Kingfisher Park; a tropical birders' icon

As I've said before, if I devote a post to a commercial natural history establishment you can be sure that's it's one that I believe well warrants your attention, both for what they offer and for their commitment to the environment. 

Welcome to Kingfisher Park!
(Though I'd have invested in an apostrophe; just saying...)

Kingfisher Park, on the tablelands north of Mareeba, inland of Cairns on the tropical east coast of Queensland, is certainly one such. Not that any Australian birder will need to be told about it, but anyone who cares about nature would also benefit from a stay there; you can camp, or stay in basic bunkhouse accommodation or in comfortable and spacious but simple self-contained rooms. I've done all three and can recommend them all, depending on your circumstance and preferences. On our most recent visit, in the summer wet season, we stayed in one of the six rooms, which open off a verandah that looks across a small clearing into the rainforest.

The verandah; our room was the one second from the left.

An easy place to while away time watching birds on the feeder or in the bath under the bushes,
or just going about their business in the forest.

Part of the very agreeable view from the verandah.

We chose this time to go in the wet, because this is a very bountiful time of year, and some animals can be
enjoyed now that are harder to see, or even absent, at other times of year. (There's no bad time to go though!)
It was also a celebration for us of the beginning of a new stage of our life.

Immediately adjacent to the little settlement of Julatten, the 4.5 hectare property comprises an old orchard plus limited clearing around the accommodation - the rest is remnant rainforest. 

A section of the orchard, another clearing in the rainforest, and a very productive one for birders.

Canefields press in on two sides, and at one stage there was a real danger that the property would be subsumed into them, but neighbours bought it to save it, and it has been run for conservation and to provide accommodation for nature appreciation ever since. The current owners, Carol and Andrew Iles, have been associated with the park as neighbours and professional wildlife guides for 20 years; they purchased it in 2015.

A hanging seed feeder at the edge of the clearing provides activity all day, depending on what natural seed is also locally available at the time.

The feeder can be seen hanging at the edge of the forest,
just above the ever-present and domineering Australian Brushturkey Alectura lathami in the photo.

Red-browed Finches Neochmia temporalis; common along the entire east and south-east Australian
coast and hinterland, but always a delight.

Chestnut-breasted Manikins Lonchura castaneothorax, found across northern Australia and in New Guinea.

The feeder is not really designed for a bird the size of a Bar-shouldered Dove Geopelia humeralis,
but this didn't noticeably deter them!

And of course the inevitable spillage attracted attention too; here Bar-shouldered Dove,
Red-browed Finches and Pacific Emerald Dove Chalcophaps longirostris.

Pacific Emerald Dove.

Australian Brushturkey (and Bar-shouldered Dove).

Nearby the small bird bath in the shelter of bushes also attracts a steady stream of customers in the warm afternoons. 

Metallic Starling Aplonis metallica, our only native starling and an impressive one;
its main range is New Guinea and islands to the west and east, just reaching north Queensland.

Yellow-spotted Honeyeater Meliphaga notata; locally common, this one is restricted to north Queensland.

Macleay's Honeyeater Xanthotis macleayanus - a quick vigorous splash...

... and an equally vigorous shake dry.

And one of the stars of Kingfisher Park, the Red-necked Crake Rallina tricolor, is not especially rare
(particularly in New Guinea) but secretive and hard to see - this is one of your best chances.
Margaret Atwood took the title character's name for Oryx and Crake from watching this species,
and I'm pretty certain she was staying at Kingfisher Park at the time.
(And this is another candidate to illustrate the "when is a really terrible photo acceptable" discussion,
which was one of the first blogs posts I ever did.
It was getting pretty dark by now, and the bird was another vigorous bather.)

An alternative activity for the warm afternoons was lying out in the sun, perhaps to divest themselves of parasites (the birds I mean, not us). 

Bar-shouldered Dove, exposing its underwing to the sun.

Macleay's Honeyeater spread out.

Actually that's the third photo I've shown you of this honeyeater without you seeing what it really looks like. It's one of the commonest birds around the accommodation.

Macleay's Honeyeater is endemic to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area
(between Cooktown and just north of Townsville). It was named for William John Macleay,
nephew of Alexander, an entomologist who was instrumental in founding the Australian Museum.
WJ was first President of the Entomological Society of NSW, the first specialist scientific society in Australia.
He was also first President of its successor, the Linnean Society of NSW.

One of the reasons we came in summer was the eponymous kingfisher, the gorgeous Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher Tanysiptera sylvia, which breeds in north Queensland at that time, then migrates to New Guinea. (It's more complex than that actually, as another New Guinea population is sedentary and breeds there. Given that they seem not to overlap, perhaps this is a new species in the making. But how did this situation arise?)

Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher, a truly exquisite bird. Several pairs nest on the property,
in excavations in ground-level termite mounds.

Many other birds can readily be seen on the property, both around the accommodation and in and around the orchard.

 Dusky Honeyeater Myzomela obscura, on a grevillea (probably a cultivar of G. pteridifolia).
The bird is a richer copper shade than this dull light photo suggests.

Lemon-bellied Flycatcher Microeca flavigaster, a characterful little bird which is actually a robin (same genus
as Jacky Winter). Nonetheless I can't yet come at the odd neologism (at least in Australia) of 'flyrobin' for
some of the genus, including this one.

Little Shrike-thrush Colluricincla megarhyncha. This relatively diminutive shrike-thrush has a huge
and very melodious voice.

Orange-footed Scrubfowl Megapodius reinwardt, also small for its group (the megapodes, or mound-builders),
but also with a huge production, in its case the enormous incubation mound of composting material in which
the eggs incubate.

Orange-footed Scrubfowl chick, recently hatched.
They must dig their way to the surface and be immediately self-sufficient in everything.

Yellow-breasted Boatbill Machaerirhynchus flaviventer; long regarded as a monarch flycatcher,
this species and its New Guinea sole congener are now recognised as comprising a family of their own.

The exquisite nest of a Spectacled Monarch Symposiachrus trivirgatus, near the accommodation; however carefully
we tried not to disturb her, she always slipped away long before we got close.
This is what she looks like, though this is a body double!

There were other animals around of course, though sadly we failed totally on frogs and reptiles; here are a few, but it must be said that this time the birds dominated.

Fawn-footed Melomys Melomys cervinipes, an engaging little member of the 'Old Australian Endemic' rodents,
whose ancestors arrived a few million years ago as we approached Asia. It liked sweet corn very much.
(But we didn't provide it!)

 

Young Red-legged Pademelon Thylogale stigmatica, which probably
really should have still been with mum.

Creatonotos gangis, a moth in the family Erebidae. Unfortunately it wasn't showing its striking
red body, and certainly not its remarkable extrudable and inflatable hairy appendages
for spreading its courtship pheromones.

When we were there, the Varied Eggflies Hypolimnas bolina were everywhere in the grassy areas,
looking for suitable foodplants for their eggs.

I've probably not done full justice to this wonderful little gem, but hopefully you're interested enough to try it next time you're up that way - both you and Kingfisher Park deserve it!

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 2 MAY
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Happy National Eucalpyt Day!

You mean you didn't know?! Well I admit that it's hardly a long-established tradition (yet) but on the other hand I didn't invent it. It goes back to someone you may not have heard of either - Norwegian-Australian forester Bjarne Dahl, who came to Australia to work for the Victoria Forests Commission

in 1928 and stayed until his death in 1993, 65 years later. He and two compatriots worked as Forest Assessors (no, I'm not quite sure either, but it involved mapping and measuring trees) and he rapidly became a big fan of eucalypts. He was especially fond of the handsome Silvertop Ash Eucalyptus sieberi.

Silvertop Ash, Barren Grounds Nature Reserve, New South Wales.

In 1945 he started a school to teach other assessors the skills, but later retired and worked for the paper industry as an acquirer of suitable land. He also made money buying and selling land in a private capacity, but on the death of his wife in 1976 he became a recluse. When he died in 1993, aged 95, he left his estate of $2.5 million to the Victorian Forestry Commission to establish a trust for the promotion of eucalypts (though I can't find his exact wording); in the light of many of the Commission's activities some might think this a somewhat surprising decision. Fortunately there obviously were indications of his intents, because in 2007 the Victorian Supreme Court defined the Trust's objectives and structure, enabling the Bjarne Dahl Trust to be set up as an independent entity. 

It describes itself as "a charitable trust that awards grants to support the conservation, education and research of eucalypts." (I'm not entirely sure how one goes about educating eucalypts but it would pedantic and churlish to even ask.) Among the things it has done was to declare in 2014 that 23 March - Bjarne's birthday - would henceforth be celebrated as National Eucalypt Day, which is why you're reading this.

'Eucalypt' refers not just to the genus Eucalyptus, but to the closely related genera Angophora and the relatively recently separated Corymbia (bloodwoods, spotted gums and ghost gums).

I want to spend the rest of this posting simply celebrating eucalypts, as Bjarne would have wished. I'm going to do it in the form of a Eucalypt Alphabet (as I've done previously for red flowers, yellow flowers, white flowers and acacias). However I haven't quite limited myself to just one species per letter as I have done in the past - it was too hard sometimes and I didn't see why we should miss out! In the event, my photos only failed to produce examples of species beginning with x and z, which I don't feel too bad about. I've tried to share some of the diversity of habitats and forms that make the more than 800 species of Australian eucalypts so captivating.  (Six of those species are also found in New Guinea and nearby islands, and another nine are not Australian, found scattered as far as the Philippines, where there is just one species). I've included portraits of eucalypts from every Australian state and territory.

A

Ghost Gum Corymbia aparrerinja, near Trephina Gorge, East MacDonnell Ranges, Central Australia.
A stunning tree (this one, and the whole species), with a distribution based around the central deserts.
For a whole posting on this, one of my very favourite trees, see here.

B

'B' is represented here by two species local to Canberra.

Blakely's Red Gum E. blakelyi, northern Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Gums are smooth-barked
eucalypts, and the red gums form a small distinct group. This is one of the signature species of the
grassy woodlands of the slopes west of the Great Dividing Range throughout western NSW and into Victoria.William Faris Blakely was one of the great amateurs, a self-taught botanist who eventually collaborated with
botanical doyen Joseph Maiden of the Sydney Botanic Gardens on a major revision of Eucalyptus.

Apple Box E. bridgesiana, Australian National University. This is an original pre-European
tree, one of a few that have been preserved on the campus. The plated bark is typical of many of
the box eucalypts. It tends to grow where the woodlands meet the edge of the hill forests.
Frederick Bridges worked for the NSW Education Department in the 19th century - but didn't
appear to have much to do with eucalypts...

C

I just couldn't cut out any this quartet of very different eucalypts, so hopefully you'll understand!

Ancient River Red Gums E. camaldulensis, Burra Gorge, South Australia.
This is the only eucalypt found in every mainland Australian state and territory, mostly on inland
waterways, and is my favourite Australian tree.
For more about it, see this posting.

The other three 'C' eucalypts are much more restricted in distribution.

Nundroo Mallee E. calcareana, Nundroo, far west coast of South Australia.
Mallees represent a multi-stemmed growth form of eucalypt in low nutrient soils
(especially phosphate-deficient ones) whereby the trunk is largely represented by a
woody underground lignotuber and the branches grow as stems. It depends on the situation
and some of the trees in this stand are growing as single stems. This species is limited to the limestone
plains of Eyre Peninsula and west into the edge of the Nullarbor.

 .

Chippendale's Bloodwod Corymbia chippendalei, Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia.
A tough tree, limited to the Western Deserts, where it mostly grows on dunes.
George Chippendale was an eminent botanist who especially loved eucalypts and who also loved
sharing his enthusiasm for native plants by talking to school groups and leading annual wildflower
walks on Canberra's Black Mountain. He was a lovely bloke who died in 2010 and many of us still miss him.

Tasmanian Snow Gum E. coccifera, Mount Field NP, Tasmania.
This spectacular gum is limited to the high mountain forests of southern Tasmania.

D

Our two 'D' representatives are both seemingly growing straight out of solid rock but in very different habitats in distant parts of the country from each other.

Mountain Gum E. dalrympleana, Tinderry NR, southern NSW. This usually grows as a tall straight tree
in wet mountain forests where it sometimes snows. Richard Dalrymple Hay headed the first conservation
section of the NSW Forestry Department in 1895 and helped draft more modern forestry legislation.

Small-fruited Bloodwood Corymbia dichromophloia, Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) NP, north-west Queensland.
It grows west from here across northern Australia.

E

Sand Mallee E. eremophila, Balladonia, central south Western Australia.
A mallee of the semi-arid inland of south-west Australia, striking in flower and bud.
The name means 'desert lover' but there are others with a better claim to that.

Red Bloodwood Corymbia erythrophloia, near Cooktown, north Queensland.
A spectacular tree whose bark sheds in patches, revealing bright rusty red new bark.
It is limited to Queensland, but covers much of the eastern part of the state
west of the coastal ranges.

F

White Ash E. fraxinoides, Monga NP, south-eastern NSW.
A striking tree of mountain forests of the south-east part of the state, which
seems to grow in tight altitudinal bands.

G

Hyden Blue Gum E. georgei, north of Norseman, inland southern Western Australia.
It is limited to a few localities in the Goldfields region.
Its name commemorates eminent botanist and banksia expert Alex George.

H

Scribbly Gum (one of several species) E. haemastoma, central coast NSW.
A moth larva (probably Ogmagraptis sp.) hatches under the bark and burrows, eating, through the
nutritious cambial layer. The tunnel, which is only revealed when the old bark drops off, abruptly
increases in diameter each time the larva sheds its skin and grows.

I

Gum-barked Coolibah E. intertexta, near Cobar. This handsome tree is widespread in western NSW and
west across South Australia to Port Augusta. A conspicuous and readily identified tree of the wide plains.

J

Red Tingles E. jacksonii, near Walpole, Nornalup NP, south-west WA.
These are huge trees, up to 75 metres high, with a tiny distribution in the wet forests around Walpole.
These were photographed from a 'treetop walk' through the canopy.
Sidney Jackson was best known as an egg-collector and bird taxidermist in the early 1900s,
 but he had wide natural history interests and collected the type specimen of this tree.

K

Kondinin Blackbutt E. kondininensis, Kondinin (appropriately!), Goldfields region, southern
inland Western Australia. Another of the numerous eucalypts with a small distribution in this area.

L

Leichhardt's Yellowjacket Corymbia leichhardtii, west of Charters Towers, north Queensland.
A striking yellowish tree scattered across a wide area of the eastern hinterland of Queensland.
The name honours one of the great names of northern Australian exploration, the German Ludwig Leichhardt
who vanished in 1848 attempting to travel from Moreton Bay (Brisbane) to the Swan River (Perth).

Bushy Yate E. lehmannii, Cape Le Grande NP, southern WA.
An attractive bushy little tree which has been widely cultivated. In the wild it grows along
the central south coast of WA.

M

There were too many impressive 'M' eucalypts as well to choose just one.

 

Mottlecah E. macrocarpa, Yandin Lookout, north of Perth. A small tree with huge dramatic
bird-pollinated flowers, from the northern sand plains.
This one was caught just as it was losing its bud cap to reveal the spectacular flower.
It is this bud cap which is the origin of Eucalyptus, meaning 'well covered'.

Spotted Gum Corymbia maculata, Nowra, south coast NSW.
A superb tall coastal forest tree, whose spottiness is due to patchy shedding of the old bark.

Yellow Box E. melliodora, Canberra.
Yes, the photo's a bit of an Australian metaphor, but... Yellow Box is one of the key trees of the grassy woodlands
of the western slopes, growing with E. blakelyi (see above). Often a soaring, spreading straight tree.

N

Normanton Box E. normantonensis, Lark Quarry near Winton, central Queensland.
This mallee is named for the Gulf of Carpentaria town of Normanton, but in fact grows scattered
in separate populations across Queensland, the Northern Territory and adjacent Western Australia.

O

Ancient Messmate Stringybark E. obliqua in rainforest, Mount Field NP, Tasmania.
The species name refers to the angled position of the vein across the leaf. There are various, somewhat desperate,
attempts to explain the 'Messmate, but it's safest to say that its origin remains a mystery.
We can say with certainty though that this species has the honour of being the first eucalypt to be scientifically described.
It was collected on James Cook's 1777 visit to Tasmania on Bruny Island, and later described at the British Museum
by French botanist Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle, who coined the genus name Eucalyptus.

Red Mallee E. oleosa, far western South Australia. A common mallee in dry sandy country from south-western NSW
and adjacent Victoria to the Goldfields of Western Australia.

P

'P' seems to be another auspicious initial for eucalypts - I can't narrow it down beyond four very different trees!

Rose-bud Mallee E. pachyphylla, Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia. A very hardy mallee of the
central and western deserts.

Very old Snow Gum E. pauciflora, Kosciuszko NP. The highest altitude eucalypt, whose upper level
forms the tree line in the south-eastern mainland. For an entire post on this wonderful tree, see here.

Bell-fruit Mallee E. preissiana, Stirling Ranges NP, southern WA. A lovely little mallee from
the central south coast of Western Australia. Its name commemorates Johann Preiss who first collected it.

Grey Gum E. punctata, Munghorn Gap NR, central NSW.
A gum often associated with sandstone along the coast and ranges from Jervis Bay
north to the Liverpool Ranges.

Q

White-topped Box E. quadrangulata, Kangaroo Valley, southern NSW.
An impressive tree which grows in small scattered populations north from Bundanoon
to south-east Queensland

R

Candlebark Gum E. rubida, Kosciuszko NP, south of Canberra.
This cold-loving tree of the tablelands and drier mountain forest of the south-east glows
in late summer as the old bark dries before shedding.

S

Sydney Blue Gum E. saligna, Mount Clunie NP, far northern NSW.
A magnificent huge wet forest tree which is fast-growing and features in plantations
both here and in South Africa.

Scribbly Gum (another one) E. signata, Coffs Harbour, north coast NSW.
(This one is sometimes subsumed into E. racemosa.)

Gimlet E. salubris east of Norseman.
This stunningly beautiful small tree or mallee with fluted trunk grows in the dry
inland of southern Western Australia.

T

Desert Bloodwood Corymbia terminalis, Currawinya, south-central Queensland.
A characteristic and attractive tree of the entire dry inland of Australia.

Carbeen, or Moreton Bay Ash E. tessellaris, Charleville, central Queensland.
A very distinctive tree with dark plated bark at the base and smooth white above,
growing from northern NSW to Cape York.

U

Merritt E. urna, Norseman, Goldfields region, southern inland WA. Yet another tree of the rich woodlands
of southern inland WA; it was separated from the more widespread E. flocktoniae  in 1999.

V

Smooth-barked Coolibah E. victrix, north of Cue, central WA.
A tree of flood plains and creek lines from the west coast to the central deserts.

W

'W' has proved a source of frustration and a little embarrassment. I was confident of this one, knowing I had at least one nice pic of the beautiful Wandoo woodlands (E wandoo) east of Perth - but it has mysteriously vanished from my system!! And I have no other 'w' eucalypt so have had to revert to the somewhat desperate and shabby ploy of selecting one on common name - and moreover one growing in captivity! I abase myself.

Wallangarra White Gum E. scoparia, Wagga Wagga Botanic Gardens.
The tree grows naturally in a tiny area of granite outcrops near the town of Wallangarra
on the south-east Queensland-NSW border.

X

As confessed at the start I can't offer you an 'x' eucalypt, though next time I'm in the Pilbara I'll take a photo of Pilbara Box E. xanthope.

Y

Yalata Mallee E. yalatensis, Nullarbor Plain, South Australia.
A pretty little limestone-loving mallee that grows from Eyre Peninsula in South Australia west
around the coastal fringe of the Nullabor Plain. Yalata is a small settlement in western South Australia.

Z

I do like the sound of Blackbutt Mallee E. zopherophloia from a small area south of Geraldton, WA.

So again, Happy Eucalypt Day - and if you're not reading this on 23 March then I reckon that any day is a good one to celebrate eucalypts. I hope you've met a new one here, or learnt a new factoid to save for an appropriate occasion. More importantly though, please get out and enjoy some real ones!

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 11 APRIL
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