The Great Birding Adventure 2012 - Part 7: Sunshine Coast

The final leg of the trip commenced with a flight from Cairns to Brisbane and then a drive up the coast to Noosa. I booked into a cabin at the Noosa Caravan Park and then went and lay on a beach for the rest of the day! JOY!! Barely lifted my binoculars up at all, other than to watch an Osprey work its way over the surf looking for something to eat.

The next morning saw me on the road early to get up to Inskip Point - where the boats take off for Fraser Island, in the hope of seeing a Black-breasted Button-Quail and then over to Cooloola to hopefully jag a Ground Parrot. I realised at this stage that my birding opportunities had thinned significantly, but the good news was this meant that the trip had been an overwhelming success! I reached the Point, jumped out, dodged a serious number of 4X4's bashing their way through the thick sand and headed into the scrub lining the road. Within a minute a Black-breasted Button-Quail (Number 44) was darting around in the undergrowth near my feet. great views but no chance of a photo. HAPPY! Decided to go for more of a walk and came across two Noisy Pitta (numbers 4 and 5 for the trip!). Got a dodgy photo but climbed back into the car VERY happy.

Drove to the turn-off to the renowned Ground Parrot spot to be confronted with a sign reading "Road Closed for Repairs. Do Not Enter". NOT HAPPY!!!! So that was the end of that. Drove back to Noosa a little deflated, but not depressed. Decided to cheer myself up by going on a fishing charter the next day!

Headed out early on the charter the next morning - saw no birds, caught lots of fish, came across a stack of whales (breaching and playing around) - STUNNING, and generally had a very good time!! Ate out on the main street of Noosa and hit the sack early.

My final full day on the Sunshine coast dawned and I was out early birding in Tewantin near the Golf Course. This was some of the best birding I did the whole trip - and got lots of fantastic photo opportunities. I highly recommend this spot. It's listed in the Noosa Bird Trails pamphlet. Highlights were Rufous Fantail, Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, and Noisy Pitta (number 6 for the trip). Spent thev rest of the day lying on a beach soaking up the sun one last time, reflecting on not much at all. BLISS!

 

And so the final day of my trip arrived. I climbed into the car, said goodbye to Noosa and headed on to Brisbane. Had just enough time to pop into a local lake near the airport and snap a photo of a couple of amorous Rainbow Lorikeets - made the thought of getting home fairly enticing!

Got to the airport, handed over the car, boarded the plane and settled into my seat. Time to reflect! I had started off in Perth exactly 30 days earlier and had travelled thousands of kilometres by plane and car - visited the Perth region, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Lamington National Park, the Sunshine Coast, Cairns, Normanton, Julatten, Musgrave, Lakefield National Park, Iron Range National Park and the Great Barrier Reef. I had done some charter fishing, snorkelled on the GBR, watched a mate pull a Barramundi out of a stagnant pond, and seen pythons and tree snakes and crocodiles. I had seen over 300 species of bird, of which 54 were new. My Australian total had gone from 523 to 577 and I had spotted some of the most beautiful, stunning and rare birds on the continent. I had some of the time alone which had been fantastic, but I had also had the privilege of spending it with my brother Steve and my mate David, plus I also met some new friends and some very interesting characters in Peter Taylor (Perth), Mat Gilfedder (Brisbane), Barry Davies (Lamington), "Chook" Crawford (Lakefield), Sue Sheppard (Artemis Station) and Del Richards (Mount Lewis). All of these folk spent time with me helping me to find new birds and I am greatly indebted to all of them. I also met a whole host of other folks on the journey who made the trip so fulfilling and special. Thanks everyone! A special note of thanks goes to my wife Dani for letting me escape for four weeks - I made it up to her by taking her to Penang a week after I got back! Birding may not be for everyone, but it sure took me places - some of the most remote and beautiful regions of Australia that you wouldn't normally visit if you weren't a birder and that was spectacular in and of itself.

And so the trek had come to an end. And the brain started thinking - what about a trek from Adelaide to the Gulf of Carpentaria and back? Or what about a few days in Tasmania to get the endemics down there? Or maybe I should do a trek to Newhaven to get the Princess Parrot? Or maybe ................

Mike Potter, 2012

Mike and Steve Potter - Iron Range August 2012