Our time in Cairns is rapidly drawing to a close, we have only 3 days left before we leave for Brisbane, we both want to stay for at least another week but we can't.
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| Graceful Honeyeater |
It was another cloudy day with sunshine and showers, I got up at 6am and spent an hour or so on the veranda watching all the local birds, its nice that I can name them all now and I recognise most of the calls. One bird did throw me though, I went rummaging for my guide book thinking I had a new species, alas it was a female Mistletoebird. This is typical of many species in Australia, the female is so different from the male that they could be separate species.
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| Olive-backed Sunbird - male above |
At 9am we set off southward heading for Mission Beach on a planned excursion to look for Cassowary, yes we have already seen Cassowary but I didn't know that when I booked and paid for our hotel.
It only took 2 hours and 30 minutes to get there, it would have taken less time but we witnessed a bad road accident and stopped to help the injured before resuming our journey, no it wasn't me that caused the crash!
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| Chestnut-breasted Finch |
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| question - how many Chestnut-breasted Finches can you fit on a bird table? Answer - 32 in this case |
We made a scheduled stop at Lacey Creek for a walk in the rain forest, it was a lovely walk and the creek was full of wildlife but not many birds showed. It is a well known spot for seeing Cassowary but I think early morning is best. We ate our picnic lunch by rhe side of a babbling brook in lovely sunshine, how nice.
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| Emerald Dove |
Our lodge was quickly located and we checked in, what a superb place, fantastic gardens and surrounded by forest. We sat on our 'new' veranda and listed some great birds; Olive-backed Sunbirds, Figbirds, Spangled Drongo, Black Butcherbird, Metallic Starlings, Laughing Kookaburra, Chestnut-breasted Finches, Bar-shouldered Doves, Emerald Dove, Graceful Honeyeater, Pacific Baza, Pied Imperial Pigeon and lots of White-rumped Swiftlets.
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| female Figbird |
It was unknown to us when we booked the lodge that a Cassowary regularly visits the gardens, sure enough after an hour along came a female Cassowary strolling down the drive, incredible!
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| guess what this is? |
After an hour or so we jumped into the car to explore Mission Beach, but we never got far when another Cassowary came out of the forest and began walking across the road in front of us, a small chick then popped out too! Amazing two Cassowarys in less than an hour.
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| Metallic Starling |
I am now sitting waiting for a Bandicoot to show up, it is another regular to the garden we are told.
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