Crane Wines

Crane Wines' Bird List (As seen on the property or between here and the Bunya Highway)

Bernie and I saw the advertisement for this business for sale when we were on holidays (birdwatching) in the Coff's Harbour area. (Looking for the elusive, and to this day, still unseen Emu Wren). As we were on holidays, with some spare time available, we decided to do the day trip up to Kingaroy, (only 2.5 hrs from Brisbane), for a bit of a sticky-beak. The garden outside the Tasting Room was full of Superb Blue Wrens and Double Bar Finches, so we sort of decided on the spot that we wanted to live here.

The property at Cranes is blessed with a varied environment which has become home to many species of birds, and to date our bird count is up around the 80 mark. Not all birds are around all the time, e.g. Scarlet Honeyeaters are only around when the red bottle brush is in flower (good camouflage for them). For those of you who are interested in such things, the list & comments on the list follows. Of course these are just the birds seen on our property, and near it. There are lots more in the area, for example in the extensive old rain forests of the Bunya Mountains, or around the Dams (Gordonbrook, Boondooma & Bjelke Petersen).

We start off with a few very common birds about the place.

Australian Brush Turkey (not nearly as common as when we first arrived here thanks to Dylanour Wesh Springer Spaniel, who loves to chase them). Brown Quail (seen often on the driveway, or on the road to town). Cattle Egret, Australian White Ibis, Straw Necked Ibis, Masked Lapwing.

Some Birds of Prey: Black Shouldered Kite, Black Kite, Whistling Kite, Wedge Tailed Eagle, Brown Goshawk, Peregrine Falcon, Brown Falcon, Nankeen Kestrel

Doves and Pigeons: Peaceful Dove, Bar-shouldered Dove, Common Bronzewing, Crested Pigeon

Cockatoos, Parrots etc: Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, Galah, Corella (which one though?), Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Rainbow Lorikeet (little grape eating b.....s by the 1000s), Scaly-breasted Lorikeet, Australian King Parrot, Cockatiel...(flocks of, on the electricity wires near town), Crimson Rosella, Pale-headed Rosella, Red-rumped Parrot, One lonely little Turquoise Parrot, (either an aviary escapee, or way out of his territory. He visited us regularly with a flock of finches until about two years ago). (Newsfalsh: 19/3/2010 : This week our B&B guests saw three pairs of Turquoise Parrots at Gordonbrook Dam.. so exciting!).

This is the listed area for the presumed extinct, Paradise Parrot. Our predecessor and his wife both swear they used to see this "impossibly coloured parrot" on their way to town regularly, and identified a picture from my Simpson & Day. In six years I have never seen it though, and not for lack of looking!)

Cuckoos:Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo, Common Koel, Pheasant Coucal

Owls: We think we have quite a few varieties of owls, but have only been able to identify a few. There are definitely Barn Owls in the area, and lots of Tawny Frogmouths, but there is another one which we catch glimpses of from time to time, which is quite dark in colouring, and has the Barn Owl face. It remains unidentified until we can get a good look at it.

Laughing Kookaburra, Sacred Kingfisher, Dollarbird

White-throated Treecreeper ? Brown Treecreeper ? (Couldn't tell which).

Wrens: Superb Fairy-wren, Red-backed Fairy-wren, and as seen 23/5/2010 Variegated Fairy-wren

Striated Pardalote, White-browed Scrubwren, Speckled Warbler, Weebill, Brown Thornbill, Yellow-rumped Thornbill and on 23/5/2010 the Yellow (Little) Thornbill

Honeyeaters: Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Striped Honeyeater (these two visit when the "Sandra Gordon" Grevillea is in flower). Noisy Friarbird, Little Friarbird, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Noisy Miner, Lewin's Honeyeater, Brown Honeyeater, Scarlet Honeyeater

Eastern Whipbird, Grey-crowned Babbler, Eastern Yellow Robin, Grey Shrike Thrush, Golden Whistler (one got trapped in the winery for a day or so once), Willie Wagtail, Restless Flycatcher, Magpie Lark, Spangled Drongo, Olive-backed Oriole, Figbird

Regent Bowerbird (one of our favourites, and they bring lots of their girls with them).

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike, Dusky Woodswallow.

Grey Butcherbird, Pied Butcherbird, Australian Magpie, Pied Currawong, Australian Raven, Torresian Crow, White-winged Chough, Apostlebird.

Welcome Swallow, Tawny Grassbird

Finches: Double-barred Finch, Zebra Finch, Red-browed Firetail Finch

Mistletoebird, Silvereye, Common Starling, Common Myna

And That is the Bird list for Crane Wines to 24 th May 2010