Bunya Mountains

We arrive Monday afternoon from Hervey Bay and left this morning (Wednesday) to head back to Gold Coast.  Great trip across agricultural land, mostly cattle with some peanuts.  We had to stop to get this Black Kite along the way.

Bunya Mountains is another type of rainforest with several distinct tree species. Tons of birds came to the feeders at the house we rented with the Crisps.  Everyone could hand feed them if you're patient.

Australian King Parrot

We saw lots of stuff and did three hikes.

 Sulphur-crested Cockatoo - no one hand fed this guy, although he regularly came to the feeder

Satin Bowerbird - collector of blue plastic items for his bower

Wonga Pigeon

 Agile Wallabies males squaring off

Agile Wallaby mother with joey

Fraser Island

Friday was a travel day to Hervey Bay from Gold Coast.  Saturday was touring around Hervey Bay and celebrating Ana's Birthday at night.  Sunday we went to Fraser Island all day.  We had a great day and I'll post just a few photos of the major species.

White-bellied Sea Eagle - related to our Bald Eagle.  They put on quite a show.

Dingo - Australia's wild dog.  This male was the only one we saw and he looks like he has been through a few battles.

Monday is a travel day to the Bunya Mountains and I don't know if I'll be able to post when we're there.  We're back at Gold Coast on Wednesday for a larger update.

Aqua Therapy for the day

We went out on Thursday in Roy's boat Aqua Therapy.  We first went past a Flying Fox colony and got some photos.

Gray-headed Flying Foxes

We also ran into a wide variety of water birds.

Pied Cormorants and Silver Gulls

Pied Oystercatcher

 Soldier Crab

Beach Stone-Curlew - one of the rarest birds in Queensland enjoying a lunch of Soldier Crabs

Brahminy Kite - Roy chummed some fish up with shrimp head and bread.  The kite came in close for a look at the fish.

O'Reilly's at Lamington National Park

We went to the rainforest today and had a great time with the birds.  O'Reilly's has bird feeding and the girls were ready for another one.  Two species that came in are Australian King Parrots (orange red and green) and Crimson Rosellas (crimson and blue). 

 Girls get some additional help from the Brush Turkeys

 Roy joins in on the fun

Some of the other birds we saw.

Regent Bowerbird

Eastern Spinebill

Eastern Whipbird - this was a rare photograph, as this species is usually up in the canopy.  This one was less than 10 feet away from us and people walked by and photographed it as we took photos.

Weather finally breaks

Tuesday morning we went to Currumbin Wildlife Park.  It rained on and off, but we covered the park.  Rain screwed up some the photo opportunities, but that is how it goes sometimes.  The girls got to pet and feed kangaroos.  Here are a few of the critters we ran into.

 Wandering Whistling-Ducks

 Tasmanian Devil

 Wombat

We then got some lunch and proceeded up to Coombabah Wetlands Reserve to see really wild critters.  This place is locally known for seeing kangaroos.  This place did not disappoint.  The weather had cleared up and we were out walking in T-shirts for the first time.  Roy's best day before today was 4 wild Koalas spotted.  We saw six and the high water stopped us from covering more ground.

Eastern Gray Kangaroo

 Koalas - no they are not bears

 Laughing Kookaburra -  better looking and happier than yesterday's bird

 Eastern Gray Kangaroo - Adult males stand close to 5 feet tall

Magpie - coming in for a landing