Townsville Trip 18th - 25th November 2021
18th November
We had a spare week with no commitments so decided to head down to Townsville stopping off at a few places we had not visited or been to for a long time. Headed off to Mareeba where we called into the local electronic store to buy a Powertech Ni-Cad battery charger (MB-3703) and some AA rechargeable batteries. This charger has an LCD read out to show the state of the batteries and when they are fully charged. This a great improvement on our previous chargers which just showed red or green lights and heated up the batteries, not good for them. Then onto Centenary Park, conveniently located on the south side of town alongside the main Atherton Road, for a morning coffee. A flowering eucalypt tree was attracting a few honeyeaters including this Yellow Honeyeater.
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| Yellow Honeyeater |
Continued on to Milla Milla where we were hoping to get lunch at The Falls Teahouse but it was closed so we went back into town and had some lunch at Rumours Diner on the main Street. It was very windy and it started to rain, nothing unusual here! Four Pied Currawong were foraging in the Lions Park on the opposite side of the road, whilst a few House Sparrow hopped around the tables searching for crumbs.
After lunch we continued along the Palmerston Highway towards Innisfail. The road is windy, steep in places especially on the approaches to the Beatrice River bridge. From the bridge the road passes through the Wooroonooran National Park and Henrietta Creek Campground, where we normally stop, but not this time. The weather was still looking like it was going to rain. The highway slowly began to descend towards the coast and Innisfail. Passed through town and onto the Mourilyan Harbour turn off which we followed for a few km's then turned off to Etty Bay our destination for the night. Booked into the Etty Bay Cabins and Caravan Park
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| Etty Bay Cabins and Caravan Park |
We had a converted shipping container for the night which was all new, but extremely compact and not a very well thought out design, but it was only for one night which we survived! Ours was the one on the left.
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| Overnight Accommodation in Upmarket Shipping Container |
Our friends from Townsville joined us shortly after our arrival and a Southern Cassowary strolled through the park and onto the beach. This is normal here as Etty Bay is the place to find this remarkable bird. We were here to conduct a Toressian Imperial Pigeon count as part of Birdlife Northern Queensland ongoing yearly counts.
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| Toressian Imperial Pigeon |
So mid-afternoon we set up on the beach to count pigeons leaving their feeding areas on the mainland to return to their roost site on the offshore islands. It was slow going with small groups of birds flying over and overall fewer numbers than previous years counts. After 3 hours with rain approaching, we retreated to the café for takeaway fish and chips, which were very average.
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| Etty Bay Beach |
November 19th
Went for walk in morning before breakfast, not much happening along the shoreline apart from a Caspian Tern which flew over.
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| Caspian Tern |
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| Cassowary Sign |
Packed up and left Etty Bay. We saw a Southern Cassowary in middle of a large paddock on way out, stopped for a distant image. The 300mm + 1.4 converter on the Olympus micro 4/3rds came in handy. This combination is equivalent to 840mm on a full frame camera, plus the 7.5x image stabilising allowing an ID image handheld.
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| Southern Cassowary |
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| Southern Cassowary - cropped! |
We then drove around to Mourilyan Harbour, another place we had not been to for 20+ years. Not much in the way of birds in and around the harbour.
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| Mourilyan Harbour |
Back to the Bruce Highway and continued onto Cardwell for a lunch stop. Coffee and a wrap from the mobile food wagons in the car park on the southern end of town.
From here it was over the Cardwell Range and down through the cane fields to Ingham, a 40 minute journey. We had booked 3 nights at the Ingham Tourist Park (formally Palm Tree Caravan Park), in a self contained unit. The unit was not quite ready when we arrived so we treated ourselves to an Ice Cream whilst we waited 20 minutes and did a bird survey. After a relax we headed back towards town and the Tyto Wetlands late afternoon, but it was too hot so we only did a short walk. Plenty of birds calling in the woodland including a pair of White-browed Robin at the entrance and eight Green Pygmy-goose in the first lagoon we came across. A total of 48 species was seen with little effort.
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| 1st Lagoon |
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| White-browed Robin |
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| Green Pygmy-goose - male |
November 20th
Went for an early morning survey around the tourist park, which is worthwhile as it is surrounded by paddocks and a sports field. 19 species in 20 minutes including Crimson Finch.
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| Crimson Finch - male |
After breakfast we headed for the hills and Girringun National Park to visit the Wallaman Falls area, 51 kilometres southwest of Ingham. After passing through more cane fields the country enters cattle country at the foot of the hills in cleared woodland paddocks. The sealed road up to Wallaman Falls is narrow and winding with a few passing places and a lookout, where we could see back towards Ingham.
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| Wallaman Falls Road Lookout |
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| Wallaman Falls Road |
Once at the top of the road we went to the camp ground, where there were a few tents and camper trailers, definitely not caravan country. The campground is situated beside Stony Creek with a few walking trails following the creek and surrounds.
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| Stony Creek Rock Pools |
Once at the pools we climbed up a few rocks to view the creek, which was OK. However, on the way down I chose the only rock that was not attached to step on and fell forward and crashed into the rocks striking my head on a rock - ouch! Luckily the camera I was carrying did not suffer any damage, nor did the rock. I was not so lucky, my head was OK, but my shoulder was not, quite painful. This cut the walk short as we headed back to the car. We did hear a pair of Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher calling along here, but did not see any of their termite mounds they use to nest in. Also an interesting Flesh Fly along the walking track.
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| Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher |
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| Flesh Fly |
The fall did not stop me walking so we headed down to the road bridge over Stony Creek, where we were treated to a gathering of Saw-shelled Turtle. They were eying us up, probably looking for hand outs they never got! Only a mother could love that face!
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| Saw-shelled Turtle - Head |
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| Saw-shelled Turtle |
Walked back to the car and drove around to the Wallaman Falls lookout car park.
Only a short walk to the lookout, where we had a spectacular view of Australia's highest permanent single drop waterfall. Stony Creek plunges 268m over the Seaview Range in one single fall into a 20m deep pool.
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| Wallaman Falls |
We left Wallaman Falls and drove part way down the range before stopping for lunch at a pull off area. A few birds around here including a pair of Eastern Whipbird and Bower's Shrikethrush.
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| Eastern Whipbird |
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| Bower's Shrikethrush |
We then continued on down the range letting the car do the work, by the time we reached the bottom we had an average fuel consumption of 0.8 lt. per 100km! Won't see that again.
Back to the Unit for lunch and a rest before going out to Forest Beach via the Victoria Sugar Mill. The railway bins were lined up ready to get processed with the sugar cane billets heaped up, but of interest was a number of Magpie Goose which were in the bins feeding on something. Maybe insects or the cane itself? Drove down to the beach for a look before going back to our unit for a quiet evening.
November 21st
Next morning we drove back to Tyto Wetlands at 6.30am to avoid walking around in the heat of the day. This time we spent 2½ hrs walking the tracks and recorded 55 species. Plenty of good birds and photo opportunities presented themselves.
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| 2nd Lagoon picnic and viewing area |
White-browed Robin were very obvious with their calls and showing themselves, we recorded 12, but this was probably an underestimate. The robins were so obliging that we had to put another photo of them in the blog.
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| White-browed Robin |
Also plenty of White-browed Crake calling and showing themselves along with Comb-crested Jacana, Adult, Immature and one chick were seen.
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| White-browed Crake |
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| Comb-crested Jacana - adult |
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| Comb-crested Jacana - immature |
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| Comb-crested Jacana - chick |
Some of the other birds seen were male Crimson Finch, Wandering Whistling-Duck, Little Pied Cormorant and Red-backed Fairywren - male.
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| Crimson Finch - male |
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| Wandering Whistling-Duck |
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| Little Pied Cormorant |
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| Red-backed Fairywren - male |
Back to the cabin for breakfast before returning to the Tyto Wetland Centre to look at the displays. Then checked out Masters Road lagoon and Orient picnic area, two sites on e-Bird. A few birds on the lagoon including a male Black-necked Stork
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| Black-necked Stork - male |
Orient Road was quiet but a pair of Pacific Baza were calling and showing.
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| Pacific Baza |
Later in the afternoon we drove down to Jourama Falls in the Paluma Range National Park via roadworks south of Ingham. Had to go past the Jourama Falls turn off for a few kilometres before we were able to do a U-turn and come back to then turn onto the falls road. Followed the road through the camp ground to the car park at the end and the start of the falls lookout track. This track leads up to the falls lookout platform, but was temporarily closed on our visit as the track was being upgraded. However, we could walk as far as Waterfall Creek which runs alongside the track. The track to the lookout was due to open on December 10th. We returned to the car park for a coffee and nibbles. There were a few Black-throated Rainbow Skink on the rocks around the car park.
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| Black-throated Rainbow Skink |
Had a coffee and listened to the bird sounds as nightfall arrived. Noisy Pitta were calling with at least four around the car park area.
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| Noisy Pitta |
Drove back to day use area for dinner, beef slices, potatoes and salad. It was nearly dark by now and the Marsh Flies had still not given up annoying us, but it was nearly change over time when they went away and the mosquitoes took over! Luckily for us the mossies did not last long. The main reason for visiting Jourama Falls was to see if we could find a Mahogany Glider, which were supposed to be easy to find in the day use area so friends of ours told us. We had no luck with them spotlighting in the evening, but we did find a Papuan Frogmouth, Brown Bandicoot, Fawn-footed Melomy’s, Spectacled Flying Fox and Cane Toad, also heard several Large-tailed Nightjar.
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| Northern Brown Bandicoot |
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| Fawn Footed Melomys |
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| Papuan Frogmouth |
Driving back to the unit in Ingham was quite a challenge in the dark trying to negotiate the roadworks, but we made it without incident.
November 22nd
Morning walk around the park before heading to the Ingham Health Services to get my damaged shoulder from the fall at Wallaman Falls checked out. Had a few X-Rays, which showed no breaks, thankfully. However, they referred me to get an ultrasound to check for damage to the rotator cuff, muscle and tissue. After this we deserved a coffee and headed to the recommended JK's Deli in Ingham. Great coffee and a couple of slices of excellent raisin toast. Refreshed we headed south towards Townsville and turned off at Toomulla Beach for a short walk along the beach, where we had an Eastern Osprey patrolling overhead.
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| Toomulla Beach |
Then had lunch in the beachside park with our first Dollarbird of this trip.
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| Dollarbird |
We headed to Townsville and as we had some spare time tried to get an appointment for an ultrasound, but all booked out, so will have to wait until we get home. We then went to see our friend, who we were staying with for three nights, and a quiet night as we were serenaded by Channel-billed Cuckoo and Eastern Koel!
November 23rd
First up we went for a short walk down to Rowes Bay and around Belgium Gardens, where a Brush Cuckoo was calling non-stop sitting up in a tree.
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| Brush Cuckoo |
Spent the rest of the day shopping, without buying much and relaxing before going out for dinner with friends in the evening.
November 24th
Early start to the morning to get out to the Palmetum, part of Townsville Botanic Gardens, to meet friends Chris and Len for a morning birding. The Palmetum is an area of 17 Ha featuring palms of the Arcaceae family, with a rainforest area and a lagoon, resulting in good habitat attracting a diverse range of bird species. At least 162 species have been recorded at the Palmetum, we saw 38 of them.
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| Palmetum Lagoon |
Our chosen day to visit coincided with a maintenance blitz with lawn mowers, slashers, leaf blowers and tree lopper all in action making birding difficult! However it was an enjoyable morning. Some of the birds seen shown below.
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| Spangled Drongo |
Later in the afternoon l checked out the Townsville Town Common. First stop was at the Melaleuca Viewing area, which had few birds on it, six Comb-crested Jacana and two Brolga plus four Gull-billed Tern flying over. A few more birds were in the surrounding woodland including Brown-backed Honeyeater.
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| Gull-billed Tern |
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| Brown-backed Honeyeater |
Drove up to the Pandanus Viewing area, where there was a large gathering of egret and Royal Spoonbill with a few Australian White Ibis also in the mix. At least 150 egrets were here, great, little, plumed and cattle, plus 46 Royal Spoonbill and 13 Australian White Ibis. They were mainly foraging in the grassy edges and loafing on the muddy areas. A few other birds such as Pacific Black Duck and Pied Stilt were out in the shallow water.
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| Mixed Egret Species |
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| Great, Little, Plumed and Cattle Egret plus Australian White Ibis |
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| Royal Spoonbill |
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| Pacific Black Duck |
November 25th
Time to leave Townsville and head home. Still plenty of roadworks north of town, which we cleared around Bluewater. Pressed on to Ingham while the sky became darker and eventually it started raining getting heavy at Cardwell. Stopped here for a coffee and waited for the rain to ease off. It eventually did so we headed north again towards Tully and around to South Johnstone and joined the Palmerston Highway. Continued on to the Henrietta Creek Campground, where we stopped for lunch. The rain had stopped allowing us to do a 20 minute survey while fighting of the clouds of Marsh Flies! Victoria's Riflebird and Double-eyed Fig-Parrot were stand outs.
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| Double-eyed Fig-Parrot |
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| Victoria's Riflebird - male |
Continued after lunch, through Milla Milla, Malanda, Atherton and Tolga, where we stopped for a coffee beside the Tolga Scrub and sports field. Nothing much in the way of birds, couple of Common Myna checked us out and a couple of Lewin's Honeyeater were calling in the scrub.
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| Common Myna |
Then home to complete an interesting week, good birds and places, not so good falling over!
