Eungella Dam

Visited: Autumn

Recommendation: There is so much more to see at Eungella than just the endemic honeyeater. The area is beautiful, it provides well for travellers and the wildlife is abundant.

I visited Eungella - to see the Eungella Honeyeater. It can, not surprisingly, only be found there. A tiny stretch of hills with this endemic honeyeater. The road upwards was daunting with lots of warning signs. It was a little nervewracking, very steep. Once at the top it is a beautiful drive to the township of Eungella which I just passed through. We were staying at the dam some 30km further on, including over 20km of unsealed road. My poor van. It does not cope well with gravel and as usual, we counted every bone jarring kilometre. But it was so worth it. The campsite is huge with so much space alongside the water. There were very few people there during our stay and we were able to relax in the peace.

We were not immediately overwhelmed with bird activity but it was so pleasant that we didn't mind too much. We walked along the water and saw dotterel, ducks and darter. We were really pleased to see a Great Crested Grebe but it never came close to the shore. The cormorant and darter seemed to have favoured spots to sit and dry their wings and once we knew where, we were able to get close to the darter for some photos. I had never seen one with such variable plumage.

Australian Darter (Anhinga novaehollandiae)

We walked or drove several times around to the dam itself and while it was not accessible, there was a lot of activity in the surrounding trees and slopes down to the lake. My favourite was a Striated Pardelote which hovered around us, calling incessantly.

Striated Pardalote (Pardalotus striatus)

Back at the camp, we came across Yellow-throated Miner which I had only briefly seen in Townsville. They seemed to hang around the same spot so we used the vans as hides to get closer to them.

Yellow-throated Miner (Manorina flavigula)

Australian Bustard (Ardeotis australis)

We went to Chelmanns Road to look for the honeyeater and found a really good amount of birds. Regent Honeyeaters stuck to the very tops of the trees, we could hear Eastern Whipbirds but never saw them and all the while we were looking for the honeyeater. We found it in several places but only got one clear shot opportunity. Unfortunately, I choked. This was my first big find on this trip and I just couldn't focus on the bird. In my defence, the conditions were lousy but still I have no decent shot of the Eungella Honeyeater. At least I could tick it off I suppose. I left feeling determined that it would not happen again.

On the way out I spotted an Australian Bustard on the side of the road in full display. I pulled up, reversed and it just stood there, stock still. I got some shots and left it to it.