A long awaited trip to North-west Queensland finally came to be. My destination was the Gregory River to participate in the 50th anniversary Gregory River Canoe Race with a couple of weeks break to explore the region.
Day 1 – Gold Coast to Augathella
I started early on the first day to get past the city traffic before it got started and was past Toowoomba as it started to get light. I was determined in the first day to knock over as many km’s as I could and not get distracted to much with to many stops. My first stop was for breakfast and a quick wake up walk at the Chinchilla Gardens where there plenty of Rainbow, and Scaly-breasted Lorikeets, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, and a few Red-rumped Parrots along with a couple of other common birds.
I continued on my journey stopping briefly at Judd’s Lagoon, Yuleba for a look. There were not really many waterbirds around but I did have a nice encounter with a Striped Honeyeater.
I was also west enough to get the Australian Raven.
A stop was planned for the Roma Botanical Gardens but the local school cross country was on and walking around school kids with a big lens is not ideal and gives creepy vibes so I moved on. I got a good run without getting distracted (not easy) and only stopped for a quick leak at a roadside stop which proved fortuitous as investigating a bit of bird noise in the trees I encountered a Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater.
And then a small group of three Red-winged Parrots appeared. Whilst it is a pretty common Parrot it is still one of my favorites.
Other birds photographed at this little spot included Yellow-throated Miner, White-plumed Honeyeater, Superb Fairy-wren and Striated Pardalote.
A few more hours on the road and I reached my first stop over location setting up the swag at Augathella. There was only a little bit of light left so I went for a quick walk mainly to stretch the legs seeing among other things Nankeen Kestrel, Pale-headed Rosella, Superb Fairy-wren, Australian Magpie, Jacky Winter, Galah, Whistling Kite and other common birds. It was a nice walk along the river with the low sun providing some nice farmland views.
Not a bad start to trip with 22 different species photographed in the first day of primarily travel.
Day 2 – Augathella to Winton
Back on the road again at first light my goal was to get to Opalton via the back road from Longreach but unfortunately I couldn’t find the way so abandoned the Opalton plan and ended up at Winton. I had originally planned to have a bit more time for this section of the trip so allowed myself to make a couple of more stops although with the abandoned attempt to get to Opalton I ended up driving the last stretch to Winton in the dark which was not ideal.
My first stop was just in a roadside pullover where I had seen some small bird movement in the low bushes. I had a goal to finally get some better photos of the White-winged Fairy-wren a species that always eludes me and I lucked out with a small family spotted. The male was not in full color but it was still a lot better then the distant female only photos I previously had of this species.
At the same place I also found Australasian Pipit and some great views of Horsfield’s Bushlark.
Continuing through the flat paddocks a slight rise with a few trees and a picnic area looked likely so I pulled over to have some breakfast and a look around. Initially I saw nothing and was making my way back to the car when a pair of Singing Honeyeater got my attention. They proved difficult to pin down and it took a bit of work to finally get a couple of shots without to much tree obstruction.
I again started heading to the car encountering a Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater which led me on a slightly different track which then led me to a great mixed flock encounter with some great views of Varied Sittella.
Other species included Brown Honeyeater, Rufous Whistler, and Yellow Thornbill. For a quick breakfast stop it was great to get a few birds I would not normally see that often.
The water at Tambo looked like an excellent spot but again there was little to see on the water. With all the floods and rains out the way recently the waterfowl had all apparently followed the flood waters south. A short walk around and along the river a little failed to produce much with only an ok photo of a Restless Flycatcher and a couple of more shots of Yellow-throated Miner for my troubles.
Past Tambo I stopped at Douglas Ponds for a quick look. There was a little bit of activity but it looked to be at quick glance only things I had already seen so only spent five minutes. The highlight being the Diamond Dove. I had only photographed the Diamond Dove once before so was excited to get some shots. It turns out over the next few days the Diamond Dove would nearly be the most common bird I saw.
My next stop was at Lagoon Creek, Barcaldine. I stopped here for lunch and fuel. Note – Don’t buy fuel here unless you have to, it was 20c a litre dearer than anywhere else on my trip.
Lagoon Creek looks like it would be a great spot in the early morning or evening. In the middle of the day however it was pretty hot and not a lot of activity but still provided a couple of nice encounters with Black Kite, Budgerigar, Tree Martin, Cockatiel and Plum-headed Finch being the highlights.
Moving past Longreach I turned off to head towards Opalton encountering my first dirt roads. With lots of rain recently all the paddocks were covered with grass.
My time was starting to get a shorter so I resisted the urge to make stops as there was plenty of activity roadside. As the dirt roads turned into farm roads I was thinking I might have lost my way a little and when the road appeared to lead me into someones farm I decided to turn back a bit and take a different road back across to the highway. An inspection on Google maps later revealed that the road went around a farm shed and continued but I am still not sure if that was right or not.
On the way back to the highway I had a nice encountered with an Australian Bustard.
And another stop I found Australian Pipit, Zebra Finch, Black-faced Woodswallow, Diamond Dove, White-winged Triller, Jacky Winter and Emu. A bit more time spent and I am sure I would have seen more.
The final part of the day was just getting back to Winton with out hitting anything as it was starting to get dark. A near miss with an Emu kept me awake and a couple of kangaroos to look out for whilst not getting distracted by the sunset was in order before I made it safely to Winton to end day 2.
My photographed count was now:
Birds – 42
Mammals – 1
