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Australia - October/November 2024 (1 Viewer)

Mark Jarrett

Up Ont’ Moors
England
We’re recently back from a five week trip to Eastern Australia, initially flying in to Melbourne and working our way up the east coast to Cairns.

Not a ‘full on’ birding trip, as my wife isn’t a birder. I was out for a couple of hours pre breakfast before it got too hot and, after that, saw whatever I could whilst we were out and about and on our walks.

The attached PDF states all the areas that were birded. We generally stayed in each hotel/location for three nights. After Melbourne, we stayed in Lakes Entrance, Victoria before driving on to Merimbula in south east New South Wales. Then Kiama, NSW followed by Penrith on the western outskirts of Sydney. A good base for Sydney itself and also the Blue Mountains where we moved next. After three nights there, we flew to Brisbane where we explored Noosa, the Glass House Mountains and O’Reilly’s, as well as the city. We then flew on up to Cairns, where we spent a final eight nights.

I arranged a bird guide, for a day, whilst we were in Melbourne. We went to the excellent Western Treatment Plant and also an area of coast, mainly around the Anglesea area where there was also some nice inland heath. Also another bird guide was arranged for a day whilst we were in Cairns. One or two sites were covered around Cairns before we moved on to the superb Atherton Tablelands, mainly centred around the towns of Mareeba and Atherton itself.

I finished with a trip list of 259, which I was pleased enough with. I didn’t chase any particular scarce or endemic birds, I just wanted a wide spread and to see as much as I could. Two ‘bonuses’ were White-capped Albatross and Short-tailed Shearwater which we saw from land in Victoria, a vantage point above Point Addis Beach. We also got Rufous Bristlebird there, which is a reasonably sought after bird. O’Reilly’s yielded Albert’s Lyrebird, Russet-tailed Thrush and Paradise Riflebird and the excellent Mary Cairncross Reserve near Maleny, Qld provided Noisy Pitta and Logrunner which we were to also later see at O’Reilly’s.

The Esplanade at Cairns speaks for itself with a wide variety of waders including Greater Sand Plover and Siberian Sand Plover. A boat trip by catamaran to Michaelmas Cay, out from Cairns, provided the usual array of Noddies, Boobies, Frigatebirds, plus scarcer terns and the Atherton Tablelands was just a joy, all day, on this upland plateau. Best birds there were Cotton Pygmy-Goose, Squatter Pigeon, Sarus Crane, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Tooth-billed Bowerbird and Australian Spectacled Monarch.

If anyone has any questions or wants any info, feel free to post here. Meanwhile, I’ll post a few photos below.

Edit. Struggling to download the PDF from my iPad. I’ll post it below from the computer hopefully.
 
Apologies, forgot to mention that the above PDF is also a list of all species seen on our trip. Meanwhile a few more photos..

Superb Fairywren, White-naped Honeyeater, Fan-tailed Cuckoo & Tawny Frogmouth. Two TFs were seen from the boat whilst on a boat trip in the Noosa Everglades.
 

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Thank you for posting your trip report. We are planning a similar trip for October 2025 and I would love your opinion on our draft itinerary. We aren't hard core birders (don't keep a life list) but love birds and bird photography. Our trip is limited to Queensland - 3 nights Cairns, 6 nights in the Atherton Tablelands (3 nights Julatten & 3 nights Yungaburra), 2 nights Etty Bay, fly to Brisbane, 5 nights O'Reilly's, 2 nights near Mary Cairncross Reserve, then a few nights in Noosa (trying to decide how many nights). Would you shift around days or add other locations in the Cairns/Brisbane area? We're on the fence about Michaelmas Cay. Who did you use for guides? I've sent out emails to a few guides that I found via Google but none have responded.

Thanks for your insights.
 
Thank you for posting your trip report. We are planning a similar trip for October 2025 and I would love your opinion on our draft itinerary. We aren't hard core birders (don't keep a life list) but love birds and bird photography. Our trip is limited to Queensland - 3 nights Cairns, 6 nights in the Atherton Tablelands (3 nights Julatten & 3 nights Yungaburra), 2 nights Etty Bay, fly to Brisbane, 5 nights O'Reilly's, 2 nights near Mary Cairncross Reserve, then a few nights in Noosa (trying to decide how many nights). Would you shift around days or add other locations in the Cairns/Brisbane area? We're on the fence about Michaelmas Cay. Who did you use for guides? I've sent out emails to a few guides that I found via Google but none have responded.

Thanks for your insights.
Hi Kathy

As guides, I used Ben Blewitt of Blue Planet Ecology for my day trip to the Atherton Tablelands and Simon Starr of Firetail Birdwatching Tours/Birding Victoria for Western Treatment Plant near Melbourne. Both highly recommended and if you Google both companies, you’ll get contact details etc. Ben will be able to tailor your day to suit exactly what you wish to do and Simon’s company has several different itineraries in different areas/habitats.

I can see you’re not intending to go to Victoria but I’ll leave Simon’s details here in case anyone else needs info for the Melbourne area.

There are several sites around Cairns (see eBird Hotspots) but the Esplanade there is excellent, undoubtedly for waders/shorebirds. You’ll be looking into the sun in the mornings, so photography will be better in the late afternoons. It will be hot and humid. Very!

Michaelmas Cay is a must. Great birds that you won’t see from land. Photography hard work. Generally going to be very sunny, very hot and the sun will be directly overhead. Still a superb trip.

The Mary Cairncross Reserve is small, compact and also excellent and that general area of the Glass House Mountains is good for birding with other rainforest areas. The villages there (Mapleton, Montville, Maleny) are quaint with good restaurants and eateries.

Five nights at O’Reilly’s would have been a bit much for me as it’s primarily rainforest birding and the photography is challenging - low shutter speeds and high iso. But, if you like that sort of thing, you’ll be fine. There’s nowhere else to go up there, though, so it’s O’Reilly’s or nothing! It’s quaint and rustic.

Your itinerary seems ok to me regarding your days in and around Brisbane and you’ll love the Atherton Tablelands, it’s a special place. If you don’t get any luck with Ben Blewitt as your guide, another name I was recommended was Doug Herrington. Google Birdwatching Tropical Australia/Birding Tours Cairns & Port Douglas. He comes highly recommended as well.

Hope this has been of some interest.
 
Hi Kathy

As guides, I used Ben Blewitt of Blue Planet Ecology for my day trip to the Atherton Tablelands and Simon Starr of Firetail Birdwatching Tours/Birding Victoria for Western Treatment Plant near Melbourne. Both highly recommended and if you Google both companies, you’ll get contact details etc. Ben will be able to tailor your day to suit exactly what you wish to do and Simon’s company has several different itineraries in different areas/habitats.

I can see you’re not intending to go to Victoria but I’ll leave Simon’s details here in case anyone else needs info for the Melbourne area.

There are several sites around Cairns (see eBird Hotspots) but the Esplanade there is excellent, undoubtedly for waders/shorebirds. You’ll be looking into the sun in the mornings, so photography will be better in the late afternoons. It will be hot and humid. Very!

Michaelmas Cay is a must. Great birds that you won’t see from land. Photography hard work. Generally going to be very sunny, very hot and the sun will be directly overhead. Still a superb trip.

The Mary Cairncross Reserve is small, compact and also excellent and that general area of the Glass House Mountains is good for birding with other rainforest areas. The villages there (Mapleton, Montville, Maleny) are quaint with good restaurants and eateries.

Five nights at O’Reilly’s would have been a bit much for me as it’s primarily rainforest birding and the photography is challenging - low shutter speeds and high iso. But, if you like that sort of thing, you’ll be fine. There’s nowhere else to go up there, though, so it’s O’Reilly’s or nothing! It’s quaint and rustic.

Your itinerary seems ok to me regarding your days in and around Brisbane and you’ll love the Atherton Tablelands, it’s a special place. If you don’t get any luck with Ben Blewitt as your guide, another name I was recommended was Doug Herrington. Google Birdwatching Tropical Australia/Birding Tours Cairns & Port Douglas. He comes highly recommended as well.

Hope this has been of some interest.
Thank you for the comprehensive response - greatly appreciated. I'll send a note to Ben and see if he's available. Happy New Year.
 
I spent 6 weeks in Queensland over December 2023/January 2024, so to add to Mark's comments I'd agree 5 nights in O'Reilly's is possibly too much (we spent 3 nights there & saw the majority of what we wanted to). Agree a trip to Michaelmas Cay is a must - only 2 boats go there (we went with Seastar Cruises who were excellent - I explained I was a photographer for the stop off at the Cay & they totally accommodated me, and to top it all off I had an excellent dive at the second stop).

We had a week in Cairns, and is probably somewhere to definitely revisit. Humidity is a pain - early morning sessions meant my camera, lenses & optics fogged up for quite a while from stepping out of the apartment. We probably didn't do it justice from a birding perspective. What I did find was walking along the esplanade meant you bumped into a lot of local birders who are more than willing to help with IDs & local knowledge.

We spent a week in Airlie Beach (about 7 hours drive south of Cairns) as well which I notice isn't on your itinerary - this is another excellent area both coastal & inland around Prosperpine.
 
I spent 6 weeks in Queensland over December 2023/January 2024, so to add to Mark's comments I'd agree 5 nights in O'Reilly's is possibly too much (we spent 3 nights there & saw the majority of what we wanted to). Agree a trip to Michaelmas Cay is a must - only 2 boats go there (we went with Seastar Cruises who were excellent - I explained I was a photographer for the stop off at the Cay & they totally accommodated me, and to top it all off I had an excellent dive at the second stop).

We had a week in Cairns, and is probably somewhere to definitely revisit. Humidity is a pain - early morning sessions meant my camera, lenses & optics fogged up for quite a while from stepping out of the apartment. We probably didn't do it justice from a birding perspective. What I did find was walking along the esplanade meant you bumped into a lot of local birders who are more than willing to help with IDs & local knowledge.

We spent a week in Airlie Beach (about 7 hours drive south of Cairns) as well which I notice isn't on your itinerary - this is another excellent area both coastal & inland around Prosperpine.
Thank you for jumping in and providing more info - sounds like we need to add Michaelmas Cay to our itinerary. I can easily add a day or two to the Cairns area and remove a day from O'Reilly's. We go to the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica at least once a year and have lots of experience with camera gear and extreme humidity. If we're in an area with air conditioning, we always try to rent a place with a private/secure outdoor area so we can leave our gear outside. Even then, I end up removing my lens to let things defog on a pretty regular basis. Loved the hint on the esplanade and local knowledge. Although we love birds and plan our trips around birds/wildlife, we are not birders, and help with ID is always greatly appreciated.
 

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