recreational parks on the eastern shores of the lake, not far from the dam wall.
To get there, from Samsonvale Rd turn north to Forgan Rd; it will take you to both parks. If you are approaching from the west, take Mount Samson Rd (22) from Samford Village in the northerly direction, turn east into Winn Rd and then turn north into Forgan Rd.
Enjoy the waterbirds on the lake, particularly the large numbers of Great Crested Grebes. You’ll have a chance to see three grebe species in a single field of view of your binoculars.
Flying over the lake may be Swamp Harrier, White-bellied Sea-Eagle, Osprey, Whistling Kite, Wedge-tailed Eagle or even Peregrine Falcon.
Take a walk along the lake shores. This is a good place for Little Lorikeet. Honeyeaters are usually well represented, including Striped Honeyeater, Scarlet Honeyeater, White-throated Honeyeater and Eastern Spinebill. You may also come across Pale-headed Rosella, Azure Kingfisher, Tree Martin, Pacific Baza, Little Shrike-thrush, White-breasted Woodswallow and Brown Quail. We also had a pleasure to observe a Speckled Warbler building a nest.
D’Aguilar National Park
The 36,400ha of this beautiful wilderness is located right on the doorstep of Brisbane. The Park is divided into two distinctive sections: the D’Aguilar section in the south, formerly known as Brisbane Forest Park, and the Mount Mee section in the north, formerly known as Mount Mee Forest. The Park supports a variety of habitat types including subtropical rainforest, eucalypt woodland, dry and wet sclerophyll forest, rocky outcrops and freshwater wetlands with creeks and waterholes. On cool mountaintops and plateaus, a lush subtropical rainforest developed, complete with dense ferns and mosses. The slopes and lower parts of the mountains are covered with a much drier eucalypt woodland and scribbly gum forests.
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Captivating panorama of D’Aguilar National Park
The southern section, featuring Mount Glorious, is easily accessible. A good sealed road runs through the National Park from The Gap in the east to the Wivehoe Dam in the west, connecting the picturesque mountain villages of Mount Nebo and Mount Glorious. To get there, take Mount Nebo Rd (31) from Brisbane via The Gap or take Mount Glorious Rd to reach Mount Glorious from Samford Village.
D’Aguilar National Park is a well-developed and popular tourist destination with countless picnic areas, lookouts, the Walkabout Creek Discovery Centre and a network of walking tracks with bush camping sites. The south section track map and the D’Aguilar locality map can be downloaded from here:
https://www.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/daguilar/pdf/south-daguilar-trail-map.pdf
https://www.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/daguilar/pdf/daguilar-locality-map.pdf.
The northern section is different and is accessible mostly with high-clearance 4WD vehicles. To get there from the south, travel through Samford Village and Dayboro on Mount Samson Rd (22) and turn north onto Mount Mee Rd (58) in Dayboro. Travel for a fair distance on this road, then turn left into Sellin Rd which will take you to the Park.
To get to the northern part of this section, get to Woodford on D’Aguilar Hwy (58) and take Neurum Rd to the west. Next, turn left into Stanton Rd. Take the first right to stay on Stanton Rd, followed by a right turn to Rasmussen Rd which will lead you to the Park.
Mount Mee forest trail map can be downloaded here: https://www.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/daguilar/pdf/mount-mee-trail-map.pdf. You must be self-sufficient when visiting this area. Facilities are rudimentary to say the least.
Over 200 bird species have been found across the whole D’Aguilar National Park. Key species are Masked Owl, Greater Sooty Owl, Marbled Frogmouth, Spotted Quail-thrush, Russet-tailed Thrush, Regent Bowerbird, Paradise Riflebird and Noisy Pitta. Other notable birds include Green Catbird, Australian Logrunner, Pale-yellow Robin, Crested Shrike-tit, Red-browed Treecreeper, White-eared Monarch, Spectacled Monarch, Bell Miner, Bush Stone-curlew, Powerful Owl and White-throated Nightjar. Among the rarities are Black-breasted Button-quail, Oriental Cuckoo, Speckled Warbler and Barred Cuckoo-shrike.
Walkabout Creek Discovery Centre
The Discovery Centre also houses the National Park Headquarters. A nearly century-old Enoggera Reservoir, now used only for recreational purposes, is located at this site, 12km from Brisbane CBD. The address is 60 Mount Nebo Rd, The Gap.
The main attraction to the birders is a 5km-long Araucaria Track. The walk starts at the Discovery Centre, runs past a giant hoop pine and continues along the Reservoir edge before looping back to the Centre on the Reservoir’s peninsula. The Visitor Centre and its carpark are open from 9am but the entrance to the track is always open, you just need to park on Mount Nebo Rd.
The map of the Walkabout Creek Discovery Centre area can be downloaded here: https://www.npsr.qld.gov.au/parks/daguilar/pdf/walkabout-creek.pdf.
Around the Discovery Centre, look for Bush Stone-curlews; they usually rest under the sparse trees. Countless Australian Brush-turkeys wander around the site. Red-browed Finches move in large flocks, picking crumbs from the picnic tables. Other birds here include White-eared Monarch, Little Lorikeet, Pale-headed Rosella, Eastern Whipbird and Shining Bronze-cuckoo. Even Spotted Quail-thrush was reported feeding in the mulch.
We walked along Araucaria Tk one late autumn when the bush was alive with the birds. Eastern Whipbirds were calling from everywhere and Scarlet Honeyeaters were singing from the tops of nearly every tree – we counted over a hundred. The highlight of our walk was a sighting of eight Shining Bronze-cuckoos, all feeding in one tree. Other birds on the track included Varied Sittella, Forest Kingfisher, White-breasted Cuckoo-shrike, White-headed Pigeon, Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Bush Stone-curlew, Little Lorikeet and Pacific Baza. We watched a group of honeyeaters bathing in a puddle near the lake. It was good to be able to compare the differences between White-naped and White-throated Honeyeater at a close range. In the queue to the paddle were also Eastern Spinebill, Striped Honeyeater and Brown Honeyeater. Everybody dispersed when a flock of Noisy Miners arrived and took over the stage.
On the water, we got Hardhead, Plumed Whistling-Duck and a good number of Great Crested Grebes. Among the lily pads were Comb-crested Jacana and Pied Stilt. Azure Kingfishers are regularly observed along the water edge.
A pair of resident White-bellied Sea-Eagles were patrolling the lake.
Black-breasted Button-quail used to be found at this site, last time it was recorded in 2009. We found several platelets along the track, but these must have been left by Painted Button-quail, regularly found here.
Pale-vented Bush-hen may be sighted in the vegetation along the edge of the creek.
Spotlighting here may be worthwhile; look for White-throated Nightjar, Tawny Frogmouth, Powerful Owl, Barking Owl and Southern Boobook.
In the Discovery Centre, we admired a photo taken in 2008, of a Barking Owl with Tawny Frogmouth as its prey.
Additional birds reported
