Dowell Creek revisited

As the Lilli pillies (Syzygium smithii) in Shady Gully are still covered with fruit I thought it might be worth making a second visit to Dowell Creek to check for frugivorous pigeons.  So we took off in the Pajero with some friends.  

Here is the route of our walk, starting on the Fern Gully Track.

 Yes, the Lilli Pilli were well endowed with fruit.

In some cases the top of the tree was clear of fruit and a lot was in the ground, suggesting that the fruiting season was just about over.  However, given the purpose of the visit, the key thing was that no 'special' pigeons were seen or heard.  The only evidence of columbids all visit was he call of a Wonga Pigeon - nice, but not 'special'.

We found some well designed stepping posts across a creek.

 Rain forest was available with a good array of Cyathea australis (tree ferns) in the lower layer. 

 Various bird calls were being emitted from the forest, some of them definitely from a Superb Lyrebird and some others (eg Eastern Whipbird) attributed to the Lyrebird.  Some other calls were not recognisable to me and it wasn't possible to get a look at the calling bird so they became mysteries and were omitted from the list.  It was nice to be able to track one call to a Crescent Honeyeater as it wasn't giving the classic "Egypt" call.

In the open area a Jacky Winter posed nicely.

 A couple of Red-necked Wallabies were also around and looked at us quite intently.

Getting back to the Pajero, parked in a grove of Allocasuarina littoralis, something had been munching on the cones. 

 Option A would be Glossy Black-Cockatoos but they were (unfortunately) no longer in the area.

Dropping our friends off at their house in Karbeethong they showed us a nesting White-headed Pigeon.  This resolved the question of whether they were nesting in the area.