Having had the opportunity to study abroad at the University of Wollongong for four months, I could not pass up the chance to using it as a launching pad to bird a couple spots within Australia. My first choice, of which a trip report will be forthcoming, was the Brisbane/Lockyer Valley area with a long road trip to Bowra for drier country species. My second choice was the Queensland 'wet tropics'. I have put in bold those species which were life birds for me.
Day 1:Anyways, my flight left for Cairns at 6:00AM on Saturday -- wait a second, I forgot to check if the trains would get me there early enough from Wollongong. They didn't! Fortuately, an Aussie friend with a car volunteered to wake up at 4AM in the morning to drive me to the airport. I arrived in Cairns at 10:00AM, picked up my rental car, and immediately headed out to the Cairns Esplanade.
The tide was heading out when I arrived and the birds were quite spread out. Shorebirds included Common Greenshank, Red-necked Stint, Bar-tailed Godwit, Far Eastern Curlew, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Grey-tailed Tattler, Whimbrel, Curlew Sandpiper, Pied Oystercatcher, Lesser Sandplover, and Greater Sandplover -- all in good numbers. Among these was the first of my target birds, the funny little Terek Sandpiper. A dark morph Eastern Reef-Egret hunted on the mudflats along with the more common Great and Little Egrets. A flock of large white birds resting on the flats in the distance proved to be Australian Pelicans and Royal Spoonbills.
I decided to head out to the north end of the Esplanade, to search for mangrove specialties. Varied Honeyeaters and Brown Honeyeaters were still actively feeding, despite it being around noon. A bird flying back and forth from the ground to its perch turned out to be a Mangrove Robin. As I continued to walk along the edge of the mangroves, the forest rang with the sounds of calling Collared Kingfishers. A tree in flower overhead yielded a brilliant male Olive-backed Sunbird. Some soft, parrot-like chattering up in the trees lead me to suspect that Fig-Parrots were about -- a short search up in the trees quickly produced one, two, three, no four Double-eyed Fig-Parrots actively feeding on fruit -- they're tiny! I also noticed several Australian Swiftlets flying overhead. Off to Centenary Lakes.
The Centenary Lakes just past noon was relatively quiet, but activity gradually increased with time. Black Butcherbird was one of the first birds I saw, interested for some reason in a dried up palm frond laying on the ground. Australian Brush-Turkeys and Orange-footed Scrubfowlseemed to be everywhere, and the calls of Yellow Orioles were ubiquitous in the forest -- it didn't take long to see some of these high up in the trees. I walked all the way to the botanic gardens, without seeing anything new, until I began to loop back and bumped into a Helmeted Friarbird along the boardwalk and both Brown-backed Honeyeaters and Yellow Honeyeaters bathing by the freshwater lake along with Rainbow Bee-eaters and White-throated Honeyeaters. Pied Imperial-Pigeons began to fly overhead and perch on the tops of trees. A Striated Heron was visible off the bridge that goes over Saltwater Creek on the way back to the car. Back to the Esplanade.
At the Cairns Esplanade, I met John Seale and several other Cairns birders. The tide was coming in, so the shorebirds were concentrating close to the shore. Great Knot, Black-tailed Godwit, and Marsh Sandpiper were visible within the flocks. John Seale found a Broad-billed Sandpiper with his scope and offered everyone looks. A couple of Cairns birders were planning to watch for the Rufous Owls back at Centenary Lakes, and they invited me to come along. We waited by the tree with the owls for about thirty minutes until one bird suddenly flew out of the tree never to be seen again that evening. We waited forty minutes more, and all we achieved was getting devoured by mosquitoes. It was time to call it quits for today, and I went off to dinner (sushi) and then my hostel (sleep didn't happen that night).
Looking forward to reading more
I am glad to see John is still alive and well.