Dragonflies Australia

Arriving at Gold Scrub Rd around 5:30am, we were both impressed by the amount of water still held in the lake.  Great-crested Grebe have become common in the area again, and we had some luck with Baillon's Crake along the waters edge.  The general diversity of birds we felt was lower than normal for the area, and with a heavy dew we didn't go looking for Quail and Button-Quail.  From Gold Scrub we went to the North Pine River crossing, hopeful of maybe lucking onto an Oriental Cuckoo.  No luck there, but we did find Varied Triller and Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove.  Up Strong Rd we searched for White-eared Monarch, again with no luck, however we had the sighting of the day here, with a pair of (young?) Azure Kingfishers fighting or courting - we really aren't sure what they were doing but it was spectacular to watch.  They hovered, darted here and there, raised their wings at each other, and occasionally clashed, paying little to no attention to us observing them.  There was at least one full adult plumaged bird in the area too, making at least three, perhaps four Azure Kingfishers in the area.  Also in the area were several Rose-crowned Fruit-Doves, providing good views and in some cases nearly clipping our heads as they flew past.

After our trip through the Samsonvale area, we headed up to Lacey's Creek to have another look for White-eared Monarchs.  Again we were left wanting on this species, however a host of other rainforest specialties, plus some very interesting butterflies gave us a satisfying diversity of sightings for our efforts. On the way in we had our highlight of the day, a Lewin's Rail running off the side of the road.  Other highlights were great views of Wompoo Fruit-Dove, Fork-tailed Swifts associating with White-throated Needletails above a rainforest cleraing, a potential Superb Fruit-Dove calling (unconfirmed!!), abundant Common Migrants and a species of butterfly that was new for me, Four-barred Swordtail.

In the afternoon we visited Buckley's Hole and Kakadu Wader Roost, hopeful of finding some of the good birds being reported from the area recently.  Buckley's Hole produced some fantastic views of Buff-banded Rail foraging out in the open, and a diversity of waterbird that included Great, Intermediate and Little Egret, as well as White-faced Heron, Royal Spoonbill and Australian White Ibis all within an area of a few metres.  A lone Marsh Sandpiper was the best bird for the site.  None of the Latham's Snipe that had been reported of late were visible, however given we were there in the mid-afternoon this isn't greatly surprising.  As we left the Hole, we had views of a Brahminy Kite and then a Whistling Kite taking Eel from the water.

Kakadu Wader Roost was a little disappointing, with not many waders in the area, and the Broad-billed Sandpiper recently reported sadly absent.  We did have good numbers of Eastern Curlew fly over but they didn't land.  Greater and Lesser Sand Plovers were both present at the roost.  I remain to be convinced this site is worth visiting over Toorbul, and I'll definitely be checking that site first next time I'm in the area.