Given that Fay and I managed to
visit only 16 of the now 80 different established locations spread out across
the region one would have expected the monthly tally to be rather on the low
side; not as low as the 28 recorded species of September 2010 when we spent
most of that month in the U.K. but nevertheless a paltry total would not have
surprised. Nothing of the sort
eventuated. September 2013 came in at a
very respectable 110 species; only four species behind the record 114 of
September 2012 and the last two Septembers remain the only ones with tallies
above 100 species.
Allen Road, a sub-strand of the
South Burnett, clearly accounted for some of the unexpectedly high tally;
surveys at the Tarong Power Station, particularly the Black Creek and Cooling
Water Dams, punched above their weight; Berlin Road came good, especially with
the Brown Falcon Falco berigora and
Speckled Warbler Chthonicola sagittata
of the 14th; the Grey Street sewage treatment plant was another
white knight coming to the rescue of an otherwise dismal September prospect.
As expected the passerines took
the lion’s share, accounting for 44% of sightings although this becomes the new
nadir, dropping below the previous low of 48% back in 2002. Of these the honeyeaters topped the species
family distribution charts, as they have since the conception of records back in
April 2001; in 2007 their nearest numerical rivals, the pigeons and doves,
equalled them at 10% of all recorded sightings for the month
September carried its avian
gems. The 14th produce the
Great Crested Grebe Podiceps cristatus
at the Cooling Water Dam and a host of Tree Martins Petrochelidon nigricans flitting over the dam wall on the same
day. Not to be outdone by its sister
reservoir, the Black Creek Dam came up trumps with a Black-faced Monarch Monarcha melanopsis and our only
Golden-headed Cisticola Cisticola exilison
the 29th of the month. The
latter dam went on to produce the sole September Australian Reed-Warbler Acrocephalus orientalis and the second only
Red-browed Finch Neochmia temporalisof
the month. As we were departing the
Power Station complex on the 29th, the region’s first Channel-billed
Cuckoo Scythrops novaehollandiae flew
by overhead.
The Palms National Park, rather a
disappointment over the past few visits, at least partly redeemed itself in our
eyes by presenting us with a Spotted Pardalote Pardalotus punctatus, an Eastern Yellow Robin Eopsiltria austalis, a Little Shrike-thrush Colluricincla megarhyncha and a Scarlet Honeyeater Myzomela sanguinolenta.
To cap matters off, on the 22nd
Berlin Road provided us with good view of an Australasian Pipit Anthus novaeseelandiae.
