Our observer party trekked along the bridle trail below Tobruk Drive Lookout on the Toowoomba eastern escarpment this morning, compiling Birdata records for three 2ha-20 minute sites (previously surveyed by BSQDD) within a 500m radius search area. Conditions were quite good for birding and the tracks were easy walking, though we hoped for a little more sunshine to break through the cloud cover.
Overall, we listed 33 bird species with up to 11 in any one 2ha plot. Yellow-faced Honeyeaters had arrived in recent weeks and were vocal and busy in the canopies—despite very little flowering of eucalypts—while Silvereyes were getting about like mice in the lantana and other shrubs. Other winter visitors also supplementing resident populations included Golden Whistlers, Rose Robin and Spotted Pardalotes.
The latter were highly obliging for us, spending a lot of time checking out banks while perched only a metre above ground level. Presumably some were contemplating possible (tunnel) nest sites.
Cockatoos and Galahs also were inspecting hollows in a way that suggested near-future breeding. The size of the nesting hollows required by these birds underlies the importance of this site and the mature remnant trees present there.
Surprisingly, several of the Variegated Fairy-wrens were males in full colour although at least one was a drab, black-billed bird with pale eye-ring—in typical non-breeding plumage—and showing the distinctive, long graduated tail of its species.
The count of Noisy Miners was relatively high for this area, due to something in a tree hollow that had annoyed several birds and caused many others to fly in from adjacent wooded paddocks and join the kerfuffle.
The network of bridle and walking trails on Toowoomba’s escarpment reliably provides rewarding excursions for birdwatchers and trails are mostly very accessible with gentle grades.
Evidence has accumulated to suggest that this zone of the Range is an important corridor for migration of bush birds: northward in April-June and southward from August through to about October, involving distinctly different bird communities.
Here is the full list for the day:
| Australasian Figbird | Sphecotheres vieilloti |
| Australian King-Parrot | Alisterus scapularis |
| Australian Magpie | Gymnorhina tibicen |
| Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike | Coracina novaehollandiae |
| Brown Cuckoo-Dove | Macropygia phasianella |
| Brown Thornbill | Acanthiza pusilla |
| Eastern Whipbird | Psophodes olivaceus |
| Galah | Eolophus roseicapilla |
| Golden Whistler | Pachycephala pectoralis |
| Grey Fantail | Rhipidura albiscapa |
| Grey Shrike-thrush | Colluricincla harmonica |
| Laughing Kookaburra | Dacelo novaeguineae |
| Lewin’s Honeyeater | Meliphaga lewinii |
| Mistletoebird | Dicaeum hirundinaceum |
| Noisy Miner | Manorina melanocephala |
| Pale-headed Rosella | Platycercus adscitus |
| Pied Currawong | Strepera graculina |
| Rainbow Lorikeet | Trichoglossus moluccanus |
| Red-backed Fairy-wren | Malurus melanocephalus |
| Red-browed Finch | Neochmia temporalis |
| Rose Robin | Petroica rosea |
| Rufous Whistler | Pachycephala rufiventris |
| Scaly-breasted Lorikeet | Trichoglossus chlorolepidotus |
| Scarlet Honeyeater | Myzomela sanguinolenta |
| Silvereye | Zosterops lateralis |
| Spotted Pardalote | Pardalotus punctatus |
| Striated Pardalote | Pardalotus striatus |
| Sulphur-crested Cockatoo | Cacatua galerita |
| Torresian Crow | Corvus orru |
| Variegated Fairy-wren | Malurus lamberti |
| White-naped Honeyeater | Melithreptus lunatus |
| White-throated Treecreeper | Cormobates leucophaea |
| Yellow-faced Honeyeater | Caligavis chrysops |
