Birding Southern Queensland

Hi All,

I'm heading out for a 3-4 day trip to Round Hill NR, Weddin Mts, and
anywhere else in the area that takes my fancy.

Has anyone been there recently and have any advice on places to
investigate?

I will be accompanied by my non-birding partner, so apart from a leave
pass to spend a good 4-5 hours at Round Hill - it's my birthday present

Hi birders,
Someone did a nice summary of all the changes in the new Christidis and
Boles 2008. Has anyone got a copy (or web link) of those changes?
(Note that I'm not after the list itself.)
Cheers,
Tim Dolby
[link]
birding-aus.blogspot.com
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I saw Apostlebirds near Blacktown in January of this year. I assumed they
came from Pine Grove Cemetery, where they are said to be resident. I
understand these are escapees from Featherdale Zoo which have now formed a
self sustaining population.
Cheers
Graham Turner
----- Original Message -----
To: "kbrandwood" <kbrandw...@bigpond.com>; "birdingaus"

What a great sighting...Nephurus must be one of the best looking geckos
around.
Graham Turner
----- Original Message -----
To: <birding-...@vicnet.net.au>; "Jonny Schoenjahn" <jonnyb...@bigpond.com>
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 10:24 AM
============================== =
[link]
birding-aus.blogspot.com

Hi again,

As expected, a variety of possibilities (32 in fact) put forward. Chance
played a very large part in my final five species common to all
states/territories, and the limiting places were very clearly Alice
Springs and the far NW of Tassie.

Part of what intrigued me about the five species when I first noted them

Red filters are commonly used on torches/spotlights to reduce disturbance of
mammals and sea turtles. But turtles and many mammals have less visual
sensitivity in the red part of spectrum than we do. But I doubt it will
work for most birds - they have broader visual sensitivity than we do.
Unless you go to a night-scope and infra-red illumination.

I also saw a flock of about 20 Zebra Finches at Hickeys Park, Penrith about
four weeks ago. They were seen drinking from a temporary rain pool on the
side of the bicycle track through the park. I'm not sure if they are seen
there regularly, but I suspect they were attracted to the coastal side of
the Range because of the widespread rains and abundance of seeding grasses.

It is surprising but true I think, that Kelp Gulls are not frequently seen
on the coast in SW Victoria. Surprising because there is a thriving breeding
colony on Lady Julia Percy Island (LJPI) just some 20 km west of Port Fairy.
10 to 26+ are regularly seen on the Port Fairy pelagics which call there on

Following on from Keith and Ed Vella's listings for the Sydney area, I have
a report from Cranebrook north of Penrith of a flock of Apostle birds - how
often do they occur this side of the range??
Cheers
Peter Madvig
----- Original Message -----
To: "birdingaus" <birding-...@vicnet.net.au>
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2008 6:18 PM

G'day David
(every time one of your emails pops in to my inbox I think its my son
David - he's overseas and doesn't correspond enough)
Kelp Gulls have been breeding on Julia Percy Island for a while now. I'm
not sure for how long or what their numbers are now but lately, along the
whole south-west coast, I reckon a large gull is just as likely to be a

Queensland still has an extensive system of stock routes. some are
good corridors of native vegetation and in spite of 150 years of use
still are good places to find native grasses and other vegetation.
A government review is currently in hand and there has been a fear
that many may be closed , sold or leased for full time grazing. A

I stopped for a coffee at Port Fairy on Friday morning (9 May) on my way to
a meeting at Heywood and took the opportunity to have a quick look at
Griffiths Island and the wetlands.
There were seven large gulls which I first thought were Pacific Gulls.
However, as I got closer I realised that four were actually Kelp Gulls

Hi,
After an amazing night of spotlighting looking for reptiles on Saturday
night I came back from Pannawonica very satisfied (Nepherus wheeleri will do
that to you, Oh and a Northern Quoll). This satisfaction turned to pure
exhilaration when just outside of Karratha I noticed 2 birds of prey with
a very 'grey' feel about them.

Topknot Pigeons are surprisingly rare in the Blue Mountains, in fact
I'm only aware of one sighting - the one seen by Evan Beaver last
year at Blaxland. Like Arwen, I also saw a large tight flock of
pigeons on the weekend going over my house at Katoomba. My first
thought was "Are they Topknots?" but on looking closer realised they

Your bird has scaly mite. You might be able to get ivermectin to dose the
bird with. If you email me directly I am happy to discuss this with you.
I am in Lewisham
cheers
storm
-----Original Message-----
[mailto:birding-aus-boun...@vi cnet.net.au]On Behalf Of Carolyn Watkins
Sent: Sunday, 11 May 2008 7:59 PM

Hi Edwin and all,
Re the Blue-faced Honeyeaters in western Sydney, Sandra Boxsell has
also been seeing them periodically at Cranebrook near Penrith for the
past few years. I included an item about this with one of Sandra's
photos last year on my website:
[link]

hi
just a quick note to let ppl know that Deborah Cameron will be interviewing a twitcher this morning - I didn't catch the name but most of you probably know who he is - he's got 6000+ species on his list. I also didn't catch what time, but her program is from 8.30 - 11am. You can probably listen to it live on the internet elsewhere.Arwen

Dear Kurtis,
Thanks for your suggestion, I hadn't thought of that - although I think they're unlikely to be Topknots in the Blue Mountains (although I may stand corrected). From your comparison of the flight of these two birds I would think they were Ferals. cheers, Arwen

.............................. ........... Arwen Blackwood Ximenes

Hi there
I've had a Currawong come to my balcony for the past 18-24 months. When it first came around it's feet looked like it was covered in mulched newspaper. It was small then and apart from the feet looked healthy otherwise.
Well in the past week it is back again since last seeing it last year, it must be fully grown as it's a lot bigger now. However it still has the horrible feet and although it's not as thick, it's seemed to cope over the past 2 years. I live in Canterbury NSW. Unfortunately I can't catch it however it does let me close enough sometimes to hand feed it rye bread (that's with hand stretched out).

I was fortunate to observe 3 Sydney rarites over this weekend.
It all first started at home in Seven Hills when just before I headed out shopping, I heard the distinct whistling call of a BLUE-FACED HONEYEATER, and I was soon observing an adult perching on an antennae on the roof of the people behind us. Wow great to get a rarity from your own backyard and a great way to start the weekend too! Blue-faced Honeyeaters appear to be resident in only one spot in Sydney that being at Wisemans Ferry area (approx. 80 km NW of Sydney CBD) on the north-western outskirts of Sydney and occassionally turn up in other parts of the Hawkesbury (Keith Brandwood has seen some of the later birds) but in due course may become well established in other parts of Sydney.