Summary: Remote tropical lowland rainforest with unique and special birding Dates of visit: Nov 13 to 17, 2023 Kutini-Payamu or Iron Range National Park is a large national park in Cape York, right at the top of Queensland. Biologically this region is heavily influenced by nearby Papua New Guinea, providing a smorgasbord of birds thatContinue reading “Iron Range, Nov 2023”
Author Archives: birdspots
Birding in the Pacific Northwest, 2024
We were never going to pretend that this leg of our epic Central and North America trip was going to be a comprehensive tour of the Pacific Northwest; that would probably take months to do properly. But we would dabble here and there: fly into Seattle, explore a few parks and places around there, headContinue reading “Birding in the Pacific Northwest, 2024”
Birding in Chicago, 2024
Chicago, the windy city, hosts many migrating birds in spring and in May 2024 also hosted two Australian bird enthusiasts. Was it windy? Yes, and it was sometimes rainy, but fortunately we had a few sunny days to explore some major hotspots as well as appreciate the impressive city architecture and a few of theContinue reading “Birding in Chicago, 2024”
Birding in Arizona and Nevada, 2024
The next region on our epic five-week North American birding tour started with big ole Arizona. We flew into Tucson from Texas (another state that experiences an influx during migration) and drove straight to Portal way down in south-east Arizona. We then worked our way back west and north, in what came to be theContinue reading “Birding in Arizona and Nevada, 2024”
Birding in south Texas, 2024
Texas! It’s the Lone Star state, where everything is bigger. But did you know that south Texas is one of the most biodiverse areas in the USA? We did, so we planned to go there as the first stop on our 5-week North America birding trip. It was mid-April, just getting into the peak levelsContinue reading “Birding in south Texas, 2024”
Birding in Costa Rica, 2024
Costa Rica has long been known as a birder’s paradise and is one of the best, if not the best country in Central America to spend some time birding in. We flew direct from Brisbane, Australia to Los Angeles and then after a mere six hour layover, into San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.Continue reading “Birding in Costa Rica, 2024”
Green Island, Nov 2023
Summary: Lovely rainforest island not far from Cairns with some interesting birdlife Date of visit: Nov 18 2023 Green Island is a small island of 12 hectares in the Great Barrier Reef, accessible in around 40 minutes by ferry from Cairns. It is the only coral cay on the reef that has rainforest, and itContinue reading “Green Island, Nov 2023”
Lake Moondarra, 2021 and 2023
Summary: Huge lake in the outback that acts like a giant magnet for birds Dates of visits: July 21 2021, Sep 30 2023, Oct 2 2023 Lake Moondarra is a huge artificial lake 16km north of the outback township of Mount Isa in western Queensland. It is stocked with fish every year making it popularContinue reading “Lake Moondarra, 2021 and 2023”
Lake Argyle Cruise, Aug 2023
Summary: Terrific trip with bird and wildlife spotting on a huge man-made lake; guaranteed Yellow Chats Date of visit: Aug 4, 2022 The completion of the Ord River Dam in the 1970’s created Lake Argyle, one of the largest freshwater lakes in Australia, lying about 60km to the south-west of Kununurra in WA. It isContinue reading “Lake Argyle Cruise, Aug 2023”
Kununurra, Aug 2022
Summary: Great base for exploring the area and finding finches and other birds Dates of visit: Aug 3 to 6 , 2022 Kununurra is a large town in the north-east corner of Western Australia, and has a reputation for being the finch capital of Australia. It drew us there for that very reason (because weContinue reading “Kununurra, Aug 2022”