July 8 – Day 12: OK Menga and sunshine

Our last full day in the mountains and miraculously it wasn’t raining! The rain held off all morning apart from a brief shower and the birding was easier with more species seen than previous mornings. 

Long-tailed Honey Buzzard taking advantage of the sunshine

We did a section of track at OK Menga starting with another flyover Pesquet’s Parrot and heard the Shovel-billed Kookaburra again. A Greater BoP showed closely as did several Brown Orioles, surely the least impressive members of such a fine family. We popped back down to the river scoring well with Torrent Lark at last and two Salvadori’s Teal behaving just like South America’s Torrent Ducks.

Back on the track an Eclectus Parrot flew over but we still hasn’t seen this relatively common parrot well. A New Guinea Bronzewing belted over and we spent some time unsuccessfully trying to lure a Pheasant Pigeon into view. There were more small birds around with two Longbills seen – Yellow-bellied and Dwarf. The only other new trip bird was a smart, perched Moustached Treeswift.

Moustached Treeswift

Back for lunch at Cloudlands there were now three birding groups as Rockjumper had just arrived. The afternoon bgan with a little light rain but it soon stopped and the sun even dared to appear. We were back on the OK Menga track and there were plenty of birds around, although not always showing. 

Pesquet's (AKA Pesky) Parrot

At least six Greater BoPs were seen including two adult males and a female Magnificent Riflebird flew over, another new BoP for the trip. Parrots of various sorts came and went including four superb Pesquet’s which perched in view for a change. We tried for another 'Shoveler' (Shovel-billed Kookaburra) at dusk which called then flew over unseen. As we finished a Marbled Frogmouth also called but refused to show itself.