I haven’t done much birding this week in preparation for Christmas, but I did get away for about 6 hours while Alex was at work on Monday and walked the Cairns esplanade, mangroves, botanical gardens and Centenary Lakes. It was an OK day with well over 50 species sighted, but I have to admit, now that I have the new binoculars, I tend to use the camera less! I did manage a few photos though, so here goes…

On arriving at the Esplanade in the morning, I was greeted by a cacophony of twenty plus Eastern Curlews (Numenius madagascariensis) all calling incessantly. If anyone has heard the call of an Eastern Curlew, you would know this made for interesting listening! The birds had all congregated near the southern end as the tide was coming in.

There were the usual range of sandpipers, plovers and egrets on the esplanade which made for good viewing with the rising tide and morning light. Unusually, the number of Grey-tailed Tattlers (Tringa brevipes) and Terek Sandpipers (Xenus cinereus) seemed to outnumber the other more regular species (except, of course, the knots).

While it was a good day for sightings, this didn’t translate to a good day for photos. It was literally one of those days where nothing would sit still and all species seemed incredibly flighty. It was incredibly hot though so it may well have been my odour. On the edge of the mangroves, a pair of Varied Honeyeaters (Lichenostomus versicolor) were so little bothered by my presence that they landed on a branch not 20 centimetres above my head. I tried to frame one of the birds but it was so close I ended up cutting off its tail!

The botanic gardens and surrounds produced some interesting birds although my ID skills are severely lacking when it comes to identifying by sound. I need an audio field guide badly. The Metallic Starling (Aplonis metallica) colony on the Cook Highway east of the gardens seems overrun with juveniles at the moment, squabbling and playing with each other.

Near the freshwater lake at Centenary lakes this juvenile Nankeen Night-heron (Nycticorax caledonicus) flushed from a tree above me. This was the first juvenile I have seen of this species.

The usual suspects were around, with one Australian Brush Turkey (Alectura lathami) actually following me a quarter of the way down the Red Arrow track. This bird was one of eight seen on the relatively short Red Arrow walk.

Thankfully, the most interesting sighting of the day I did manage to photograph. This Pheasant Coucal (Centropus phasianinis) sat perched on a tree overlooking Cairns just off the Red Arrow lookout. While this is a fairly common species, I have not seen them anywhere except around cane fields before this. This bird treated me to a calling display while watching it. Its call is something of a pigeon cross cassowary. A deep wooping call. A definite treat!

The two other interesting, although not necessarily uncommon, sightings were a pair of Double-eyed Fig-parrots (Cyclopsitta diopthalma) and a number of White-throated Honeyeaters (Melithreptus albogularis) working a eucalyptus tree on the start of the Blue Arrow track.

This boxing day we are heading to Lake Eacham to stay at the Chambers Wildlife Lodge, so hopefully we will return with some decent photos of some new species! The word is that there are several active Tooth-billed Bowerbird (Scenopoeetes denitrostris) bowers currently on the property, so we will see!

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL! Hope you all have a great festive season and get loads of presents. Fingers crossed for expensive telephoto lenses all round. I will see you all next year!

Tags: birding, birds, Cairns, Esplanade