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| Sooty Oystercatcher |
Wood Sandpiper, Brown Songlark, Shining Flycatcher, Black Bittern and a huge colony of Little Red Flying-Foxws were the highlights of a 4-day campout at Hervey Bay. We camped at the nicely positioned Pialba Beachfront Tourist Park in windy but fine conditions.
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| Garnett's Lagoon and John Knight |
I hooked up with John Knight to visit Garnett's Lagoon near River Head, just south of Hervey Bay. This wetland is on private property and access is available only through John, a mate of the property owner.
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| Wood Sandpiper |
Garnett's has an impressive list of birds and I had long been keen to visit this spot. Among the 50 or so Sharp-tailed Sandpipers on the two lagoons was a single Wood Sandpiper.
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| Marsh Sandpiper |
Several Marsh Sandpipers were also about.
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| Brown Songlark |
On the paddocks nearby a sole male Brown Songlark was performing flight displays.
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| Shining Flycatcher |
I was surprised to find a pair of Shining Flycatcher it what looked like suboptimal habitat - some scrappy-looking mangroves fringing a tidal rivulet that was a tributary of the nearby Susan River.
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| Black Flying-Fox |
Near the camping ground at Pialba was a large colony of Black Flying-Foxes on the waterfront. The local council does a fine job of protecting this colony, in the midst of which I found a small knot of Little Red Flying-Foxes. The bats were not quite so endearing in the evenings as they fed on figs in trees overhanging our camper trailer.
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| Little Red Flying-Fox |
Just a few kilometres away in the Hervey Bay Botanic Gardens, a massive colony of Little Red Flying-Foxes was in residence, with many tens of thousands of animals present. In both colonies I could spot a total of just a handful of Grey-headed Flying-Foxes.
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| Australasian Darter family |
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| Dusky Moorhen family |
Near the Botanic Gardens, on one of the Anembo Lakes, I flushed a Black Bittern along with a Nankeen Night-Heron and a Striated Heron. I found a family of Dusky Moorhens with tiny chicks in tow and a pair of boisterous young Australasian Darters were being fed by a parent. Other birds in the area included several Channel-billed Cuckoos.
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| Channel-billed Cuckoo |
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| Krefft's River Turtle |
Unusually tame Krefft's River Turtles were clearly used to being fed at the Botanic Gardens and Anembo Lakes.
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| Wonga Pigeon |
I visited Mungomery's Vine Forest Reserve at Dundowran Beach but could find no sign of the Black-breasted Buttonquail reported from there, although Wonga Pigeon and Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove were common.
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| Nankeen Night-Heron |
At the Arkarra Lagoons nearby I saw a Nankeen Night-Heron, Little Bronze Cuckoo and a pair of Magpie Geese on a nest.
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| Dundowran Beach |
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| Osprey |
A fine Osprey was standing sentry along Dundowran Beach.
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| Greater Sand-Plover |
Along the coast around Pt Vernon and Gatakers Bay, a few waders were around including several Greater Sand-Plovers on the sandflats, and Sooty Oystercatchers on the rocky outcrops.
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| Caspian Tern |
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| Little Tern |
Birds along the waterfront at Urangan included many Little and Caspian Terns.
