Goondiwindi Botanic Gardens, Jul 2021

[A stop on the West Queensland Trip Jul-Aug 2021 trip].

Goondiwindi Botanic Gardens is a 25 hectare, flat park in Goondiwindi, about 4 hours drive west of Brisbane. It makes for a pleasant hour or two of birding with a reasonable chance of seeing some good birds.

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The entrance to the gardens is on Brennans Road on the western edge of Goondiwindi, and there’s plenty of parking and some facilities such as a toilet block.

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The first birds me and my birding friend saw here were – perhaps unsurprisingly – Little Corellas, munching in the trees near the car parking area. We then set off on an anti-clockwise circuit around the lake, which initially wasn’t very fruitful for birds – some Apostlebirds scattered quickly and we saw some rather more obliging Kangaroos and what was probably a Whiptail Wallaby – so it wasn’t until nearing the northern end of the gardens that the birding started to pick up.

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A female Red-Winged Parrot was a highlight, as was following a Striated Pardalote who seemed to be in nest-collecting mode. The occasional Double-Barred Finch and Superb Fairywren kept their distance in the “Waterhole” area, though I did nab a shot of a White-Plumed Honeyeater.

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The main lagoon housed a few ducks (Pacific Blacks and Australian Wood Ducks), a Pelican and a Great Egret, so there were a few water birds too.

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A Forest Kingfisher and a Red-Rumped Parrot both provided fleeting looks, and we lingered a long time at the north-eastern section of the gardens, picking up a Little Friarbird, Spiny-Cheeked Honeyeater, more White-Plumed Honeyeaters, and got a couple of in-flight snaps of a Whistling Kite. Honestly it didn’t seem like there should be this many birds here, there is only a modest tree line between the lagoon and the Barron Highway… but there you go.

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Coming round to the eastern side of the gardens, a Spotted Dove was, ahem, spotted in full sunshine, soon after by a lifer bird – a Spotted Bowerbird!

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The Spotted Bowerbird wasn’t close and quickly flew even further away and hence my photographic souvenir of the encounter was poor; however these birds are fairly common in the central/west so I was pretty confident of seeing one again. Next bird was a Grey Shrikethrush, then I spent a few minutes pursuing a Spiny-Cheeked Honeyeater who was hopping through some foliage, finally nabbing a shot I was super happy with. Helps that this is one of my favourite honeyeaters too!

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There followed a period of meandering around the more grassy area in the south-east of the gardens – it was 10am by now and the sun was starting to warm things up. We’d seen a few Noisy Miners so far, and were on the lookout for a Yellow-Throated Miner, and a couple turned up. The grassed area and a few lingering puddles of water seemed quite attractive to a large group of Double-Barred Finches, so we spent more time observing them, also spying some Plum-Headed Finches in there too.

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Goondiwindi Botanic Gardens provided a couple of hours of reasonable birding. It isn’t a massive area, but does have some variation with lagoons, bushland, and wide grassy sections. Most of the nearly 40 bird species I’d seen many times before, but I was incredibly happy to come away with an amazing Spiny-Cheeked Honeyeater photo from here, and for that at least it will hold a special meaning for me.

eBird:
Checklist for this visit (39 species)
Hotspot: Goondiwindi Botanic Gardens (153 species)
Nearby: MacIntyre River (hotspot at Apex Park but decent birding all along the riverside)

Pluses and minuses:
+ Pleasant location that is easy to wander around
+ Decent birds including water birds and raptors
– Relatively small area to explore
– Not as photography-friendly as other botanic gardens can be