Cairns trip report – 28-30 October

Hi everyone,

Steve Burns, Alan Collins, Mark Newman and I have just returned from a lighting 3 day trip to the Cairns area, organised by Mark. We flew out from Perth on Thursday night and stayed Friday and Saturday nights at Kingfisher Park, before returning to Perth late Sunday afternoon. Below is a brief report from the trip – as always, any comments are welcome. I don’t think we had too many unusual sightings, although a Great-billed Heron showing well at Centenary Lakes may be a little unusual, and a local we met at the Esplanade suggested the Grey Plover there was also relatively uncommon. Below is a relatively long report on the trip

Friday 28th We arrived at about 4.15am and picked up our first birds in the airport carpark, including White-breasted Woodswallow. We then headed for the Esplanade, where we saw Pied Imperial Pigeon, Figbird, Metallic Starling, and House Sparrow, plus good numbers of waders on the mudflats (these were still a fair way out though, so we planned to return later). We then headed for Centenary Lakes. Our first (and probably best) sighting was a Great-billed Heron on the eastern most lake, initially on the grassy shore, then on some mangrove roots in the lake – I’m not sure how regularly these are seen here, but they can be very tricky to get onto so to get one so easily was great! We added a few more species like Orange-footed Scrubfowl, Yellow Oriole, Olive-backed Sunbird, Brown-backed and Dusky Honeyeaters, Australian Swiftlet, and more imperial pigeons overhead. We also saw a Black Bittern which flew over us near the walking bridge over the main saltwater creek, plus Striated Heron and Bu ff-banded Rail along the creek. On the freshwater lagoon, we added Magpie Goose, Green Pygmy-Goose, Eastern Great & Intermediate Egret, plus two Pacific Baze overhead, Helmeted Friarbird and Scaly-breasted Lorikeet.

After a quick stop for a Macca’s breakfast, we tried the boardwalks along the road to the airport for some mangrove species. The mosquitoes were seriously fierce, but we did pick up some nice birds including Large-billed Gerygone, Collared Kingfisher, Shining Flycatcher, Varied Honeyeater, and Mangrove Robin. We returned to the Esplanade but found that my calculations were a little off and the tide was too high for any waders. We did pick up a Common Tern perched on a buoy offshore, plus more Australian Swiftlets and Welcome Swallows. This meant we had some spare time before we needed to head for Julatten and Steve suggested that we drive up to Copperlode Dam. This proved to be a good suggestion, as whilst the dam area itself was fairly quiet, we picked up a good variety of birds at various stops along the road up there. These included Double-eyed Fig Parrot, Yellow-spotted Honeyeater, Spectacled Monarch, Fairy Gerygone, Barred Cuckoo-shrike, Little Shrike-thrush, and excelle nt views of Pacific Baza.

From here, we headed for Julatten via Mareeba (where we stopped for supplies). We stopped at a roadside wetland just north of Mareeba which had Black-necked Stork, Magpie Goose, Plumed Whistling Duck, Pied, White-necked & White-faced Heron, Intermediate & Cattle Egret, Glossy Ibis, and a Pheasant Coucal. A few other brief roadside stops between here and Julatten yielded some more species, including Comb-crested Jacana, Little Friarbird, Yellow Honeyeater, Black Swan, and plenty of Eastern Cattle Egret. Having arrived at Kingfisher Park, we immediately saw Red-browed Finch and Bar-shouldered Dove on the feeders. We spent the rest of the afternoon birding the grounds, picking up a good variety of species including Little Shrike-thrush, Macleay’s & Graceful Honeyeater, Metallic Starling, Pale Yellow Robin, Orange-footed Scrubfowl, Bassian Thrush, Spotted Catbird, Pied, Spectacled & Black-faced Monarchs, Grey-headed Robin, Superb Fruit-dove (only seen by a couple of us after bein g spotted by another guest), Emerald Dove, and Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher (eventually seen by 3 of us), plus a Platypus in Bushy Creek. We also found the rufous Tawny Frogmouth roosting just outside our room, and thanks to one of the other guests, the Papuan Frogmouth roosting in the orchard. After dinner, we headed out for a night drive to try and pick up some owls – unfortunately, we soon found an Eastern Barn Owl in the middle of the road with a badly broken wing. We were able to catch it and take it back to KFP, but sadly nothing much could be done and it died overnight.

Saturday 29th We were up at and birding around the grounds at KFP at sunrise for about an hour before heading to Mt Lewis. We mostly saw similar things to the previous afternoon, although a White-bellied Sea-Eagle flew overhead, and we had decent views of female Yellow-breasted Boatbill. We left for Mt Lewis at around 6:30am. An Azure Kingfisher flashed under the bridge at the Nissen Creek crossing, and we saw Barred Cuckoo-shrike, Brown Gerygone and a few others at the Bushy Creek crossing. We then passed a couple of people filming something in the forest, which turned out to be a male Victoria’s Riflebird on its display perch. We stayed back to avoid disturbing the bird for the people filming, but still had magnificent views. Further stops along the road yielded Lewin’s Honeyeater, Mountain Thornbill, Varied Triller, Brown Cuckoo-Dove, Golden Whistler, Shining Bronze-cuckoo, and brief views of a Wompoo Fruit-dove. We reached the clearing at Mt Lewis, and headed up the trail to the left. We soon had good views of Grey-headed Robin and Bower’s Shrike-thrush, and Bridled Honeyeater not long afterwards. Further along the track, we added Chowchilla and Yellow-throated Scrubwren. Unfortunately, we only heard Tooth-billed Bowerbird and Fernwren (except for very brief view of a possible), and had no sign of Golden Bowerbird or Atherton Scrubwren, plus we were too early for the Blue-faced Parrot Finch :(.

Having returned from Mt Lewis, we took a brief lunch break at KFP, although we still picked up excellent views of a Grey Goshawk from our table outside the room! We were considering trying for the Spotted Whistling Ducks, but first checked Abbatoir Swamp, which produced a reasonable selection of species including Blue-winged Kookaburra, Red-backed Fairy-wren, plenty of Brown-backed Honeyeater and a few Yellow Honeyeater. On the way, we also picked up three Bush Stone-curlews standing in an orchard by the road. We then checked directions for the ducks, but decided against it as we were told it was a 40min drive each way and the birds hadn’t been reported for a while. Instead, we headed to Station Creek for a quick check, and picked up Lemon-bellied Flycatcher, Scarlet Honeyeater, Noisy Friarbird, and Pale-headed Rosella. A quick stop at Luster Creek then yielded another brief flypasss by an Azure Kingfisher.

We returned to KFP to bird the grounds for the rest of the afternoon to try to pick up some of the local birds we were still missing. We didn’t have much success though, as the species we were seeking generally proved elusive. We did see our first Australian Brush Turkey of the trip though, plus many of the same species we’d seen that morning and the previous evening. We then joined Keith and Lindsay Fisher for a guided night walk around the grounds. An Eastern Barn Owl was seen well in Geraghty Park, and a Papuan Frogmouth and Bush Stone-curlews were heard calling, but the birds were fairly quiet overall. We did see a good variety of mammals though, including Long-nosed & Northern Brown Bandicoots, Spectactled Flying-fox, and Giant White-tailed Rat. The local possums proved elusive though unfortunately.

Sunday 30th We were again up and birding the grounds by sunrise as we each tried to pick up a few of the species we were each missing. Steve picked up a Noisy Pitta, but he was the only one of us to have already seen them. In the end, none of us got any new birds, but I was lucky enough to get an excellent look at Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher. We packed up and left by 7.45am and headed back to Cairns with a few stops on the way. A few quick stops yielded Great Bowerbird, Wandering Whistling Duck, and (Eastern) Osprey. The first major stop was Big Mitchell Creek for White-browed Robin, but we dipped. A Brush Cuckoo was seen, along with plenty of Yellow Honeyeaters, plus Steve found a group of Pale-headed Rosellas. We then dropped into Mareeba Wetlands. Unfortunately, the birds were fairly quiet in the warm weather, but we did pick up some new species for the trip including Caspian and Whiskered Tern, Brolga and Royal Spoonbill on the lagoons, plus Emu, Channel-billed Cuckoo, Brown Tr eecreeper (northern QLD race), Leaden Flycatcher, Varied Sitella and Double-barred Finch in the surrounding bush. The road in also produced some nice birds including a pair of Australian Bustard, a small flock of Glossy Ibis, Brown Goshawk, Eastern Koel, and some of the local Helmeted Guineafowl population (debatably tickable?)

Back in Cairns, we briefly checked the water level at the Esplanade, but it was still high so we moved onto Centenary Lakes again (via KFC!). It was much quieter being later in the day, but we did see Black Butcherbird, Radjah Shelduck, and Australian Brush-turkey, plus Little Bronze-cuckoo was seen by Steve and Mark. We went back to the Esplanade and finally got onto some close waders on the first areas of exposed mud at the north end. The selection included Whimbrel, Bar-tailed & Black-tailed Godwits, Red & Great Knot, Grey-tailed Tattler, Common Greenshank, Sharp-tailed, Curlew & Terek Sandpiper, Red-necked Stint, and a single Grey Plover, still with showing remnants of breeding plumage. We also saw Little & Eastern Reef Egret, Little & Gull-billed Terns, and a Collared Kingfisher. We also saw a distressed Terek Sandpiper that had one leg caught on fishing wire on the edge of the mangroves. Fortunately, Mark was able to remove the fishing line and the bird flew off strongl y, although its leg appeared damaged and it hobbled around when it landed – hopefully it’ll do OK. By then, it was time to head for the airport and our flight back to Perth.

All up between us, we recorded around 200 species (not sure of the exact number at present), a decent return given we were relatively unfamiliar with the area and the birds. Thanks go to Keith & Lindsay at KFP, and all the other birders we met around the place for sharing info on where we might pick up certain species.

Cheers, John ===============================

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