Brian and I had a lot of business to take care of today. First thing was going to the Campervan rental place and finding out that they had issued us an upgrade. Initially we were supposed to have the same van as Mim and I had. But they had put us in a regular RV size camper. At first we were kind of bummed and then I saw the bed. A real mattress! The other van had a real thin foam pad for a bed and every morning I'd get up and my back would hurt, so this could be a major improvement.
Once we got everything figured out we pulled out and went back to the BnB, retrieved our things, and off to the supermarket we went. The supermarket was okay. We were able to get some organic peanut butter and jelly, some good fruit and veggies, and multi-grain tortillas. The one thing we couldn't find was any kind of bread that was worth eating. Oh well, we'll suffer, someone has to.
We stopped in a Lake Barrie to look for the Tooth-billed Bowerbird. We took a walk on the Rainforest Trail and saw Wompoo Fruit-Dove and heard the Victoria's Riflebird calling almost the entire time we were on the trial. The birding here was good at times but most of time everything was high up in the trees and impossible to see. We did happen to see about fifty Great Crested Grebes on the lake. On the way out we saw a couple of Pacific Bazas. For a complete list click here.
We arrived at Kingfisher Park just about the time it was getting dark. The owner, Andrew took us to see and fifteen foot python and a Forest Dragon before we even checked in. I thought to myself, this is going to be good.
The next day we got up before first light and had some coffee and granola and then hit the trail. The Kingfisher Lodge sits at the base of Mt. Lewis. It is surrounded by farmlands and lot of cattle. The lodge is basically a postage stamp size of rainforest refuge surrounded by cattle pastures.
There's a clearing in the middle of the rainforest. It's circular in shape and basically you are surrounded by the edge of the rainforest. The Yellow-spotted, Brown, and Macleay's Honeyeaters were feeding on the blooms of this huge flowering tree. They were joined soon by a flock of Rainbow Lorikeets and Spangled Drongos. Then thirty or so Metallic Starlings came in and were picking up some dried pieces of vine from another tree and flying off with it to use in their nearby nesting colony. They were soon joined by fifty more and then forty more and so on. They were calling frantically as they went about their business. And then just like that they all flew away and once again you could hear the honeyeaters singing.
We ventured down to the creek and sat still for a while. We were hoping to see a platypus, but it was not to be. Soon a Little Shrikethrush came in to bathe. She was followed by a Spectacled Monarch and a Pale-Yellow Robin. We noticed some movement down stream where we found an Azure Kingfisher. Walking back to our camp for some lunch we came across a Noisy Pitta. He was very cooperative for the paparazzi.
Next to our camp was an Australian Brushturkey. They are probably the most conspicous birds around the campground. Australian Brushturkeys do not incubate their eggs in the same fashion as most birds. What happens is the male builds a mound in his hard earned territory for which he has fought off several rival males. The mounds can be huge. This one was about four feet in diameter and three feet high. .
So why do they build these mounds? Well, over a period of time a female will come along and give his mound a good inspection. If it suits her fancy, she may or may not mate with him. She may just lay some eggs on his mound. Nevertheless he'll go right to work covering up those eggs. Once he gets them covered they'll be incubated by the heat of the decomposition of that material. When the eggs hatch, the young Turks are on their own and they had better watch out for that Scrub Python we saw this morning.
What's really sad is the male brushturkey can become so exhausted by his work on the mound that a usurper will take advantage of his fatigue by challenging him and defeating him in battle. He'll then take over his mound and go about doing what all of us guys do, you guessed it yard-work, or as I like to say "hedge-trimming". I know what you're thinking and the answer is yes, another male may displace the new king when he grows tired from all of his "hedge-trimming".
After lunch we went back out but this time for a walk down a country lane. We found a huge tree where the Metallic Starlings were nesting. They nest in huge colonies and build these kind of messy globular hanging woven nests. Every few minutes a group of about fifty would take off all at once and fly off in a tight formation.
In a tree with some bottle-brush flowers we found several Brown Honeyeaters and Scarlet Myzomelas. As we were watching these birds a lady who had passed by earlier in a car, approached us and asked if we had seen the Papuan Frogmouth at the creek. We hadn't seen it or known about it so we followed here down to the bridge. There we found the frogmouth sitting on a nest!
The Papuan Frogmouth is like our Whip-Poor-Will, a nightjar. It looks kind of like owl and like most owls, it is strictly nocturnal. It flies around at night using it unusually wide mouth to scoop up flying insects. During the day it will roost inconspicuously.
In the evening we returned to the creek to sit quietly waiting for the platypus to make an appearance. But she refused to show so we had to be content with great looks at the Pale-vented Bush-hen made its way up the creekside and a couple of Water Dragons. On the way back to camp we found two Red-necked Crakes.
For complete lists click here
Your blog is just not as funny now that I'm not there!
ReplyDeleteYeah that's what happens when a show loses it Star!
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