Sunday, September 16, 2012

185) Atherton and environs

Pied Monarch

As mid-August was a break between semesters for Dirk, we decided it was time to head north to the "Wet Tropics" - flying into Cairns (pronounced "Kans") and touring the Atherton Tablelands and the the Daintree rainforest. We convinced Claire Runge (a fellow PhD student at UQ and birdo extraordinaire) to come along.

We had time after flying, shopping for food and driving up to Yungaburra to head out to meet Alan Gillanders for a quick bit of night-spotting.

This Green Ringtail possum has an utterly toxic (Eucalyptus leaves) diet but, like the Koala, has found an empty niche with plenty of food.

We also saw the coppery phase of the common brushtail possum, giant (arboreal) White-tailed Rats that can chew through coolers to get food, long-nosed and northern brown bandicoots, and a leaf-tailed gecko. 

No sign of the famed tree kangaroo this night.....

















Alan Gillanders is a 35-year resident of the Tablelands who is a superb guide, naturalist, story-teller and splendid bloke for a day getting acquainted with the area.

We quickly spotted a number of the endemics including this Pied Monarch.











We walked a trail above Lake Eacham which Alan described as the "male red-light district" for Tooth-billed Bower birds. We heard 5 distinct males calling in about 1/2 km. Their "bower" is a set of large leaves arranged upside-down on the ground and they were rather vocal about getting the girls to show up and check out their handiwork!
















We also headed to Mt Hypipamee where birding includes a  safety lecture! What to NOT do if confronted with a Cassowary (e.g. don't run).














The picnic area surfaced another endemic - the Grey-headed Robin.















A major find for us was the Golden Bower Bird. Alan is a specialist in these birds and has studied them for 30+ years. What a sight to behold!














As Nancy and Claire looked with Alan for an elusive Fernwren and Atherton scrubwren, I ran back up to get a picture of the Golden Bower-bird bower. I had to take a wide angle lens to fit it all in - it was about 3.5 high (apparently this was a young bird - the bower is small, the decorative mosses and flowers (lower L of picture) were mixed together and the bower was not symmetrical --there should be two towers with the decorations between them.)

Still, pretty cool that such a small bird can drag all those sticks into this structure!


I was only about 4 feet away - as I checked my exposures, the owner showed up with a flower to add to his decorations! I didn't even want to twitch as he carefully arranged the flower in with the others, took one last look at the arrangement and flew off. Absolutely made my day.....

More to follow.........

184) What kind of country is this anyway!

After two really wet years, with Lake Eyre filling three consecutive times, we may be back into a dry spell. 146 days with no rain in the red center - this is what happens......

The record dry spell was in 1972 - 147 days!

Near Mt Connor, 325 miles south of Alice Springs.
Photo from theaustralian.com.au