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Vol 8 Number 4 December 2019

BirdLife Capricornia The year has been full of birding trips to places like Kroombit Tops NP, Epping Forest NP, North Keppel Island, Lake Nuga Nuga NP and Broadsound. Community events such as Mt Archer Open Day, Ecofest, Shalom Lagoon, St Lawrence Wetlands Weekend and Tropicana. Fund raising activities such as the Twitchathon. Educational presentations at the Rockhampton Girls Grammar School and Yeppoon State School. Participation at Birdlife pre-board meetings and the Network meeting in Melbourne. Squeeze in monthly shorebird surveys and it has been a very busy year. Our work continues to provide benefits for our birds as well as opportunities for our members to learn about habitats and species and enjoy the beauty of local species. Best wishes to all for a happy and safe festive season.

Contents

Where have all the shearwaters gone? 2

Spinifexbird at Welford NP 3

Figbirds squabbling 4

Aussie Backyard Bird Count (ABBC) 5 Twitchathon 5

Trip to Western Queensland 6 Face paint for the Blue-faced Honeyeater 8 Annual shorebird survey at Broadsound 9 Lammermoor bird walk 11 Urban birding at Bluff Point 13

Professional choice photograph winners 14 Collared Kingfisher breeding 15 Artistic photograph competition winners 16

Members pick DSLR photograph winners 18 Members pick non-DSLR photograph winners 19 End of year at Coolwaters 20

Conservation news 21 Around the ridges 22 Outstanding DSLR photographs 23 Outstanding non-DSLR photographs 27 Artistic interpretation 29

Calendar of Events for 2020 33

Juvenile Galah in the nest

hole (Allan Briggs)

BirdLife Capricornia

2 December 2019

Where have all the shearwaters gone?

Extract from a story that appeared on ABC News web site on Saturday 5th October.

Each year, hundreds of thousands of short-tailed shearwaters travel down our coastline to arrive at Victoria where they breed following a mammoth journey which takes two months to complete.

In years past there have been instances of mass deaths along the coast with many dead birds being washed up on beaches.

The birds spend the northern summer around Alaska, before travelling 15,000 kilometres to Australia where they arrive with precision.

For the past 30 years, the south-west Victorian population has arrived at Griffiths Island, near Port Fairy, a day either side of September 22.

Short-tailed Shearwater (Allan Briggs)

But this year, the date came and went without the usual flurry of activity.

Peter Barrand, president of Birdlife Warrnambool, said he had basically set his watch by the shearwaters' arrival for the past three decades.

“We couldn't find any at first, but further investigation found there were small numbers coming in”.

"For a colony that's something like 40,000 strong — a handful of birds is a significant decline”.

Griffiths Island is connected to the seaside town of Port Fairy and sits at the mouth of the Moyne River.

It hosts one of the largest visiting populations of shearwaters in Australia, with the majority of birds nesting on offshore islands where they are safe from predators and human disturbance.

While birds arriving underweight and exhausted isn't uncommon, the scale of this year's delay is what's most concerning to birdwatchers.

"Anecdotal reports indicate that birds haven't turned up anywhere else. This is not just an isolated incident at Griffith Island," Mr Barrand said.

"It's happening right along the coast of Victoria and in Tasmania too.

Alaska's government-backed National Park Service has reported massive seabird die-offs, also known as wrecks, for five consecutive years. "Something's obviously gone drastically wrong in the arctic — whatever the shearwaters have been feeding on has failed to appear," Mr Barrand said.

"Autopsies have shown the deaths were all attributed to starvation. And that's the worrying part about it.

"What's gone … in the northern hemisphere to stop these birds feeding as they normally do? Is it the dreaded climate change or some other event that's occurred?"

"If they're not arriving on the island, it could be because they aren't in breeding condition."

But for Warrnambool's local bird-watching community, that's a wake-up call of the highest order.


December 2019 3

"People have really got to sit up and take notice of this — it's a really significant event," Mr Barrand said.

"It's looking like it's an increasing trend over the last five years, but this is a very, very serious situation."

"Are they the seabird equivalent of the canary in the mine if it comes to global warming? I don't know.”

Spinifexbird at

Welford NP

Shane Hume reports on the discovery of a new species at Welford NP.

Andrew Ley, from BirdLife Northern NSW, identified an outlying record of a Spinifexbird in the atlas from the nineties at Welford N.P. After some discussion including habitat preferences, Andrew and I, went in search of confirming the presence of the species. With my knowledge of the park we drove to a likely spot and within 5 minutes found a pair of birds. Wow! I have been driving past this location for only about 10 years and not realised they were there.

Spinifexbird (Shane Hume)

To disprove this was not an isolated incident we searched a number of locations including areas split from each other by creek lines and alluvial plains. We found 2 more pairs of birds and were lucky enough to photograph them. The distance from the first to the third sighting was about 4.5 kilometres The range of habitat covers about 10,000 ha is likely to reveal more records but is very inaccessible. Note: The Spinifexbird is an arid country species with a range that extends from central Western Qld through NT and SA to WA. As its name implies it inhabits dense clumps of spinifex and grass along creek lines.


4 December 2019

Community Sustainability Action

grants for threatened

species

There were 29 successful projects announced for this Qld Govt project with a total funding of $1.5 Million. Unfortunately neither the Capricorn Yellow Chat application put forward by Capricorn Catchments and the Black-throated Finch application put forward by Desert Uplands Committee both in partnership with BirdLife Capricornia were successful. The successful applications related to birds were as follows.

Building Cassowary Connections

Queensland Trust for Nature

$80,775.00

Community actions improving habitat for White-bellied Crimson Finch (Kowanyama country)

Mitchell River Watershed Management Group Inc

$92,290.00

EPBC Endangered Grey Grasswren (Bulloo) - Assessment of status, distribution, habitat.

BirdLife Northern New South Wales, BirdLife Australia Ltd

$15,345.00

Indigenous Collaborative Management of Threatened Coastal Birds Project

BirdLife Northern Queensland, BirdLife Australia Ltd

$97,570.00

Powerful Owl project of southern Queensland

BirdLife Southern Queensland, BirdLife Australia Ltd

$99,558.00

It was especially disappointing that the Capricorn Yellow Chat application did not get a guernsey when it is a Critically Endangered species. We do have some ongoing conservation projects for this species but a lot more could have been done with $100,000. As far as the Black-throated Finch is concerned we are in the process of discussing options with the Desert Uplands Committee with a view to doing surveys under a voluntary basis. The area in question comprises of 20 properties around Lake Galilee which is one of our Key Biodiversity Areas so the objective would be to include a survey of the lake.

Figbirds squabbling

Ken Cowan from Biloela reports on an incident when two female Figbirds had a fight

We have two Fig bird nests only a couple or so metres apart in one of our gum trees. Yesterday morning I saw a spectacular ‘fight’. The two females went at it, hammer and tongs. The first thing I noticed was the two of them locked together falling about 5 metres to the ground and then staying ‘locked’ together on the ground. Occasionally there would be a ‘roughing up’. One of the males was on the ground next to them and walked around them, apparently wondering what this was all about? They then managed to dis-entangle themselves and flew up to a low tree and locked ‘horns’ again and fell to the ground in a garden with various plants. Once again they went into a ‘locked together’ position and stayed relatively still. I wanted to eat my breakfast so left them to it. Sometime later they were gone.

https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/sustainability-action-grants/?project=CSAT021































December 2019 5

Aussie Backyard Bird Count (ABBC)

The Aussie Backyard Bird Count (ABBC) gains popularity each year with nearly 100,000 participants this year compared to 77,000 last year. There were also 679 species counted compared to 610 last year. Locally the participation was very good with a table based on post codes shown below.

The participation in most population centres was very encouraging and means that there are lot of people out there who are interested in birds and are happy to have a go at doing a bird count. A check of the species listed for each post code shows that there were fewer out of range species that had not been correctly identified. For example Black-faced Cormorant at Gladstone, Satin Bowerbird at Rockhampton, Yellow Oriole at Yeppoon and a Black Currawong for 4702. However, there were very few of these and the out of range flag in the app has helped with this.

Twitchathon

There were two teams entered in the Twitchathon this year, the Bustards of Gladstone with Ted Wnorowski and Tony Longson and the Mad Chatters with John and Julien McTaggart, Maree Bowen, Paula Ryan and Allan Briggs. The Bustards of Gladstone recorded an excellent total of 174 species and won the 12 Hour Big Day. The Mad Chatters recorded 112 species and were hard pressed to improve on that with many wetlands either dry or with little water. The money raised nationally amounted to $58,348 with Queensland raising $7,769 for Eungella Honeyeater conservation.

Paradise Lagoon (Allan Briggs)

Mad Chatters having morning tea (Allan Briggs)

Location Code Species Lists Birds

Nationwide 679 103,000

3.5 million

Gladstone 4680 195 336 11,098

Blackwater 4717 46 15 473

Emerald 4720 74 53 2715

Yeppoon 4703 163 192 7339

North Rocky 4701 132 140 5560

Rockhampton 4700 129 136 6648

Coast to west 4702 188 243 9398

Clermont 4721 75 33 2490

Marlborough 4705 21 5 134

Theodore 4719 31 4 225

Emu Park 4710 83 56 2321

Biloela 4715 48 17 718

Agnes Water 4677 91 67 1774


6 December 2019

Trip to Western Queensland

(another look for the Mythical Night Parrot) Bob Black reports on an interesting trip with some fantastic birds but not the one he was looking for.

In July Lorelle and I joined friends on a camping trip to the area south of Winton. Phil and Carole were hoping to find the Rusty Grasswren, which they had looked for unsuccessfully on other trips. We had a brief sighting at Opalton some years ago. For us, the only realistic new bird species was the Letter-winged Kite, which had eluded us on previous Western Queensland trips. The Rusty Grasswren has long been classed as a sub-species of the widespread Striated Grasswren, which occurred from the Mallee of western Victoria to the ranges of the Pilbara. The isolated population south of Winton is over one thousand kilometres from any other Striated Grasswrens, and recent DNA studies propose it as one of at least two new full species of the Striated Grasswren group. Their main habitat is sparse Spinifex grassland near sandstone outcrops, but they are also found in spinifex gibber plains with sparse Mulga.

Rusty Grasswren habitat near Lark Quarry (Bob Black)

We met at Lochern National Park on the Thompson River where we saw some of the typical inland birds, including Red-browed Pardalote, Masked Woodswallow and Budgerigars, which were nesting in most available hollows. Next camp was at the Mayne River crossing of the Winton-Jundah road. This is free bush camping site with lots of good camps along the river. Here we found nesting Australian Hobbies and Plum-headed Finches and Little Woodswallows. Of course, most evenings found us standing out in the spinifex listening for Night Parrots.

White-breasted Woodswallows warming up, early morning at Mayne River (Bob Black).

We then camped near Lark Quarry to search for Grasswrens, and a visit to the Dinosaur Stampede tourist site turned up a very bold family of Rufous-crowned Emu-Wrens foraging around the car park. We had some distant glimpses of Grasswrens late on the first afternoon, and enjoyed the bizarre calls of Spotted Nightjars around the camp. This is an inland species, but occurs in Capricornia in the Broad Sound area, and along the Stanage Bay road. Next day we found a family group of Rusty Grasswrens and were able to follow, observe and photograph them right at our camp.


December 2019 7

Rusty Grasswren, near Lark Quarry (Bob Black)

We also found Rufous-crowned Emu-Wrens here and had a low fly over from the local Grey Falcon, which roosts on the tall communication tower.

Female Rufous-crowned Emu-Wren in typical spinifex cover near Lark Quarry (Bob Black)

Next camp was at Bladensburg National Park, some highlights here were Crested Bellbird, Spinifex Pigeon, Crimson Chat, Spinifex Bird, Hooded Robin and Bourke’s Parrot. Every tree hollow was being used by nesting Budgerigars, Galahs, and many other birds. Some of the Desert Bloodwoods (Corymbia opaca) were just starting to flower and a few heavily flowering trees had a steady stream of feeding honeyeaters.

Splendid Fairy-Wren male, near Lark Quarry (Bob Black).

Galahs investigating hollow, Bladensburg N.P. (Bob Black)

Golden-backed form of Black-chinned Honeyeater in Desert Bloodwood, Bladensburg N.P.

(Bob Black)


8 December 2019

We drove back to Winton via the Cork Mail Road and were excited to find a Letter-winged Kite, which took off from the roadside and gave good looks at the distinctive underwing. An enjoyable trip, with new birds for everyone.

Letter-winged Kite, near Winton (Bob Black)

Face paint for the Blue-faced

Honeyeater

The Blue-faced Honeyeater is one of our most common honeyeaters being found in backyards, parks and gardens and often picking up scraps left by people eating at Al Fresco café’s. The typical adult blue-face has bright blue skin around the eye as shown in the first photo. The juvenile bird just out of the nest has a pale red colour to the facial skin while the immature bird has pale green facial skin. All part of growing up into a feisty honeyeater with a taste for cream buns and sugar sachets.

Adult Blue-faced Honeyeater (Allan Briggs)

Immature Blue-faced Honeyeater (Allan Briggs)

Juvenile Blue-faced Honeyeater (Allan Briggs)


December 2019 9

Annual shorebird survey at Broadsound

An intrepid group of five ventured into a hot weekend in mid-November for the annual Broadsound shorebird survey. In previous years the survey has been done in September but tide times were not suitable during that month so it had to be November. On the first day we travelled to a rainforest area west of Carmila and despite the dry conditions we saw 43 species with Wompoo and Rose-crowned Fruit-doves, Brown Cuckoo-dove and Emerald Dove being the stand out. Along the road to the rainforest we came across a small population of White-cheeked Honeyeaters which was a bit of a surprise as they were out of their normal range. We then travelled to Carmila Beach and set up camp in a shady spot along the Beach Scrub. We did some birding in the afternoon and the next morning before the shorebird count. Of note were several flocks of Torresian Imperial Pigeons flying over and a handsome immature Rose-crowned Fruit-dove. There was a good variety of shorebirds but not in big numbers. All told we recorded 65 bird species there.

Immature Rose-crowned Fruit-dove (Allan Briggs)

On the way down to St Lawrence we had a compulsory stop at Flaggy Rock so that Steve could indulge in a Mango Smoothie which was so good that Mick had one as well.

Mick Barker, Graham Durant, Kris Hewitt and Steve

Kerr surveying the shorebird roost (Allan Briggs)

Steve Kerr having a Mango Smoothie (Allan Briggs)

Mick Barker joining in (Allan Briggs)


10 December 2019

We also called in to Clairview to check out a new location that Mick and Graham had found and were surprised see nine species of shorebird including 240 Great Knot. However the biggest surprise was when Graham located a pair of Black Butcherbirds which are quite rare that far south. At St Lawrence it was so hot that we just pulled up under the shade of a tree and waited until 4pm before we ventured out to the wetlands. Of note were large groups of Radjah Shelduck, Royal Spoonbill and Yellow-billed Spoonbill as well as 50 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper.

Graham Durant, Steve Kerr, Allan Briggs and Kris Hewitt at St Lawrence Wetlands at sunset (Timer)

Nankeen Kestrel eating a spider (Allan Briggs)

Bar Plains has now changed hands and is owned by the Leslie family from Branxholme. We got permission to go in from the new

manager and the marine plain was like a dust bowl. However, there were good shorebirds with 100 Eastern Curlew and 396 Red-necked Stint.

Eastern Curlew flying to the roost (Allan Briggs)

Finally we headed to Hoogly Point which is the most basic camp site with no facilities. Late afternoon we headed out to check the roost at low tide but there was not a lot of activity and a high wind and heat haze made using the telescopes difficult. That night we celebrated 10 years of annual Broadsound surveys that have produced extremely valuable data about shorebirds along the Broadsound coast.

Celebrating 10 years of Broadsound surveys (Allan Briggs)

The next morning we were out early to do some birding in the forests along the Chenier beaches that fringe the marine plain. There


December 2019 11

were good birds to be seen but the stand out was two Metallic Starlings that were well south of their normal range. Another interesting sighting was a rufous morph Tawny Frogmouth that flew over our heads. According to HANZAB 4, all rufous morph Tawny Frogmouths are female. Later in the morning we did a survey of the shorebird roost by splitting into two groups for north and south of the marine plain. Of note were 221 Eastern Curlew, 278 Red-necked Stint, 222 Bar-tailed Godwit, 233 Red-capped Plover and 120 Great Knot. By combining the totals for St Lawrence, Bar Plains and Hoogly Point we had a total of 324 Eastern Curlew which is 0.92% of the global population for the Broadsound KBA. 1% of the total population is considered to be of international significance so this count has further shown the importance of Broadsound for the Eastern Curlew which is a Critically Endangered species.

Eastern Curlew (Allan Briggs)

Terek Sandpipers (Mick Barker)

Lammermoor bird

walk

Ann Hewson was joined by two other birders to enjoy a morning walk around the Lammermoor Gardens. Only 21 birds were seen largely due to the continuing dry weather. Only 3 weeks before the Lagoon dried up 30 had been seen. They enjoyed seeing the Bar-breasted Honey eaters as well as Dusky Honeyeater, Brown Honeyeater, Lewin's Honeyeater, Blue-faced Honeyeaters and the Little Friarbirds feeding on the flowering trees in the gardens. There was also a peaceful dove nesting.

Peaceful Dove on a nest (Ann Hewson)


12 December 2019

Waterbirds and drought

Wetlands such as Murray Lagoon in Rockhampton have been slowly drying out to the point where only a narrow strip of water and a few pools remain.

A small pool at Murray Lagoon (Allan Briggs)

Some waterbirds are trying to find enough food to survive, such as the ducks in the photo above, but many have left so where do they go? Waterbirds have the amazing ability to fly long distances in their attempts to find water. Ducks fly very high and fast and it is thought that they can see water ahead. Pelicans are enigmatic and seem to have a sixth sense when it comes to water but they can glide long distances to save energy so travelling around is not such a problem. Wetlands in northern areas are still in good condition after the floods earlier in the year so it is probable that many of the waterbirds missing from Capricornia have gone north. No doubt many birds will die from starvation and it will be interesting to compare the results of our annual Fitzroy Delta and Floodplain survey next year with previous years results to see if we can gauge the impacts of the drought.

Little Terns nesting

On a recent survey at Corio Bay north of Yeppoon we recorded 375 Little Terns on a sand spit just off the tip of Sandy Point. Some were in breeding plumage and sitting in shallow scrapes with eggs. The spit is popular with fishermen who can drive onto the spit in a 4WD and fish the channel from the edges. Obviously this caused some concern as vehicles would crush eggs as well as scare parent birds away from the nest scrapes. We approached the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and asked if signs could be erected requesting fishermen to stay off the spit while the birds were nesting. There was a very prompt response to our request with Cameron Mulville from the Capricorn Coast Management Unit putting signs out only three days later (see photo). The Little Tern is listed as Endangered in Queensland and the area at Sandy Point is the only known breeding area on the Capricorn Coast. We will be monitoring the success of the signs as well as keeping a watch on breeding numbers and breeding success.

Sign at Sandy Point (Cameron Mulville)


December 2019 13

Urban birding at Bluff

Point

A good crew of nine turned up for Steve Kerr’s urban birding at Bluff Point on the Capricorn Coast. It was a beautiful morning with lots of birds around as well as Green Turtles below the lookouts. Red-backed Fairy-wrens were flitting around the low shrubs with many males in full breeding plumage. Channel-billed Cuckoos were calling loudly and were seemingly trying to sneak an egg into a Crow’s nest because there was a lot of commotion followed by a crow chasing a Channel-bill at high speed. Cruising the air currents in front of the lookout was a Brahminy Kite while down below in the sea a Pied Cormorant was feeding on large shoals of bait fish. Then to distract everyone a Rose-crowned Fruit-dove broke cover and flew not metres from where we stood. It was a good morning to be out birding with a lot to see on the spectacular Capricorn Coast.

Watching the turtles below the lookout (Steve Kerr)

Brahminy Kite (Mick Barker)

The view from the top of Bluff Point (Steve Kerr)


14 December 2019

Professional choice photograph winners

Keith Ireland judges our professional DSLR photography category and his selections and comment are as follows. Thank you for inviting me to judge your competition again this year. All entrants are to be congratulated on such a very good standard throughout. A large number of excellent photos of different species made it even more difficult to come to a final decision. My choices are:- DSLR

1st - No 25. – Striated Pardalote – Olive and Bob McTrusty Being at the right spot at the right time has given you an excellent opportunity which you have handled very well indeed. You have captured the bird at just the right moment. e.g. wings raised and pulling at the caterpillar. Nice and sharp and beautifully positioned in the frame. Very well done. Congratulations.

2nd - No 20 - Crimson Finch - Andrew McDougall The vivid colour of the red, along with the excellent sharpness and quality of this photo, really makes the bird jump out with a powerful impact. Well seen and well taken. Very good work.

3rd - No 24 - Wompoo Fruit Dove - Sheryl Davey. This is a lovely photograph. Very well taken with the two birds positioned as they are. Technically very good, with great clarity, sharpness and overall presentation. Very good work.


December 2019 15

Collared Kingfisher breeding John McGrath who works at Koorana Crocodile Farm reported on a pair of Collared Kingfishers breeding in a termite nest.

Collared kingfisher (John McGrath)

The Collared Kingfisher has a massive bill that it uses to eat crabs which are its favourite food.

Collared Kingfisher nest in a termite mound (John McGrath)

The nest is only about 1.5 metres above the ground in a termite mound.

Collared Kingfisher chicks in the nest (John McGrath)

These very young chicks are totally blind at this stage and without feathers.


16 December 2019

Artistic photograph competition winners

This year Bill Watson an artist from Gladstone

judged the Artistic competition

With ever increasing disconnection in our lives, e.g. between urban society and the natural world, scientific knowledge and public understanding, photography provides a powerful communication tool to connect natural truths to collective consciousness. Art from nature can be a vehicle for science. When it captures the attention of the public and policy makers, nature photography is transformed into conservation photography. I would like to congratulate all the contributors for accepting the additional challenge of developing their visual language. As if nature photography wasn’t already difficult enough!! 1st place Mick Barker – Eastern Curlew

The composite nature of this image was difficult to resolve, as I would prefer to see alteration like this as a way to create new realities rather than replicate our own. Saying that, it can’t be ignored that this result is a beautiful image. The dynamic range is perfect; wide, but not too much that it appears unreal or HDR. The slightly warmer tone of the curlews lifts the subjects from the cooler tones of the sky background. I viewed the images without the accompanying text, and I was able to tell this was a composite, but not straight away. The first hint was the second light

source. Not an impossible situation to achieve under lucky natural lighting conditions though. What gave it away were some feathers appearing semi transparent and allowing too much background detail through. In fact these would be translucent, and would mix and diffuse light from all angles from the background, not what is directly behind. Remember though, I’m nit-picking! A fantastic image. Well done Mick.

2nd Place: Kylie Jones - Little Pied Cormorant

A beautiful silhouette to reward Kylie for squeezing every available drop of light out of the day. Well done. Many thanks to Bill for his expertise in choosing the first and second place winners.


December 2019 17

3rd place – chosen by Margaret Worthington Allan Briggs – Scarlet Honeyeater.

I choose this because I thought the colour combination, unusual. The design position of the bird was just right, off centre and high and against a contrasting colour. Beak was leading your eye back into to the flower. The flush of developing feather colour links the bird to the orange bougainvillea. A well considered image. Bill Watson, this year’s Judge, also commented that some of the photos used in the magazine should have been entered into the artistic section. To illustrate my thoughts and to give the photographs the merit they deserve I would like to give two highly commended awards to two images that were entered in other sections. 1-Yellow Chat at Cheetham Salt by Sheryl Davey used as a sub masthead image Brolga Vol 8 No 3 Sept 2019- Outstanding image, clarity, clever colour, interest and positioning.

2-Little Pied Cormorant Ray Hasting Brolga Vol 8 No 1 March 2019- I loved the way you were drawn into this family image. Beautifully positioned.

Note: Photographers are required to nominate the section they would like their photographs to appear in. Obviously photographs taken with DSLR or non-DSLR would go into those sections but if you would like a photo to appear in the artistic section you will need to specify that is where it should go.


18 December 2019

Members pick DSLR photograph winners

The difficulty of choosing a winner from the entries was evident with 16 photographs receiving at least one number 1 vote. 1st place Sheryl Davey – Capricorn Yellow Chat

No 1 votes 8

No 2 votes 7

No 3 votes 5

2nd place Fran McFadzen – Masked Owl

No 1 votes 7

No 2 votes 1

No 3 votes 1

3nd place Kylie Jones – Apostlebirds

No 1 votes 4

No 2 votes 0

No 3 votes 3

It is interesting to note that the three professional choice photograph winners are completely different from the member’s choice winners even though they were chosen from the same set of photographs. It would seem that Keith Ireland is looking at technical features such as sharpness, exposure and composition while members may have a more emotional response. Many thanks to our photographers who showcase the beauty and behaviour of our birds with stunning images throughout the year.


December 2019 19

Members pick non-DSLR photograph

winners

1st place Allan Briggs – Variegated Fairy-wren

No 1 votes 14

No 2 votes 11

No 3 votes 7

2nd Place Sandra Harald – Australasian Shoveler

No 1 votes 6

No 2 votes 5

No 3 votes 8

3rd Place Sandra Harald – Striated Pardalote

No 1 votes 5

No 2 votes 1

No 3 votes 3

Ten of the twelve photos received at least one No 1 vote which indicates that members had some difficulty in choosing from the entries. In the end the Variegated Fairy-wren won by a considerable margin. The quality of the entries show that it is not necessary to have a really expensive camera to take a good photograph with compact and bridge cameras capable of taking clean, sharp images.


20 December 2019

End of year at Coolwaters A good roll up of 37 members for the end of year celebration ensured that we had a lively and fun time at Coolwaters Holiday Park. The afternoon started with a cool swim in the large pool as well as a plunge down the water slide. Then sundowner drinks and nibbles with many catching up and new members meeting existing members. This was followed by the annual Golden Coconut Awards as follows;

Electrified Birder Award to Andrew Lau,

Mick Barker and Allan Briggs for getting

zapped by an electric fence.

Stuck in a Gorge award to Bruce Zimmer

for getting cut off by flood waters at

Carnavon Gorge.

Cross Linda Award to Barry Ellis for getting

ticked off by the organiser of the monthly

wader surveys.

Then the photographic awards were presented by Kylie Jones with the winners shown below receiving a canvas print of their photograph.

Mick Barker receiving the Artistic photograph prize

(Kerrod Wells)

Olive McTrusty receiving the Professional Choice photograph prize (Kerrod Wells)

Allan Briggs receiving the Non-DSLR Members Choice prize (Kerrod Wells)

Sheryl Davey receiving the DSLR Member Choice prize (Kerrod Wells)


December 2019 21

Conservation news Marian Davies and Allan Briggs report on conservation happenings. Transport and Main Roads clear zone clearing project on Emu Park Road Work has been going on along the Emu park Road to slash thick grass, remove debris and identify trees for removal. We contacted Main Roads to determine the scope of the works and were told that any trees within 9 metres of the road edge that were over 150mm in diameter would be removed. When we asked about the many power poles that were within that clear zone they said that they would be left as is because it is too expensive to re-locate them. We contacted Brittany Lauga’s office with our concerns about the clearing of many old trees and the fact that at this time of year birds would be nesting and trees with nests needed to be identified and left until after the breeding season. A reply from Brittany’s office stated, “I can advise that your enquiry relates to works on Emu Park Road which I requested advice from the Minister on in late October. While the term vegetation maintenance is used to describe the works underway, the focus is on slashing overgrown grass and small saplings/regrowth to reduce fire risk within the road corridor. Trees with a diameter of 150mm or larger do not form part of the scope of works and will not be removed as part of the maintenance activity. Similarly, the trees with pink tape have been marked for future consideration and assessment by environment and cultural heritage officers before any decision is made on whether they may be removed. These larger trees will be assessed on a case-by-case basis to determine if they are a

potential hazard within the clear zone and the environment/cultural heritage assessment will determine what action, if any, is taken in the future. With regard to concerns about fauna being impacted by the current activity, I can confirm that a qualified spotter/catcher has been engaged by the contractor to be on site and assess the works being undertaken on a day-to-day basis and inspect vegetation for any breeding places prior to removal.” While this does not mean that the trees are safe from being removed it does give them a reprieve until they are ‘assessed’. We will be keeping an eye on how this will progress.

Fox control program on the Capricorn Coast The Livingstone Shire Council has been conducting a fox control program along the Capricorn Coast for the past three years. The program involves a contractor Tom Garret and his dog Rocky and is managed by John Wyland. The dog is trained to sniff out fox dens which are then fumigated to put the foxes to sleep. In 2017 a total of fifty-four dens were located by Rocky in the reserves and parks visited. This year the results of another search has shown a substantial reduction in active dens as follows. Fox Den Active … 12 Fox Den Attempt … 4 Fox Den Inactive … 20 Fox Den abandoned … 18 The skeletons of bird species were found outside some of the dens so the success of this program has direct benefits for our birds.

St Lawrence Wetlands The encouraging news from St Lawrence Wetlands is that the Isaac Regional Council have finally started to control Hymenachne, Prickly Acacia and Stinking Passion Vine.


22 December 2019

Around the ridges Wader surveys at Kinka Beach and Kinka Wetlands

We are now doing surveys at three locations, north Kinka Beach, south Kinka Beach and Kinka Wetlands. Many thanks to those who have contributed to the shorebird counts throughout the year. There have been good numbers of migratory shorebirds at Kinka Beach with eleven species recorded in November. Eastern Curlew, Whimbrel, Bar-tailed Godwit, Terek Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint, Pacific Golden Plover, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Common Greenshank, Sanderling, Greater Sand-plover and Lesser Sand-plover. Sadly Kinka Wetlands are bone dry with the result that there was only a lone Red-capped Plover protecting two eggs that it had laid on the road.

Kinka Wetlands (Allan Briggs)

Wader surveys at Shelgrit Creek Gerry Woodruff has been conducting the surveys at Shelgrit Creek, Mackay.

Wader surveys at Gladstone Margaret Worthington has taken over the shorebird counts at QAL and is being assisted by Ted Wnorowksi and Cheryl Hannant. Margaret would welcome any Gladstone member who has an interest in shorebirds and would like to assist with the counts. Where does the count data go?

With regular monthly surveys in Mackay, Capricorn Coast and Gladstone we now have a good spread of wader surveys along our coastline. All of this data is submitted to QWSG and eventually finds its way into the BirdLife Australia Atlas.

Would you like to help?

The monthly surveys are a vitally important component of our coastal shorebird monitoring that are part of a nationwide effort to collect data about shorebird species. If anyone would like to help out with these surveys please contact Allan Briggs at [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


December 2019 23

Outstanding DSLR photographs

Our photography section keeps getting better and we now have four categories, DSLR, non-DSLR, Artistic and Junior. Members are encouraged to send in their photographs to contribute to each section.

Rainbow Bee-eater (Malcolm Wells)

Rainbow Bee-eaters are one of only a few birds which dig a nest in the ground and here Malcolm has snapped this one at Yeppoon.

Bustard (Justin Parry)

Male Bustards have a large breast sac that they can inflate to impress a female as well as to emit a low booming sound. Not content with displaying his large appendage this one has erected his tail and danced back and forth to make sure his display would not go unnoticed. Taken at Nairana National Park.

Female Varied Sittella - Black-capped race (Bob & Olive McTrusty)

Taken at the extinct township of Mary Kathleen in north-west Qld. One of five races of this species the Black-capped is present through the arid areas of western Qld and down into SA and Victoria.


24 December 2019

Ground Cuckoo-shrike (Bob & Olive McTrusty)

While on their usual Sunday morning drive around Clermont Bob & Olive spotted this Ground Cuckoo-shrike carrying nest building material.

Capricorn Yellow Chat (Sheryl Davey)

This male Capricorn Yellow Chat was among several at the Cheetham Salt evaporation ponds.

Lovely Fairy-wren (Bob & Olive McTrusty)

A lovely photo of a female Lovely Fairy-wren taken at Mt Molloy.

White-browed Scrubwren (Cecilia Prest)

The White-browed Scrubwren sub-species frontalis can be found from southern NSW round to South Australia. It only has a faint white line above the eye making it difficult to identify. Taken at Clarkesdale NP Victoria.


December 2019 25

Metallic Starling (Steve Kerr)

A pair of Metallic Starlings were found well south of their normal range at Hoogly Point on the Broadsound shorebird survey.

Hornbill Friarbird (Steve Kerr)

This Hornbill Friarbird was intent on sampling the nectar of the Tree Cactus flowers right beside the camp at Hoogly Point on the Broadsound shorebird survey.

Black-necked Stork (Sheryl Davey)

Is this a case of having eyes too big for its belly? Sheryl describes this amazing experience as follows. I saw this female Black-necked Stork with an eel at Woolwash Lagoon. First she chased it and then impaled it, several times, before leaving it where she found it in the mud. After resting she’d return to impale the eel some more. Eventually with a mammoth effort she pulled it out of the mud and dragged it quite a distance to shallow water where she washed it. She then put the eel carefully on the bank while she washed the mud off her bill. She kept impaling it and once she seemed satisfied she left it on the bank. In between catching smaller eels and resting she would return to this large eel and impale it again. Just before sunset she carefully and slowly swallowed the eel!! In a peper published in the journal Corella1 about the diet of Black-necked Storks in NSW Clancy made the comment that “eels were predominant in the diet”. He also said that “conservation of Storks in New South Wales may depend on maintaining good eel populations”. The same may apply in Queensland.

1 G. P. Clancy (2011) The feeding behaviour and diet of the

Black-necked Stork Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus australis in northern New South Wales. Corella, 2011, 36(1): 17-23


26 December 2019


This male has caught a nice juicy spider, one of many that it will need to catch through the day. Taken at Cheetham Salt evaporation ponds.

Australian Pelicans fishing (Allan Briggs)

Pelicans often fish in a flotilla where they will circle prey and dip their bills into the water at the same time.

It is a very coordinated and collaborative strategy with the birds working together to catch a meal. However, if one bird catches a fish and the others do not the team work comes to an abrupt end and there is a free for all as shown below.

Australian Pelican fighting over a fish (Sheryl Davey)

Sheryl describes the melee as follows. It looked elegant and graceful right up to until a Pelican caught a fish. Suddenly Pelicans swam up and flew in very quickly to attack the Pelican with the fish. The other Pelicans purposefully aimed at tearing open the Pelican’s throat pouch to retrieve the fish for themselves. At one point in the battle the Pelican with the fish had its head held under water! It took over 5 minutes for the Pelican with the fish to hold off the others before moving away to turn the fish head first to quickly swallow it.


December 2019 27

Outstanding non-DSLR photographs

This section features photographs taken with compact cameras.

Olive-backed Sunbird (Allan Briggs)

Feeding on Bougainvillea flowers and flashing his luminous breast this male Sunbird was spectacular in the morning sunlight. Allan uses a Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ300.

Immature King Parrot (Allan Briggs)

This immature male King Parrot is moulting into adult plumage and looks a bit scruffy in the process.

Little Corella (Allan Briggs)

Two Little Corella checking out a tree hollow at Murray Lagoon.

Channel-billed Cuckoo (Allan Briggs)

One of several Channel-billed Cuckoos noisily flying around looking for a crow or currawong nest to lay eggs in. Their tactic is for the male to annoy the host bird so that it flies off the nest to chase the cuckoo while the female slips in and lays an egg in the nest.


28 December 2019

Tawny Frogmouth (Allan Briggs)

Allan eventually found the nest of the resident Tawny Frogmouths with two chicks. After weeks of searching they were right under his nose in the fork of a tree not far from the house.

Olive-backed Oriole (Allan Briggs)

Often mistaken for a Figbird the Olive-backed Oriole has a distinctive red flush to the bill.

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December 2019 29

Artistic interpretation A category in our photography section that features photographs “that take you to another place, makes you reflect on your own experiences, definitely has a back story or gives you an insight that you hadn’t thought of before.”


After 15 minutes of carefully edging towards this juvenile Capricorn Yellow Chat Sheryl finally got the photo she was after. Taken at Cheetham Salt evaporation ponds.


30 December 2019

Red-necked Avocet (Sheryl Davey)

Lovely reflection of a pair of Red-necked Avocet who were feeding in shallow water near Cheetham Salt.


December 2019 31

Blue-faced Honeyeater (Allan Briggs)

This immature Blue-faced Honeyeater was born in a Livistona Palm on Allan’s property and here it is

feeding on Jacaranda flowers not 50 metres from where it was born.


32 December 2019

Mistletoebird (Steve Kerr)

This male Mistletoebird is beautifully perched on a branch of a fig tree at Bluff Point on the Capricorn Coast.


December 2019 33

Calendar of Events for 2020 Set out below is a suggested calendar of field trips and other activities for 2020 that were agreed to at the end of year activity at Coolwaters Holiday Park. The field trips are planned to provide a variety of activities that suit members interests, locations that are interesting and have sufficient variety to suit local short distance day trips and more adventurous long distance weekend trips.

Month Date Event Where

January 18 Monthly shorebird survey Cap Coast, Mackay and Gladstone

February TBA KBA wetlands survey Fitzroy Delta and Floodplain

2 World Wetlands Day TBA

15 Monthly shorebird survey Cap Coast, Mackay and Gladstone

TBA Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher Byfield

March TBA Urban birding Rockhampton/Yeppoon


TBA AGM Community Development Centre Yeppoon

TBA

Mar/Apr

Greening Australia survey of Lake Mary

to Lake Serpentine floodplain

Lake Mary, Hedlow Creek and floodplain

to Lake Serpentine

20-21 World Science festival Gladstone Entertainment Centre

28 Monthly shorebird survey Avoids Easter

April 4-19 School holidays

10-13 Easter

Easter Field trip Cape Upstart Station

27 Anzac day

May 9 Monthly shorebird survey Cap Coast, Mackay and Gladstone

TBA Extended field trip Lake Galilee area

TBA Weekend field trip Blackdown Tablelands

TBA BirdLife Australia Network meeting National Office Melbourne

June 6 National winter shorebird count Cap Coast, Mackay and Gladstone

7 Ecofest Tondoon Botanic Gardens

TBA St Lawrence Wetlands Weekend St Lawrence

27 June - 12 July School holidays

July 25 Monthly shorebird survey Cap Coast, Mackay and Gladstone

TBA Extended field trip Carnavon Gorge/Lake Nuga Nuga

August 22 Monthly shorebird survey Cap Coast, Mackay and Gladstone

7-9 Weekend field trip North Keppel Island

September National Threatened Species Day TBA

TBA Five Rocks Beach clean-up Five Rocks


TBA Annual shorebird survey Broadsound

19 Sep – 5 Oct School holidays

October 17 Monthly shorebird survey Cap Coast, Mackay and Gladstone

5 Queen’s birthday

TBA Day trip TBA

TBA Tropicana Rockhampton Botanic Gardens

19-25 Aussie Backyard Bird Count Backyards nationwide

25 Twitchathon Nationwide

November TBA Urban birding Rockhampton/Yeppoon


December TBA End of year activity TBA



34 December 2019

Welcome to new members We would like to welcome the following new members and look forward to meeting them on future field trips. Lee Thompson - Gladstone. Aysha Khachan – Gladstone.

Membership info If you have any friends or relatives who are interested in birds then please encourage them to join or why not buy them a membership for their birthday! Subscriptions: $79 Single and $29 Student. This includes membership of the national organisation plus membership of our local branch. Special interest groups: BirdLife Australia Raptor Group $30 Australasian Seabird Group $22 Australasian Wader Studies Group $40 BirdLife Photography $15 BirdLife Capricornia members also receive four issues of the full-colour BirdLife Magazine and regular issues of Brolga, the BirdLife Capricornia newsletter. Membership forms are available from the Secretary or send subscriptions directly to: BirdLife, Suite 2-05, 60 Leicester Street Carlton VIC 3053. You can now join directly through the BA web site at: https://support.birdlife.org.au/birdlife-membership

Your Committee Convenor – Kylie Jones 0417 724 707 Email: [email protected]

Secretary – Allan Briggs 4935 4645 Email: [email protected] Treasurer – Mick Barker 4939 5579 Email: [email protected]

Deputy Convenor – Position vacant

Postal address 192, Palm Valley Road, Coowonga, Qld 4702.

Representatives on BA committees;

Important Bird Area Nominations and Review Committee: Allan Briggs Queensland Conservation Committee Marian Davies BirdLife English Names Committee Allan Briggs Conservation issues consultants John McCabe and Bob Black BirdLife Photography Special Interest Group Alicia Newport (Secretary)

Newsletter Editor Allan Briggs Newsletter proof reading Debra Corbet STEM Consortium Representative Margaret Worthington

https://support.birdlife.org.au/birdlife-membership

https://support.birdlife.org.au/birdlife-membership




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