Denis Walls | Committee Member
Since 2009, annual field trips to East Trinity (east side of Trinity Inlet, Cairns) have become a signature event for birders. This one, on the weekend of 31 August 2024 (Saturday) and 01 September 2024 (Sunday), was primarily a key event in the Birdlife Northern Queensland (BLNQ) calendar promoted by BLNQ’s Cairns organiser extraordinaire, Mikey Kudo. Cairns Birders joined in too and a tidy number of participants rocked up for a 7 am-sharp bird-off.
To reduce the number of vehicles on the property, we car shared, entering through Gate 1 towards the Coconut Slipway, after having done a people body count (in case of crocodile mishaps perhaps!), and with about 15 bird species already on the list. Red-necked Crake and Bush-hen had been both noisy and close by off the Yarrabah Road, but neither deigned to make an appearance.
The plan was to start our serious birding at the legendary Peat Swamp and beside Little Hills Creek where birds were aplenty and mosquitoes, thankfully, few. A surprise Rufous Fantail was definitely one of the highlights as was a glorious, calling Shining Flycatcher in full, open-gape mode. A pair of Emerald-Dove secretively trod the creek bank. This is not a common bird nowadays and an excellent sighting for East Trinity. Both Tree and Fairy Martin are excellent records for the area too.
However, waders were hard to find there, partly because the tide was not on our side, but also because mangrove growth is starting to block views of the mud flats on the inner side of the Bund Wall. This is the small price we pay for the important rehabilitation of this old, acidified sugar cane property!
Sunday was a bonus. I had the key to the property for the whole weekend so thought one or two birders might be interested in a revisit. Four returnees, and the Saturday absentee Shane, set off and, on opening the savanna land Gate 2, we immediately stirred a Black-shouldered Kite – such a smart bird and one that we see all too infrequently these days at East Trinity.
Along the Melaleuca passage, site of Black-faced Monarch and Northern Fantail in the past, we heard first, Rufous Whistler, and then, astoundingly, Pallid Cuckoo. I am not claiming the cuckoo but Mikey, Michael and Shane are Victorian veterans and know the call off by heart, so we must bow to their fore-knowledge. This cuckoo is, at the very least, a Far North Queensland rarity and totally new for me in this part of the world. Do others have records of it up here?
A family of Lovely Fairywren showed themselves beautifully, especially that top-notch female! Then, we headed into Great-billed Heron territory and, in our scanning of the surrounds, narrowly avoided crushing a nesting White-throated Nightjar tending its single cream egg. Michael and Shane, in the car behind, saw the adult flush before it returned to its egg and tucked it under its body. We were all able to go back and take excellent pictures from afar without disturbing the bird. What a bird, what a sighting, and what a way to end our East Trinity visit.
Saturday's bird list
Pacific Black Duck, Orange-footed Scrubfowl, Peaceful Dove, Little Bronze-Cuckoo, Brush Cuckoo, Australian Swiftlet, Bush Stone-Curlew (formerly Bush Thick-knee), Masked Lapwing, Australasian Darter, Striated Heron, Great Egret, Australian White Ibis, Eastern Osprey, Little Kingfisher, Laughing Kookaburra, Torresian Kingfisher, Rainbow Bee-eater, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Rainbow Lorikeet, Yellow Honeyeater, Brown Honeyeater, White-throated Honeyeater, Dusky Honeyeater, Brown-backed Honeyeater, Cryptic Honeyeater, Helmeted Friarbird, White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike, Varied Triller, Green/Yellow Oriole, Olive-backed Oriole, Australasian Figbird, Black Butcherbird, Willie Wagtail, Spangled Drongo, Leaden Flycatcher, Shining Flycatcher, Welcome Swallow, Mistletoebird, Sahul Sunbird (formerly Olive-backed), White-breasted Woodswallow, Rufous Fantail, Brahminy Kite, Pacific Baza, Macleay’s Honeyeater, Red-necked Crake, Yellow-spotted Honeyeater, Varied Honeyeater, Pheasant Coucal, Pacific Heron, Cicadabird, Bar-shouldered Dove, Golden-headed Cisticola, Forest Kingfisher, Plumed Egret, Little Egret, Large-billed Gerygone, Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, Emerald Dove, Bush-hen, Red-backed Fairywren, Lovely Fairywren, Black-necked Stork, Torresian Imperial Pigeon, Straw-necked Ibis, Spectacled Monarch, Crimson Finch, Scaly-breasted Mannikin, Tree Martin, Fairy Martin, White-breasted Woodswallow, Mangrove Robin, Crested Tern, Pied Stilt, White-faced Heron, Australian Tern, Reef Heron, Sacred Kingfisher, Great Knot, Whimbrel, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.
This is a total of 80 birds recorded for Saturday, but two species (Black-shouldered Kite and Pallid Cuckoo) were also recorded on Sunday (see below).
Sunday’s additions
Buff-banded Rail, Royal Spoonbill, Black-shouldered Kite (also recorded on Saturday), Rufous Whistler, Pallid Cuckoo (also recorded on Saturday), Red-necked Stint, Grey-tailed Tattler, Australian Pelican, Bar-tailed Godwit, White-throated Nightjar, Red-capped Plover, Silver Gull, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Little Black Cormorant, Nankeen Night-heron, Common Sandpiper (17).
Two species, Black-shouldered Kite and Pallid Cuckoo, were recorded on both mornings and are therefore in the Saturday and Sunday lists above, but they can only be counted once in the total list of species recorded over the two mornings.
95 species recorded!
Thus over the two mornings, a total of 95 species (two species are listed for both Saturday and Sunday) was recorded: a new survey record for East Trinity in one weekend. The previous record back in 2009 was 92, although that was achieved in one long morning.
This was without seeing or hearing species we would have expected to record such as Magpie-lark, Common Myna (whoopee!), Double-eyed Fig-Parrot, Metallic Starling, Australasian Pipit and, usually a good friend to visitors of East Trinity, Large-billed Heron – AWOL on this occasion.
Species that evoked particular “oohs” and “aahs”, or interest are in bold – mostly my choice having visited East Trinity so many times over the years and knowing what’s likely and what isn’t.
