Crested Pigeon (© Vilis Nams)

Needing an antidote to yesterday’s long hours spent cramped in a car,  Vilis and I strolled for much of the morning in Bundaberg’s Queens Park adjacent to the Burnett River. Sunshine washed the park with golden light and speckled the blue river with scintillating silver flecks and streaks. The cold wind of last evening was replaced by a refreshing breeze off the water, and fishos lined the shore, casting for whiting and bream from a sheltered terrace above the river. Avian voices rang out in sharp squawks and muted musical notes and coos.

A hotspot for birds, the park fairly vibrated with the high-energy antics of rainbow and scaly-breasted lorikeets, one of the latter nearly brushing my cheek with its wings when it whizzed past me. Noisy and yellow-throated miners flocked into trees and peppered the ground, calling out their questioning notes. A pair of long-billed corellas clung to branches and the trunk of a massive gum, their plumages creamier and bills possessing markedly longer upper mandibles than those of the little corellas and sulphur-crested cockatoos I so frequently see in Townsville. Collared kingfishers with long, heavy beaks and mangrove honeyeaters feathered in shades of brown, yellow, and white frequented the dense groves of mangroves edging the river. Bar-shouldered doves, a spotted turtle-dove, and rainbow bee-eaters basked in the early sun’s warmth, as did a line of white-breasted woodswallows cozying up to one another on a high branch.

Bargara Beach, Queensland (© Magi Nams)

In early afternoon, Vilis and I collected Janis (scheduled to pick zucchinis tomorrow) and drove east from Bundaberg to the resort community of Bargara and its beach. With the wind blowing from the wrong direction for surfing, the beach sported no surfboards; rather, families and dog-walkers strolled its reaches, one group hosting a birthday party complete with a foot race and balloons tethered in sand. Near shore, an immature Australasian gannet with long, mottled wings flew back and forth over the shallow water, pausing periodically to fold in its wings and dive spectacularly into the water to capture prey. Silver gulls and a crested tern perched on black rocks near the water line, and an osprey winged along the beach, carrying a flapping fish in its talons. The osprey perched with its prize on a dead, curving tree trunk and proceeded to rip chunks of flesh from the still-living fish.

Osprey with Fish (© Vilis Nams)

Pond in Bundaberg’s Botanic Gardens (© Vilis Nams)

The day’s light faded too quickly, the sun setting  while we strolled within Bundaberg’s Botanic Gardens after returning to the hub of the surrounding agricultural community. In the dimming light, we enjoyed the rich blue and black plumages of purple swamphens foraging at the edge of a serene pond, the elegance of plumed whistling ducks in a huge flock on a spit of land protruding into a wetland, and mixed groups of egrets, cormorants, and anhingas perched on a fallen tree and shrubs bordering the wetland. Had I been able, I would have willed the light to remain until we walked the perimeter of the wetland, but lacking that power, I reveled in the bounty of birdlife vocalizing into the twilight while their shapes faded into the oncoming night.

Lunch at Bargara Beach (© Magi Nams)

Today’s birds: scaly-breasted lorikeets, rainbow lorikeets, yellow-throated miners, blue-headed honeyeaters, *long-billed corellas, Australian magpies, brown honeyeater, magpie-larks, bar-shouldered doves, laughing kookaburras, olive-backed oriole, rainbow bee-eaters, spotted turtle-dove, white-throated honeyeater, *collared kingfishers, white-breasted woodswallows, royal spoonbill, Australian white ibises, *grey butcherbirds, noisy miners, crested pigeon, rufous whistler, willie wagtail, Brahminy kite, masked lapwings, northern fantail, striated pardalote, spangled drongo, *mangrove honeyeaters, house sparrows, silver gulls, Australasian gannet, osprey, *crested tern, striated heron, pied cormorant, pied butcherbird, dusky moorhens, purple swamphens, Pacific black ducks, little black cormorants, little pied cormorant, plumed whistling ducks, anhingas, great egret, intermediate egrets, Australian wood ducks. (*denotes lifelist sighting)

Please share this post.

Facebook