re off. An hour later we stop at a service station in Plainlands to get coffee, then on again to our first birding stop – Watson’s Rd. The Oriental Plover is still there. Stu had found it on Tuesday last and I had driven out to see it on Wednesday afternoon – a 3 hr, 200km round trip for 20 minutes viewing at 150 meters in a heat haze…but it was a new bird for me, so..
The view this morning is actually worse – the bird is further away and right on top of the rise so it’s partially obscured at times. As we watched it, two other car loads of birders showed up – its turning into a real twitch! This is the first OP in SE Qld since (probably) 1991 so it’s a worthwhile bird and an excellent pick up by Stu.
It’s not getting much better so its off down the road to 7 Mile Lagoon. Just after turning off towards the lake Rob and I both call a bird flying away from the car as a “possible cuckoo-shrike, no, Cuckoo!” We stop, pile out and it’s a Pallid Cuckoo – a worthy bird this side of the range. Playing the call to try to entice it within camera range attracts not one, but two more cuckoos! None come close enough to film, but we have three birds within 70 – 100 meter range for some time.
We leave them to it and move on to the lake itself. The heat haze is already destroying long distance viewing – and it’s only 7.30 – so a lot of the birds on the lake are only semi-identifiable from the road. We’re looking for Pratincoles but we find instead a family part of Black Falcons hunting along the edge of the lake. It appears the adults are teaching the younger birds some tricks of the trade as they swoop and dive over the edge of the grass and reeds.
As we go to leave, another car turns up to disgorge Tom T, Gavin G and Paul C. We chat for a while and agree to communications if we find anything worthy. Then we’re off to the Kentville area where White-backed Swallows were seen through the week. No luck with them so on to Adare Rd, a small pond in a wooded area that, again, Stu had visited recently with some luck.
Above the trees a circling flock of Wood-swallows – mainly Dusky, but also including Masked and a smaller number of White-browed. It took us some time to see all to all our satisfaction as they flew high and circled quickly, but eventually we were all satisfied, although the views could certainly have been better. Two new birds for my SE Qld list.
Another was soon added as Brown-headed Honeyeater responded to playback and a total of about 10 birds fed in the eucalypt canopy. Rob also had Black-chinned Honeyeater, but I failed to get onto it.
Hunger and thirst were starting to make themselves felt so we decided to head to Gatton and take it from there, having a couple of options open to us. Stopping off at the sewage works on the way we spied two Black Kites circling over the road and, eventually, had excellent views of one close to the car.
Disappointing pies and average pastries accompanied by bottles of soft drink stabilised us somewhat and we headed out to the University grounds. Lake Galletly hosts major roost populations of Magpie Geese, Pink-eared Duck and Plumed Whistling Duck among a number of other common species in smaller numbers. We had all those plus several Red-kneed Dotterels, 3 Blue-billed Duck and, most importantly from my perspective, a single Black-tailed Native Hen, my first in SE Qld.
By now it was approaching 11.30 and the heat was oppressive. We decided to head home and reached there at 13.00. Good mornings birding as always in the Lockyer Valley, 4 new birds for my SE Qld list and lots of quality birding too.
