Ceri Pearce | Birds With Altitude Project Leader
Six participants enjoyed the wilds of the Misty Mountains during the recent Birds With Altitude (BWA) campout of 23–25 August 2024. While the weather lived up to the area’s misty reputation on occasion, overall the weekend was fine and even sunny at times.
As usual, we had the campground and Forestry hut/camp kitchen booked for our exclusive use thanks to our collaboration with the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.
It’s always challenging birdwatching in the rainforest, where you can often hear birds but not see them. Mike’s field work assisting Renée Cassels with her Pale-yellow Robin Honours Project came to the fore, as he expertly identified these dainty little birds long before we saw them. Claire said she very much appreciated practicing her call recognition, especially under Amanda’s expert tutelage. But even experienced surveyors get flummoxed, and it was good to have a team to problem-solve at times.
On Saturday morning we headed off early in two four-wheel drive vehicles to survey the 800 m above sea level (ASL) sites. It was a long trip around due to the closure of Bora Ground Road as a result of a landslip. While the K Tree Road and Maalan Track were in good condition and accessible in conventional vehicles, the recent rain meant that as we ascended the West Maalan Track to the higher altitude sites, the road increasingly became muddy and slippery. Fortunately, the Mitsubishi Triton and Jimny coped well, and Gavin driving the Jimny said he enjoyed the challenge. We made it!
What Amanda’s partner, Alastair, said about the mud plastered to the underside of ‘his’ Triton can’t be repeated but he kindly contributed his car-washing expertise to the BWA weekend, after the event.
Birding in these higher altitude sites in the research reserve is always a highlight. The vegetation is dripping with lichens and moss, the air is cool and crisp, and the chance of seeing high altitude Wet Tropics endemic birds is much more likely. Amongst the birds recorded here, Amanda said she enjoyed seeing Satin Bowerbirds the most, even though no adult males were seen, while Mike, John and Ceri were very excited to see Mountain Thornbill, our first observation of them during a Misty Mountain campout weekend.
The sunshine even encouraged a Red-bellied Black Snake into the open to bask (Figures 1 and 2). Don’t worry, we had our snake bite bandages and EPIRBs with us, and as luck would have it, our own accident and emergency doctor as part of our team.
Over the weekend we surveyed a number of previous Steve Williams sites at 600 m, 700 m and 800 m ASL. Fifteen surveys were completed by the team, comprising seven 2 ha 20 min area searches, and eight 500 m area searches each for an hour. During the surveys, 48 species were seen or heard, with a total of 535 birds recorded. Several other birds were seen or heard outside the surveys and were recorded as incidental sightings. All surveys and the birds seen or heard were recorded in Birdata. Table 1 (below) lists the species of birds observed over the weekend.
We had two cassowary encounters as the birds ambled onto the track, searching for fruit on the roadside. We recorded them as incidental sightings at the 600 m and 700 m sites. While quite wary of us, we were all thrilled to see cassowary at close quarters. The first bird in particular was a magnificent looking bird. John was very happy as he hadn’t seen a cassowary in the wild for many years (Figures 3–5). The birds didn’t hang around and were off into the forest as soon as they became aware of us.
Figures 4 and 5. Mature Southern Cassowary encountered at 700 m site.
When the sun came out, the birds became more active. We had good sightings of Pied Monarch, Golden Whistler, Brown Gerygone, Large-billed Scrubwren, Eastern Spinebill, Australian Brush Turkey and Orange Footed Scrubfowl, to name a few. Gavin and Claire were delighted to see Yellow-breasted Boatbill up close.
As far as tantalising calls were concerned, we heard Fernwren very close at 660 m ASL. Ceri’s favourite little bird is Fernwen so she was hot on its heels searching for it. Only a couple of hundred metres away, we had Noisy Pitta at 643 m ASL, nagging us to ‘get to work.’
Throughout the areas we surveyed, towering blue quandongs were laden with fruit which attracted a variety of pigeons and doves. Most plentiful were Wompoo Fruit-Dove with 66 individuals recorded during the surveys. Brown Cuckoo-Dove came in at second place with 49 individuals, with Topknots coming in a close third place. There were even White-Headed Pigeons. Conspicuous by their absence were Superb, and Rose Crowned Fruit-Dove. The Brown-capped Emerald-Dove ignored the quandongs, favouring food sources closer to the ground.
We found our first Tooth-billed Bowerbird display court for the season at 741m ASL (Figure 6), so breeding season has kicked off.
After a day in the field, there is nothing better than sundowners, especially next to the South Johnstone River (Figure 7). We desperately tried to find a platypus, but alas, that was not to be. Instead, we had to be content with Little Pied Cormorant and freshwater turtles.
At dusk we heard Red-necked Crake calling around the campground, though it didn’t come out from the undergrowth. After dinner, Gavin and Claire went venturing along the road with a torch and were delighted to find glow worms in the hollows under moist overhangs. Amanda heard Southern Boobook as she headed to the tents and settled to sleep.
While this year’s Misty Mountain survey was six weeks earlier than usual, the timing was perfect as there were no march flies. Having said that, it was also too cool to swim in the South Johnstone River, but that didn’t stop us from perching on the riverbank (Figure 9), to enjoy a final and well-deserved morning tea, before we packed up to head for home.
Mike’s final comment best sums up our Misty Mountain’s weekend, “It’s a magic place and walking the rainforest tracks, immersed in nature, far from the madding crowd, is always a delightful adventure.”
Table 1. Birds recorded during the Birds With Altitude Survey Campout 23–25 August 2024.
Australian Brush-turkey | Noisy Pitta |
Australian King-Parrot | Orange-footed Scrubfowl |
Black Butcherbird | Pacific Baza |
Black-eared Catbird | Pale-yellow Robin |
Bower's Shrike-thrush | Pied Currawong |
Brown Cuckoo-Dove | Pied Monarch |
Brown Gerygone | Rainbow Lorikeet |
Brown-capped Emerald-Dove | Red-necked Crake |
Chowchilla | Satin Bowerbird |
Double-eyed Fig-Parrot | Shining Bronze-Cuckoo |
Eastern Spinebill | Silvereye |
Eastern Whipbird | Southern Boobook |
Fairy Gerygone | Southern Cassowary |
Fernwren | Spectacled Monarch |
Golden Whistler | Sulphur-crested Cockatoo |
Graceful Honeyeater | Tooth-billed Bowerbird |
Grey Fantail | Topknot Pigeon |
Grey-headed Robin | Varied Triller |
Large-billed Scrubwren | Victoria's Riflebird |
Lewin's Honeyeater | White-eared Monarch |
Little Pied Cormorant | White-headed Pigeon |
Little Shrike-thrush | White-throated Treecreeper |
Macleay's Honeyeater | Wompoo Fruit-Dove |
Metallic Starling | Yellow-breasted Boatbill |
Mistletoebird | Yellow-spotted Honeyeater |
Mountain Thornbill | Yellow-throated Scrubwren |
Special thanks to participants Mike, John, Claire and Gavin, Amanda and Ceri, and extra special thanks to Chris Roach and Brenton Haigh at the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and their teams, for their support of the Project, and all the preparation they do to make sure we have all that we need to have a great birding weekend (including a hot shower in the hut😊).
All data from BWA is provided to Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service as part of The Monitoring for Wet Tropics Birds in Wooroonooran National Park Project which is supported by a Queensland Government Community Sustainability Action Grant – Round 6 for Conservation – Community Engagement on Queensland’s National Parks and State Forests: CSAP059.