Hi everyone,
A pair of Beach Stone-curlew at the Cairns airport hatched out a chick on the
15th Oct., that was 22
days since I first saw it on the nest (which is at least 2km from the nearest
beach). As I was away
for 10 days I missed the exact time they started sitting so I am unable to give
an incubation
period. They were sitting before I went away but I was unable to see an egg.
The chick and parents
were still within 10m of the nest yesterday 21st Oct. Interestingly a Masked
Lapwing is sitting on 4
eggs about 30m away in the same area. Waders generally seem slow coming through
this year, not many
Sharp-tails, only a couple of Curlew sands., small flocks of Red-necked Stints
(around 200), not
many Eastern Curlews, Bar-tailed Godwits, Pacific Golden Plover (13), 3 Marsh
Sandpipers turned up
at Cairns airport a week ago, Lesser Sandplovers or Greater Sandplovers. A
couple of Broadbilled
Sandpipers have been seen.
Other migrants to have put in an appearance are Black-faced Monarchs 2 weeks
ago, Singing Bushlark
numbers have increased over the last week, Koels have been calling over the
past 2 weeks, Hillary
Thompson reported a Satin Flycatcher in Cairns on the 4th Oct., they are not
reported very often
here. The Cicadabirds (Rainforest ones) have just changed their calls 3 days
ago they are now making
a zitt zitt zitt rapid call instead of there more usual call which is a slower
more whistling call
(terrible attempt at describing this call!). Most Intermediate Egrets left town
over the last three
weeks, presumably to go south, I had one wing-tagged bird from northern NSW
which had been hanging
around the Cairns airport earlier in the year.
Noisy Pittas have been calling for the last three weeks at least as have the
Red-necked Crakes.
There has also been a dramatic drop in the number of Pied Imperial Pigeons in
the area - the people
who count the numbers (Margaret Thorsborne, Dave Green, John Winter and
volunteers ) of birds
returning to the Brook Islands offshore from Cardwell (half way between Cairns
and Townsville) have
reported .
Count numbers of birds returning to nest over the past few years are as follows:
11 Oct 99 1,600
12 Oct 98 29,000
11 Oct 97 28,940
5 Oct 96 25,338
7 Oct 95 15,221
The numbers around Cairns certainly seem low as well.
Regards
Keith & Lindsay Fisher
PO Box 2209, Cairns QLD 4870
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