Australian Birdwatching Trip

After four invigorating and fattening days at O'Reilly's Guest House in Lamington National Park two hours southwest of Brisbane, my wife and I returned to Brisbane for a night before flying north to Cairns on Australia's famous Sunshine Coast. The flight carried us from coat weather to shorts weather. After an overnight at a Ramada Resort, we were picked up by birdwatching guide Klaus Uhlenhut who runs Kirrama Wildlife Tours, for a three-day, marathon birding trip north to Lakefield National Park.

On the first day, Wednesday, we drove north from sunny, bustling, touristy Cairns to sunny, solitary, dusty, Musgrave. This drive introduced us to what Australians call "corrugated roads." For readers old enough to remember washboards, think of driving a few hundred teeth-rattling miles. For those who have never seen a washboard, look at the accompanying photograph.

Musgrave consists of an airstrip for light aircraft, a restaurant with four tables, and about 20 two-bunk rooms. The lights go out at 10:30 p.m. So does the ceiling fan. Before you go to sleep you can watch tree frogs suckered to the walls in the bathroom.

At 7 a.m. the next morning we were birding in the woods near Musgrave. Dozens of birds called as they flew high over the trees or flitted among their lower branches. The woods were alive with the sound of music. We saw about eight endangered golden-shouldered parrots and dozens of other birds including palm cockatoos.Often our guide, Klaus, identified birds by sound before spotting them. We wouldn't have seen 85 percent of the species without his assistance.

After lunch and a few hours of rest, we headed east into Lakefield National Park, Australia's second largest park, for birding stops at several lakes, ponds, fields and roadsides. The forest canopy is high in the park but at that time of year the undergrowth is sparse and easy to walk through. The most interesting place was a vast field of tall brown grass and hundreds of termite mounds of varying shapes based on two primary models, round and conical. Although many birds use the field as habitat, at the time of day we were there we only saw brolga cranes and bustards.

In late afternoon, we stopped at a small lake where we saw masked grass finches and a forest kingfisher. As evening approached, we ate a roadside dinner by the Morehead River and then set out spotlighting birds on our way back to Musgrave. We saw a Papuan frogmouth, Southern Boobook owls, a barn owl, and dozens of cane toads. Then we drove like madmen back to Musgrave to get in before the generator was turned off.

Go To Page: 1 2