Hasties-a-go-go!
- Denis Walls
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
Denis Walls | Convenor
Editor’s note: Sincere thanks to noted nature photographer, Steven Nowakowski, for allowing us to publish some of his stunning photographs below. Readers are advised that all Steven’s photographs are protected by copyright. Jennifer H Muir.
On Friday, 6 June 2025, BirdLife Northern Queensland (BLNQ) members undertook their regular monthly bird survey, usually held on the first Friday of each month, at Hasties Swamp National Park on the Atherton Tablelands. The survey report by Lesley Deacon was published in Contact Call in July 2025.
Cairns Birders members followed up that survey by doing a subsequent survey of the birds at Hasties Swamp on Sunday, 8 June 2025. Fifty-four species were recorded at BLNQ’s survey on the Friday, and 60 species were seen or heard on the Cairns Birders’ visit two days later.
These are impressive numbers for only two hours’ birding in BLNQ’s case, and three hours in Cairns Birders’ case. It once again exemplifies how rich and biodiverse Hasties Swamp is.
For the Cairns Birders’ visit, around 20 birders gathered from 7:30 am on the Sunday, and after a slow start the pace of activity quickened as the birds awakened from their early morning winter torpor. You can sometimes start birding too early on chilly mornings. I have noticed, during winter in Cairns, the drop in bird song and activity until around 8:30 in the morning.
After spending time in the Hasties Swamp hide, where a solitary Wandering Whistling-Duck was mingling with a vast swathe of noisy Plumed Whistling-Duck, we paraded up and down the road quickly gathering sightings. The overgrown extension of Koci Rd was finally dry and passable and brought us many of the expected forest species: minus, surprisingly, Yellow-breasted Boatbill.
A few of us got ‘leeched’ but fortunately, not ‘ticked’, and as we rejoined the rest of the group closer to the hide, a lot of the land-based star performers suddenly came out of hiding and put on a show. Golden Whistler, Macleay’s and White-cheeked Honeyeaters, Spectacled Monarch, and Australian Reed-Warbler had had their Sunday morning lie-in and were in need of some breakfast, or to sing a nice wee song to start their day.
Also with us, on the Cairns Birders’ visit, was noted nature photographer, Steven Nowakowski, who has kindly given us permission to include some of the photos he took then.
The Reed-Warbler, in particular, became more daring by the minute and provided excellent photographic opportunities for our happy snappers. Since the publication of Charles Massy’s “Call of the Reed Warbler”, this species has become emblematic of debates around biodiversity decline, so it is wonderful to see and hear this magical bird, still in decent numbers, up here in the Far North.
Bird watching is a wonderful hobby and more and more birders, including BirdLife NQ members, are donning conservation hats, keenly aware of the importance of protecting, and recording the biota of what remains of our natural world. Tropical North Queensland’s Hasties Swamp is a small and iconic part of that.
