AUSTRALIA - HOLIDAY/RECCE TOUR - DAY 26 - OCT 22ND - CAIRNS

MISSION BEACH AREA

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.

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.

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!

Chestnut-breasted Finch

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.

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.

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!

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.

 

Metallic Starling

the wind got up and it started to rain, heavily. We never got out of the car and within the hour we returned to the lodge and settled onto our veranda. A nice meal and a glass of Yellowtail put me into 'chilled' mode for the rest of the evening. A bustle in the hedgerow resulted in our first mammal of the garden, it was a Red-legged Pardemelon (a little forest Wallaby) with a very young baby bouncing behind it.

I am now sitting waiting for a Bandicoot to show up, it is another regular to the garden we are told.

 

 

 

 

AUSTRALIA - HOLIDAY/RECCE TOUR - DAY 25 - OCT 21ST - CAIRNS

CAIRN'S BOTANICAL GARDENS AND CETENARY LAKES - AFTERNOON VISIT TO REDDEN ISLAND

Every Tuesday at 8:30am there is a free guided bird watching walk around the Botanical Gardens in Cairns and the Centenary Lakes so I went for it today. I didn't expect much but was pleasantly surprised when the first bird we were shown was a Papuan Frogmouth, wow! I really wanted that one.

you can just make out the Papguan Frogmouth here

Our group of about 10 followed Brian around the pathways of the gardens and across to the rainforest boardwalk into the Centenary Lakes area. Birds came thick and fast and we soon built a tidy list then another lifer came for me in the shape of a Collared Kingfisher.

Pacific Black Duck

We saw quite a few Honeyeaters, Dusky, Brown-backed, Yellow, Brown and Yellow-spotted were all seen well as were Olive-backed Sunbird, Metallic Starling, Figbirds, Olive-backed Oriole and a Grey Goshawk was seen at its nest. The usual array of ducks and wildfowl joined cormorants and Pelicans on the pools.

Kennedy Palms - this species lives for 75 years then it flowers and dies -
these two are flowering now, they will have to be felled soon after

I had one more piece of excitement before the walk finalised when a Cicadabird called from high up in a fig tree, however it flew off before I got a good enough view to tick it, tough luck on that one.

The morning's heavy cloud base delivered short showers and a little sunshine but by lunchtime it started to disperse so we decided to go to the beach and sit and read for a while. We went to the beach at Redden Island as it was the nearest.

Eastern Curlew

The tide was low and large sand bars were exposed and they were littered with groups of waders. I saw about 10 species as well as Beach Stone-Curlew and several Terns: Caspian, Gull-billed, Little, Crested and Common.  A huge White-bellied Sea-Eagle flew over as did Whistling Kite and Brahminy Kite.

Great Knot

Red-necked Stint

Later, as the tide came in, a Black Egret appeared to our left it was a Reef Egret and another first for me, it flew towards us but continued passed and disappeared around the tree line.

David and Goliath - Little Tern and Caspian Tern

 The clouds came back and threatened rain so we went back to the tree house for dinner.

KING FERN

KING FERN

The King fern is easily mistaken for a trunkless Palm.

It produces possibly the longest fern fronds in the world.

The fronds can grow up to 7m in length.

It does not a have a well-developed trunk.

The fronds sprout from near ground level.

The King fern likes dimly-lit rainforest stream banks.

The related potato fern (Marattia oreades) has weeping fronds up to 2m long.

Like tree  ferns both these giant ferns have an ancient history.

Fossils well over 300 million years old, and very similar to the modern versions, have been found on most continents.

The KING FERN predates the dinosaurs.

We had another visitor tonight - a Giant Stick Insect - nice with honey and cereals

 

 

 

 

 

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.

AUSTRALIA - HOLIDAY/RECCE TOUR - DAY 23 - OCT 19TH - CAIRNS

ATHERTON TABLELANDS - KINGFISHER PARK - PORT DOUGLAS

Today we said goodbye to Roly & Helen, they set off early to catch a flight back to their home in Adelaide, I'll miss them both especially my short-term birding buddy and his excellent bird-finding skills.

ANOTHER SHOT OF THE RUFOUS OWL - TAKEN BY ROLY

However, today was not a birding day we drove up the very winding Gillies road to Yungaburra, it began raining just as we got there. Nevertheless we still walked around the town visiting various galleries and exhibitions. From there we went into the centre of Atherton where a "TASTE OF AUSTRALIA" field event was going on all day. To me it was just like a Saturday market with food stalls and a bit of music thrown in, not great for an expensive entrance fee!

Red-browed Finches

Late in the afternoon we arrived at Kingfisher Park often billed as "Australia's most famous bird watching lodge". Lyndsay and Keith welcomed us and after a nice cup of coffee showed us around the grounds. It was very quiet but I got a good grasp of the potential there. Back at lodge we watched the bird feeders for a while and I got another tick and lifer for the trip when an Emerald Pigeon dropped in with the Bar-Shouldered Doves. A nice group of Red-browed Finches were also coming and going.

EMERALD DOVE

From there we dropped into Port Douglas for a late lunch before driving along the coast back to Cairns.

 

AUSTRALIA - HOLIDAY/RECCE TOUR - DAY 22 - OCT 18TH - CAIRNS

REDDEN ISLAND

Roly and Helen went off on a trip to the Barrier Reef whilst Dawn and I stayed home for a relaxing day. Back on the veranda of the tree-house I watched the local birds, an Osprey flew up carrying a fish and circled high over the hillside, I pondered on what the fish could be thinking? - having just been snatched from its watery-world into the suffocating air and taken to a great height before passing away, maybe he felt like an Hare Chrishna who is yanked into heaven by his pony tail just as he dies.

Welcome Swallow - a bit like a Barn Swallow

Looking up at a large number of White-rumped Swiftlets I noticed some all black swifts with deep forked tails, they turned our to be Fork-tailed Swifts, another lifer and a good bird for the area.



BLACK-NECKED STORK

Later in the morning we did venture the short distance to Redden Island and parked at the point where the Barron River flows into the Pacific. It was quite windy at times but that kept us cooler.


I walked onto the exposed sand and mud-bars and scoped a good variety of waders and notched up another lifer in the shape of a Greater Sand Plover. Back on the banks of the river a nice margin of mud became exposed and I scoped the far bank where the mangrove swamp came up to the edge of the water. There I added a few more birds for the trip list and two more lifers: Black-necked Stork (formerly Jabiru) and Beach Stone Curlew.

THE VIEW LOOKING BACK FROM THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER BARRON

GREATER SAND PLOVER

GREATER SAND PLOVER BEHIND A RED-CAPPED PLOVER -
I put this photo in to show the difference in sizes, the Red-capped is about the size of a Kentish Plover

COMMON TERN - RACE Longipennis

 

bird list from Redden island mud flats

EASTERN CURLEW

WHIMBREL
BAR-TAILED GODWIT
GREY-TAILED TATTLER
GREAT KNOT
MARSH SANDPIPER
RED-CAPPED PLOVER
PACIFIC GOLDEN PLOVER
GREATER SAND PLOVER
RED-NECKED STINT
SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER

BLACK-NECKED STORK

BEACH STONE-CURLEW
STRIATED HERON

CASPIAN TERN

COMMON TERN
GULL-BILLED TERN

SILVER GULL

AUSTRALIA - HOLIDAY/RECCE TOUR - DAY 21 - OCT 17TH - CAIRNS

DAINTREE RIVER CRUISE - NORTHERN TABLELANDS

Today was my second full day out with Roly and it was just as good as the first, we saw over 100 species and I got another 17 new species for my Australian list, 14 of them were lifers!

Roly's wife Helen joined us as we left the tree-house at 4:45am!! We had to drive from Cairns to Daintree in time to catch the 6:30am boat. We made it in good time and listed a few species along the way, Black Kites were very common, White-breasted Woodswallows were perched all along the power lines as were Forest Kingfishers, the occasional Laughing Kookaburra and many welcome Swallows did the same.

 

a typical scene along the creek from our boat.

On the boat we were joined by 5 other people as we set off on time, Helen and I saw an Osprey as we left the mooring and then we saw our first pair of Shining Flycatchers. Murray, our boatman-guide was excellent on bird ID and over the first hour he showed us nesting, Shining Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Sunbird, Large-billed Gerygone and Wompoo Pigeon. Most nests are like hanging socks but the pigeon's nest was the smallest you can imagine, hardly much bigger than its egg!

Water Dragon - about a meter in length

We explored a couple of tranquil creeks, the scenery was beautiful, the water perfectly still and serene, the tranquillity broken only by bird song. Our best sighting by far was that of BLACK BITTERN, but we also saw flyover Topknot Pigeons, as well as Rufous Night Heron, Pied Monarch, Little Shrike-Thrush, good numbers of Koels, Metallic Starlings and at one stage we saw 5 different raptors in the sky at once. A perched Pacific Baza was nice and 3 White-bellied Sea-Eagles were super to see. All in all we saw 40 species on the boat-trip which finished at 9:30am, the boatman was disappointed that we missed Large-billed Heron, Little and Azure Kingfishers and he assured us that Papuan Frogmouth and the Paradise Kingfisher hadn't been seen recently.

The whole boat trip was a fantastic experience and great for all kinds wildlife watching, we saw hundreds of fruit bats, a Water Dragon, some Green Tree-Snakes and we learnt a lot about mangroves and various tree species, it is well worth doing if you are coming this way and it will be included on any future trips that I lead here.

From Daintree we made a short stop at a new fish farm where we saw Black-winged Stilt, Rajah Shelduck, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and lots of Black Kites. Another stop was made at Newell Cove where we saw a few waders, including my first Greenshank of the trip, and a Striated Heron. We then headed inland driving up and over Mount Malloy towards Mareeba.

Striated Heron

We made our way to Mareeba making several stops in the dry forest areas where I saw my first White-throated Honeyeater, White-bellied Cuckoo-Shrike and the superb Grey-crowned Babbler - another stunning bird. We also stopped at the dam at Lake Mitchell and walked another dry creek but never added any new species except the beautiful Blue-faced Honeyeater and White-winged Triller.

Emu at Mareeba

It was very hot as we approached Mareeba, we saw a couple of Emus near the park entrance and a short walk through the bush produced Brush Cuckoo, Black-throated Finch, Double-barred Finch,  Leaden Flycatcher, White-throated Gerygone and a few other common species,

From the lovely viewing lounge at the visitor's centre we had a superb view of the lake, many birds were out there but none of which were new for our list. After a cold drink and a lovely coconut ice-cream we decided not to walk the forest trail in the 32C heat.

After driving into Mareeba town, and visiting the cemetery where we looked for Grey Bowerbird without success, we drove back towards Cairn's via Kerunda. Just outside Kerunda we turned onto a mountain track to look for more forest species. After half an hour we added more species to our list; Rufous Whistler, Silver-eye, Spectacled Monarch and the star bird: Yellow-breasted Boatbill, what a little stunner he is.

We then drove back into Cairns to look for the Rufous Owl which was now established in a particular tree near rhe Esplanade, it took us a while but we found this beautiful predator. Apparently he has been feeding on the local fruit bats!

you can just make out the Rufous Owl in this record shor

From there we made quick stops at mangrove swamps to look for Mangrove Robin, but it was a little late in the day, the tide was very high so we called it a day and went home, slightly exhausted after a very long day.

 

 

 

AUSTRALIA - HOLIDAY/RECCE TOUR - DAY 20 - OCT 16TH - CAIRNS

LAKE BARRINE - YUNGABURRA - MT HYPIPAMEE (THE CRATER)

Dawn and I took a day out together and headed up to the Tablelands, we decided to take the 5km walk around the perimeter of Lake Berrine. It was a warm day but cloudy with little wind. The walk took us through some pristine wet-tropical forest that support the 'Bull Kauri' pine which can grow over 45 meters in height and have a 6 meter girth, it is the only pine with broadleaves!

the Bull Kauri pine tree

they asked me to push one back into place

 The walk had many interesting trees to look at but very little wildlife was on show, we saw a few birds including the secretive Chowchilla, also Eastern Whipbird, Spotted Catbird, Victoria Riflebird and many common honeyeaters.

After a nice cup of tea in the 'tea-house' we drove to Yungaburra where we learned of a good place to see Platypus, we drove to Patterson's Creek and within two minutes of arriving we were watching a Platypus. Absolutely fantastic, this was an animal I've always wanted to see, can't believe this nocturnal animal (crepuscular at least) was swimming around, ducking and diving, during daylight hours.

Duck-billed Platypus taken by Dawn

From there we drove to see the spectacle of the 'Crater' at Mt Hypipamee, it was a bit under whelming but the drive there and back was nice.

juvenile Black-shouldered Kite

Our drive back to Cairns was interrupted by a quick stop to join some roadside birders who were watching a family of Black-shouldered Kites, this brought my day tally of new birds to 3! The other two were Torresian Crow and Blue-winged Kookaburra.

AUSTRALIA - HOLIDAY/RECCE TOUR - DAY 19 - OCT 15TH - CAIRNS

SOUTHERN TABLELANDS

103 SPECIES SEEN     -    36 LIFERS
 

AT LAST.......a full day's birding in one of the best areas of Australia!!  Roly and I got up early and set off at 5:30am. we headed for the Tablelands near Atherton driving north out of Cairns passing near Kuranda and then onto Mareeba.

We stopped short of Mareeba to view some fields where I saw Australian Bustard the other day, sure enough the bird was still there but not displaying. In the very next field we found another 3 Bustards and two Sarus Cranes, we could also here Singing Bush-Larks and we saw a Australian (formerly Richard's ) Pipit.

two of the Bustards - the cranes were too far away to digi-scope

Before reaching Mareeba we turned onto to some dirt roads and spent an incredible couple of hours stop/starting all the way along towards Atherton. We searched for Black-throated Finch and other species and our first stop produced some interesting species. Noisy Friarbirds were new for me as was Rufous Whistler, Double-barred Finch, Lemon-bellied Flycatcher, Pheasant Coucal and the superb Red-winged Parrot.

Red-winged Parrot (female)

Our next stop was another site for the Finch, we looked at a small paddock which was full of doves, about 50 Peaceful Doves fed alongside a Squatter Pigeon and my first Bar-shouldered Dove,. Double-barred Finch, White-winged Triller, Brown Honeyeater and my first Yellow Honeyeater, were seen there too, wow!



Squatter Pigeon

Further along the same track we found a field full of Cranes, some were displaying. Most of them were Sarus Cranes but a few were Brolga Cranes. A hundred or so Sulphur-crested Cockatoos fed there too with a few Masked Lapwings (these birds are different from the ones found in NSW - they lack the black shoulder patch - maybe a split in the future).

Brolga Cranes

Sarus Crane - see how the red colouring goes down to the neck

Next we drove into and through Atherton to reach Hasties Swamp, this is a place that comes highly recommended by my good friend John Hale and it lived up to my high expectations. We had a great time there, you could sit for hours sifting through the thousand of birds present. At least 3 thousands sat on the water or banks, they were mainly Magpie Geese and Plumed Whistling Ducks but good numbers of ducks were there too including the Freckles Duck which is very rare for Queensland being at least 1500km out of its range, we saw three of them!!

HASTIES SWAMP - as seen from the track

Latham's Snipe

Plumed Whistling Ducks

At Hasties we recorded nearly 40 species, Latham's Snipe, Whistling Kite, Pacific Baza, Yellow-billed Spoonbill, Common Sandpiper, my first Black-winged Stilts and lots of herons and egrets. In the tree lined approach track we found Scarlet Honeyeater, Leaden Flycatcher and White-throated Gerygone, three great birds located by Roly using his excellent knowledge of bird calls. We also saw two Kingfishers, Sacred and Forest.

Scarlet Honeyeater

Leaden Flycatcher - male

From Hasites we nipped into Atherton to buy some lunch and then set off for a Wet-Rainforest walk at a place called Wongabel. The well maintained track led us through some pristine forces which was full of birds, we soon amassed a great list which included a couple of star birds such as; Catbird, Victoria Riflebird (several females and only one male), Pied Monarch, Long-billed, Yellow-throated and Atherton Scrubwrens, Grey-headed Robin, Bower's Shrike-thrush, (Little Shrike-thrush was heard but not seen), Womp-poo Fruit-Dove, Brown Geryngone and several more good sighting.

Pied Monarch

Mount Hypipamee and the famous crater was our next venue, our target species were Bridled and  Macleay's Honeyeaters which were both seen very well in the car park, the crater was nice to see too!

Bar-Shouldered Dove

Lastly we visited the large lake at Barrine, this large body of water is surrounded by pristine primary wet-forest which supports the magnificent Bull Kauri pine, this broad-leaved species rises to over 45 meters, what an impressive tree. We walked about 1km along the track which circumnavigates the lake. Even though it was very late in the afternoon many birds were still calling especially the doves, we had good views of Wompoo Fruit-Dove and fleeting views of Brown Cuckoo-Dove and Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove (Roly only).


Our star find was the Chowchilla, this little skulker was extremely hard to locate but after an hour we finally got views of one, in the meantime we listed Grey Fantail, Eastern Whipbird, Catbird and several Lewin's Honeyeaters.

It was now getting dark so we headed back to the car, several Northern Bettongs scurried across the path (a small marsupial) as we finished our walk in the near-dark.

We got home at 7:45pm, it had been a long day but well worth the effort.