Lake Manchester Campout
18 - 19 Nov 2006
Lake Manchester, Moggill Forest Reserve and Gold Creek Reservoir make up
part of the southern section of the D’Aguilar Range section of protected
forest. These reserves lie just west of the city of Brisbane.
Nine people attended this bird surveying weekend on the 18th and 19th of November, camping in the Lake Manchester Hall kindly loaned to us by Brisbane Water.
The Environmental Protection Agency provided vehicular access to areas of protected forest in Moggill Forest Reserve and walking access to sections of Lake Manchester and Gold Creek Reservoir.
Five (5) within 500m of a central point area surveys were completed over the 1½ days. Bird surveyors experienced a range of difficulties in traversing terrain by foot, especially at Lake Manchester and Moggill Forest Reserve as they clambered up to the top of knolls.
Ninety-three species were sighted Torresian Crow, Pied Butcherbird, Grey Butcherbird, Australian Magpie, Pied Currawong, Fantail Cuckoo, Pheasant Coucal, Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo, Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, Black-eared Cuckoo, Pallid Cuckoo, Brush Cuckoo, Common Koel, Channel-billed Cuckoo, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Little Lorikeet, Pale-headed Rosella, Scaly-breasted Lorikeet, Rainbow Lorikeet, Pacific Black Duck, Hardhead, Black Swan, Brown Goshawk, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Nankeen Kestrel, Whistling Kite, Variegated Fairy-wren, Red-backed Fairy-wren, White-browed Scrubwren, Large-billed Scrubwren, Red-browed Finch, Silvereye, Golden-headed Cisticola, Tawny Grassbird, Striated Thornbill, Brown Thornbill, Buff-rumped Thornbill, White-throated Treecreeper, varied Sittella, Brown Gerygone, White-throated Gerygone, Weebill, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Brown Honeyeater, Noisy Miner, Bell Miner, Lewin's Honeyeater, White-throated Honeyeater, White-naped Honeyeater, Scarlet Honeyeater, Noisy Friarbird, Dusky Moorhen, Great Crested Grebe, Purple Swamphen, Australasian Grebe, Great Egret, White-faced Heron, Comb-crested Jacana, Laughing Kookaburra, Dollarbird, Rainbow Bee-eater, Forest Kingfisher, Magpie-lark, Spectacled Monarch, Rufous Fantail, Australian Brush Turkey, Painted Button-quail, Spangled Drongo, Olive-backed Oriole, Figbird, Little Black Cormorant, Bar-shouldered Dove, Peaceful Dove, Wonga Pigeon, Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Common Bronzewing, Rose-crowned Fruit-dove, Spotted Turtle-dove, Mistletoebird, Striated Pardalote, Eastern Yellow Robin, Leaden Flycatcher, Golden Whistler, Rufous Whistler, White-throated Needletail, Welcome Swallow, Grey Shrike-thrush, Little Shrike-thrush, Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Cicadabird, Varied Triller Black-fronted Dotterel and Eastern Whipbird.
Of special note was the sighting of a Black-eared Cuckoo (photo left), this
was sighted by several members for 20 minutes in the company of a Shining
Bronze-Cuckoo flying between hop bushes and the ground. Other Black-eared
Cuckoos could be heard calling from the habitat photographed above.
One particularly rich area in Moggill Forest Reserve for birds was a wet gully known as Ugly Gully; members can be seen enjoying their birding in the photograph below. Thirty-four (34) species were sighted within this area.
Other areas during the weekend had the following bird counts Lake Manchester
Dam break 11 – 44 species, Moggill Forest Reserve Chalcot Road end – 25
species, Moggill Forest Reserve Mill Road end – 24 species and Gold
Creek Reservoir – 69 species.
Gold Creek Reservoir was particularly rich encompassing five different habitats in the one survey area – rainforest, wet schlerophyll, dry schlerophyll with wattle understorey, grasslands and dam.
Moggill Forest Reserve also was varied in habitat containg open woodlands,
gully rainforest and subtropical rainforest (pictured left at Pullen Creek
Mill road end).
BASQ will conduct its next survey in this area in May 2007 on the long weekend of the 5th to the 7th. We look forwarded to seeing you there.
Dez Wells