Hi everyone,
spent a week in Cairns last week, mostly attending a conference but had
the weekend to look for some birds and the early mornings during the
week to do a little birdwatching in Cairns. The weather was beautiful
and it was great to finally see some of the places that I have heard so
much about including Julatten, Mt. Lewis, the Crater and Centennial
Lakes. Stayed 2 nights at Kinfisher Park at Julatten and the rest of
the week in Cairns. Did 2 organised trips, Chris Dahlberg's Daintree
cruise and a Wait-a-while trip to the Crater and would recommend them
both. Non birding highlight was seeing a Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo at the
Crater with the Wait-a-while tour. I won't go through all
the places and birds seen because most of them are well known and in all
the guide books. However I was impressed with the Mareeba wetlands
which I think is not well known. It is a private concern I think and
you have to pay entry but the dry woodland is great and I saw lots of
good birds including COTTON and GREEEN PYGMY GOOSE, JACANA, WANDERING
WHISTLING DUCK on the lake and BLACK-THROATED FINCH (~10), SQUATTER
PIGEON, HELMETED FRIARBIRD, GREY-CROWNED BABBLER, RED-TAILED BLACK
COCKATOO, RAINBOW BEE-EATER, LEADEN FLYCATCHER, DOUBLE-BARRED FINCH,
SACRED KINGFISHER and WHITE-THROATED GERYGONE in the dry woodland near
the entrance gate.
Other highlights of the week were watching the LESSER SOOTY OWL come out
of the nest
and pose for scope views for 5 min at Julatten each night, seeing the
RED-NECKED CRAKE also at Julatten, seeing my first BUSTARDS at MaryFarms
and my first BEACH STONE CURLEWS on the Cairns esplenade
Here are some of the bird highlights from a Southerner's perspective
GOLDEN BOWERBIRD one female at the Crater and one on Mt. Lewis
BUSTARD 2 seen quite close near Maryfarms
BEACH STONE CURLEW three seen through the scope on the esplanade during
the day and 2 seen at night.
MOUNTAIN THORNBILL at the Crater and Mt. Lewis
BRIDLED HONEYEATER at the Crater and Cathedral Fig
MACLEAY'S HONEYEATER at Julatten
YELLOW-SPOTTED, GRACEFUL AND LEWIN'S HONEYEATER all at Julatten so you
could compare calls and views. Also on Chris Dahlberg's daintree
cruise.
FERNWREN unfortunately not seen but heard at the Crater
EMERALD DOVE at Julatten and Cathedral Fig
RED-NECKED CRAKE at Julatten
LESSER SOOTY OWL at Julatten
FAIRY GERYGONE at Julatten
PACIFIC BAZA at Julatten
GREY WHISTLER Chris Dahlberg's cruise
LARGE-BILLED GERYGONE Chris Dahlberg's cruise and Lake Barrine
ATHERTON SCRUBWREN on Mt. Lewis. Very much darker than the
large-billed.
GREAT-BILLED HERON Chris Dahlberg's cruise
LITTLE KINGFISHER Chris Dahlberg's cruise and at Centennial Lakes Cairns
PIED MONARCH at Lake Barrine
SARUS CRANE mixed in with BROLGAS on private property on the atherton
tablelands
BLACK BUTCHERBIRD Cairns botanic gardens.
CHOWCHILLA on Mt. Lewis
VARIED HONEYEATER on Cairns esplanade
CHESTNUT BREASTED MANNIKIN in the roadside grass near Mossman
NUTMEG MANNIKIN Cairns centennial Lakes
VICTORIA'S RIFLEBIRD a male with its plumage catching the sun at Lake
Eacham
PAPUAN FROGMOUTH Chris Dahlberg's cruise
Best Wishes
John Boyce
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
