July was a pretty amazing month for me. It began in the Burnett-Mary catchment area in Queensland. I was there for Birds Australia, giving workshops on bird identification, and on the rare and threatened species of the area. While I didn't get the opportunity for a lot of birdwatching, we had some really great birds on the workshops, like Tawny Frogmouth, Pale-headed Rosella, and Scarlet Honeyeater (to name but a few). My real highlight for the trip though, was heading back to Brisbane via Inskip Point, where Danica and I had amazing views of a Black-breasted Button-Quail pair feeding.
Black-breasted Button-Quail are both rare and threatened. The occur only in south-east Queensland and a small fraction of north-east New South Wales. They are small and fat, and look like true quail even though they are more closely related to sandpipers. When they feed, they have a funny method which is shared by all button-quail - they spin in a circle. The kick leaf litter out of the way and in the process stir up insects and leave behind a "platelet", a small circular hole in the leaf litter. These platelets are one way to track down a button-quail, which are very shy and typically don't call. This pair of Black-breasted Button-Quail have us great views, reinforcing how great Inskip Point is as a place to find them. This was only my second look at this beautiful species.
But the real landmark event for me was my trip to Cairns and Cape York. I had been planning this trip for nearly 6 months by the time it came around, and it didn't disappoint. All up I saw 17 species of birds I'd never seen before, and photographed many wonderful things. The group I was with saw over 220 species of birds in the two weeks we were travelling, with too many amazing birds to list. My highlights were seeing a Yellow-billed Kingfisher for the first time, and finding Spotted Whistling-Ducks in Weipa. The kingfisher lives on Cape York all year round, but is known for its shyness. 
The Spotted Whistling-Duck on the other hand, is an Indonesian and Papua New Guinean species which has only recently turned up on Cape York, and is best known for occasionally being at the Mapoon Sewage Ponds. Both of these species were a real thrill, partly because of how rare they are, and partly because they are amazing birds in their own right. Cape York and the Atherton Tablelands, which were the two focii of the trip, are well known for their high numbers of endemic birds. Endemic means found only in that area (something endemic to Australia is found only in Australia). So there are lots of species that can only be found in far north Queensland. In the whole trip, I saw 75 species of birds I hadn't seen yet this year, despite having traveled a great deal already.I also reached a milestone on the trip. I saw a Trumpet Manucode - interesting in its own right as Australia's only true Bird of Paradise. However the reason it was a milestone was that it was the 600th species I have seen in Australia. While not as lofty as the "700 club", for those birdwatchers who have seen 700 birds in Australia, 600 birds is a pretty good milestone to reach. The Spotted Whistling-Ducks were #601.
The rest of the month passed relatively quietly, bird-wise (the same couldn't be said for work), however August promised to be an exciting month too.
Chris
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