Australia (7/8) Cairns

Cairns offered some more good opportunities for birding. It was surrounded by rainforest as well as having a great esplanade with trees on one side and at low tide mud flats on the other. There was parkland and Botanical Gardens to the north of the town and Mangrove swamps near the airport. Add that to the the Barrier Reef islands and it was the usual problem of not enough time to fit everything in.

Our first trip was out to Kuranda an old hippy haunt turned tourist location. We used a cable car to get up there and the historic Kuranda Scenic Railway to get back to Cairns. It all sounded very promising but there was a strange lack of birdlife around the area.

We did have the opportunity of visiting the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary or Birdworld Kuranda. The later tempting as they had a Cassowary which I would have liked to have seen. However, it was advertised as having some of Australia's most precious and beautiful birds. Of being a photographers paradise where you could hand feed the birds and of the company being proud of its achievements in the field of professional wildlife tourism. What!!!  These are caged birds. Where are the awards for conservation, the programs for the reintroduction of endangered species.

We gave it a miss and went for a walk through the rainforest. No Cassowary and not many other birds but we felt suitably superior as a result of our decision.

Sulpher-crested Cockatoo

Barred Cuckoo-shrike

 and in the trees in the main street of Kuranda

Australasian Figbird  -  Female

and one of my few butterfly shots of the holiday

Black Jezebel

The next day a trip out to Michaelmas Cay on the Great Barrier Reef. Snorkelling for most, birding for me. Tourists are only allowed on one small part of the island, the rest is reserved for birds. Twenty three species of seabirds have been recorded on the island and in the summer breeding season 20,000 birds have been seen there.

It was early in the season and I wasn't going to see anything like that number but there were still lots of birds about. Even on the small bit reserved for tourists you had to be careful not to tread on the Juvenile Sooty Terns who didn't seem to be able to read the signs saying that this bit was for tourists.

Sooty Tern - Juvenile

Sooty Tern

Sooty Tern

Brown Booby - Male

Brown Booby - Male

Brown Booby - Female with Yellow bill male with blue shading on bill

Common (Brown) Noddy

Crested Tern

Lesser Frigatebird

Ruddy Turnstone

Silver Gull

In the end I only saw seven birds but five of them were new for me and it was nice to have time , for a change, to stand around and look for some good picture opportunities.


The third day in Cairns we had the option of a coach trip up to the Cape Tribulation and the Daintree rainforest or a free day in Cairns. With so much to see in Cairns we opted to stay there. I was up early for a quick walk along the front. Later I returned for breakfast and to pick up Sue and we spent the day walking along the front and around the parkland areas.

I liked Cairns but it was hot that day, the low thirties and it was only just the end of  winter. The locals greet you with welcome to paradise. Maybe, the record low for the area is 18 which sounds like paradise but in the summer it touches 40 which takes it out of my definition of paradise.

Eastern Reef  Egret

The Eastern Reef Egret comes in two morphs, grey and white. Finding a grey morph made the species a lot easier to identify.

Australasian Figbird  -  Male

Masked Lapwing

Peaceful Dove

Pied Imperial-pigeon

Sacred Kingfisher

Curlew

Black-fronted Dotterel

Australian Pied Oystercatcher

Great Knot

Australian Pelican

Gull-billed Tern

Yellow Honeyeater

Early that morning I had met up with an Australian birder and his three grandchildren who were out on a birding big day. They offered to take me with them and I would have loved to have gone but I couldn't abandon Sue. He did give me directions for a Rufous Owl and later that day we found the right area with luckily another birder standing under the right tree. If he ever reads this blog I would like to say thanks for the info.

Rufous Owl and the usual branch  - Male

Inquisitive Rainbow Lorikeet at the Rufous Owl's nest with female and young at home - be careful

Laughing Kookaburra

Nutmeg Mannikin

Another Rainbow Bee-eater

Australian Bush-turkey

Olive-Backed Sunbird

I saw these Sunbirds a couple of times in deep rainforest with no light for a picture. This one was silhouetted against the light. The picture is not good but the colours are visible including the blue throat and breast. To make things a bit easier on identification there is only one Sunbird in Australia and hence only one bird with this profile.

Magpie Goose

Radjah Shelduck

White-breasted Woodswallow

Once again time catches up with us. We leave Cairns for Sydney tomorrow and there is still so much to see, the whole of Northern Queensland for a start.

Australia (8/8) Sydney

I liked most places we visited in Australia but my verdict on Sydney, too big, too noisy, and too many people. There were some good bits, the harbour, the ferry service, and I liked the Darling Harbour area although I think I would soon get tired of it. Overall just too much like London. A place to be avoided whenever possible.

We arrived at our hotel close to Darling Harbour mid afternoon and whilst Sue settled in I set off to track down some more birds. I could only see three good birding spots within Sydney itself although there are a lot of good sites within one to two hours drive of the centre. They were the Botanic Gardens, Centennial Park, and the Olympic Park.

With time being limited I settled for the closest, the Botanic Gardens. In retrospect a poor choice. It was about 30 minutes walk through a very busy and built up shopping area and when I got there it was packed with picnickers, children and wedding photographers. There were very few birds and very few picture opportunities. I could have made the Centennial Gardens in less than fifteen minutes by taxi, a much better choice.

 So only two new birds.

Chestnut Teal

Little Black Cormorant

The following day was spent touring Sydney and cruising the harbour. Birding opportunities were limited and even a distant view of a Kookaburra couldn't inspire me to get the camera out. The highlight of the day, paddling my feet on Bondi Beach.

Next day and we were off to the Blue Mountains with the main destination the cable cars and incline railways of the Scenic Skyway at Katoomba. A bit touristy for my liking and a bit scary on the cable cars given that, at times, I could barley stand up in the strong winds but it all proved to be safe.

The incline railway, an old mining railway, with a gradient of 52 degrees is claimed to be the steepest passenger railway in the world. I say claimed as I just did a quick check and Lynton and Lynmouth Cliff Railway in North Devon England has an incline of 58 degrees. I think the Gelmerbahn funicular in Switzerland has a 74 degree incline and if you take it to the extreme a lift in a large tower block has an incline of 180 degrees.

Still, I digress.  The beauty of this railway is that it takes you down into Jamison valley about a thousand feet below and to an extensive boardwalk taking you through the rainforest. The boardwalk is a bit intrusive but it does give you access to a vast area and fortunately the nosier tourist element tend not to venture down that way.

Rose Robin

The light levels under the trees were very low and few of the birds sat still for long so I didn't get many pictures but a few of them are worth posting. This shot of the White-browed Scrubwren was the best of about thirty attempts and was finally captured at ISO 2500 at 1/25 sec.

White-browed Scrubwren

Superb Lyrebird 

Lyrebirds again in poor light. One of the slower moving birds but still difficult to capture a clean photograph of it as it scratches around for insects on the forest floor

Superb Lyrebird - Female

Pied Currawong

So to the last day of the holiday. Sue had met up with an old school friend and I had a day to go birding wherever I wanted. I chose the Olympic Park area, mainly, I think, because of the ferry ride along the Parramatta River to get there.

Just off the ferry and a great find in the trees by the river, an Olive-backed Oriole......

Olive-backed Oriole

......and on the opposite side of the river a White-bellied Eagle.

The Newington Nature Reserve is a no access area but there is a decent screen on the riverside footpath where you can observe part of the wetland area.

White-faced Heron

White-headed Stilt (a split from the Black-winged Stilt)

Purple Swamphen

and on the Louise Sauvage Pathway lots of Superb Fairy-wrens

Superb Fairy-wren

Superb Fairy Wren  -  Female

The ever present Bin Chicken  -  Australian White Ibis

The Badu Mangrove seemed totally devoid of life until I got to the footpaths around the waterbird refuge. With Sydney experiencing its driest September in more than 130 years the water was some way from the hide but I can imagine this giving some excellent views during the wetter months.

Badu Waterbird Refuge

Some interesting birds here.

Red-necked Avocets

In the centre a Red-kneed Dotterel at the front female Chestnut or Grey Teal

Red-browed Finch

and around the lake in the Bicentennial Park

Spotted Dove

Striated Heron

Welcome Swallow

 I have seen a lot, done a lot, photographed a lot of birds and it's been a great holiday. Part of me feels tired and would like a break from rushing around trying to pack so much in. The rest of me wants to go back to the beginning and start all over again. I may have photographed 130 birds but that also means that I failed to photograph at least 750. Will I ever get back to find the rest?

Most people bring a souvenir back from their holiday. Mine is a really well thumbed copy of the Helm Field Guides - Birds of Australia.

Final total on the birds, 133 birds seen, of which 112 are life ticks and I managed to photograph all the birds except the Fairy Martin and the Nankeen Kestrel.

Fledglings

I haven't been out birding much this past couple of months. A combination of a lot of wet weather,  a lack of any really inspiring birds in the Sussex area, and an unwillingness to get involved in any long distant twitches.

We did pay a visit to Cliffe Pools to see the Marsh Sandpiper and we did see it but it was very distant. I managed to get a picture although it is not one that I would care to put up on the blog. Frustrating really, it now moves on to my hit list, of nine birds, that I have seen but for which I did not manage to get a decent picture. Although I have to say that is a very subjective view. On a bad day I look at my pictures and think they could all do with improvement.

So today was a fresh start, the first days birding of the rest of my life. You just felt that Autumn was in the air and the migrants were on their way. Sad to say we failed to connect with them but there were a few fledglings around that will soon be migrating in the opposite direction.

The area around the sluice at Pagham North Wall is always a good spot to find baby Swallows at this time of year. Today there were probably three families in the area with about ten hungry mouths waiting to be fed.

Amazing to think that they are just a few weeks out of the egg and in a couple more weeks they will be on their way to Africa.

There were also a good number of Sedge Warbler fledglings in the reeds waiting to be fed.

They were probably just a little bit to eager, climbing to the top of the reeds and calling loudly for their parents. Good for me taking pictures but they are making themselves a bit of a target.

No Sparrowhawks about but there were a pair of Peregrines hunting across the area. These are probably the ground nesting ones from the island in the harbour. I doubt the Chichester Cathedral pair are welcome in the area any more.

Below are a few odd pictures taken earlier in the year. There weren't enough for a blog at the time but they are still worth recording.



The first a Black-tailed Godwit in Summer Plumage, again from the North Wall Pagham.

Ring-necked Parakeets taken at Kew Gardens from the high level walkway. So common in London but still a rarity just fifty miles south.

And two from a quick stop at Fairburn Ings on the way north. I had hoped to see Willow Tits. They were there but not showing in the short time I had. Consolation was from good views of nesting Sand Martins and a few Tree Sparrows.