Had 10 days in Cairns early in the month chasing some of the reported summer
migrants.
Went to the Esplanade on the first afternoon starting at the northern end. At
first glance didn't see any waders at all as the tide came in, but then noticed
a couple of well concealed Red-necked Stints which were invisible against the
mud until they moved. On closer looking, realised that 30-40 of the smaller
waders (both Sand Plovers, Curlew and Sharp-tailed Sandpipers) had escaped my
attention. Then saw that there were about three times that number hidden just
underneath the low foliage of the mangroves. There was also a brief visit by a
Collared Kingfisher.
The next morning went to Redden Island and Machans Beach. Not a lot around on
the island apart from mosquitos, but had a very good view of three Cicadabirds.
On the beach there was a single Beach Stone-curlew, two Pacific Golden Plovers,
plenty of Bar-tailed Godwits, Stints and Sand-plovers, a few Terek Sandpipers
and a group of Great Knots.
Tried Newell Beach that afternoon. Misunderstood the directions, turned off the
highway into Newell Beach and than looked for Somerset Dve at the second turn
on the left. Eventually redirected by a patient local. In the meantime, found
only Welcome Swallows. No sign of any all-dark Swiftlets or Frank O'Connors
near the water tower. Returned to the highway and continued on to Somerset Dve
and got quite excited by all the birds perched on the wires.However only able
to identify Tree Martins and a few Fairy Martins ... no Swallows of any sort
unfortunately.
Went out to Michelmas Cay on the "Seastar" on the next day. The Red-footed
Booby was in its regular position on a tender as we arrived, and there were
Frigatebirds (not sure which species) in the distance. White-capped Noddies and
Sooty Terns dominated the cay.Huge white Brown Booby chicks (3) looked much
bigger than their accompanying adults. The "Seastar" skipper took me around the
far side in his rubber ducky, which was very good of him, but its pretty
difficult training the binos on a long line of Terns trying to detect a Roseate
when its bobbing around like crazy. Nice gesture though. Went on from there to
Hastings Reef, where Common Noddies and Black-naped Terns were hanging around
Had seen on the Cairns Birds blog that a shorebird count was being held on the
Saturday so contacted the convenor Alan Gillanders who welcomed us and
suggested we get together for birding info and swapping of lies beforehand. We
met for lunch and he very generously gave us tips on where we might find what
around Cairns. Joined in on the count and didn't envy the organisers who had to
try to avoid the double counting of birds moving up and down the Esplanade.
On the Sunday morning walked around the Centenary Lakes area and found the
nesting Papuan Frogmouths on the north side of the footbridge over Saltwater
Creek. We had been told about this nest by another friendly local while at the
Esplanade earlier. It was visible when standing next to the bollards across the
track and peering well back into the foliage in the direction of the Botanical
Gardens. Then on the south side of the same bridge we fluked a second group of
3 Papuan Frogmouths and a Channel-billed Cuckoo flew over with an escort of
Drongos
Tried Newell Beach again without success and then headed up to Kingfisher Park,
Julatten. The Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfishers weren't hard to find and were
absolutely stunning, and a group of 5 CBCuckoos were flying overhead. The
following morning Keith took us on an early morning walk, where amongst many
others our personal highlights were Yellow-eyed Cuckoo-shrikes, Large-billed
and Fairy Gerygone and finally excellent views of an extroverted
Yellow-breasted Boatbill.
We went up to Mt Lewis, where the track up hill on the left produced a very
confiding Fernwren which poked around near our feet for quite some time, and a
Tooth-billed Bowerbird. A second Fernwren was seen at the entrance to another
track to the left which leaves the road about 150m past the usual parking area.
We also had excellent views of a number of Blue-faced Parrot-finches feeding on
the seeding grasses. Missed out on Golden Bowerbird.
On our way back to Cairns, we stopped off at Emerald Creek Falls to try to find
a Rufous Owl but without success. However we were very surprised to stumble on
a Black Bittern which gave us very good views until it realised we were onto it
and climbed back into denser foliage.
All in all a great few days in agreat part of the world, even more so when we
were dodging 45degree temps at home in melbourne
Mick Brasher
==============================www.birding-aus.org
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