We started with an early morning wander along Cairns Esplanade, giving my birdlist a healthy kick-start with 30 species. Highlights were a Great-billed Heron and a Beach Stone-Curlew. Also worthy of mention were the Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove, the Torresian Kingfisher and a most obliging Mangrove Robin that allowed us to admire it without actually going into the mangroves and exposing ourselves to Cairns' veracious sandflies. We saw the only Tree Martins for the trip and the only Scaly-breasted Munias, about fifty of them. Then we paid our compliments to a sleepy Rufous Owl roosting in a huge fig tree at Les Davie Park, before visiting Machons Beach at Redden Island, near the mouth of the Barron River. Here we added 14 species to our list, most notably Black-necked Stork, Lovely Fairywren and both Black-faced and White-eared Monarchs. We had lunch at Centenary Lakes, where we added Black Butcherbird, Papuan Frogmouth and a stunning Little Kingfisher. There was also the only Striated Heron of the trip.
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| Magpie Geese at Centenary Park |
Birding with Phil is always hard work. Participants are simply expected to keep up, whether it's bush-bashing through impenetrable rainforest, climbing through vicious barbed wire fences or crossing preposterous creeks wider than my largest practicable long-jump. The upside is, that when you go birding with Phil, not only do you see great birds, you also enjoy Trisha's unsurpassed cuisine. Every meal was a delight. Thank you, Trish!
We spent the night at Chambers Rainforest Lodge, where Spotted Catbirds and Victoria's Riflebirds came delightfully close to eat fruit strategically placed to entice them in. Here, while we were admiring Double-eyed Fig-Parrots (race macleayana), Topknot Pigeons flew over, and I didn't know where to look. To feast on the fig-parrots or forego them for the pigeons?
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| Track at Lake Eacham |
ng. In the afternoon we drove to Lake Barrine, where we saw a beautiful
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