A Whale of a Day

Our first (and only) full day in Queensland was a doozy, although (mostly) for the right reasons. For the morning we had plans to visit the Sandy Camp Wetlands in Brisbane for birding, followed by a stop at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art. The afternoon was going to be a mini-trip down south to the Gold Coast for a whale-watching trip. It was a full day with a lot of driving, but lots of good things to do and see. 

Unfortunately, things didn't start out perfectly: it turns out that Google Maps isn't always great for navigating confusing Australian expressways, and we ended up taking a wrong turn and getting a bit lost, arriving in Sandy Camp an hour later than we expected. With that delay, we ended up postponing our trip to the museum for the following day, making this a day entirely composed of driving and nature activities- my least favorite and favorite activities, respectively! 

Thankfully, things improved when we got to Sandy Camp- because there were birds of course. Sandy Camp isn't a terribly extensive wetlands, consisting of a small area of mangroves, a few ponds, and a path in between all of that. It does have some great birds, however, many of which were new to me and many of which were very exciting. We started out with some flyby lifers just as we got out of the car: a Blue-faced Honeyeater and a pair of Little Lorikeets. Much more common were the Brown Honeyeaters, the most common honeyeater in mangrove areas, common enough to become annoying after a while.

Brown Honeyeater

When we got to the first two ponds, we saw one of our main targets: a family of Comb-crested Jacanas! All jacanas are weird-looking birds, but these ones are even weirder, with their chicken-like combs. They're found throughout Australasia, and they're even found in Mindanao, their northernmost territory. Unfortunately the only place they're known from is Liguasan Marsh, which is in a part of Mindanao where I'd only visit if I get kidnapped. So I was content to just see them in Australia- much further away, but at least 90% less likely to involve ransom and beheading. 

Comb-crested Jacana

Also present by the ponds were a small flock of Wandering Whistling Ducks (familiar from the Philippines) and Grey Teals, plus Australian White Ibis and a nesting Australasian Darter. In the trees near the pond was a resting Kookaburra and an Australasian Reed Warbler. The Reed Warbler is sometimes considered conspecific with the ones we have in the Philippines (currently considered by IOC and Clemens as Clamorous Reed Warbler, which is a way better name), but it looks and acts different enough that I'm happy calling it a lifer.

Grey Teals and a Wandering Whistling Duck

Australasian Darter on the nest

Australasian Reed Warbler

Laughing Kookaburra

We decided to explore a small path between two ponds for a bit, where I saw some familiar small birds like Scarlet Myzomela, Eastern Spinebill, plus my lifer Mistletoebird. I was trying unsuccessfully to get a clear picture of the Mistletoebird when Nikki called out "Spoonbill!" And sure enough, a Royal Spoonbill was walking along the path in front of us. It was my first spoonbill, and what a fantastic and weird-looking bird. We spent a long time taking pictures of it as it casually foraged in the leaf-litter. 

Royal Spoonbill!

After the Spoonbill had flown off, we kept down the path, getting great views of a sunning Little Pied Cormorant, plus a roosting Hardhead.

Little Pied Cormorant

Hardhead

After about an hour or so at Sandy Camp, things seemed to be quieting down, and we had a whale-watching boat to catch. On the way out, however, we were delayed by great views of a Spangled Drongo, then a flock of Blue-faced Honeyeaters and Noisy Friarbirds, two different kinds of large and strange honeyeaters, foraging in the trees above our car. We also had another look at the Royal Spoonbill, now hiding itself in a flock of bin chickens. 

Spangled Drongo

Noisy Friarbird

Blue-faced Honeyeater

Royal Spoonbill

By the time we left Sandy Camp, we'd seen 42 species, decent but not quite as good as many others had seen around that same time- overall it seemed quieter than I'd expected. Still, I was happy to have seen some more lifers. 

On the way out of Sandy Camp, we decided to stop by the Kianawah Road Wetland (eBird list here), basically just a stretch of grassy lawn in front of some mangroves. It didn't look incredibly impressive, but it held some birds I wanted to see, especially a flock of Red-necked Avocets, beautiful endemic waders. All waders are great, but endemic waders? Even better! Also present was a large flock of Pied Stilts, a Red-kneed Dotterel,  and flyovers from a Collared Sparrowhawk and a Swamp Harrier, two raptors I'd been hoping to see. 

Pied Stilt

Red-necked Avocet

Red-kneed Dotterel

Swamp Harrier

Australian Pelicans

After our quick wader stop, it was a 2-hour drive down from Brisbane to the Gold Coast, where our whale-watching tour would be. The freeways in southeast Queensland are well-maintained and not terribly trafficky, so it wasn't as excruciating of a drive as I'd anticipated. We stopped in central Gold Coast for lunch at a Filipino restaurant with a decent approximation of Pinoy food (albeit way more expensive), then drove to the port area where we would catch our boat. Gold Coast is a bit of a strange city, seemingly constructed entirely for beachgoing tourists and old people wanting to live near the coast in their retirement. It felt a bit like being in Florida, just with different accents and weirder animals.

Our whale-watching boat departed from a jetty in the central tourist district. It was a fairly crowded tour, but with enthusiastic guides who knew quite a bit about whale and the local geographic setting. I'd done whale-watching earlier this year in Hawaii, but I was hoping to get some better views and pictures of whales, as well as perhaps see some more ocean birds, a class of birds I've seen embarrassingly few of.

The first part of the tour went through the Nerang River, which empties into the Pacific at Gold Coast after winding through Surfers Paradise, a suburb full of celebrities with mind-bogglingly expensive riverside mansions. Our guide spent this time pointing out which mansion belonged to which rich person, while I spent it looking for birds in the river. We didn't spot anything terribly exotic, but I did see my lifer of Pied Oystercatcher, plus lots of Australian Pelicans, Silver Gulls, Great Crested Terns, and a flock of Little Corellas.

Silver Gull

Once we got out on the open ocean, things got more interesting. It took the whales quite a while to appear, but while we were waiting for them I spent my time looking out for other pelagic birds, taking as many pictures as I good since the boat was moving around too much for me to ID most of them by sight. The majority of what I saw were Black-headed Gulls and Great Crested Terns, but I did also spot a few Australasian Gannets and a couple of Prions, both of which I'm pretty sure were Fairy Prions. 

The first bird- this one I'm positive is a Fairy Prion, with the clear M shape on the back, the long-ish bill, and lack of any black cap on the head.

The second bird, which I'm also pretty sure is a Fairy Prion

Finally, we started seeing some Humpback Whales. It started with some blowing spouts in the distance, then views of their backs coming out of the water. The boat was able to get close, and the whales were perfectly happy getting close to us themselves. The biologist on board told us that they like to approach any boats around them to check them out. Sometimes they were so close I wasn't able to photograph them with my long lens, and had to use my wide-angle instead! 

The whales we saw were on their way north to breed in the Great Barrier Reef area, as opposed to the ones in Hawaii, which were preparing to head north to Alaska to feed- the migration patterns are reversed, of course, in the southern hemisphere. I think that made these ones a little more energetic and curious, as they had bellies full of krill from the Antarctic Ocean, rather than the ones in Hawaii that had spent the winter almost without feeding as they raised their calves. 

Humpback Whale back!

Whale flukes right next to the boat!

The best part, of course, was the breaching whales. I'd missed getting a picture of the only proper breaching whale we'd seen in Hawaii, so I was really hoping to get a decent picture this time. It took a while for these ones to come out of the water, but soon we had five different whales jumping out of the water right next to the boat! I got only splash pictures of the first four, but on the fifth one I was finally able to get a decent picture, albeit slightly out of focus.

Humpback Whale splash

Yes!

A Great Crested Tern also followed the boat around for about an hour, maybe hoping for us to turn into fisherman and throw some dead fish into the water. It must have been disappointed, but it did allow for some good pictures.

Great Crested Tern

We returned to shore just as the sun began to set, giving us a great look at the Australian coast in the golden-hour light. It was a long drive back to Brisbane, but a good one as it had been a satisfying day with lots of wildlife and fun.

Golden hour on the Gold Coast.