Falling back on other Wallaman outings

Hopped up Wallaman Falls road today on scent of Musky Rat-kangaroo (an atypically diurnal marsupial). Sniffed out a couple of animals, but no pictures. The birds wouldn't front the camera either. So, some from other outings:

Brown Gerygone (Gerygone mouki), usually notable active and noisy: quiet today.

Spectacled Monarch (Symposiarchus trivirgatus), immature: several heard in lawyer vine thickets.

Tooth-billed Catbird (Scenopoeetes dentirostris), gone quiet at display areas lately.

Large-billed Scrubwren (Sericornis magnirostra), active and chatty all over the place.

Wompoo Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus magnificus), more cooing than wollack-a-wooing.

Sidling up on Brolgas - and a salty

Used the Camry hide to (s)idle up on Brolgas (Grus rubicunda) at roadside pool near Ingham today.

Immature bird even less alarmed than parent (top picture). Useless snippet: one of Australia's largest birds comes with one of shortest names.

Also looming large just down the highway, at Cattle Creek, two-metre-plus saltwater crocodile. Yesterday's picture. Today, very quick into water, possibly on to pattern in my appearances. 

Definitely non-threatening, pair of Olive-backed Sunbirds (Nectarinia jugularis) show typical cheek on tourists' campervan at Jourama Falls yesterday.

Also at Jourama, Wompoo Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus magnificus).

Bird busy defending food tree from - among others - Topknot Pigeon (Lopholaimus antarcticus). Both species more often found in higher forest - before Cyclone Yasi.   
Click pix to enlarge

La Nina falls keep species down

September didn't see any Sharp-tailed Sandpipers (Calidris acuminata) in Tyto. (Above bird seen this week, with Common Greenshank and Black-tailed Godwit, on tidal lagoon beside my favourite country road).


It seems with La Nina's hold deepening, more rain falling and Tyto Wetlands water levels at capacity there'll be no muddy shallows to attract migratory waders before the Wet proper sets in. Species count for September, 113, 10 down on 2009.

So, off west to see nesting Wompoo Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus magnificus), peering distantly through the rainforest gloom, near the Wallaman Falls road. Impossible to gain clear view of bird. Will try again in a week or so. 
Click pix to enlarge  

Wompoo twigs to nest viewer

Trouble with rainforest, it's full of damned trees! Wompoo Fruit-Dove (Ptilinopus magnificus) peers from part-built nest in high forest west of Ingham today. Took several minutes to get partial view and this dodgy, distant image after spotting pair coming and going through dense growth. Birds waited till I got tripod in place - and then took off! So I did too.  

Glimpsed a few Pale-yellow Robins (Tregellasia capito) but caught bird above during an earlier drive up the range.

And no Grey-headed Robins (Heteromyias cinereifrons) around, so here's one from another recent trip into rainforest.  
Click pix to enlarge  

Heading for a falls

How about some sightseeing, with striking birds thrown in - and a blue frog?

Starting at the beginning, a 20-minute, 2-hectare transect across the reed flats and through the Scleria, looking for Little Bitterns. Furtive movement high in Razor Grass. Away flies male bittern, showing typical glorious chocolate and custard yellow colouring seen from behind. Top start!

On to the pool of death. Almost all evidence of total fish kill sunk without trace. But here's a blue frog drawing the flies. Blue? Yes. It's a dead Green Treefrog (Litoria caerulea).

Scientific name is said to spring from specimens pickled in alcohol when preserving fluid ran out during Joseph Banks' collecting. Blue and yellow equals green. But the frog yellow is alcohol soluble. So the taxonomists in England poured blue frogs from the bottle.

Still early morning and bright, clear sky. Time for a change. Out west 45 kilometres to Seaview Range, rainforest, and Wallaman Falls, Australia's longest one-step drop. I'm not one for waterfalls but at least they don't hide in trees, or fly off while camera dithers.

The birds, though uncooperative, are worth a few words. First up was a Wompoo Fruit-Dove, 'wollack-a-woo-ing'. Sorry about the picture. Bird refused to leave the shadows.

Even harder to see and impossible to snap, a pair of hyperactive Spotted Catbirds. Their mewing and yowling forces smiles from the glummest birdo. Fifteen minutes with the green clowns and I'm laughing for the rest of the day. In the same patch of rainforest, a Noisy Pitta, Yellow-breasted Boatbill, and Black-faced Monarch.

Highlight still to come: on a forested track by Stony Creek (which feeds the falls). Series of one-note calls. Glimpses of biggish dark bird. Finally, some distant light - on orangey-brown breast, red bill and blue head of a migrant Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher. Azures pale in comparison. But couldn't see anything of white tail streamers. And no picture.

But while chasing after a pair of Dollarbirds I did catch up with a Grey Whistler.

A final bonus. I caught sight of a leech on my leg before it put the bite on me!