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| BIRD OF THE DAY - DOUBLE EYED FIG PARROT |
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| up there, there be fig parrots... |
Today we had a full birding day around Cairns and it went largely as I expected; which is to say pretty bloody well save one thing. And that is I some how managed to stuff up the timing of the high tide on the Cairns Esplanade. High tide was expected at 5-40pm so I arranged for us to return by 3-30pm, however by this time the mud flats were covered completely with water and all waders had buggered off to higher ground who knows where.......dam!
Our day started kinda poorly as well as we had a Rufous Owl roost sorta recognised but on the day that mattered - today - it was no where to be seen....dam!
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| Figbirds |
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| Torresian Imperial Pigeon flanked by Rainbow Lorikeets |
Breakfast went well....
And after breakfast we headed off to Centenary Lakes. First birds seen pretty much were the Orange footed Scrubfowls which preformed well as you would expect. Next bird I saw was a ripper - Great billed Heron, in flight racing over the wetlands. Needless to say no one else saw it other than me....dam!
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| Olive backed Sunbird - male |
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| Olive backed Sunbird - nest |
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| Great Egret |
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| Orange footed Scrubfowl |
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| Magpie Gooses |
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| Large billed Gerygone |
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| Black Butcherbird |
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| Helmeted [Hornbill] Friarbird |
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| Masked Lapwing - northern race |
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| Rajah Shelduck |
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| Olive backed Sunbird - male |
We did start to see a few birds though; Black Butcherbird, Sunbird, Large billed Gerygone and, perhaps best of all and genuine BOD contender; Little Kingfisher!
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| Kingfishering |
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| Little Kingfisher |
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| Little Kingfisher |
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| Common Sandpiper |
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| Bushstone Curlew family |
The Botanical garden was next in line as it exists literally across the road from the wetlands and, after a short rest and drink we went and scored great views of a Papuan Frogmouth. Thanks go to Paul Fraser who had spent a solid week or so trekking around North Queensland and, as a result, had many of the best birds nailed.
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| Papuan Frogmouth |
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| Papuan Frogmouth |
Butterflies were in good numbers and variety all day.
Cattana Wetlands and lunch followed and soon we had added a few more species to our list; most notably Black necked Stork and Green Pygmy Goose and Crimson Finch.
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| Green Pygmy Goose |
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| female Leaden Flycatcher |
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| Helmeted Friarbird |
A quick stop enroute back to Cairns yielded GH Cisticola, Refous Grassbird, Bee-eater, Fairy Martin and Pipit.
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| Golden headed Cisticola |
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| distant Fairy Martins |
Then it was back to the Esplanade to experience the debacle but not before adding Mangrove Robin, Torresian [Collared / Mangrove] Kingfisher and BOD Fig Parrot.
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| Mangrove Robin |
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| Black fronted Dotterel |
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| White headed Stilt |
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| White bellied Cuckoo shrike |
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| Peaceful Dove |
2 Red necked Stints were almost the full total of waders seen.......dam!
A nice fish n chip n salad dinner washed down with some good beers hopefully erased some of the sting of my failings.......again....dam!
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