AUSTRALIA March/April 1986: Cairns (coastal)

Part IV  Cairns (coastal)

This continues the blog of an Easter 1986 trip to Australia, based on scant notebook entries and vague memories and illustrated with digitised images slides taken at the time, some of which have since degraded.

The 2 April was another wet day and we had a quick look around the Crater, seeing many of the species seen the previous day, before driving to Mission Beach for the afternoon.  Our target bird here, in fact the main bird for the trip, was Southern Cassowary.  Lacy’s Creek was a traditional site but we had heard that the worst cyclone in living memory had, over a large area, flattened a lot of trees earlier in the year, closing trails and making it very hard for cassowaries to find fruit.  There had been stories in the press of hungry cassowaries appearing in gardens with one or two people being injured by their kicks.  On arrival at Mission Beach we asked in the Post Office if anyone knew of any recent cassowary sightings.  Someone told us of a relative who had been kicked by one but that had been some weeks ago and not nearby.  We got no information on recent sightings but it was suggested that food might have been left out at Lacy’s Creek.  We decided to go there and hope for the best.  We arrived and immediately spotted a large cardboard box in the car park.  I wound down the window and was about to start scanning when Paul spotted an adult running towards us.  My amazement and delight changed to consternation as it stuck its head through the open window.  In tow it had four large young and a sub-adult.  Clearly their hunger had overcome their caution.  The box was full of apples but they were too large for the cassowaries to eat as they mainly swallow fruits whole.  I got out of the car and started cutting them up into manageable pieces.  It was a very surreal experience crouching down in the open next to a notoriously secretive bird that was of a similar size to me, but with much more dangerous feet.  The cassowaries eventually wandered off, melting into the surrounding forest despite there being more horizontal than vertical trees.  We tried to go down one of the trails but soon gave up as progress was impossible.  Even the surviving trees had had most of their developing fruits ripped off by the cyclone leaving nothing for the cassowaries.

Southern Cassowary welcoming committee at Lacy's Creek, assumed to be a female (they are larger and brighter than males)

with two of her four youngsters

me cutting apples into a swallow-able size 

sub-adult cassowary 'helper'

my most wanted bird in Australia, I was not disappointed

cyclone damaged Lacy's Creek

the trails were impossible to negotiate

no fruit appeared to have been left on the trees that were still standing

we were very fortunate that the cassowaries had taken up residence in the car park, if we had been relying on creeping along forest trails to find them we would definitely been out of luck

We camped near Mission Beach and returned to Lacy’s Creek on 3 April.  The extended cassowary family were very much in evidence and we enjoyed much of the morning with them.  We then drove north to the Goldsborough Road with brief roadside stops.  Birds seen included Black Bittern, Azure Kingfisher, Black Butcherbird, Spectacled and Black-faced Monarch and Cicadabird.  

it was hard to resist taking more photos of these superb birds

their plumage seemed to be much better looked after than is the case for most other flightless species

the youngsters had pretty impressive feet too and it was easy to believe that a well placed kick could cause serious damage

a Macleay's Honeyeater came to check out the apples although may have been more interested in the insects they had attracted 

We started at the Goldsborough Road on 4 April getting good views of Double-eyed Fig-Parrots and another Azure Kingfisher.  We then returned to Cairns, with a few unproductive roadside stops, and returned the hire car which had served us well.  We spent the afternoon in the rain on Cairns Hill and Esplanade seeing 4 Lovely Wrens, one an immaculate male, on the hill, Rufous Night Herons on the Centennial Lakes and my only Large-billed Warbler at White Rock.  The 5 April was another wet day which we spent birding Cairns on foot covering the Esplanade, Botanical Gardens, Hill trail and Airport pools.  Highlights were White-browed Crake, a new bird, on Centennial Lakes, 20 Great Knot, a poor view of Red-crowned Fruit-Dove and a tail-less White-tailed Paradise Kingfisher on Cairns Hill.

Dollarbird

looking south to Cairns from half way up Cairns Hill

view south over Cairns from the top of Cairns Hill

We took a day trip to the Great Barrier Reef on 6 April.  We first headed out to Green Island, seeing 5 Rainbow Bee-eaters flying over about half-way out.  We had an hour on Green Island and a quick walk around produced 30 Pacific Reef Herons and 3 superb Red-crowned Fruit-Doves.  Back on the boat we saw 12 Lesser Frigatebirds over Green Island and 6 Brown Boobies on the way to Michaelmas Cay.  As we approached the Cay we began to see Brown Noddies and Sooty Terns.  Much to our frustration the tourist boat then stopped for a buffet lunch and we were then taken on a half hour glass bottomed boat tour.  I’m sure it would have been very interesting but my attention was squarely with what was flying over, trying to check Brown Noddies for Black and Sooty Terns for Bridled.  We were finally landed on the beach, about an hour later than I would have liked, two hours if one excluded the hour on Green Island, although the Fruit-Doves had been nice.  Michaelmas Cay was amazing with fearless breeding seabirds covering most of it in a roped of area one could walk to the edge of.  We saw 2500 Sooty Terns and 2000 Brown Noddies from which we picked out 2 Black Noddies.  We also saw 2 Masked Boobies, 30 Black-naped, 400 Crested, 10 Lesser Crested and a Roseate Tern while 10 Turnstones on the beach added a feeling of the familiar.  We had the opportunity to go snorkelling but I was happy just watching the terns - it was like being in a David Attenborough programme.  Our time on the Cay was over far too quickly and we returned to Cairns seeing a probably Fluttering Shearwater on the way.  It had been an excellent day.

Leaving Cairns

Green Island

Michaelmas Cay

me off Michaelmas Cay

terns on Michaelmas Cay

The terns appeared to be somewhat segregated with the slightly more numerous Sooty Tern predominating in this area.  Their noisy was incessant - Wideawake being a very appropriate alternative name

Brown Noddys occupied this part of the cay

me on Michaelmas Cay

Sooty Terns and Brown Noddys

terns over umbrellas - by now most of the others on the trip were in full beach mode 

Sooty Tern on its nest - it appeared to be little more than a shallow scrape in the sand

Brown Noddy and preening Crested Tern with Sootys

Brown Noddy on 'nest', part of egg just visible

Brown Noddy and egg

many Brown Noddys were roosting on the beach

as were smaller numbers of Crested and Lesser Crested Terns

Crested and Lesser Crested Terns, juveniles of the former preferring not to stand, with a low flying Brown Noddy

Crested Terns

Black Noddy, we managed to pick out two

they were blacker, smaller and slimmer than Brown Noddy

with a more lethal looking bill

a Turnstone was a nice reminder of home

On 7 April I had the morning birding around the usual sites at Cairns (Esplanade, Botanical Gardens, Hill, Airport).  Highlights were an adult and two juvenile White-tailed Paradise Kingfishers and the family of four aptly named Lovely Wrens on Cairns Hill.  I left Paul, he had been a great travelling companion and superb birder, and caught the afternoon flight to Darwin.

AUSTRALIA March/April 1986: Cairns (Tablelands)

Part III  Cairns (Tablelands)

This continues the blog of an Easter 1986 trip to Australia, based on scant notebook entries and vague memories and illustrated with digitised images slides taken at the time, some of which have since degraded.

It was raining when I arrived in Cairns on 26 March and checked into a youth hostel.  I headed out along the Esplanade hoping the weather would improve but it did not.  The tide was a long way out and waders rather distant, although they did include 30 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and 10 Grey-tailed Tattlers.  In the Botanical Gardens, also in easy walking distance, I saw a rather bedraggled Brush Turkey, 2 Bush Stone Curlew, a male Leaden Flycatcher and 3 Varied Honeyeaters.  Towards dusk 2500+ Shining Starlings came in to roost, the vast majority appearing to be juveniles.  The 27 March was another wet day.  I spent it walking along the Esplanade and at the Botanical Gardens but did not time it very well as the tide was either right in (no birds) or a long way out (birds very distant).  At the Botanical Gardens I found a nice trail going fairly steeply up a hill and overlooking Cairns.  I saw the same 2 Bush Stone Curlew, Malay Bronze Cuckoo, Barred Cuckoo-Shrike, Black Butcherbird, Fairy Warbler, Pale Yellow Robin and 3 Spectacled Monarchs.  That evening I met up with Paul Noakes who had flown in from Brisbane.

On 28 March we walked to the ‘Cairns Hill’ trail at the Botanical Gardens where we saw Yellow-legged Scrubfowl, White-bellied Sea-Eagles. Oriental Cuckoo  and 2 White-tailed Paradise Kingfishers (one was superb with a full tail).  A Little Kingfisher flew by at the Centenial Lakes but frustratingly did not land.  We walked back into Cairns and made enquiries about hiring a car.  We wanted the cheapest available which was a Honda City.  We were warned that it was very small but it wasn’t a model we could picture and they did not have one that we could see as the one we hired would have to be brought up from their garage in another part of town.  We did a quick tour of a couple of streets and soon found one to see for ourselves.  It wasn’t tiny and we reckoned that if necessary we could sleep in it at a pinch.  We went back to complete the paperwork for a week’s hire.  The bonnet dropped off at such an angle that we could not see where the front of the car was. Which was a bit disconcerting, but other than that it was excellent.  We briefly visited Yorkies Knob (Crested and Lesser Crested Terns), Mareeba (23 Little Whimbrel) and Big Mitchell Creek (Crested Baza, Scaly-breasted Lorikeet, White-browed Robin and another White-tailed Paradise Kingfisher).  We saw 50+ Sulphur-crested Cockatoos at roost and once it was dark Paul used his spotlight to great effect as I drove to and up Mount.  First he picked up a roosting White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike (no big deal as they were quite common) followed by an Owlet-Nightjar between Mount Molloy and Julatten and a Papuan Frogmouth as we started driving up Mt Lewis.  Superb. 

Little Whimbrel on the Tablelands, one of a loose flock of 23

15 of the 23 Little Whimbrel seen at Mareeba

road junction on the Atherton Tablelands

on the way north

approaching Mount Lewis

We camped near the top of the road up Mount Lewis and birded there the next day (29 March) until late afternoon flushing a King Quail and getting good views of Northern Logrunners (7), Grey-headed Robins, Yellow-breasted Boatbills, Eastern Whipbird, Tooth-billed and Spotted Catbirds, Rufous Songlark, Mountain Thornbill (tiny), Bridled Honeyeater, Bower’s Shrike-Thrush, Satin and a Golden Bowerbird and 12 Victoria’s Riflebirds.  An excellent selection of species although only seeing a female plumaged bowerbird and riflebirds was disappointing.  We stopped in dry scrub near Mt Molloy in the early evening seeing Varied Sitellas with 20 White-throated Needletails overhead an obvious highlight.

looking back down the track up to Mount Lewis

clouds coming in on Mount Lewis although, unlike many days, I did not note it as being exceptionally wet

It rained virtually all day on 30 March making birding difficult.  A roosting Barking Owl at Big Mitchell Creek was a good find by Paul with Graceful Honeyeater, Little Eagle and another White-browed Robin there and Blue-winged Kookaburra, Grey-crowned Babblers, Black-throated Finch and Chestnut-breasted Mannikin at Carr Creek.  Tinaroo Dam was disappointing although Australian Wood and White-eyed Ducks, Cotton Pygmy Goose and Spotted Harrier didn’t seem to mind the weather.  Back at Mareeba there were now 35 Little Whimbrel.  We camped near Hasties Swamp were over 100 Sulphur-crested Cockatoos were roosting.  

Carr Creek

the habitat was much drier here

Grey-crowned Babblers

Magpie Lark

Black-throated Finch

roosting Sulphur-crested Cockatoos

The 31 March was a drier day but still with some rain.  We spent much of the morning at Hasties Swamp seeing Diving and Plumed Whistling Duck, Banded Rail, Lotusbird, Tree and Fairy Martins and Clamorous Reed Warbler.  Nardellos Lagoon was quiet (Black Swans best!) while a return to Carr Creek produced Little Friarbird, a flock of 15 Apostlebirds (the only time I saw either species on the trip) and, for me, excellent views of a roosting Tawny Frogmouth.  It was superb and one of my trip highlights.  We spent the last hour of so at Big Mitchell Creek where I saw my only Weebills, an appropriately named species.

Nardellos Lagoon

distant Purple Gallinules

Masked Lapwings

Yellow Honeyeater

White-bellied Cuckoo-Shrike

Apostlebird

Varied Sitella

Red-backed Fairy-Wren, one of the few fairy-wren species where the males were in good plumage at this time of year

female Red-backed Fairy-Wren

Lemon-bellied Flycatcher

King Parrot

this individual seemed particularly confiding

Tawny Frogmouth at Carr Creek

it did not look happy at being disturbed!

a quite superb species

On 1 April we birded briefly at Big Michell Creek, Nardellos Lagoon and Hasties Swamp before spending most of the day at the Crater.  Hasties added 4 smart Pink-eared Duck and a Japanese Snipe but it was otherwise fairly quiet until the Crater.  This was brilliant with Yellow-legged Scrubfowl, 15 Bush Turkeys, Emerald and Wompoo Fruit-Doves, 20 Grey-headed Robins, Northern Logrunner, Eastern Whipbird, my only Fernwren and Atherton Scrubwren (I was expecting both to be somewhat more abundant), Golden Bowerbird, Tooth-billed and Spotted Catbirds and Victoria’s Riflebird.  Again the Golden Bowerbird was in female plumage but one of the two riflebirds was a superb male.  We camped at the crater well pleased with what we had seen. 

rare sunlight getting through at the Crater

Brown Cuckoo-Dove

Grey-headed Robin

they were common at the Crater

and very confiding

The 2 April was another wet day and we had a quick look around the Crater, seeing many of the species seen the previous day, before driving to Mission Beach for the afternoon.