Greetings from a cold and wet Cairns where we have just had our average monthly
rainfall in the last
24hrs and it only got up to 20°c on Sunday 4th, which was 1°above the record
low for July -
freeeeezing for us up here! Anyway despite the weather some birding was carried
out.
30th June - 6 Australian Pratincole at Cairns Airport.
Saturday morning 3rd - Double-banded Plover at the mouth of the Barron River
was seen by Dawn &
Arnold Magarry and it was still present in the afternoon when we saw it. Its at
least six years
since we last saw one in Cairns.
The wing tagged Intermediate Egret previously reported at Cairns airport was
still present on the
4th - this one was tagged as a nestling by David Geering at Lawrence, NSW on 25
Feb. 1992, which was
over 7 years 3 months after banding. Cairns is 1591 km NNW of banding site.
Yorkeys Knob Lagoon (13km NW of Cairns), now has 4 Australian Darters nesting,
1 Pink-eared Duck and
12 Australian Wood Duck still present but no sign of the Chestnut Teal which
was present a week ago.
Also here 3 pairs of Green Pygmy-geese arrived during the last week and a
Pacific Heron flew in on
the 4th - a very uncommon bird around Cairns. The mangroves adjacent to the
lagoon had 22 Bush
Stone-curlew and 3 Beach Stone-curlew roosting along the edges on the 4th.
Up to 3 beach Stone-curlew are frequenting the Cairns Esplanade and have been
seen within 10m of the
sea wall, where else could you get such close views in comfort of these birds?
Also still here is a
Pacific Golden Plover in full breeding colours.
Bye for now
Keith & Lindsay Fisher
PO Box 2209, Cairns QLD 4870
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