AUSTRALIA - HOLIDAY/RECCE TOUR - DAY 24 - OCT 20TH - CAIRNS

CATTANA WETLANDS - KURANDA - CASSOWARY HOUSE

Today it rained a lot, not persistent but very showery. I went out early-ish at 8:30am after some heavy showers during the night. I drove the short distance to Cattana Wetlands where I got wet and mozzie-fied!

This wetland area is well maintained and looks very nice but it seems to be maintained for humans not wildlife, it is has several perfectly square pools, covered in flowering lily pads but they have hardly any birds on them, it is crying out for shallow pools with wader scrapes. The trails are lovely with all the vegetation trimmed and cut back - useless for hedgerow birds. I have visited this site twice now and have never seen another birder there!

I had good views of a number of species: a couple of waders were in a nearly-dry pool area, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Black-fronted Dotterel were with Great and Intermediate Egrets and a single White Ibis aka as Australian Ibis, Sacred Ibis.......it does get confusing over here with so many name changes going on.

At the back of the pools a track runs adjacent to some farmland this where I found my target species, the Crimson Finch, a pair flitted about in the wet sedge just after another rain shower. After that I went back home.



a male Crimson Finch

 For the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon Dawn and I spent a lot of time with our Neighbours Dan and Gail, they have been so helpful, welcoming and friendly which has made our stay here so much more enjoyable.

Later we drove to Kuranda to visit a few tourist spots and then we dropped into Cassowary House and spent a pleasant couple of hours with Sue and Phil Gregory. They were very helpful and gave me lots of great advice about my future trips here. In the meantime they showed us their star bird -  the SOUTHERN CASSOWARY - fantastic, a male was escorting a chick in the grounds and came right up to the lodge where it stayed for half an hour before wandering off.

Southern Cassowary

the boney head-casque on this male has been damaged

the remaining chick, there were two but one was injured (a puncture wound of unknown origin)
and it died after being taken into care

A good number of Macleay's Honeycreepers were visiting the feeders and another great sighting turned up briefly -  RED-NECKED CRAKE........this was a species high up on my 'wanted' list, fantastic, great views in the bins' but not with the camera.

Macleay's Honeycreeper

After that bit of excitement Phil had one more trick up his sleeve when he pointed out the call of the Dollarbird, this was the first one he had heard this spring and another species I needed for my list, however we could not locate it, but it was good news that the species was finally arriving in the area and it is more than likely that I will catch up with it before I depart for Brisbane on Saturday. 

It was dark by the time we got back to the tree-house, we had a nice relaxing evening indoors, it was too cold and wet to sit outside.........just like the UK.