Surveying a new location is always fun, and that’s exactly what happened when we visited McKnight park on the side of the Toowoomba Range.
This park is adjacent to Picnic Point Bushland Reserve, and sits below Duggan Park, so the general area was familiar to us, but given that birds don’t distribute themselves evenly across any environment, there is always the possibility of finding different birds in new but adjacent areas.
A group of seven assembled at the car park and we soon made our way into McKnight’s Park. It was a cool and slightly breezy morning, but lovely and sunny. We soon found this is a very beautiful park, and it’s almost impossible to take a bad photo here.
An early highlight was a group of Silvereyes preening in a lantana thicket. They had the perfect spot – in the sun but set back a little so they were still protected. Even though lantana is an invasive weed it provides great protection for small birds, and replacing it with a native alternative, rather than just removing it altogether, is by far the better option in controlling it.
We conducted four surveys, counting 26 species in total. A lot of gums were in blossom and honeyeaters were prolific, but not lorikeets.
Another highlight was a Brown cuckoo-dove sitting perfectly in the sun which allowed us to see it’s rarely seen iridescent neck feathers.
This was right at the end of our walk where we could also hear a colony of Bell miners.
On the way out there were two Crested shrike-tits in some large eucalypt trees.
Given the natural beauty of the park, the ease of access and the nice range of eucalypt and rainforest habitats I can see many more visits to this location, which the council has only recently opened to the public.
Here is the full bird list for the day:
| Australasian Figbird | Sphecotheres vieilloti |
| Bell Miner | Manorina melanophrys |
| Brown Cuckoo-Dove | Macropygia phasianella |
| Brown Honeyeater | Lichmera indistincta |
| Brown Quail | Synoicus ypsilophorus |
| Brown Thornbill | Acanthiza pusilla |
| Crested Shrike-tit | Falcunculus frontatus |
| Eastern Whipbird | Psophodes olivaceus |
| Eastern Yellow Robin | Eopsaltria australis |
| Golden Whistler | Pachycephala pectoralis |
| Grey Fantail | Rhipidura albiscapa |
| Grey Shrike-thrush | Colluricincla harmonica |
| Lewin’s Honeyeater | Meliphaga lewinii |
| Little Lorikeet | Glossopsitta pusilla |
| Mistletoebird | Dicaeum hirundinaceum |
| Pale-headed Rosella | Platycercus adscitus |
| Rainbow Lorikeet | Trichoglossus moluccanus |
| Red-backed Fairy-wren | Malurus melanocephalus |
| Red-browed Finch | Neochmia temporalis |
| Scaly-breasted Lorikeet | Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus |
| Scarlet Honeyeater | Myzomela sanguinolenta |
| Silvereye | Zosterops lateralis |
| Spotted Pardalote | Pardalotus punctatus |
| White-naped Honeyeater | Melithreptus lunatus |
| White-throated Treecreeper | Cormobates leucophaea |
| Yellow-faced Honeyeater | Caligavis chrysops |
