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 it…
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 popular…
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 is…
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 we…
Iron Range and Cairns, Nov 2023
One of the last great frontiers for Australian birding is tropical Cape York in far north Queensland, and the jewel in that crown belongs to Iron Range National Park, a low-level rainforest where the birds and plants are more influenced by nearby Papua New Guinea than by Australia. Our birding group had booked for August…
Around Perth, Oct 2023
We traveled to Perth (via two weeks in South Australia) in order to watch three Matildas Olympic qualifying football matches held in the city across the course of a week. Which naturally led to the question of what to do in between game days… which naturally led to the answer of: go birding at as…
Adelaide to Port Augusta Trip, Oct 2023
A 12-day road trip made from October 14 to 25, 2023, starting and ending at Adelaide in South Australia, and driven by the (admittedly incredibly weak) excuse that we wanted to break up our flight from Brisbane to Perth. Call it a nearly two week layover, if you will… The Amazing And Truly Excellent Bird…
Mt Isa Long Weekend, Sep 2023
It may not be everyone’s cup of tea to jet away to the outback town of Mt Isa for a long weekend. It’s generally hot and there isn’t a whole lot to do as a tourist in the area – it is largely a mining town, after all. But there are some pretty cool birds…
Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge and Katherine, Jul 2022
[A stop on the Litchfield + Katherine + Kununurra, Jul-Aug 2022 Trip] Dates of visit: 31 Jul to 2 Aug, 2022 Katherine is an outback town in the Northern Territory some 320km south-east of Darwin. It has a number of birding hotspots that are worth a visit if you happen to be in the area,…
Edith Falls, Jul 2022
[A stop on the Litchfield + Katherine + Kununurra, Jul-Aug 2022 Trip] Date of visit: 31 Jul 2022 Leliyn (Edith Falls) is a delightful waterfall and waterhole in Nitmiluk National Park, 290km south of Darwin and 60km north of Katherine. It (and some spots on the road in) have long been fabled areas to find…
Litchfield National Park, Jul 2022
[A stop on the Litchfield + Katherine + Kununurra, Jul-Aug 2022 Trip] Date of visit: Jul 30, 2022 Litchfield National Park is a scenic gem of the Top End in the Northern Territory. It is about 15000 square kilometers in size and is 90km south of Darwin. In this post we cover five of the…
Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens, 2022-2023
Summary: Gorgeous inner city gardens with plenty of variety of plants and birds Date of visits: Nov 13, 2022 and Aug 1, 2023 It’s no secret that we like the bird photography possibilities at botanic gardens here at Bird Spots, with glowing reviews of Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens in Hobart, the George Darwin Botanic Gardens…
Charlotte Plains Station, Jul 2023
Summary: Large sheep station with some good birding areas and accommodation Dates of visit: July 14 to 16, 2023 Charlotte Plains Station is a family-owned and operated sheep station near Cunnamulla in west Queensland. It offers a large (67,000 acres) property for birding along with accommodation options including cabins and camping. There are two main entrances to…
Bunya Mountains, Dec 2021
Summary: Village accommodation in the heart of superb bird-rich rainforest Dates of visit: 28-30 Dec 2021 Bunya Mountains is an isolated section of the Great Dividing Range about three hours north-west of Brisbane which features some very nice rainforest, natural grassland “balds” as well as boasting the largest stand of bunya pines in the world.…
Red Centre Trip, Jun 2023
We took a winter trip to the “Red Centre” – Alice Springs and surrounds, and down to Uluru and Kata Tjuta – from June 9 to 22, 2023, to see what birds we could find. If this area conjures up images of the desert in your mind, you’re not far off – it’s arid all…
Eaglehawk Neck Pelagic, Jun 2023
Summary: Awesome seabird-watching trip off the south-eastern coast of Tasmania Dates of visit: Jun 3 and 4, 2023 The pelagic boat trip from Eaglehawk Neck is one of the highest-calibre seabird watching adventures you can take in Australian waters. It starts from the south-eastern tip of Tasmania, where you have an amazing opportunity to see…
West Lake Robina, 2021-2023
Summary: Fairly typical Gold Coast suburban lake with some interesting bird life Dates of visit: Various from April 2021 to April 2023 I’m covering West Lake Robina on the Gold Coast in Queensland here not because it’s a stand-out birding location, but more as a case study in observing a “local patch” over an extended…
Whites Hill Reserve, 2020-2023
Summary: Large forest that is a cut above many similar reserves in Brisbane for birding Dates of visit: 6 visits from July 2020 to March 2023 More heavily birded than Toohey Forest, Karawatha Forest, Bunyaville and possibly even Mt Coot-tha, Whites Hill Reserve in Camp Hill is one of the best dry forest birding locations…
Flat Rock, Ballina, 2022-2023
Summary: Tidal outcrop offering terrific close encounters with terns and other birds Dates of visit: Apr 26 2022, Apr 5 and 11 2023 Flat Rock is a tidal rocky outcrop just north-east of the town of Ballina on the northern NSW coast. It’s a great place to watch terns and a mixture of other seabirds…
NSW Coast and Hunter Valley Trip, Easter 2023
It was supposed to be a trip that was pretty light on birding, and more filled with good food and wine, and of course copious amounts of Easter treats. But somehow we saw a ton of birds along the way (“the way” being Brisbane down the coast to Newcastle and then inland to the Hunter…
Gold Coast Regional Botanic Gardens, 2020-2022
Summary: Lovely compact gardens good for getting up close to water birds Dates of visits: Aug 5 2020, Feb 19 2022, Nov 20 2022 The Gold Coast Botanic Gardens sits roughly in the middle of the city of the Gold Coast, and like many botanic gardens, is worth your time if you like high-quality, often…
Bunyaville Conservation Park, 2021-2023
Summary: Large eucalypt-dominated forest with many biking tracks that can be hit-and-miss for birds Dates of visit: Mar 25, 2021 and Mar 7, 2023 Bunyaville Conservation Park, established in 1917, is one of the larger forest parks in Brisbane, and lies on the northside in the suburb of Bunya. It should definitely not be confused…
Postman’s Track, Feb 2021
Summary: Well-located hotspot with potential for large number of bird species Date of visit: Feb 21, 2021 The Samford district north-west of Brisbane hosts an impressive collection of birding hotspots. A bonanza of habitats and birds result from its location on the eastern edge of the D’Aguilar range where it meets Moreton Bay catchments. The two hotspot…
Southport Pelagic, 2021-2022
Summary: A full day of seabird spotting on the big bad ocean Dates of visits: Dec 18 2021 and Apr 16 2022 Pelagic boat trips are generally volunteer-organised events held once a month (depending on location) where a small group of enthusiastic birders head out to the open sea on a chartered vessel in search…
Sam’s Track, Jan 2023
Summary: Out-of-the-way bush birding site reliable for some harder-to-find species Date of visit: 27 Jan, 2023 Sam’s Track is 1 hour 20 west of Toowoomba, and feels like the proverbial middle of nowhere. The track itself is totally unmarked and the entry difficult to find if you don’t know it’s there, and there’s not much…
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