Australian Good Birding Guide: Southern & Central Queensland. Ted Wnorowski

Park

      The southern section, featuring Mount Glorious, is easily accessible. A good sealed road runs through the National Park from The Gap in the east to the Wivehoe Dam in the west, connecting the picturesque mountain villages of Mount Nebo and Mount Glorious. To get there, take Mount Nebo Rd (31) from Brisbane via The Gap or take Mount Glorious Rd to reach Mount Glorious from Samford Village.

      D’Aguilar National Park is a well-developed and popular tourist destination with countless picnic areas, lookouts, the Walkabout Creek Discovery Centre and a network of walking tracks with bush camping sites. The south section track map and the D’Aguilar locality map can be downloaded from here:

        https://www.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/daguilar/pdf/south-daguilar-trail-map.pdf

       https://www.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/daguilar/pdf/daguilar-locality-map.pdf.

      The northern section is different and is accessible mostly with high-clearance 4WD vehicles. To get there from the south, travel through Samford Village and Dayboro on Mount Samson Rd (22) and turn north onto Mount Mee Rd (58) in Dayboro. Travel for a fair distance on this road, then turn left into Sellin Rd which will take you to the Park.

      To get to the northern part of this section, get to Woodford on D’Aguilar Hwy (58) and take Neurum Rd to the west. Next, turn left into Stanton Rd. Take the first right to stay on Stanton Rd, followed by a right turn to Rasmussen Rd which will lead you to the Park.

      Mount Mee forest trail map can be downloaded here: https://www.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/daguilar/pdf/mount-mee-trail-map.pdf. You must be self-sufficient when visiting this area. Facilities are rudimentary to say the least.

      Over 200 bird species have been found across the whole D’Aguilar National Park. Key species are Masked Owl, Greater Sooty Owl, Marbled Frogmouth, Spotted Quail-thrush, Russet-tailed Thrush, Regent Bowerbird, Paradise Riflebird and Noisy Pitta. Other notable birds include Green Catbird, Australian Logrunner, Pale-yellow Robin, Crested Shrike-tit, Red-browed Treecreeper, White-eared Monarch, Spectacled Monarch, Bell Miner, Bush Stone-curlew, Powerful Owl and White-throated Nightjar. Among the rarities are Black-breasted Button-quail, Oriental Cuckoo, Speckled Warbler and Barred Cuckoo-shrike.

Walkabout Creek Discovery Centre

      The Discovery Centre also houses the National Park Headquarters. A nearly century-old Enoggera Reservoir, now used only for recreational purposes, is located at this site, 12km from Brisbane CBD. The address is 60 Mount Nebo Rd, The Gap.

      The main attraction to the birders is a 5km-long Araucaria Track. The walk starts at the Discovery Centre, runs past a giant hoop pine and continues along the Reservoir edge before looping back to the Centre on the Reservoir’s peninsula. The Visitor Centre and its carpark are open from 9am but the entrance to the track is always open, you just need to park on Mount Nebo Rd.

      The map of the Walkabout Creek Discovery Centre area can be downloaded here: https://www.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/daguilar/pdf/walkabout-creek.pdf.

      Around the Discovery Centre, look for Bush Stone-curlews; they usually rest under the sparse trees. Countless Australian Brush-turkeys wander around the site. Red-browed Finches move in large flocks, picking crumbs from the picnic tables. Other birds here include White-eared Monarch, Little Lorikeet, Pale-headed Rosella, Eastern Whipbird and Shining Bronze-cuckoo. Even Spotted Quail-thrush was reported feeding in the mulch.

      We walked along Araucaria Tk one late autumn when the bush was alive with the birds. Eastern Whipbirds were calling from everywhere and Scarlet Honeyeaters were singing from the tops of nearly every tree – we counted over a hundred. The highlight of our walk was a sighting of eight Shining Bronze-cuckoos, all feeding in one tree. Other birds on the track included Varied Sittella, Forest Kingfisher, White-breasted Cuckoo-shrike, White-headed Pigeon, Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Bush Stone-curlew, Little Lorikeet and Pacific Baza. We watched a group of honeyeaters bathing in a puddle near the lake. It was good to be able to compare the differences between White-naped and White-throated Honeyeater at a close range. In the queue to the paddle were also Eastern Spinebill, Striped Honeyeater and Brown Honeyeater. Everybody dispersed when a flock of Noisy Miners arrived and took over the stage.

      On the water, we got Hardhead, Plumed Whistling-Duck and a good number of Great Crested Grebes. Among the lily pads were Comb-crested Jacana and Pied Stilt. Azure Kingfishers are regularly observed along the water edge.

      A pair of resident White-bellied Sea-Eagles were patrolling the lake.

      Black-breasted Button-quail used to be found at this site, last time it was recorded in 2009. We found several platelets along the track, but these must have been left by Painted Button-quail, regularly found here.

      Pale-vented Bush-hen may be sighted in the vegetation along the edge of the creek.

      Spotlighting here may be worthwhile; look for White-throated Nightjar, Tawny Frogmouth, Powerful Owl, Barking Owl and Southern Boobook.

      In the Discovery Centre, we admired a photo taken in 2008, of a Barking Owl with Tawny Frogmouth as its prey.

      Additional birds reported from this site include Spectacled Monarch, Common Cicadabird, Russet-tailed Thrush, Noisy Pitta, Topknot Pigeon, Large-billed Scrubwren, Restless Flycatcher, Rose Robin and Square-tailed Kite.

Bellbird Grove

      This is a fabulous picnic area with plenty of good facilities and good birding. To get there, from Mount Nebo Rd shortly past the Discovery Centre turn right into well-signposted Bellbird Grove picnic site. Two short walks start from this site, both are worth exploring.

      It is a good place for Spotted Quail-thrush; they can be found on the access road to the site however the best location is the entrance to the AC1 break 500m west of the turnoff to Bellbird Grove from Mount Nebo Rd, site coordinates are 27^o25’44’’S and 152^o53’54’’E.

      In the Bellbird Grove picnic area, look for a family of Bush Stone-curlews, they will be standing somewhere there. Wonga Pigeons strut around the site. Oriental Cuckoos are regular visitors. In March 2018 three of them were reported.

      Other birds at Bellbird Grove include Spectacled Monarch, Painted Button-quail, Little Lorikeet, Buff-rumped Thornbill, Little Bronze-cuckoo and Brush Cuckoo.

      This is a good place for the night birds, in particular for White-throated Nightjar and Australian Owlet-nightjar.

Jollys Lookout

      This is the next good stop along Mount Nebo Rd. It is considered by some to be the most beautiful place in Brisbane. The story goes that the Mayor of Brisbane, Mr William Jolly, fell so much in love with this spot that in 1930, in times of Great Depression, he built the most expensive sealed road for the Brisbanites to have an easy access to the lookout.

      A large colony of Bell Miners is located nearby so the site is drowned in their incessant calls. Wedge-tailed Eagle and Peregrine Falcon soar over the mountain. A 4km-long Thylogale Tk connect the lookout with the Boombana picnic area. On the first 2km of the walk, you may encounter Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Topknot Pigeon, Green Catbird, Crimson Rosella, Brown Gerygone, Black-faced Monarch and Common Cicadabird.

Boombana Picnic Area

      This picnic area is located between Jollys Lookout and the Mouth Nebo township. It is a lovely, secluded spot. There are two tracks starting there: 1.1km Pitta Circuit and 8km return Thylogale Walking Track.

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