A Morning with the Monarchs – Enogerra Reservoir, D’Aguilar National Park – 19th September 2022:
Today I went back to the Enogerra Reservoir as it had been months (January 2022) since my last proper visit completing the full loop. Despite being the first weekday of school holidays, the place was so empty of people. For kilometres on end there were very few people and the water was still without kayaks nor swimmers. There were no joggers huffing and puffing, no loud gossiping walkers, not even mountain bikers on the adjacent trail. An unusually quiet morning that was relished and the birdlife really put on a show this morning.
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The first thing I noticed as I walked in was that I could not hear a single Bell Miner as I commenced the trail. This is highly unusual for the area as they always seem to dominate the upper canopy. At least the resident
Forest Kingfisher remained incredibly easy to find. Must be one of the best places to find this species locally with great reliability. I watched it while it dived for small fish. The best shades of blues shone as the sun hit its plumage. Recent rain has left the pathways thick with vegetation but I didn’t see much until I reached the first large tree. I wasn’t surprised to find two
Eastern Yellow Robins as they are abundant here but was delighted to spot a single
Black-faced Monarch nearby. A slim bird with a relatively even distribution of grey and rufous with a black face and throat. What continually strikes me about them is their large dark deep eyes. The monarchs remained common and I stopped at least another six times to watch them across the trail. A
Spangled Drongo was also nearby calling high in a eucalypt.
Black-faced Monarch
The thicket was rich in song with
Australian King Parrots, Galahs and
Sulphur-crested Cockatoos flying overhead. There were lots of bird calls which definitely included honeyeaters of all sorts, fairywrens, whistlers, scrubwrens, and along with them, the monarchs. Out of this first wave of birds only a pair of
Australian Golden Whistlers made an appearance. Continuing forward, I reached the first ‘bird pond’ which is a known location where lots of small birds come down from the trees for a bath in shallow water. It was a good place to watch the birds if you're quiet and patient. Seeing as there were hardly anyone around, the birds were easy to spot here as they perched low. A vibrant male
Scarlet Honeyeater popped against the green, more Black-faced Monarchs and Australian Golden Whistlers appeared, a
Rufous Fantail chased a
Grey Fantail nearby and the bulk of the bathers were the
Lewin’s Honeyeaters and the ever-melodic
Yellow-faced Honeyeaters. Even a pair of
Variegated Fairywrens were having a wash in the water behind a grass clump. The Enogerra Reservoir can be very hit and miss sometimes but this was a great assortment so far.
Variegated Fairywren
Behind the bathing birds was an opening with tall grass. There I spotted a single
Bar-shouldered Dove that unlike most wild doves didn’t immediately take off into a flurry of flight. There were more fairywrens and robins dotted around the path adding colour and sound particularly around this time of year. A pair of
Whistling Kites circled above as well. My eyes suddenly caught sight of an iridescent figure in a damp patch of the forest where frogs were calling; a gorgeous
Red-bellied Black Snake. It was pushing its face into every crevice searching intensely. It came closer and stopped on a log and then bolted into the marshy grass.
Red-bellied Black Snake
Up the stairs into the drier forest, the
Silvereyes travelled in large feeding flocks and the Yellow-faced Honeyeaters remained common and vocal. The second snake of the day was spotted directly on path, demonstrating how few people there were around today. Initially I thought it was an Eastern Brown but a closer looked revealed it was a lifer; a
Freshwater Snake/Keelback which is one of only a handful of colubrids actually found in Australia. It’s also one of the few native species that can consume Cane Toads successfully. I’ve been keeping an eye out for this species on my travels so was really pleased; now I need to find the Marsh Snakes that are supposedly common at a few Brisbane wetland reserves. A pair of
Red-backed Fairywrens quickly drew my attention back to birds after these memorable snake encounters.
Freshwater Snake/Keelback
There are a few huge hoop pines in the area that are often home to large pigeons. Today I found a single
Brown Cuckoo-Dove resting on a nearby branch with another three of them seen flying towards trees closer to the water. The resting pigeon remained within very clear view allowing me to appreciate that rich chocolate colour and impressively long tail. Definitely among my favourites. More of those wet forest birds made an appearance with incredibly large groups of
Large-billed Scrubwrens adding a great deal of activity, a pair of
White-browed Scrubwrens and a lone
Rufous Shrike-thrush being ticked off. A quick flash of black and white with a dash of rufous also confirmed the presence of a
Varied Triller.
Brown Cuckoo-Dove
It hit 9am and the birds were even more visible. A
White-eared Monarch suddenly appeared among all the scrubwrens. One of the best black-and-white birds out there with a rather intricate patterning of different monochromatic shades. The White-eared Monarch is also a mainly tropical bird that just starts reaching its southerly limit around south-east Queensland though its distribution does reach into northern New South Wales. I was delighted to watch this monarch for a while and Enogerra Reservoir remains the only place where I have seen this species, being only the second time I have found one.
White-eared Monarch
Towards the front portion of the reservoir once more, I retraced a few steps and found a significant increase in birds including a glorious
White-naped Honeyeater in full sun, showcasing that red eye patch vibrantly without hesitation. Flocks of
Red-browed Finches were around and I finally glimpsed a pair of
Eastern Whipbirds after much searching. A British couple walking by asked me what I was looking at. I showed them the photo below and told them whipbirds. They hadn’t heard of such a creature nor their sound and I assured them they’d become very familiar with their calls soon enough. Another, this time Australian, family walked by just as the whipbirds began to emerged out of the leaf litter onto the exposed branch and started their harsh contact call. They too wondered what I was photographing and their reaction was, “THAT’s what a whipbird looks like?”, as they watched them descend into cover again. They were imagining some flamboyant bird to match the iconic calls rather than the retreating, plainly-coloured, ground-loving birds whipbirds actually are. They are just the best birds ever and were a great way to end yet another successful trip to the reservoir.
Eastern Whipbird
