Hervey Bay

Our next stop was Hervey Bay, gateway to Fraser Island. We tried to get a boat trip for the next day, but the weather was very stormy (they closed the airport in Sydney), so we had to wait a day. 

Our caravan park was right next to the botanical gardens

In the Japanese Garden

 so we checked that out in the morning before breakfast to beat the heat.  But first we stopped at McDonalds to check out these fairy Martin's collecting mud for their nests (lifers!).

In the gardens we saw Flying Foxes hanging in the trees.

After breakfast back at the campsite, we headed out to Arkarra Gardens, a series of lagoons created by salt mining.  Two thumbs up for this place since we were able to combine our two favourite pastimes, birding and eating baked goods in the shady Arkarra teahouse.  Also a popular place with the locals.

Here we saw four more new species including the bird of the day,

The very tall and flashy magpie goose.

At one point we heard a very loud whap, whap, whap overhead; it turned out to be a flying fox overhead.  Honestly, it was like seeing a pteridactyl fly by!

Very humid here and we haven't even reached the real tropics yet.  A dip in the campsite pool refreshed us some.

For dinner we fried up sausages and veggies on the electric barbie provided by the caravan park.

Chef Leo 

Lamington 2

We liked it here so much we booked another day.  On the second day we hiked the Box Forest Track, a loop trail that goes down through a forest with massive old box shrub trees past numerous waterfalls and down to Canungra Creek, then back up past more waterfalls.

There were a bunch of these red flowering trees dotting the hillsides.

We were impressed with the number of quite elderly people doing the hike (even more elderly than us!).  But the trail was actually very gradual up the steep slope, switching back again and again at a very civilized incline.

We were told there was a regent bowerbird's bower at the beginning of the trail, but we failed to find it.

On our way back we heard a series of raucous birdcalls, but we failed to locate the source.  Fortunately a guide passed us telling his clients this was the lyrebird mimicking other bird's songs.  We had been looking up into the canopy instead of down on the ground where the lyrebird hangs out. 

We returned to the spot where Leo had seen the lyrebird for the last time and still didn't find it, but we did see this guy:

 A pademelon, a tiny kangaroo that stands less than 2 feet high.

Lots of birds sighted today, but only two new ones, including this russet-tailed thrush:

So obviously, it's time to move on as the sun sets on Lamington National Park.

Lamington National Park

We've now crossed the border into the state of Queensland.  We've covered about one third of our total trip up the east coast of Australia to Cairns in northern Queensland.  Unfortunately, we are already used up 1/2 of our 4 weeks of car rental.  So we'll have to pick up the pace from here on in.

The first town we passed through was called Texas, appropriately enough.  We'd already seen two cattle stations named Wyoming in New South Wales.

After the deprivation of the last few days and because rain was in the forecast, we decided to treat ourselves to a few days at Lamington National Park's O'Reilly's Nature Retreat, a bird watcher's mecca just across the Queensland border.

Unfortunately Google Maps decided to send us up a 4WD track.  When we reached the end of the pavement there was a sign noting "road closed, flood damage." So we had to drive back for 45 minutes and then take the winding single track paved route to the resort.

Our home for a few days 

Luxury, we liked the aboriginal design on our many fluffy pillows.

As soon as we arrived we headed out the elevated walkway that takes you up into the canopy for a bird's eye view of the landscape.  No birds at this time of day but a great view to the valley below.

The bird to see here is Albert's lyrebird, to be found only in this small corner of Queensland.  It differs slightly from the superb Lyrebird in that its tail feathers are not as large or fancy. Leo got a glimpse of one, but though we returned to the same spot several times we were out of luck

The resort feeds the birds, so crimson rosellas, Australian king parrots, and regent bower birds hang around and beg food.  This seems like cheating to me, but we were able to get photos of birds we'd already seen in the wild.  And after all, we feed the birds in our backyard at home.  It's just less interactive.  I lost my patience though when I tried to eat breakfast on our porch and a regent Bowerbird landed right on my bowl.

The resort also gives a morning bird walk every day at 6:45 am.  Again the guide feeds the birds and as we walked along the rainforest boardwalk various birds came out to get their regular snack.  The parrots, again, were fairly aggressive;  thus tourist friendly shots like this.

Glad I wore my hat

Leo was able to get some good shots, like this Eastern Yellow robin.

Our guide showed us this impressive Satin bird bower.

Here's the whole bower, with the chamber he built to court his mate.

After the walk was over, we stared down the Centennial Trail that leads to Moran Falls.  It started gushing down rain, and we were immediately soaked.  We retreated to our room then went to the lodge for complementary coffee and muffins, and some precious wifi time.

The rain finally let up after noon, so we started our hike again and were rewarded with this view:

From the wet to the Dry

Kwiambal National Park

As we went to bed the last night in Limeburner NP, we noticed this creature stuck to the outside of our tent

A cicada, about 1-1/2" long.


In the morning when we dismantled the tent we photographed it right side up.

The road to our next destination wound through farmland and cattle ranches.  The jacquarandas are blooming and it seems every homestead has a tree.  Sometimes they line both sides of the road with purple blossoms littering the pavement. But it's not easy to get a photograph on narrow highways with no shoulder and everyone behind you driving 100 kph speed limit.  This is the best I could do.

We wanted to stop at Mother of Ducks Lagoon because who could resist, it's the Mother of Ducks.  But when we arrived it was very dry and hardly any birdlife. Good pie store (bakery) in the town of Guyla though. 

As we neared Kwiambal National Park, we entered an area obviously affected with drought with rocky hardscrabble over grazed ranches.  But,

Emus!  Bird of the Day!

The road turned to washboard gravel as we entered Lemon Tree Flats campsite located on the Severn River. 

There were only two other people camped here and we had the whole park more or less to ourselves as the other campers never left their sites.

In fact, we've noticed a phenomenon here of older bachelors apparently camping alone, only to find their wives surfacing from their tents or caravans as they are ready to leave.

The next day we hiked to the Junction of the Severn and McIntire Rivers

with a stop off at a lookout over a canyon called the Dungeon.  We had a refreshing dip at the junction.  Lots of birds on the first half of the trip.  We saw the dollarbird,

Ŕ

Two new Honeyeaters (striped and yellow-faced) and a little friarbird, a sacred kingfisher and, the bird of the day, a Pacific Baza (crested hawk), all lifers.    Also lots of feral goats.

The hike back was along a shadeless dirt track while fighting off the ubiquitous australian flies that land on your face.  Back at camp, tempers got a little frayed with the heat, the flies, mosquitos, ticks crawling on us, magpies stealing food off our plates and the poor tick-infested starving wallabies begging as well.

Hanging with the wallabis before things got out of hand

Closeup shows ticks on ears

Not that I blame them, what little grass there is, is nibbled to the ground. We gave up and piled into the car, turned on the a/c and drove to the McIntire Falls Lookout.  We'd planned a swim in the inviting sounding plunge pool, but it looked pretty stagnant and slimy with the drought.  (The falls were dry.)  The thought of the steep hike back up defeated us so we jumped back in the car for 5 minutes of A/C and drove to Kookabitta Campground, actually nicer than ours with a big deep pool.

Oh look Leo, I think I see . . .

So of course I spotted a platypus, but it soon resolved into one of 2 Australian grebes,

Lifers!

Mcleay Valley Bird Trail

The next day was rainy so we did a driving tour of the areas birding hotspots.

Thanks, Mcleay Valley Tourism for your exellent Mcleay Valley birdtrail guide. We started in the Kempsey municipal Park where we found the scaly backed lorikeet and the noisy miner. 

Then we drove up to the Yarravel Nature Reserve.  We had a nice walk through the dry upland forest here, but the birds were all high in the trees and not showing themselves.

Back to the coast and South Rocks we found a new habitat, mangroves.  We had lunch in the rain here. 

From there we headed to Arikoon National Park where a local vintage car club was having a gathering. 

An Australian Ranchero

And my personal favorite

The Zephyr

There was another rowdier gathering going on as well.  They were teasing Leo for photographing birds and shouted, why don't you take a picture of us, we're rare birds!  So he did.

Arakoon is the site of a now abandoned internment camp for the 1st world war.  We took a trail through proper rainforest 

Connie blending in in tropical camo

and up into the headland with a view of the gaol. 

 Here we found a very rare phenomenon in Australian National parks, the informational plaquard, so we were able to learn a little about Australian plantlife.

Our last stop was at Crescent Head which turned out to be a surfing hotspot.

Surfers at Crescent Head

We hiked up the head from the beach past the really steep municipal  golfcourse (how do they get the golf ball up there in the constant high winds?) , and then on to Noddy Head lookout.


Thanks to Arikoon NP's informative plaquards, I knew that the strawflowers we in North America plant in seed packages are actually native to Australia.

We walked back to our car through a residential neighbourhood.  The houses here had beautiful gardens planted with tropical flowering shrubs so there were lots of birds around.

After supper back at the camp we headed north to Point Plomer and found another jam-packed campground.  There had been a wildfire here, and the burnt forest was full of these flowering bottlebrushes,

very popular with little Friarbirds and other birds as
well.

Limeburner's Creek National Park

From Port Macquarie

We say farewell to our wonderful dry cabin in the trees (Port Macquarie)

we headed north to the community of Crescent Head, then south along a gravel road to our next National Park.  We were surprised to find a beachside campsite absolutely crammed with campers.  It was the weekend but all our previous primitive camps had been sparsely occupied. It turned out Google Maps had the location of Melaleuca campsite wrong, a few kilometers further down the road we found our birdier campsite with only 2 other parties, deserted because it was not on the beach.

But Big Hill Beach was just across the road with a number of surfers and one family playing in the waves.

We climbed up the Big Hill loop trail starting in rainforest and climbing up to heathland at the top.

Leo hikes through the banksia forest

Closeup of Banksia flower

Lots of birds feeding on these blossoms.

Melaleuca was next to a dammed creek of cormorants and ducks.

Two great cormorants, a little pied cormorant and a dusky moorhen

A big tree full of orange fruit

was visited by many Figbirds, several olive-backed orioles and 2 stunning  regent bowerbirds. Bird of the Day! 

Just as night fell it started to rain, and then our tent fly ripped, but Leo was able to patch it together with a garbage bag and clothespins and we managed to get through a night of heavy rain without getting soaked.