Visited: late summer
Recommendation: These gardens are a little secret, tucked out of the way in Ipswich. They are very pleasant with lots of birds and reptiles. I would definitely visit here again.
Kholo Botanic Gardens was not my birding target at Ipswich. I was actually looking for the Black-breasted Buttonquail a little further north but was met by a very steep gravel road which I didn't really want to drive the campervan up. As I hastily did a u-turn, I spotted a sign to the gardens and thought I would try my luck.
The garden approach showed immaculate lawns and a small pond. Lots of the tracks were closed due to storm damage but I could walk around the pond and some way into the rainforest. There was also a sweeping view of the Brisbane River to the east.
I could hear Noisy Miners screeching and carrying on and it took me some time to identify the other bird calls but there were a reasonable number of them. The best was a fly by from a Channel-billed Cuckoo calling as it went.
Back in the pond, it was the lizards that took centre stage. Numerous Eastern Water Dragons were soaking up the afternoon sun and I also found a smaller lizard that I couldn't identify at the time.
Eastern Water Dragon (Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii)
Eastern Water Skink (Eulamprus quoyii)
Although there was plenty of birds calling, my only photograph was of a White-faced Heron, fishing in the pond. I saw 30 species of birds both in the gardens and looking over towards the river. Everything from cuckoo to lorikeets, butcherbirds and whipbirds, pardalotes and fairywren were in those trees. They just wouldn't come close to me.
White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae)