Australian Good Birding Guide: Northern Queensland. Ted Wnorowski

the turf farm, best after the rains. Latham’s Snipes are often sighted in water puddles there.

Morris Creek Road

      Morris Creek Rd, and in particular the saltmarshes near a boat ramp, are the places to look for Zitting Cisticola. The birds are seen mostly on the barbed wire fences on the roadside on the final 400m-long stretch of the road to the boat ramp. The most important spot is about 100m from the boat ramp, at the culvert lined with a few mangroves. GPS coordinates are 19^o28’55’’S and 147^o09’00’’E.

      The Corrick Plains Nature Refuge it is also worth checking (look for an obscure sign at the start of Morris Creek Rd). When we were there, the area was overgrazed to the bare ground however we were lucky to sight one bird on a fence in a belt of tall grass saved from cattle as it was growing outside the fence.

      Zitting Cisticola is a cryptic species, easy to misidentify with Golden-headed Cisticola. The best time to observe them is in the breeding season when the males Zitting Cisticolas perform zig-zag flights, emitting their characteristic zit-zit call.

      When temporary wetlands appear along Morris Creek Rd, thousands of Magpie Geese arrive together with flocks of Whiskered Terns. These are accompanied by smaller numbers of White-winged Black Terns. You will also see Brolgas, Black-necked Storks, Red-kneed Dotterels, Sharp-tailed Sandpipers, White-necked Herons and Plumed Egrets.

      On the mudflats near the boat ramp, Whimbrels, Far Eastern Curlews, Common Greenshanks, Buff-banded Rails, Striated Herons and Little Egrets are often seen. Raptors, mainly Brahminy Kites and White-bellied Sea-Eagles, are often seen patrolling Barramundi Creek.

      Juvenile Striated Heron

Giru Area

      Giru is a small sugar town, located on the banks of Haughton River close to Bruce Hwy, more or less half-way between Townsville and Ayr. It is surrounded by unending sugar cane plantations with countless irrigation canals. The main feature of this town is its large sugar mill. Giru is a good base for exploring large wetlands of the Bowen-Townsville coast. You can stay at the local camping grounds and observe flocks of waterbirds (such as Brolgas and Magpie Geese) flying overhead as they return every evening to their roosting sites.

      To get there, from Bruce Hwy (A1) take Shirbourne Rd or Woodstock-Giru Rd. Facilities in the township include a free camping area, a general store with basic supplies and fuel and a pub.

      About 100 bird species have been recorded in the Giru area. Key species are Plum-headed Finch, Red-rumped Kingfisher, Black-necked Stork and Peregrine Falcon. Other birds of interest include Black-faced Woodswallow, Great Bowerbird, Rufous-throated Honeyeater, Forest Kingfisher and Barn Owl. Rarities include Great-billed Heron, Zitting Cisticola and Red-necked Avocet.

Giru Township

      Check the powerlines in the township; Red-backed Kingfisher, Forest Kingfisher, Rainbow Bee-eater, Spangled Drongo, White-breasted Woodswallow, Black-faced Woodswallow and Nankeen Kestrel can be found there.

      The areas behind the Bowling Club and along railway tracks are good for finches, which find plenty of tall seeding grasses there. We observed a giant flock of Nutmeg Mannikins on the grass stalks. In smaller numbers were Plum-headed Finches, Black-bellied Crimson Finches, Double-barred Finches, Chestnut-breasted Mannikins and House Sparrows. Flowering bottlebrushes near the swimming pool were fantastic for Rufous-throated Honeyeater, Yellow Honeyeater, Yellow-spotted Honeyeater, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Noisy Friarbird, Little Friarbird and Helmeted Friarbird.

      The camping area is ruled by Bush Stone-curlews. We also got Channel-billed Cuckoo, Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo, Pheasant Coucal, Torresian Imperial-Pigeon and Collared Sparrowhawk.

      Channel-billed Cuckoos

      Our main fascination was observing raptors catching Rainbow Lorikeets. A water tower near the Police Station is used by raptors as a landing pad after hunting lorikeets that flock to the sugar mill to gorge on the sweet product. They emerge from the feast so heavy that Peregrine Falcons, Australian Hobbies and Barn Owls have no problems catching them.

Cromarty Creek Boat Ramp

      In Giru, turn into Walton St (driving over the railway tracks), next turn left into Donaghue St then right into Cromarty Creek Boat Ramp Rd; look for a small directional sign at the turnoff.

      On your way, check a shallow lagoon on the left of Cromarty Creek Boat Ramp Rd – this is a good site for the waders. Site coordinates here are 19^o29’40’’S and 147^o05’45’’E. We found a large flock of Red-necked Avocets and also Pied Stilts, Common Greenshanks and a pair of Black-necked Storks. Otherwise, the lagoon was filled with Australian Pelicans, Pacific Black Ducks and Black Swans. About 100 Whiskered Terns were feeding over a wet paddock nearby. Other species in the lagoon included Glossy Ibis, Yellow-billed Spoonbill, Great Egret, White-necked Heron and Magpie Goose. Grassy paddocks surrounding the lagoon yielded Golden-headed Cisticola, Horsfield’s Bushlark, Zebra Finch and Australian Bustard.

      Further down the road we reached the second creek crossing, then saltpans and saltmarshes. Zitting Cisticola was recorded in the saltmarshes several times but it did not make an appearance for us.

      In the mangroves at the end of the road we had an excellent find of Mangrove Robin. Also, Mangrove Gerygones and Mangrove Honeyeaters were singing loudly. A female Shining Flycatcher was on the ground by the boat ramp.

      Occasionally, Great-billed Herons are sighted in this area.

Bowling Green Bay National Park

      Bowling Green Bay National Park covers 57,900ha of coastal and mountainous country and is located approximately 25km south of Townsville. The Park is divided into three separate sections: Mount Elliot, Cape Cleveland and Bowling Green Bay. The importance of the Park lies in the diversity of its habitats, from the mangroves at the coast to the rainforest at the altitude of 1,200m on Mt Elliot. The wetlands of Bowling Green Bay are so valuable that they have been recognised as a Ramsar site. They are famous for their mass congregations of waterbirds, in particular Brolgas and Magpie Geese.

      There are separate entry routes to separate sections of the Park. See map of Bowling Green Bay National Park, downloadable here: https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/bowling-green-bay/pdf/bowling-green-bay-locality.pdf. Most of tourists and birders go to the Mt Elliot section which has easy access and good facilities. In that section, you’ll find the Alligator Creek camping and day-use areas, a boardwalk leading to a fantastic waterhole and a network of short walking tracks. Other sections have only very basic camping sites with no facilities; these are Barratta Creek camping site in the Bowling Green Bay section and Cocoa Creek and Salmon Creek campsites in the Cape Cleveland section. These are utilised mostly by anglers, a 4WD vehicle with good clearance is a must there.

Mount Elliot Section

      To get there, from Bruce Hwy (A1) turn west into Alligator Creek Rd about 20km south of Townsville. Drive 6km along the creek to the picnic area and the campsite in the Park. A boardwalk lined with bottlebrushes and figs starts at the far end of the campsite. It will take you to the waterhole.

      Waterhole at the end of the boardwalk, lined with flowering bottlebrushes

      Birding in this section is largely done at the base of Mt Elliot because the mountain is practically not accessible. The vine scrub along Alligator Creek is the best option. The rainforest species migrate down to this area