Finally some beautiful weather! Unfortunately, I was unable to capitalise on it as much as I would like, due largely to factors beyond my control. I did get out for a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday, unfortunately however on both Saturday and Sunday the time alotted was in the middle of the day. Saturday involved little more than a lazy stroll along the Cairns Esplanade, but it did produce a couple of nice surprises.
The first was a Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta), who had apparently struck nesting gold in the eye of a fig tree near the library. It so excitedly pulled the spider webbing out of the eye that a few times this little honeyeater even got itself tangled.
The second was a dried out Bird’s Nest Fern which contained the nest of a White-breasted Woodswallow (Artamus leucorynchus), the screeching near-fledging chick drew my attention. Here are a couple of shots. After 15 minutes of standing and watching the nest, I noticed a crowd of spectators had swarmed around me.
Some other interesting species seen included a lone female Mistletoebird (Dicaeum hirundinaceum), several Varied Honeyeaters (Lichenostomus versicolor) and three nesting Pied Imperial-Pigeons (Ducula bicolor).
Now today! Today, although scorching hot was much more interesting. Apart from getting some good photos, I managed to see a few species I had never seen before. This is always a thrill, although having only recently moved to Cairns from NSW, it is starting to lose a bit of its magic! The trip today was to Yorkeys Knob Golf Course lagoon.
The best shot of the day must be this one of a female Yellow-bellied Sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis). I spent 15 minutes being baked standing near this shrub trying to get this shot. This little lady was very accepting of my presence.
The best sighting of the day, albeit somewhat expected, was of two pairs of Green Pygmy-geese (Nettapus pulchellus). These birds seemed to like to stay and feed right at the edge of a large mass of green weed that was in the centre of the lagoon, so as the day went on, and the wind pushed the weed closer to the edge, I managed to get some decent shots.
I also managed to get some decent shots of some Welcome Swallows (Hirundo neoxema), a couple of Helmeted Friarbirds (Philemon buceroides), some Rainbow Bee-eaters (Merops ornatus) and a Dusky Honeyeater (Myzomela obscura). I won’t put all these images up of course!
Many, many more photos were taken, including of a fair few more species but these were the most interesting of the lot for me.
