Monday 11 May 2009

Wet wet wet

It was another vile wet day in Cairns. I know this is the 'Wet Tropics' but the rain is getting more than a little tiresome, especially when I am told the couple of weeks prior to my arrival was glorious warm sunshine. I met expat birder Tony for some birding around Cairns Esplanade and despite the shit conditions in which we both managed to get soaked feet (I was wearing soft shoes) we managed to get three more lifers for my list:

Beach Stone Curlew
Mangrove Robin - these proved easier to see than we thought, we eventually saw 4 and I even managed to get some (bad) photos of one as it perched briefly on a pillar at someone's front gate
Golden-headed Cisticola - this was on some 'waste ground' and it was only as we were leaving the area we saw it.

Other birds were:

Sacred Kingfisher
Black-fronted Dotterel
Osprey
Whimbrel
Fairy Martin
Varied Honeyeater
Brown Honeyeater
Brahminy Kite
Forest Kingfisher
White-bellied Sea-eagle
Silver Gull
Caspian Tern
Gull-billed Tern
Intermediate Egret
Little Egret
Straw-necked Ibis
Australian White Ibis


We drew a blank on Bar-shouldered Dove, Far-eastern Curlew and Nankeen Night-heron.
The total number of lifers now comes to a nice round 140 and I hope I can add a few more before leaving Australia on the 26th.

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