AUSTRALIA - HOLIDAY/RECCE TOUR - DAY 15 - OCT 11TH - CAIRNS

CRYSTAL CASCADE - CAIRNS ESPLANADE

DAWN’S BIRTHDAY!!!   No official birding just pampering all day (well some of it!). Yes I had to take my darling her breakfast in bed with a nice cup of tea, but not before I spent an hour on the veranda.

 

 

HELMETED FRIARBIRD

 

The surrounding trees with alive with birds, a few lifers too, seen in with the common species! The ugly looking Helmeted Friarbird gave out some beautiful, melodic notes which belied its macabre looks, but the Varied Triller sounded as good as it looked. There were many Honeyeaters zooming around and I got good views of ‘Yellow-spotted and Graceful. A male Olive-backed Sunbird was very nice to see too as were a small flock of Chestnut-breasted Mannikins.

 

CHESTNUT-BREASTED MANNIKINS

 For our morning walk (non-birding) we decided to visit the Crystal Cascade tourist spot a few miles further northeast from Stratford. It was a beautiful walk, quite busy and very scenic. We saw many butterflies along the track including the Cairns Birdwing Butterfly and the famous Ulysses which looks very much like the Blue Morpho of central and southern America.

LAUGHING KOOKABURRA

On the way back we found an Olive-backed Sunbird (female – building a nest, looking like a hanging sock of grass and reeds), we also heard the melodic notes of the Black Butcherbird which we found in a tree in the car park.

 

PIED IMPERIAL-PIGEON

 

After taking lunch at our tree-house we spent the rest of the afternoon in Cairns, on the way in we stopped to watch a couple of Rainbow Bee-eaters, the light was all wrong for a picture. In Cairns we walked the length of the Esplanade and we also spent a little time looking for the Rufous Owl without success. We added Peaceful Dove to our list but only one new wader, Curlew Sandpiper,  the tide was low and not good for shorebird watching.

 

 



3 PHOTOS OF SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPERS



 

 

 

 

 

RECORD SHOT OF TEREK SANDPIPER



 

 





During a ‘scoping’ spell back at the tree-house I saw White-bellied Eagle and a  couple of Brahminy Kites, they were extremely distant but have such distinctive colours I had no trouble with their ID.

 

NEW SPECIES ADDED TO THE LIST

 

VARIED TRILLER

YELLOW-SPOTTED HONEYEATER

GRACEFUL HONEYEATER

CHESTNUT BREASTED MANNIKIN

OLIVE-BACKED (YELLOW-BELLIED) SUNBIRD

HELMETED FRIARBIRD

RAINBOW BEE-EATER

PEACEFUL DOVE

CURLEW SANDPIPER

BRAHMINY KITE