Sooty Owl, Black-faced Woodswallow and others

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gileas
Posts: 81
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 10:31 pm
Location: Brisbane, QLD
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Sooty Owl, Black-faced Woodswallow and others

Post by gileas »

I had a fantastic trip over the weekend to the Bunya Mountains and Jandowae area. My main focus for the trip was to try and see Painted Honeyeaters, however on arriving at the good sites for these in the Jandowae area I found they were completely flooded, so without my gumboots I was out of luck. Fortunately, the rest of the weekend just kept firing, with great views of loads of birds, including four species I still needed for my year list.

My first new bird was Bassian Thrush, usually pretty easy in the main campground at Bunya Mountains either on the lawns first thing in the morning or on the trails shortly after.

We headed down to Jandowae shortly after dawn, and though Painted Honeyeater was a bust, I was thrilled to find a pair of Black-faced Woodswallows on a random back road I drove down (Jeitz's Rd south of Inverai Rd). This was a bird I wasn't sure I would find in my search area this year, so it was probably as good a find as Painted Honeyeaters would have been, though obviously not as rare a bird in general.

Heading back to the Bunyas I was treated to two more surprises. The Sooty Owl was in it's occasional roost site in the hollow fig that the Scenic Circuit passes through. This is only my second look at a Sooty Owl, and given my "no tapes" rule, was definitely one I didn't think I'd be able to add to my list. This was definitely the highlight of the weekend for me!

And finally, I had brief but reasonable views of a pair of Paradise Riflebirds, my bogey bird for the year to date, foraging through the canopy. Ironically, this was at the Paradise section of the park too, so it was highly appropriate.

So two unlikely additions, a bogey and a common but as yet unseen addition to the list brings me to 340 for the year! Only ten to go until I reach my nominated goal of 350.

Regards,
Chris Sanderson
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