Irongate is a gorgeous little conservation block just outside of Pittsworth, and it is mainly surrounded by farm land. This was our second visit to the site, almost a year to the day after our first visit, and we found an abundance of birdlife.
There were 6 of us on the day and having been here before we decided we’d survey the same sites as we did a year ago – these are outlined below and if you’d like to survey the same sites you can download a GPX or KML file here and then open them in a GPS device or Google Earth.
So we divided into 3 groups – Scot and Rob, Alistair and Trish, and Nicci and Mark – and just rotated around so we each surveyed every plot – doing 20 minute/2 hectare surveys.
An incidental survey was added as well for some notable additions we saw outside of the 9 surveys – giving a total of 10 surveys for the day. The full data can be seen in birdata here . We saw a total of 33 species, which is down from the same surveys last year when we saw 37 species. I don’ t think there’s anything particular in this, and we saw some species that we didn’t see last time. The overall list for Irongate is 124 species.
Here’s the list of everything we saw on the day
| Australian Magpie | Gymnorhina tibicen |
| Australian Wood Duck | Chenonetta jubata |
| Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike | Coracina novaehollandiae |
| Black-shouldered Kite | Elanus axillaris |
| Brown Honeyeater | Lichmera indistincta |
| Cockatiel | Nymphicus hollandicus |
| Crested Pigeon | Ocyphaps lophotes |
| Double-barred Finch | Taeniopygia bichenovii |
| Galah | Eolophus roseicapilla |
| Golden Whistler | Pachycephala pectoralis |
| Grey Butcherbird | Cracticus torquatus |
| Grey Fantail | Rhipidura fuliginosa |
| Laughing Kookaburra | Dacelo novaeguineae |
| Magpie-lark | Grallina cyanoleuca |
| Mistletoebird | Dicaeum hirundinaceum |
| Noisy Miner | Manorina melanocephala |
| Pacific Black Duck | Anas superciliosa |
| Pale-headed Rosella | Platycercus adscitus |
| Pheasant Coucal | Centropus phasianinus |
| Pied Butcherbird | Cracticus nigrogularis |
| Pied Currawong | Strepera graculina |
| Shining Bronze-Cuckoo | Chalcites lucidus |
| Silvereye | Zosterops lateralis |
| Speckled Warbler | Pyrrholaemus sagittatus |
| Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater | Acanthagenys rufogularis |
| Spotted Dove | Streptopelia chinensis |
| Superb Fairy-wren | Malurus cyaneus |
| Torresian Crow | Corvus orru |
| Variegated Fairy-wren | Malurus lamberti |
| White-browed Scrubwren | Sericornis frontalis |
| Willie Wagtail | Rhipidura leucophrys |
| Yellow Thornbill | Acanthiza nana |
| Yellow-faced Honeyeater | Caligavis chrysops |
I’m afraid no photos of birds on the day (too busy watching them!) – but there are some nice scenery shots
For more information on Irongate here is the Toowoomba Regional Council’s web page about it and here it is in google maps.
The Pittsworth Landcare group have done a terrific job of establishing and maintaining the site, and here is a booklet on the plant life of the park – just click this link to download it as a PDF file.
