Testing times: too much flash and too little toe

Wow! Now there's a colourful dove for you. Not quite what you expect to see on the ground at the Jourama Fall camping area. But that's what one gets with too much flash.

Here's what an Emerald Dove (Chalcophaps indica) really looks like. But perhaps the first image is closer to what another dove might see.

And what is the dove looking for. Fallen seeds. Sorry, can't identify the tree species.

And now, faithful followers, sitting up straight? 'Tis lesson time. What is the above bird? Is it a Collared Sparrowhark? Or a Brown Goshawk? ... Hands up those who said Sparrowhawk. You've been had. Tiny change to bird's eye designed to trick you.

Here's the real deal, with beetling brow returned to lowered position.

And here's the real clincher for anyone in the field. That powerful leg with no super length middle toe marks bird as Brown Goshawk (Accipiter fasciatus) for sure. Wasn't that fun? Slightly more seriously, few birds pose more challenging ID posers than the two species, in part in the north because there's a close overlap in the species' sizes up here. Not such a riddle down south.

Pickings picnic on wet grass

Uncommon to find Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) foraging on grass. But super high tide pushing flooding Herbert River sideways from the Hinchinbrook Channel at  Dungeness the other day meant bird's usual pickings were being washed into picnic area.  

Much more at home on grass, though more often seen deep in forest shadow, Emerald Dove (Chalcophaps indica) bejewels the camp ground in morning light after overnight rain at Jourama Falls.  

No surprise seeing Black-necked Stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus) surrounded by grass, in seasonal pool beside the highway at Ingham. Flood flushes mean food for all.  

Pale-yellow Robins popping up

Pale-yellow Robins (Tregellasia capito) prominent among species popping up during latest fruitless chases here and there for Noisy Pittas.

So here's to them, at Broadwater.

And to Grey-headed Robin (Heteromyias cinereifrons), near Wallaman Falls.

And to Emerald Dove (Chalcophaps indica), at Jourama Falls.