Nannophya australis

Nannophya australis, one of the highlights of our wildfire-affected recce in southern Queensland in December.

Austrocordulia refracta

We were very pleased to find a hanging Austrocordulia refracta during a visit to Carnarvon Gorge in Queensland in December.

Telephlebia undia

One of the real highlights of our recent trip to Carnarvon Gorge (Queensland) was a brief encounter with Telephlebia undia. A bad photo but there are few of these on the web.

platypus

It has taken a few trips to finally get a decent image of duck-billed platypus but I am almost happy with this one. Several animals were active during the midday period at Broken River (Eungella NP) in December. This animal has an interesting relationship with light...

telephlebia cyclops

One of the highlights of a recent trip to the Eungella area of central Queensland was finding this roosting Telphlebia cyclops.

Hesperocordulia berthoudi

One of the odo-highlights of the recent Odonatours recce to Western Australia was a morning spent watching Hesperocordulia berthoudi at Fernhook Falls (Mount Frankland NP).

honey possum

This honey possum at Cheyne's Beach (WA) was easily the best mammal of a recent dragonfly tour to SW Australia.

ischnura pruinescens

Fresh female Ischnura pruinescens had the ability to stop us in our tracks during my recent trip to Australia.

austrolestes insularis

Working on the report from my recent trip to Australia at the moment and enjoying going through the photographs. Erland found us this superb male Austrolestes insularis on the first full day at Undara Volcanic NP in Far North Queensland.

Twenty years ago today

Sitting at Heathrow at the start of a fifty hour nightmare journey to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah. I hate travelling but I like to get there! Here is something from 20 years ago, would love to revisit Australia sometime...

7/1/89 Hattah-Kulkyne National Park

Cath did it again, surprising a striated grasswren in amongst a flock of variegated wrens. I did not see it, having to be content with the regular white-fronted honeyeater. The afternoon session was more like it however, located 3+ striated grasswrens and had superb views of one male as Cath drove them along. Fantastic birds. As usual their call was familiar, also shy hylacola (1). Having succeeded we went back to Hattah Lake; blue-faced honeyeater (3) and pink cockatoo (4).

8/1/89 Hattah-Kulkyne National Park

Enjoying the place so much, decided to check out ‘Beesite 8’. An area where the traditional bee-keeping in the mallee persists despite it being in a National Park. It is a lucrative business apparently. More mature, taller mallee trees here with more leaf litter and less spinifex. Picked up yellow-plumed honeyeater which were common in this type of mallee. Also yellow-rumped pardalote (+).

Then came the big surprise, located a black-eared miner (1) a bird I was so convinced we would not see I was not even bothering. The bird showed a uniform grey mantle and rump, very little white in the tail, underparts paler grey, fading paler towards the vent. Overall impression was of a grey bird reminiscent of noisy miner rather than yellow-throated. Facial pattern more extensive on ear coverts than yellow-throated. According to my criteria, this proved to be a pure black-eared miner! Another could be heard nearby but was not seen. The bird showed no sign of shyness until pushed hard. Cath got a photo which will be interesting to see. Told the ranger who was quite excited, so gave him all the details to forward to researchers working on the birds. In his gratitude he told me where an ‘easy to find’ malleefowl mound was.

Located the mound eventually, couldn’t get the van up the track, so walked in and past the mound. When we eventually found it, watched it for four hours, hearing a male but not seeing it. We were however rewarded with two striated grasswrens right on dusk. One bursting with curiosity came out in the open to inspect us! You spend three days looking for a bird and then it comes and looks at you. Camped overnight on the track which was a bit naughty. I’d love to know what the bird that landed on the roof in the night was.

9/1 /89 Hattah-Kulkyne National Park è Vaughan Springs

An early morning stake-out did the trick, after a brief look at us, two birds came out and started work on the mound. However I think we disturbed them and they melted away into the mallee. So we left them to it and after thanking our ranger headed for Bendigo. Got there at 4 pm but could not raise our contact who lived nearby so we headed for Vaughan in the hills east of the Castlemaine-Daylesford Road. Nice to see fuscous honeyeater (+) and brown treecreeper (2+) again.

20 years ago this week

Packed the wife, kids and car off north for ten days to allow me to get on with some serious painting and decorating today. This is a considerable sacrifice on my part - chance to watch Wimbledon, lots of dragonflies and grouse...

So in the absence of birding in the present it is back to nostalgic trawling of the Benstead bird diaries...

Twenty years ago found me in Queensland in the middle of a 16 month long trip with my girlfriend at the time (Cath Jeffs). I always like to factor time into my trips to just sit and watch stuff go by - the chance to watch the migration of hump-backed whales north along the Queensland coast was one we could not pass up.

21/6/89 Point Lookout, Stradbroke Island fine SE 15-20
Arrived in the early afternoon, good seawatching conditions but distracted by two fine hump-backed whales, which jumped for ages. Fantastic. Also 20+ bottle-nosed dolphins.

22/6/89 Point Lookout, Stradbroke Island wind SE in pm
Seabirds noticed today, good conditions during the afternoon. Cath came up trumps spotting every single good bird. Plenty of gannets, but the star bird was a fine Providence petrel (1) viewed down to 400m, showing white primary and covert patch, beautiful bird. Also a single black-browed albatross, an immature, separated from grey-headed by pale bill, and a brown booby (1).

Little else of note, though an Australian hobby brightened things up a bit. Plenty of shearwaters out there at extreme range; fluttering/Hutton’s types.

23/6/89 Point Lookout, Stradbroke Island offshore winds
Five hump-backed whales showed up today after no definite signs yesterday. Only other thing of note was a very close fluttering shearwater (1), definitely pale underwing. Plenty more further out. A whistling kite was seen to harass this bird for some time and flew 2-3 km out to sea hunting.

24/6/89 Point Lookout, Stradbroke Island calm W
No birds during morning session, though a total of 3+ hump-backed whales noted. Afternoon session more productive (seemed to be a general rule during our stay but light so much better then). Loggerhead turtle seen off the rocks, good to see again. The chaps (the Corben gang) having joined us in mid-afternoon enjoyed an entertaining seawatch; Providence petrel (1) seen flying backwards and forwards at range often associating with a whale, arctic skua (1) very unusual at this time of year and Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphin (3).

25/6 /89 Point Lookout, Stradbroke Island calm
Spent most of the day at Lookout. Plenty of dolphins including Indo-Pacific humpback (15+). Also two hump-backed whale mid afternoon. No seabirds but a nice wandering tattler (1) rounded things off nicely. An immature white-bellied sea eagle being harassed by an osprey made entertaining watching.

27/6/89 Boombana and Slaughter Falls
Morning trip with Tom and Lisa looking for red-browed treecreeper failed but turned up logrunner (pair), paradise riflebird (male) and rose robin (male). Tom locked his keys in the car which led to an amusing half hour.

Checked out the powerful owls (pair) and did some spotlighting with Dave and Chris; tawny frogmouth (4), white-throated nightjar (1), brushtail possum (2) and sugar glider (1). Finally got ring-tail possum in Chris’ back garden during the week.

Chris Corben, if you are out there I salute you!