Hasties Swamp monthly bird survey: February and March 2025

Lesley Deacon | Guest Contributor

With various celebrations and busy weeks, this report writer did not find time over February or March to write much. Not that there was much to write about. Having continuing rain and high water levels in the lagoon, the usual summer waterbirds are just not present. And wet weather does tend to discourage the bush birds. The February and March surveys were much the same as the January one.

All survey results can always be found on eBird from the first Friday of each month. They are listed under Hasties Swamp National Park and tagged as being the Birdlife North Queensland monthly survey.

One surprising result in February was finding that the safety work on the stairs had been completed and the hide was open to the public again.

A couple of our regulars eager to test out the new steps. Photo by Lesley Deacon.

Pacific Black Duck and Hardhead were the predominant birds on the water. Hardhead are at home diving in the deeper water. But with few suitable roosting or feeding places at the edges, the swamp has been largely vacant of birds. The usual Nankeen Night-Heron have dispersed and we only saw one remaining straggler.

The one remaining Nankeen Night-Heron straggler. Photo by Peter Valentine.

Breeding was continuing though with the flush vegetation. Young birds were being fed and many juvenile birds were present. The highlight of February was watching a family of Yellow-breasted Boatbill. The Black-faced Monarch continued with nest building and although at least three nests were completed and occupied, we had no evidence that any young were successfully raised.

A contingent of visitors from Cairns in February meant we had extra eyes to spy more species than usual. These included some high-flying Australian Swiftlet and Pacific Swift in front of another rain event, and some Scaly-breasted Munia among the Chestnut-breasted Mannikin, and even an uncommon Brown-backed Honeyeater.

Brown Cuckoo-Dove. There is always at least one seen plucking small fruit from the shrubs and trees. Photo by Peter Valentine.

Our March highlight had to be the antics of two Shining Bronze-Cuckoo. One had adult markings, but surely adult and juvenile Cuckoos do not hang out together?

Shining Bronze-Cuckoo with moth larva in its beak. Note other larvae are rappelling away from underneath the branch. Photo by Peter Valentine.

This photo of the Shining Bronze-Cuckoo shows the distinct striping and the very beautiful shining green of the wings. Note the larvae under the branch. Photo by Peter Valentine.

There was also a raptor sighting. Raptors should be common hunting over the swamp, but we see them only occasionally. This one was a Swamp Harrier and it watched from a dead tree for a while, but unfortunately, a dead tree that was on the other side of the lagoon to us.

So, while there was not a lot of out of the ordinary bird activity over the past two months, we always enjoy our two hours of bird-watching. And while total bird numbers were quite sparse, we did manage to get above the 50 species required for the biscuit reward at bird call.