Inskip Point

A single tree sits in shallow water on a sandy beach

Visited: summer and late winter

Recommendation: The campsites here are huge and the beach is the launch for the K'gari ferry, which means that it will be busy at times. If you can choose an off peak time, then this is a lovely spot and you never know what might turn up on the beach!

A large brown bird with a yellow streak below the eye.

Rainbow Beach and Inskip Point in particular are just stunning places. You know you are onto something good when there are 5-6 National Park campsites in such a small area and the one I stayed at (M.V. Sarawak) had an incredible 500 spaces. It was pretty empty when we visited and we were grateful for that. 500 sets of campers is a lot of pressure on a few bush toilets!

My first find was a Mangrove Honeyeater and I was thrilled. I have only seen this bird once before, in thick mangrove. I was surprised to see it in open woodland but there was no mistaking the warbling call and facial markings.

Mangrove Honeyeater (Lichenostomus fasciogularis)

A green bird with a grey breast and throat and a bright red ring around the eye.

As I continued to walk north towards Inskip Point itself I saw some Australasian Figbirds. In Far North Queensland, the male birds are bright yellow and so I was delighted to see this olive green and grey bird.

Australasian Figbird (Sphecotheres vieilloti)

Very large shore birds with big, stocky brown bodies, huge bill and white and yellow stripes around the eyes.

My first spot on the beach were a pair of Beach Thick-knee. These are fabulous birds and I hung around until they were comfortable with us and the sun was shining. I have plenty of photos of them from Cairns but never in bright light like this. It was really special.

Beach Thick-knee (Esacus neglectus)

Unfortunately and much to my surprise, the birds were disturbed by a convoy of loud and fast 4WD vehicles tearing up the beach. Turns out, the sand spit at the point is where the ferry over to K'gari Fraser Island leaves from. You can see the island at the top of the map below. It was not a usual ferry, with a terminal building. Vehicles drive up the beach and drive straight on to the ferry that is beached.

There were other sand bars dotted around with lots of shorebirds on them but some terns braved the thoroughfare and we got close to some of them. They were very beautiful.

Very large tern with grey body and wings, white underparts, black cap and large red bill.

Caspian Tern (Sterna caspia)

Large grey tern with white underparts, grey crest and yellow bill.

Great Crested Tern (Sterna bergii)

I'd stopped at Inskip Point again just for the night as I was heading north in very late winter. I'd heard there were Black-breasted Buttonquail seen recently, so I thought I'd give it a go. I stayed again at Sarawak West Campsite as it is the closest to the point, so that I could have easy access to the scrub between the road and the ocean. This area was the habitat most likely for them to be. As soon as I got there, just after lunch, I headed up on the track through that area, and it was easy to see where they were active. There were lots of platelets in one particular spot, so I stayed there.

I stayed there for three hours and saw absolutely nothing.

No button quail, no birds at all. That was a little disheartening, but I still had the morning.

Disturbed ground where a bird has scratched at the surface.

I headed up the next day at 6.30, and took a chair with me and sat in the same spot. It was about an hour or so that I first saw the buttonquail. I actually thought it was a Brown Quail, it was much bigger than I thought it would be. It was the female that had been seen by others here.

I then spent some hours there just sitting and watching it coming in and out, scraping, feeding, and moving about the area. Best of all, I was lucky enough to watch her calling. She was puffing all her chest and feathers up and then letting out a deep and very low boom.

It was quite magical.

Small game bird with black head, breast and belly, white blotched flanks and brown patterned back.

Photography was super difficult because she moved around so much, and there was always some kind of obstruction. But I was pretty happy just to be there, just to see her.

The video is of her calling. You might not be able to hear the boom over the background noise, but you can certainly see the process.

Panoramic view of a sandy beach and sea.