Coochiemudlo Island Trip, Australia

Fauna & Flora Coochiemudlo Island Day Trip

This is 1-day Coochiemudlo Island Wildlife Day Trip which starts off with a short 10-minute ferry ride from a Brisbane suburb to an attractive little island. During this leisurely-paced fully guided day trip, you can expect to see around 30 species of bird and other native Australian wildlife depending on the season. Previous guests enjoy looking at and photography unique shells on the secluded sandy beaches that the locals call the “Emerald Fringe”.

It’s easy to walk around Coochiemudlo Island in about two hours, but we take longer than that because there is so much for the nature-lover to explore. Despite its small size, there’s a lot of variety: coastal woodlands dominated by eucalypts, tea-trees or native conifers, mangroves, long sandy beaches and rocky platforms, plus small cliffs of the red rock which gives the island its name - “Coochiemudlo,” from the language of the Quandamooka people. The red ochre was used for painting, including painting bodies for corroborees and traded with other clans far into the mainland.

White-bellied sea-eagles (second-largest eagle in Australia) and the beautiful Brahminy kite nest on the island. So does the bush stone-curlew, often seen strolling across the golf course or other open habitats, with big yellow eyes staring at us, or sitting with eyes closed, its camouflage making it near-invisible.

Other birds include oystercatchers, cormorants and various waders on the beaches, and honeyeaters, lorikeets, kookaburras and others in the forests. Butterflies and lizards are common in the warmer months, and a seasonal colony of large (one-metre wingspan) flying foxes spend the winter here, feasting on the nectar of banksias and tea-trees. Very occasionally we’re lucky enough to glimpse a dugong.

On the Coochiemudlo Island beach, as well as finding shells and other remnants of marine creatures, as the tide recedes we may see whelks burrowing through the sand, crabs scuttling from the shelter of one rock to another, or small fish darting across the little temporary inlets of water.

A star attraction on the beach though, and often encountered on our tours, is the parade of hundreds of bright blue soldier crabs, emerging from burrows as the tide recedes and marching forwards (not sideways as most crabs do) across the sand to feed as quickly as possible and return to their burrows before ibis and other foraging birds find them.

Coochiemudlo Coast Care group pull a few of these to improve the habitat for young native plants, lizards and ground-foraging birds.

Please note: this day trip can be extended for 2 or 3 days. Please enquire if this is of interest.

Alternative Trip Name: Coochiemudlo Island Trip

Day 1

Morning Session

We will organise a location to meet or alternatively will pick up from the Brisbane City or south side. The day trip normally starts around 9am in the morning.

Picinic morning tea

Day 2

Lunch

Lunch is normally arounf 1.30pm, and we book at a choice of two typical Australian small cafe/restaurant looking through the trees to the water, surrounded by bird songs and other enchanting wildlife.

Day 3

Afternoon Session

The afternoon session will take the group for a gentle stroll along the beach looking for other native wildlife on the Island before taking the fairy back around 3.00 pm.

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Why book with Araucaria Ecotours?

The birdwatching day-trip has been designed and usually led by a zoologist (Ronda) with several decades experience of research on bird ecology and behaviour in southeast Queensland and elsewhere in Australia. Our other main guide is Ronda’s son Darren, a keen amateur naturalist who has been exploring our forests for a lifetime and very knowledgable. While designed to maximise the number of species seen in a variety of habitats (from wetlands to rainforest) the focus is on birds as part of the ecosystem and how their behaviour reflects this, not on dashing from one bird to the next or finding obscure species for life-lists. Many of our guests do add substantially to their lifelists as well: it’s just not our major focus. We happily cater for novice birdwatchers, bird photographers and for general nature enthusiasts for whom birds are just part of the delight and fascination with wild areas. Although some of our guests request tours with no children (which we respect), we do encourage families on other days, and also lead child-focussed tours with various games included to help children (and their parents!) learn about our birds). We understand that not all bird-lovers are physically fit, and can easily adjust our tours to include as little walking as possible while still seeing many birds. We abide by environmental standards, which includes not only waste reduction, fuel efficiency etc. but also minimising our impact on the birds and other wildlife we find. Since our own research is on-going and we also add information to other databases, guests are very welcome to engage in a bit of citizen science along the way. Special interests can be catered for with advance notice. We have attended food safety courses and are even more strict than usual in hygiene since Covid-19, adopting social distancing, applying disinfectants to bus seats and handles between tours and always travel with hand sanitiser.