O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat

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This post relates to my 2024 visit to Lamington National Park. I have visited before and the post relating to that trip can be found here.

We stayed in the caravan park rather than the lodge and I much preferred it. Each morning and afternoon Crimson Rosella and Australia King-Parrots would look for food on the ground right outside the campervan. When we were really lucky the parrots would come and sit on our shoulders. It is a little disconcerting that the birds at O'Reillys are so tame but you can't help but enjoy getting so close to them.

Above campsite I could hear a new call, regularly repeating. It took me a while to track it down but I was very rewarded when I did. A male Rose Robin was singing and singing. It was present the whole time we were there and this is my best shot.

Rose Robin

Throughout Lamington NP are Albert's Lyrebird and while it cannot be guaranteed that you will see them, it is so worth looking for them. One morning we found one, just scratching away on the ground in front of us. The rusty colours were so vibrant and its tail feathers spectacular.

Albert's Lyrebird

As well as a huge number of birds in the area, there are also plenty of marsupials, lizards and other creatures. We were lucky enough to find some very interesting lizards including the Angle-headed Forest Dragon, a relation to the Boyd's Forest Dragon frequently seen in Far North Queensland.

Angle-headed Forest Dragon

There is a great walking track out to Python Rock which gives incredible views of the area. It is also a beautiful walk through the forest where you can find a variety of birds and animals. Our favourite sighting was of several Land Mullet, Australia's largest skink. 

                               

Land Mullet

The forest floor is also somewhere to keep a close eye on. Eastern Whipbird and Australian Logrunner work the leaf litter for food. I particularly liked the logrunner as they scraped away using the feet in a lateral motion. The females have an orange breast and the males are white. As they skulk around in the undergrowth, they are very difficult to photograph. As we sat still for a while, we managed to get close to a pair. 

Australian Logrunner

Eastern Whipbird

There are several bottlebrush trees around the O'Reillys compound and the Eastern Spinebill can often be seen feeding there. One sunny afternoon I came across a young bird basking in the light. I took about 50 photographs, it was just stunning with such different colours to the adults.

Eastern Spinebill

We went out spotlighting a couple of times and were thrilled with what we found. Even on our way back to the campground, we came across a gorgeous small possum sitting just munching on leaves. It allowed us to get quite close, possibly as curious as we were!

Ring-tailed Possum

One of my favourite sightings was the White-headed Pigeon as I had only seen them once before and didn't have any decent photos. Although we saw lots of them, they were always flying high up and pretty fast. Then, one morning right in front of the campervan, one sat beautifully for me. The photo doesn't really do it justice, they are stunning birds.

White-headed Pigeon

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Springbrook National Park

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Springbrook National Park is up in the McPherson Range west of the Gold Coast. It is an incredibly diverse area with lush rainforests, waterfalls and lots of interesting wildlife. There are several campsites in different areas and we chose The Settlement campground which was in a small rainforest clearing. Whipbirds, robins and parrots were all around, calling and dashing about. 

My first success was to find a male Australian Logrunner. They have a white breast, while the female's are orange. I found a pair of them squawking noisily as they scratched around in the undergrowth. They are related to the Chowchilla found in Far North Queensland and you can see and hear why! 

Male Australian Logrunner

As well as birds, there were lots of butterflies and moths around and I was particularly taken with this vivid blue butterfly that was sucking something (moisture?) up from between the stones on the tracks. 

Common Bluebottle Butterfly

Adjacent to the campground was a more open field with lots of grass and shrubs. Fairywren, firetails and parrots were all feeding here and my favourite sighting was the Crimson Rosella. They were comically teetering on grass stalks to get to the seeds.

Crimson Rosella

All around the area were groups of pademelon. They were reasonably tame if approached quietly as they fed on the grass in the clearings.

Red-necked Pademelon

Spotlighting was difficult as it drizzled a lot after dark and it was on a mad dash back to the campervan when I spotted this frogmouth sitting, rather forlornly on a post. Trying to protect my camera, I walked slowly towards it and to my surprise, I got within touching distance of this remarkable creature. I didn't attempt to touch it, fearing the loss of a finger in that huge bill. 

Tawny Frogmouth

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Kholo Botanic Gardens, Ipswich

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Kholo Botanic Gardens was not my birding target at Ipswich. I was actually looking for the Black-breasted Buttonquail a little further north but was met by a very steep gravel road which I didn't really want to drive the campervan up. As I hastily did a u-turn, I spotted a sign to the gardens and thought I would try my luck.

The garden approach showed immaculate lawns and a small pond. Lots of the tracks were closed due to storm damage but I could walk around the pond and some way into the rainforest. There was also a sweeping view of the Brisbane River to the east.

I could hear Noisy Miners screeching and carrying on and it took me some time to identify the other bird calls but there were a reasonable number of them. The best was a fly by from a Channel-billed Cuckoo calling as it went. 

Back in the pond, it was the lizards that took centre stage. Numerous Water Dragons were soaking up the afternoon sun and I also found a smaller lizard that I couldn't identify at the time. 

                                      

Water Dragon

Water Dragon

Eastern Water Skink

Although there was plenty of birds calling, my only photograph was of a White-faced Heron, fishing in the pond.

White-faced Heron

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Inskip Point, Rainbow Beach

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Rainbow Beach and Inskip Point in particular are just stunning places. You know you are onto something good when there are 5-6 National Park campsites in such a small area and the one we stayed at (M.V. Sarawak) had an incredible 500 spaces. It was pretty empty when we visited and we were grateful for that. 500 sets of campers is a lot of pressure on a few bush toilets!

My first find was a Mangrove Honeyeater and I was thrilled. I have only seen this bird once before, in thick mangrove. I was surprised to see it in open woodland but there was no mistaking the warbling call and facial markings.

Mangrove Honeyeater

As I continued to walk north towards Inskip Point itself I saw some Australasian Figbirds. In Far North Queensland, the male birds are bright yellow and so I was delighted to see this olive green and grey birds.

Male Australasian Figbird

Our first spot on the beach were a pair of Beach Stone Curlew. These are fabulous birds and we hung around until they were comfortable with us and the sun was shining. I have plenty of photos of them from Cairns but never in bright light like this. It was really special.

Beach Stone Curlew

Unfortunately and much to my surprise, the birds were disturbed by a convoy of loud and fast 4WD vehicles tearing up the beach. Turns out, the sand spit at the point is where the ferry over to K'gari Fraser Island leaves from. You can see the island at the top of the map below. It was not a usual ferry, with a terminal building. Vehicles drive up the beach and drive straight on to the ferry that is beached. 

There were other sand bars dotted around with lots of shorebirds on them but some terns braved the thoroughfare and we got close to some of them. They were very beautiful.

Caspian Tern

Great Crest Tern

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Bunya Mountains

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The Bunya Mountains National Park was simply stunning. We explored various spots including a trail through the rainforest. The calm silence being only interrupted by the very loud thump of occasional bunya pine cones falling. These things were as big as a human head and more frightening than any snake we might encounter.

Nevertheless, we loved it here and the birds sang morning, noon and night for us. We slept at the Westcott campground and it was a gorgeous clearing with good facilities and even a large carpet python for company! As the sun came up and warmed the surrounding bushes, lots of small bush birds began flitting about around us. We just sat, watched and photographed them.

Grey Fantail

Variegated Fairywren

Silvereye

White-browed Scrubwren

Further into the forest were groups of Regent and Satin Bowerbird. It is interesting that male bowerbirds are much less visible than the females. Presumably that is because the males are busy building their bowers. I got glimpses of the male Satin Bowerbird but they didn't stick around once they saw me! Female and/or juvenile birds were a bit more obliging. It would be nice to spend more time here to try and find the males and their bowers.

Regent Bowerbird

Satin Bowerbird

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Kumbia

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Kumbia is a tiny village of only around 200-300 residents. The main road through it is quite busy as a main trunk route but it is quiet and peaceful away from it. I was house sitting here and loved walking the streets early in the morning. The birds had changed from further north in Queensland and it was really nice to see them. My first success was seeing a young Australian King-Parrot just outside the house.

Australian King-Parrot

Sitting on the power lines were Dollarbirds and I regularly saw 3-4 on the daily dog walking route. It was an unusual opportunity to get close to them. I've not used a dog as a disguise before but the birds didn't seem to register me as a bird watcher!

Dollarbird

Another new species was the Superb Fairywren and although I have several hundred photos of them in my catalogue, I just couldn't resist. The male bird is blue and a glossy black across the head and back. Females and juveniles were close by as this bird collected food for them.

Male Superb Fairywren

I also visited Gordonbrook Dam which was close to Kingaroy to the east. There was only a small area close to the water that was open but with no-one else around, it was full of birds. On my first visit I flushed at least 4 Latham Snipe but didn't get any photos. There were lots of juvenile birds around and this young flycatcher was a treat to get close to.

Restless Flycatcher

There were lots of rosella and lorikeet feeding in the flowering gum trees but photography was a challenge on windy visits. Trawling the more wooded areas was more successful and the water contained many pelican and cormorants in the distance. There was plenty of noise from the smaller bush birds including from this young kingfisher hounding a nearby adult for some food.

Sacred Kingfisher

My favourite spot of my visits was a White-throated Gerygone. Their call is similar to the Grey Gerygone call of New Zealand which always makes me smile. It is the most brightly coloured of the Australian Gerygones. 

White-throated Gerygone

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Atherton Tablelands

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Mark and I have been spending some time in the Atherton Tablelands over the summer of 2023/24 looking for birds, dragons and frogs. On one particular expedition, I had some leads on the possible location of some owls, probably Barn Owls but maybe Grass Owls as well. We visited the area a couple of times and were quite amazed by the number of birds we saw.

Barn Owl

The most common owl we found was the Barn Owl and we must have seen at least 5 individual birds. They were usually sitting on the fence posts surrounding the cattle fields but we also found them on sign posts and on the ground. If we approached them slowly, most times they would just ignore us.

We saw a couple of Barking Owls we think flying past but we did manage to find this juvenile bird sitting on a post. 

Barking Owl

The highlight of our trips to the Tablelands was when we found an Australasian Grass Owl. They look very similar to Barn Owls but you know when you have found one as they sit in the grass! Their cap is also darker and it was that which we were looking for. When we found this bird, there was no real doubt as to what it was. And it was a beauty!

Australasian Grass Owl

Just to cap off our very fruitful adventures in the Atherton area, we also found this gorgeous little Boyd's Forest Dragon, fast asleep on a branch.

Boyd's Forest Dragon

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