Kerry Valley 10/24--BROWN QUAIL, BLACK-NECKED STORK, DOLLARBIRD, LITTLE LORIKEET, BELL MINER, STRIPED HONEYEATER, SPECKLED WARBLER, WHITE-THROATED GERYGONE, TAWNY GRASSBIRD, DOUBLE-BARRED FINCH

TAWNY GRASSBIRD

After our 3 days atop the mountain at O'Reilly's, we descended into the Kerry Valley in order to pick up some dry, grassland species. After seeing a colony of BELL MINERS about halfway down the mountain, we met our guide, Glen, an antic older fellow who'd just celebrated a significant birthday, and headed off for some frantic birding. Not know the geography at all, I was never quite sure where we were or how far away we were from the last place, but as best as I can piece together from eBird, our first stop was in Biddaddaba where Kim managed to call in a TAWNY GRASSBIRD from the few we saw flying up and down at the far edge of the unmowed field. This was also the place where I got, without a doubt, my best picture of a Galah.

Galah

Our next stop was Nindooinbah Dam (the names just roll off the tongue, don't they?) where we tracked down a STRIPED HONEYEATER, then it was off to a lagoon at the Beaudesert Racing Club where we found the mysteriously named DOLLARBIRD high in a tree.

Our last stops were at some wetlands where we picked up a flyby LITTLE LORIKEET, a couple of nondescript birds called SPECKLED WARBLER & WHITE-THROATED GERYGONE which are apparently hard to get but not too interesting to look at and one bird I wished I'd gotten a picture of--DOUBLED-BARRED FINCH which Peg very accurately described as having the face of a miniature owl. Kim found a couple of BROWN QUAILS across the road which cooperatively flew out for all to see. 

Lastly we drove around some more wetlands (or perhaps viewed the previous one from a different angle) and there we found the most spectacular and also most poorly photographed bird of the day, the very large BLACK-NECKED STORK.

BLACK-NECKED STORK (juvenile)

We had a couple of hours left before we had to be in Brisbane, so we did the most touristy visit of the whole trip, going to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Fig Tree Pocket, just outside of Brisbane. I thought it was going to be a refuge for the koalas where the animals ran free, but it was a high-end zoo. Shari & Peg decided they not only wanted to see the koalas, but to hold one, which you can do for a fee.

We also were able to get a really good look at a Cassowary (the one running across the road two weeks before was impressive but fleeting. The face of bird is awesome. The foot of the bird (which can rip open a man) is terrifying:

We also got to walk among Emus and kangaroos in a large open pen and Shari even petted a dingo, whose Latin name translates as Dog Wolf Dingo. 

After 2 hours we drove back to Brisbane, flew to Sydney, had a good Chinese dinner and the trip was officially over.