Just over 9000kms, two months of travel, a ton of new lifers and we're home. Here we reflect on our birding adventure, what we learned and what we'll do differently - or not - next time! We'd love to hear your thoughts.
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As we headed south, we saw more parrots (yay!), but in addition to learning about birds, we'd like to learn more about their homes and food sources. In Charleville, we found two excellent (but rather unadvertised) places to learn about the trees of the outback: the Botanic Drive (fifteen kms out of town), and the Graham Andrews Parklands in town. In this post, we share some of what we learnt there.
Yes all the streets in Longreach are named after birds but they weren't so easy to find...until we found the Iningai Park Nature Reserve which, frankly, could do with some investment...
Yep - budgies, red-tailed cockatoos, cockatiels and, well, flies! What great birding on the way to and out at Winton. Thanks to all the great rain (and not great for many people) the outback is brimming with birds. Here are some of the the fancy flocks we saw...
Now wending our way home to Melbourne via the coast and then the outback - woohoo! Our last two major birding destinations before we left the Wet Tropics were the TYTO Wetlands in Ingham and the Townsville Common...this is how they worked out for us. The crimson finch is a clue...
We were very lucky to see not one but three juvenile southern cassowaries on our day trip to Cape Tribulation.
If you've made the trip to far North Queensland, you absolutely have to go to Daintree...heck, go there for the Daintree alone! And go on the River with the Daintree Boatman - you'll be glad you did!
The weather was not really optimal for our purposes during our days in the Tablelands, and we know there is so much to see - but we managed a few glimpses between showers...
We went on our first birding tour - and to Cape York. Here is what we saw and experienced, and what we think of the idea of a bird tour...
Twenty kilometres of sealed but very narrow and winding road up the mountain to Paluma Village…is it worth the effort?
The drive to and from Bowen is mostly via the Bruce Highway, and you can expect extensive roadworks both sides of town – but don’t let that put you off because the birds and other rewards are many.
Eungella (pronounced 'young galah') and Broken River are about an hour inland from MacKay...we highly recommend a visit...
We were very keen to go to Carnarvon Gorge and much of it was great - other bits, not so much...
From Roma we took the road less travelled and had an amazing drive through the aptly-named Arcadia Valley, with a lunch stop at Lake Nuga Nuga...it was well worth the diversion, and a few kilometres of dirt road!
And so to Queensland - and it's still pretty chilly, but no rain for the last few days. Our journey to Roma has included excellent botanic gardens, new lifer birds for us - including red-shouldered parrots - and just loving those wide open spaces!
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September 2023
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