2508 Lee Point
I visited Lee Point at sunrise this morning, across the Muirhead/Binybara bushland area, the point itself, the Buffalo Creek mouth and then a few random stops back down along the coast.
Binybara
Binybara is a large area of old growth savanna woodland north of the city. It’s crucial habitat for gouldian finches in particular, which breed in tree hollows and therefore require the trees in this region for their ongoing survival. The site, however, has also been earmarked for clearing by Defence Housing Australia. There is a long-running opposition to DHA’s plans for the site, including protests, political appeals, and legal action.1
The site itself involves a long walk from Lee Point Road past fenced-off bushland, eventually reaching a small dam surrounded by extensive grassland to the north and east and, to the south, some more forest that does not appear to be part of the DHA plot.
As I stood talking to one of the activists on site, a small flock of red-tailed black-cockatoo noisily flew past – my first view of this beautiful parrot. There were white-gaped, rufous banded, dusky and white-throated honeyeaters around, and down on the dam I also found my first bar-breasted honeyeaters. A striated pardalote was calling here as well.
I was on high alert for finch flocks, as a single black-headed male gouldian finch had been located in mixed company in recent weeks. There were plenty of other finches around – I found small mixed flocks of double-barred and chestnut-breasted mannikins all over, but no gouldian among them that I could find. Whoever spotted that bird was extraordinarily patient.
I also found my first paperbark flycatcher, which reminds me heavily of the restless flycatcher back down south, red-backed fairywrens, and pheasant coucals – I was absolutely not prepared for the size of this huge bird, nor for how shy they are.
Other birds included my first brahminy kite of the Territory, carrying nesting material, a couple of red-collared lorikeet, lemon-bellied flycatcher, white-breasted woodswallow and golden-headed cisticola. As I left I accidentally flushed my first blue-winged kookaburra from a low branch.
I found 34 species here in about two hours.
Lee Point
I kept a little further up Lee Point Road and visited the point itself next. Getting out of the car I had rainbow bee-eaters and orange-footed megapode. I timed this visit poorly: the point is well known for being a high-tide shorebird roost, and there have apparently been plenty present, but by 9.30 the tide was way out, and the few shorebirds present were a long way out from shore.
Nevertheless I found plenty of new things on a small rock shelf. My first beach-stone curlew, eastern reef egret, common sandpiper and greater sand-plover, as well as Caspian and crested terns, Ausrtalasian darters, both great and plumed egrets, striated heron, and silver gulls. Along the beach I also watched a black kite harass an Australian hobby – a Territory first – which I later realised was feasting on a varied lorikeet. This would have been my first of these, but it was dead and therefore doesn’t count.
I took a track through the coastal forest here and found northern fantail and what I suspect may have been my first arafura fantail, but I didn’t get quite enough of a look to confirm it.
A sacred kingfisher sat on a very photogenic vine long enough for me to sneak out to the beach and improve the light angle, but I only got a single shot off before it was chased off by a rainbow bee-eater. I’ve never been more upset with what is otherwise one of my favourite birds.
Further along the path I got a few more ticks: yellow white-eyes, a female red-headed honeyeater and two grey whistler. I only got a good look at one of these, a young bird, and I had to go to the Australian Bird Identification Facebook group for confirmation. A small flock of varied lorikeets shot past overhead, being living ticks!
Buffalo Creek
A quick stop at Buffalo Creek to finish this part of the day, with more Brahminy, black and whistling kites. Chestnut rail, little and Torresian kingfishers are the big targets here, but finding any of them at the creek mouth is all luck. There’s a well-known guy who does trips up the creek but I wasn’t able to sort that out, so I dipped on all three here. I did get a long overdue tick in a single eastern curlew that was out on the beach, and a Territory tick in a few pelicans hanging out on a distant sandbar.
Later this same day I also visited the mangroves in Coconut Grove, a well-known location for the otherwise hard to find white-breasted whistler, mangrove golden whistler and mangrove robin. I found the last of these three but not the others, and also had a lifer in large-billed gerygone, and made some stops along Casuarina beach as well, finding another Caspian tern and tree martins. At East Point I didn’t have anything particularly notable – it was late in the day and very hot, so I came back.
- Abbatangelo B. 2023. Binybara is not just home to the Gouldian finch. It’s part of the Larrakia nation. And it deserves protection. Guardian Australia. 12 July. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/11/binybara-is-not-just-home-to-the-gouldian-finch-its-part-of-the-larrakia-nation-and-it-deserves-protection ↩︎