Happy Cyclonic Birthday
How many people do you know get a cyclone for their 70th birthday?
I did. Never mind the socks, hankies, boxes of chocolates or bottles of wine, a cyclone is super special!
We had watched it develop off the north Queensland coast for a week moving slowly south until, on Wednesday (5th) it arrived more or less directly off Brisbane. It was expected to cross the coast early on Friday morning (7th) so, on Thursday evening, my daughter Kara packed up her two boys, Lincoln (11) and Patrick (6) and I brought them all up to my place along with Shadow, the all black Labrador and the doggy love of my life. We settled in for the wait.
Friday dawned and Cyclone Alfred hung off the coast moving only very slowly westwards towards us. It had been a Category 3, but it's intensity diminished to Cat 2 as we waited. It rained most of Friday and the wind picked up as the day progressed.
With all the notice we had had most people had taken action - removing any loose articles out of the garden and off their verandahs and balconies. The government had finally decided to close all the schools in the predicted cyclone area on Thursday and Friday so Kara would not be at work either. Supermarkets started to close around midday on Thursday and public transport stopped on Wednesday night.
Alfred was now predicted 'sometime' on Saturday morning - my birthday. It was moving very, very slowly towards the coast. We ventured out for a walk down to the park at the end of the road to give the boys and dog some exercise, we tried to plan it for a break in the rain, but still got a bit wet.
Midnight on Friday and the wind was pretty wild, howling around the building, the torrential rain horizontal and the trees thrashing and bending. It was pretty scary and I just prayed to whomever that the roof stayed attached!
Kara and the boys slept in my bed and the spare room, while I slept on the couch and Shadow on her mat with Linc in the spare room. I sat up till after midnight but finally fell asleep in my clothes. At 5am on Saturday morning I was awakened by Shadow moving around and realised she was keen to go outside. I had visions of a pitch black dog being picked up and flying away in the wind and wondered how I would ever find her again if that happened. Alfred was predicted to cross the coast around that time but needs must, so down we want to the garden and Shadow did what she had to do before we hurried safely back inside and settled down again. The cyclone had arrived just about then, reaching, but not quite crossing, the coast north of Brisbane (about 50kms away from us) around 6am. It then degenerated into a tropical low and moved north parallel to the coast before crossing later in the morning around Bribie Island.
However it wasn't over yet. It poured rain all day Saturday. I mean poured. An extremely heavy, continuous, torrential downpour. The wind picked up as well - I think the wind that night was pretty close to as bad as it had been the previous night - and the number of customers without electricity rose dramatically. We were lucky. We continued to have electricity and (more importantly where the two boys were concerned) internet. Over 400,000 other people didn't.
The next problem was flooding. There was no danger of that where we were located - 3 floors up and nowhere near any major river systems - but travel in SEQ was going to be a problem. Luckily we didn't need to go anywhere anyway. Ant, my son-in-law, was at work in his role as a sergeant in the Qld police force and reported to us regularly regarding conditions at their home in the Yatala area. There had been no power from Friday night at their place so it was best they were with me. My second daughter, Jade, and her son, Nash (7), lost power around 21.00 on Saturday night. We all hung in.
Sunday it rained heavily all day again, and, although the wind gradually eased off through the day, we still couldn't really go anywhere without getting soaked. Thank goodness we still had electricity and internet....
In the evening I drove down to Jade & Nash taking a gas camping stove and cylinder, a rechargeable camping light and 2 charge packs as, at that stage, it was unlikely we would need any of that emergency gear where we were. The drive down was hairy in that the rain was horrendous, the roads were flooded and impassable in places, but I got down and back without major incident.
Monday and the wind had eased and there were bright spots between the rain showers. Ant was at home and had the generator going. Once again the schools were closed, but roads were flooded, a few houses damaged and hundreds of powerlines down tangled in trees. Kara decided to head home so we packed up and I drove them back via a circuitous route to avoid some local flooding and a stop at Mackers for coffee and milkshakes.
A short time after we arrived and unpacked the car, the power came back on at their place - but much to the boys frustration, not the internet! A tree in their back yard had come down and crushed a section of fence, but other than that they had not sustained any damage.
I left them to it and found my way around some local flooding to Jade's place where I picked up Nash and brought him home with me. He was happy as he now had internet again! I guess it was similar to us when we didn't have TV for a day or two, tech these days is so important to the kids. Mind you, none of my grandsons are overweight or even looking like they're inactive so I see little harm in them spending time on their iPads - especially when they can't go outside and play anyway.
So - a cyclone for my 70th! A pretty rare present!
Bird-wise - I didn't;t get out anywhere, but some amazing birds were seen, especially along the coast. The headliner has to be a Leach's Stormpetrel - that must be one of the first ever seen in Australia. Grey Ternlets, Noddies and a couple of species of Petrels were also reported. I did see a Frigatebird sp from my balcony on Monday morning. It was drifting east back towards the coast. I assume it had been blown inland over the weekend. Unsure of species - potentially a Great, but most likely a Lesser, but a pretty good balcony tick!
15.3.25
Oxley (& Toohey)
Mr D picked me up at 6, on site ten minutes later. We were keen to see how the site had survived Alfred. It did appear that the river had flooded, but there was minimal impact on the environment, no trees down, the track basically the same as always, just obvious signs of high water flow along the way under the trees. The metal fence at the second culvert had been flattened, but other than that nothing remarkable.
The bird life was another matter. It was very quiet. Whether some species had moved out prior to or post the cyclone we couldn’t be sure, but there were few small birds present and numbers in general were pretty minimal.
We did have a Striated Heron perched up on one of the islands in the main pond, a probably Whistling Kite perched up at distance on a fence post and an Australian Hobby slid past at height to perch up distantly on a power pylon.
Breakfast, as usual when birding this site, at Arte and Gusto.
After breakfast Mr D took me to Toohey and showed off a Southern Boobook perched up in, presumably, a nesting hollow. He had found it several weeks previously and it, or they, had hung around the same tree for that time.
16.3.25
Birding Pal Stuff
I picked up Krishna from Singapore at 6am in South Bank. We headed straight out to Sandy Camp. Just inside the entrance a decent sized, many trunked Paperbark had come down across the path in the cyclone and we had to climb over it to gain access; otherwise there was no apparent damage.
We spent almost three hours there. The waterbirds were OK, but the passerines a bit thin on the ground. According to Krishna’s count we achieved 46 species that was, in my opinion, a bit on the low side. Best sightings were a run-across-the-track Spotless Crake and an immature Black-faced Monarch. Fairy-wren-wise we only had three Superb Fairy-wrens, 2 female and one moulting male. We had no finches or flycatchers and few small honeyeaters.
Krishna was a good birder, keen eyes and keen on taking photos and we headed down to the Mangrove Boardwalk around 9.00.
I noted a bit of storm damage to the mangrove edge – a couple of trees over – but the boardwalk itself was untouched. We found Toressian Kingfisher fairly easily with playback, but it took a while to get Mangrove Gerygone and then Leaden Flycatcher and Rufous Fantail to add to the day list of lifers for Krishna.
It was warming up and on the humid side so we stopped off at Mackers for coffee and a chat before heading on to Minnippi and a meeting with Mr P. He had been checking the trees and riverbank and had turned up nothing of interest so we walked, basically, around the lake picking up a few more lifers for Krishna – including Variegated Fairy-wren and Red-browed Finch - but nothing of great consequence. From my perspective a ~1.5 meter Red-bellied Black slithering quickly away into the longer grass was the highlight.
As we crossed the bridge back towards the car Krishna spotted an Australian Hobby on the powerlines some distance away. We said Goodbye to Mr P and Krishna and I walked down the bike path to get better views and photos of the Hobby.
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Australian Hobby (heavily photoshopped) |
Finished that and we headed back to the car and drove out. Just outside the reserve area Krishna called a possible raptor and we stopped.
The bird had perched up in a tree 50 meters from the road over an open carparking area. As we exited the car it swooped low overhead and perched up briefly on a nearby TV aerial before turning and swooping low over us again it swept up and landed facing us on an exposed branch where a couple of Toressian Crows moved in and warily harassed it. It was a Peregrine Falcon and sat for 15 minutes or so, alternately spitting at the Crows and watching us below as we moved in to get outstanding views, photos and videos. Due to the streaking on its chest as opposed to barring we surmised it was a juvenile bird – but strange behavior acting almost Sparrowhawk-like. Brilliant!
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Peregrine Falcon (juv) |
Video
https://youtu.be/V5GQsnKpTBQ
We headed on and went for lunch around 13.30 at Mt Gravatt Lookout.
After lunch we drove to Oxley and set off along the track. Just outside the gate we had a family party of Red-backed Fairy-wrens with a couple of still coloured up males which was a big relief!
The rest of the walk was pretty quiet and we didn’t add many species to his list. Once again, no finches and only a small family of Superb Fairy-wrens with one OK looking male.
By the time we got back to the carpark it was after 17.00 so we drove up to Slaughter Falls, walked the track and settled down to wait for dusk and a hoped for White-throated Nightjar performance.
Unfortunately this didn’t happen, no bird showed and no response to a rather desperate try of encouragement. No response either to Powerful Owl or Owlet Nightjar playback, only a couple of Southern Boobooks calling deep in the forest.
I dropped Krishna ‘home’ at 19.00. It had been a big day and I had to refuse his offer of a drink or dinner, as I was just too exhausted to do anymore! I'm getting too old for this shit.
16.3.25
Oxley
I decided it’d be a good idea to start birding locally again. I really haven’t been doing much for the past year or so. Whatever – I was on site at 6.15. A very damp, muggy, dull morning. It had rained the previous day and overnight and the track was quiet – bird-wise and human-wise.
Not a lot to see – a single Red-browed Finch, two Brown Honeyeaters, that sort of thing. I did have a fleeting glimpse of what I believed was a juvenile Brush Cuckoo. It was in a bush in a field near the ponds and was apparently being harassed by a Brown Honeyeater and a Willy Wagtail. It flew the second I saw it and disappeared into the distance with that typical, rolling cuckoo flight. I scanned the flooded field from near the car park and had a short view of a Whistling Kite circling low over the water before it too vanished behind the trees. That was about it but it was kinda nice to be out and about again.