Trip Report Cape York 27 May - 30 June, 2022 - Cecile Espigole

Cathu SF

First stop northwest of Mackay, Jaxut camping area in the rainforest section of Cathu SF is about 30min from the A1. Complete with lookouts, waterfalls, and swimming holes, Cathu SF definitely deserves more time to explore. Morning birding before heading off to Ingham was quite good. We’ll be back! 

Tyto Wetlands

Shorter drive on day 2 to allow time in Tyto Wetlands which were… closed! due to recent rain, flooded paths and crocs moving about. Highlights of our afternoon venture were White-browed Robin and White-gaped Honeyeater, but no Crimson Finch. We didn’t go back at night for the Eastern Grass Owl, as planned. Another quick stop at the Wetlands on our way back home in June yielded great shots of the Crimson Finch for Cam, and good views (but crappy shots) of the White-browed Crake in the drain just before the main lagoon at the back of the Wetlands.

   White-browed Robin Poecilodryas superciliosa

                                                                                                                      White-browed Crake Poliolimnas cinereus

Mount Hypipamee NP

Weekend and mid-morning was definitely not the best time to visit this site. Of the three Golden Bowerbird bowers we know, only one was standing but didn’t look attended. The path leading to the bowers looks well used. We met people in the carpark who couldn’t tell the difference between a Rufous and a Golden Whistler who also knew the location of the bowers which reinforced our impression that this site is suffering excessive visitation. A subsequent visit in June only yielded scrubitch. Notable on our second visit was a flock of 25+ Satin Bowerbirds in the fig tree above the carpark accompanied by 3 adult males. A local met in Wongabel SF explained that she sees Satin Bowerbirds in big flocks every winter. Of the recent sightings of male Southern Cassowary with chicks, we only got fresh poo along the road.

 

Julatten

With Feathers’n’Friends and Kingfisher Park not accommodating campers anymore, Tableland Caravan Park, at the back of Nine Mile Rd, was our next best option, and boy! did the birds perform on Nine Mile Rd: Yellow-breasted Boatbill, Superb Fruit-Dove, Spotted Catbird, Double-eyed Fig-Parrot excavating a cavity for nesting on a Victoria's Riflebird’s display stump, Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo within the first 500m of the road (attention, Fan-tailed Cuckoo also present here), Cryptic, Yellow-spotted and Macleay's Honeyeaters, Large-billed and Brown Gerygones, and an immature Red-necked Crake close to the cattle yard. Later, Del Richards explained that the Crakes had bred in the caravan park last season. Memorable on the morning we were headed for Mount Lewis in the dark in hope to see the Lesser Sooty Owl, was that very bird calling above the camper! We went looking trying not to wake everybody up but were not successful. We then heard several on the Mount Lewis Rd but had to wait until our return to the Atherton Tablelands in June to finally see one. Del was a mine of information: we talked bird locations in Iron Range and Atherton Tablelands, Buff-breasted Buttonquail and his book: My Country Life.

Olive-backed Sunbird Cinnyris jugularis                                                 

 Papuan Frogmouth Podargus papuensis baileyi                                 

 Mount Lewis

We arrived at the clearing on Mount Lewis at first light in an enchanting dawn chorus. The usual suite of bird species was seen (see trip list attached, by location), including two Blue-faced Parrotfinches. We often hear that this species is only found at lower altitude in winter, but a few must prefer the hills as this is my third winter visit with Parrotfinches sighted within half an hour after daybreak, but not later in the day. Notable sightings: high number of Bridled Honeyeaters, a pair of Tooth-billed Bowerbirds camped above the road for 20+ minutes, a small group (4 or 5) of Shining Bronze-Cuckoos, the lucidus ssp from NZ (I had been on the lookout for that subspecies for some time, was told that the colours were unmistakable, I know what this means now), and an incredible number of banded birds. On our way down, we met and had a chat with Leo Joseph, Director of the Australian National Wildlife Collection, who is interested in publishing the information we gathered about the Marbled Frogmouth at Bulburin NP following our sightings last year which extends its distribution north by 350km+ (according to the distribution map in The Australian Bird Guide).

 

Shining Bronze-Cuckoo Chrysococcyx lucidus lucidus                         Tooth-billed Bowerbird                                                                                                                             Scenopoeetes dentirostris

 

Laura

Finally on Cape York, our first stop was Quincan Split Rock art site where Cam and I had our second common lifer for the trip: White-streaked Honeyeater which was the dominant species in the carpark. A splendid bird, one of our favourite sightings of the whole trip.

 Split Rock art site

 

 

White-streaked Honeyeater Trichodere cockerelli

 Artemis Station

With only about 50 Golden-shouldered Parrots left on Artemis and the end of the breeding season, we saw a few birds only at the feeder. We caught up with Steve Murphy (who did his PhD on the Palm Cockatoo but is mostly known for his work on the Night Parrot, also Will’s nephew) who is now working on restoring the habitat on Artemis which includes 1) thinning areas which have become too thick with trees and shrubs making them favourable to predators such as cats and butcherbirds, 2) managing cattle to allow grasses to recover, and 3) pig and cat control. For more info and to become a friend of Artemis https://artemis.org.au/our-work/ For the subject that I’ll be doing at CSU between July and October – Conservation management of birds – I  have to write a Husbandry manual (ex situ conservation) and I’m thinking of doing it on the Golden-shouldered Parrot (as a backup to the habitat restoration strategy currently in place to save this species).

Iron Range NP

Next stop was our target destination for this trip: Iron Range NP. The Peninsula Developmental Road was not as bad as in 2020 with the section between Musgrave Roadhouse and Coen still being the worse. With a car rally ahead of us, Archer River Roadhouse almost ran out of diesel. The road to Lockhart River wasn’t bad, many crossings have been concreted since my last visit, but the Wenlock and Pascoe crossings remain tricky, especially after rain as we found out on our way out.  

The weather was overcast during most of our stay and there were fewer birds than during my previous visit in Nov 2020 (no cyclone between the two visits). We met James Watson and Nigel Jackett from the Rares group https://raresgroup.com.au/ doing research on the kimberli ssp of the Australian Masked Owl; they also commented on the lack of birds. We managed to see most of our target species except for the Yellow-legged Flycatcher that had been seen recently in the Rainforest camping area, the Green-backed and Tawny-breasted Honeyeaters (seen last time) and the ssp marmoratus of the Marbled Frogmouth.  Highlights were Northern Scrubrobin (heard in the Rainforest camping area and seen close to Greenhoose), Black-eared Catbird, and an immature Southern Cassowary watched in comfort from the bed in the camper (can’t think of any better ways of starting the day) wandering around leisurely the Cooks Hut camping area. When we got 75mm of rain instead of the 5mm forecast, we decided to break camp as the two main river crossings to Iron Range were already quite high when we drove down from the late wet season. During this rain event, after wading to the toilet with water just under my knee, the camper became my second-best friend. Without Yookie, we would have been very sad cuscus in wet swags.

A permit is now needed to go to the dam on the Old Mission Rd but we saw Spotted Whistling-Ducks and Fawn-breasted Bowerbird at the evaporation ponds in town. Not much about at the Claudie River boat ramp except for a pair of Shining Flycatchers. Eclectus and Red-cheeked Parrots must have had a good season as we saw lots, unlike the Palm Cockatoo which we only saw twice: evaporation ponds and Chili Beach. At Chili Beach, we caught up with Mim, a friend from Bauple who now lives with Neil on the sheltered side of Chili Beach. They will soon be opening a campsite and cabins at their place, so watch this space, birding amigos, for better accommodation in this part of the world.

 

 

Black-eared Catbird Ailuroedus melanotis                                                 Frill-necked Monarch Arses lorealis

 

 

Magnificent Riflebird Ptiloris magnificus                                          

Southern Cassowary Casuarius casuarius

 

Pascoe River crossing                                                                                   

PDR

Lakefield NP

We wanted to detour via Lakefield NP for the Black-throated Finch and the evangelinae ssp of the Crimson Finch on our way back but Lakefield was still closed due to the late wet season. We looked for Red Goshawks on the Lilyvale Rd early morning but were later told by Chris MacColl and colleagues from the Rares Group team (who were having a lab at Artemis station), that the best time to sight the bird is actually the middle of the day. What can we say? We’ll have to go back!

 

Daintree River

Murray from Daintree Boatman Wildlife Cruises was booked out, so we went with Sauce from Daintree River Wild Watch. We saw many kingfishers (Azure, Sacred and Little) but bird numbers were down here as well, and the variety wasn’t there either so we decided to go back to Julatten to catch up with Del after seeing the Great-billed Heron along the Upper Daintree Rd, where Belinda & Bill had seen one last year.

Part 2  Coming soon