The main reason for the trip to Australia was for Toni’s birthday so that she could spend it with the Australian contingent of her family, but naturally there would be some birding thrown in too!
Having been packed in like sardines on a JetStar flight from Bali to
Cairns (actually, I think sardines have a lot of room compared to flying with
JetStar!) which got delayed and so didn’t leave until gone 2am, we arrived in
cairns at about 8am, picked up the hire car and wearily had a walk along Cairns
Esplanade in search of some breakfast, and more importantly, caffeine! The
mudflats were fairly quiet compared with previous visits, though previously
when I have been here it has been the Australian summer and so the mudflats are
home to waders that are spending their non-breeding season there. Still, there
were several Pied Stilts, a single Great Knot, Australian Terns and on the grassy
areas, a group of 17 Bush Stone Curlews – a nice easy bit of birding to get my
head in Australian birds mode after a week in Bali.
After a McDonald’s breakfast (our usual place, Muddy’s, had
a long wait on food!) we headed towards Townsville where we would be spending
much of the next week, and got as far as Ingham, about 3 hours south of Cairns
and a favoured reserve of mine - Tyto Wetlands. We stayed in the Troppix Motel,
which is a short walk from Tyto Wetlands, and there was time for a short walk onto
the reserve in the evening, though the light was poor and typically a group of
Rainbow Bee-eaters showed well along with a few Wandering Whistling Ducks since there was little light to get any
meaningful photos!
Wandering Whistling Ducks
The next morning I was up and out at first light, and thankfully the overnight rain was easing as I walked out of the door. The reserve has some lovely trails and viewpoints over pools and it was a surprise when a raptor flew out of a tree and landed a short distance away and slowly manoeuvring for a better view, it proved to be a Grey Goshawk. It then flew again but I caught up with it again a while later when it showed much better.
Grey Goshawk
One Australian bird family I am obsessed with is Fairywrens, however northern Queensland isn’t blessed with many species compared with some parts of Australia. Having already seen several Red-backed Fairywrens during my walk, a female Lovely Fairywren showed briefly by the path, followed quickly by a stunning male nearby, the 7th Fairywren species I’ve seen across 4 visits to Australia so far.
Lovely Fairywren
The rest of the walk racked up a decent list to start the trip, with Rufous Whistler, Little Bronze Cuckoo, Sahul Brush Cuckoo, Crimson Finch, Varied Triller, White-gaped and Yellow Honeyeaters, a showy Golden-headed Cisticola and a brief Pale-vented Native Hen which flushed from by the path.
Little Bronze Cuckoo
A short stop on the way to Townsville at Big Crystal Creek campground produced my first Northern Fantail alongside a few of the much more common Grey Fantails and a White-browed Robin.
Much of the next week was spent in Townsville, spending time with Toni’s family but thankfully I was able to preserve my sanity by sneaking out most mornings to visit the Town Common for a couple of hours. Even though the sign at the entrance says the common is only open from 6.30am-6.30pm, the gate was never closed and so I was able to go in before it got light and on one morning had amazing close views of a Barking Owl perched up by the road in the headlights, typically when my camera was in the boot of the car!
The dawn chorus inevitably started with Brown Honeyeaters
but soon afterwards the Brolgas would start to bugle and several families would
be present at first light on the lagoons. The lagoons would also hold Green
Pygmy Geese, lots of Comb-crested Jacanas and Magpie Geese, a few Australian
and Caspian Terns, Pied Stilts and one morning a Crocodile sitting motionless
in the far side.
The surrounding scrub was alive with Brown-backed and Yellow Honeyeaters, Black-faced and White-bellied Cuckoo-shrikes, Rainbow Bee-eaters, Leaden Flycatchers, Forest and Sacred Kingfishers, Little Bronze Cuckoo, Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Golden-headed Cisticolas, and of course Red-backed Fairywrens, plus many Agile and Swamp Wallabies - it really was a great place to spend a few hours each morning!
The lagoons also held a few raptors, most notably Australian Hobby, Swamp Harrier, Whistling Kite, Brahminy Kite and White-bellied Sea-eagle.
We did have one morning up at Paluma, where a small tearoom has earned a reputation among birders as THE place to see Victoria’s Riflebird. However, a series of mudslides last summer had closed the road and now it is only accessible by escort on the hour and the tearoom only opens between Friday and Sunday. Although the Riflebirds did appear while we were there, they weren’t as regular or confiding as last time I was here, and the feeding of them seemed much reduced, possibly being winter with plastic heeting protecting the diners from the elements meaning the usual feeding tray had been removed.
Just a short ferry ride from Townsville is Magnetic Island.
What possessed us to spend a bank holiday Monday on a packed ferry, I have no
idea, but it was a nice day out starting with a couple of Australian Humpbacked
Dolphins before we had left Townsville harbour. A feature of Magnetic Island is
it is quite an easy place to see Koalas, and a walk along the Fort Walk we came
across a single Koala trying to have a peaceful sleep while a procession of
cameraphone toting folk wandered around just below it.
The Agile Rock Wallabies here are even tamer and will readily take chopped carrot from the hands of tourists.
Agile Rock Wallaby
In one of the WWII bunkers along the Fort Walk is a colony
of Northern Broad-nosed Bats and also a rather large Huntsman Spider!
Leaving Townsville and the family bit behind, we headed off back north towards the Atherton Tablelands, calling in at Mission Beach on the way. On my previous two visits here, I have seen Southern Cassowary, and it seems I am something of a good luck charm with these birds, as we drove towards the town, a male Cassowary was walking down the verge by the road with a chick, but having a traffic behind us we couldn’t stop and by the time we had spun the car around, the cassowary had disappeared back into the forest.
After reporting our Cassowary sighting to the visitor
centre, we had a walk back to the car via the beach and what started off as a
bit of spray quickly developed into a torrential downpour which soaked us to
the skin. Thankfully we hadn’t taken our cameras out with us, but as we quickly
ran for cover, the distinctive shape of a Beach Stone Curlew was feeding in the
surf. As soon as the rain subsided, I grabbed my camera and set off back up the
beach and the Beach Stone Curlew was still there and eventually I was able to
catch up with it.
Beach Stone Curlew
After a much-needed hot chocolate to warm up after our
soaking, we carried on to Lake Eacham and the Chambers Wildlife Retreat for the
night, where despite being told it was dry season, it seemed to spend a lot of
time raining! One of the highlights of staying at Chambers Wildlife Retreat is
every evening they put out honey on trees in a floodlit area which attracts
possums, gliders and other nocturnal mammals. Despite the rain, and a couple of
annoying and noisy guests, a Striped Possum, a Klefft’s Sugar Glider,
Long-nosed and Northern Brown Bandicoots and Great White-tailed Rat did oblige.
It’s not just the mammals here that are tame when fed, the
balconies of the lodges are visited by Victoria’s Riflebird, Spotted Catbird,
Lewin’s Honeyeaters and Brushturkeys, all after a nice snack.
Victoria's Riflebird
Spotted Catbird
The lodges are surrounded by a lovely patch of rainforest
which has a nice path through it, and once the rain stopped, a walk here
produced both Spectacled and Pied Monarch, Chowchilla, both Pale Yellow and
Grey-headed Robins and another confiding male Victoria’s Riflebird calling
loudly from a favoured stump, but unfortunately, he stopped short of displaying
which (I am led to believe) is very spectacular.
Pale Yellow Robin
We made our way north across the Atherton Tablelands, making
short stops at Wongabel State Forest where the hoped for Lumholtz’s Tree-kangaroos
remained hidden but an Atherton Scrubwren showed well and then Hasties Swamp.
The large hide at Hasties Swamp gives a good view over the water (not really a
swamp, more a big lagoon) and held Hardhead, Dusky Moorhen and Plumed Whistling
Ducks while a short walk along the road produced Bower’s Shrikethrush,
White-cheeked Honeyeater and a couple of confiding Eastern Yellow Robins.
Staying in an Airbnb just south of the Daintree River, we were able to get across the ferry and walk around the Jindalba Boardwalk nice and early before the throngs of tourists descended. Unfortunately, despite perfect conditions (i.e. still and no screaming kids), we couldn’t find any Bennett’s Tree-kangaroos (though something did drop a big fruit out of a tree above our heads) or Cassowaries along the boardwalk. A Wompoo Fruit Dove high in the trees along the boardwalk and an Australian Rufous Fantail, Grey Whistler and a few Spectacled Monarchs around the car park felt like scant reward.
Wompoo Fruit Dove
Just north of here, we came to a stop when a male Cassowary
with 2 large chicks was stood in the middle of the road, and just like at
Mission Beach, we had a line of traffic behind us so couldn’t stop and get out
to photograph it, so had to watch them all disappear into the forest instead.
Much of the rest of the day felt like a slog as the area around Cape Tribulation has got a lot more touristy since 2013 when I last visited and by mid-morning, streams of car were descending on the area. A quick stop to grab a cup of tea and watch the large roost of Spectacled Flying Foxes across the road from the busy café was quite enough dealing with tourists for one day!
Spectacled Flying Fox
Thankfully a chance drive down to Cape Kimberley was much quieter and a very pleasant hour or so wandering around here late afternoon produced Banded Honeyeater, Green Orioles, Dusky Myzomela and a Sahul Sunbird.
Having trekked across the Atherton Tablelands two days earlier and chosen to stay a couple of hours north of this area, a chance Facebook post from Malanda Falls Caravan Park of a Tree-kangaroo being seen for the last couple of days in the same tree was too tempting to resist and a twitch was on!
The drive down to Malanda took nearly 3 hours with a couple
of short stops at Lake Mitchell where a Red-fronted Dotterel, Green Pygmy
Geese, Forest Kingfishers and a couple of bickering Glossy Ibis and then just a
bit further south at least 100 Black Kites over a recycling plant was an
impressive spectacle.
Black Kites
We arrived at Malanda Falls at about 10.30am and in need of
a cup of tea I went in search of the café before the Tree-kangaroo hunt could
start and had a chat with the ladies in the visitor centre. I mentioned that I
was hoping to see Tree-kangaroo and she pointed at a tree across the road and
said “that’s where it hangs out!” and as soon as I walked back out of the door,
a bulky shape moving around in the top of the tree proved to be the Lumholtz’s
Tree-kangaroo, and so easy! The next couple of hours were spent in the car park
waiting for the tree-kangaroo to move into a less obscured bit of tree while we
also pointed it out to wave after wave of tourists who were wanting to know
what we were staring up into the trees at!
Lumholtz’s Tree-kangaroo
After the euphoria of a successful twitch, we set off back
to our Airbnb and took a slight detour into the Danbulla National Park and
State Forest which turned out to be a lot more pot-holey and slow road than we
had expected. Arriving at a day use area, we had a quick leg stretch which was
very productive with male Golden Whistler, a pair of Pale Yellow Robins, 2
young Red-backed Fairywrens and an absolute belter in the form of a
Yellow-breasted Boatbill feeding low down.
Yellow-breasted Boatbill
Our last morning in Australia and we were booked on a sunrise Daintree River cruise with Wild Daintree. Arriving at the jetty just in time, we joined one other couple and set off into the mist. There’s two species that birders want to see on these river cruises – Great-billed Heron and Papuan Frogmouth and we hadn’t been on the move for more than five minutes before the first one fell, a Great-billed Heron flew out and perched up on a tree but it was still very misty so photogenically it wasn’t great, but a good start, nevertheless.
We carried on down the river as the sun broke through and it turned into a gorgeous morning and the birds just kept coming as Alex using his knowledge and skill put us in great position for point blank photos of Shing Flycatchers, Radjah Shelduck, Little Heron, Little Pied Cormorant, Azure Kingfisher, Rainbow Bee-eater.
female Shining Flycatcher
male Shining Flycatcher
It wasn't long before we found the second target, a Papuan Frogmouth sitting motionless in the riverside trees. We later saw a second Frogmouth, again it was only Alex’s knowledge of where they hang out that we were able to find them.
Papuan Frogmoth
You can’t really go on a Daintree River cruise and not see a
Saltwater Crocodile, and we were lucky enough to see one of the big males,
locally known as Hook who is about 4-5m long and on our way back, a much smaller female.
Saltwater Crocodile
With that, it was time to head back, check out of the Airbnb and head to Cairns to begin the long journey back to the UK.
Despite it not being a full on wildlife watching trip, and for us driving relatively few miles, I still managed to see 169 bird and 17 mammal species.
