Friday, October 26, 2012

192) Daintree


Papaun Frogmouth
Our last major stop in the Cairns area was the Daintree National Park. The easiest access is via boat on the Daintree river - we joined Murray of Daintree Boatmen for a morning looking for river exotics like this sleepy Papuan Frogmouth, camoflauged to look like a branch with bark, complete with lichens!


Shining Flycatchers were in abundance..
 ..though the jet-black dimorphic males were pretty darn twitchy!












Great critters like this Amethyst Python hung out in the trees over the water.  Murray let us sneak up on the python, rather than the python sneaking up on us.











 A regal Nankeen Night Heron disappears from sight when you get more that a few feet away.















The high morning tide made some species like the Little Kingfisher less likely (we got a good view of one but I missed the photo) but also enabled Murray to take us way up a tributary where the water is usually too shallow to take a boat. We were searching for this amazing Great-billed Heron, who gave us good looks but was determined to present his tail-feathers to us! There was a nest nearby so we didn't want to be too intrusive.

 An interesting 'sculptural' photo--he (or she) had had enough of us and headed upstream
 Back in town, we went to breakfast - this raptor, a Pacific Baza, landed on a line right there in town!!  We like his red pajama-striped belly and jaunty crest.  They are also called Crested Hawk, but like the name 'Baza' better
















We headed out to the coast where there were reminders that we were in stinger country. Swimming nets (to keep jellyfish out)., first aid stations along the beach. There are seven species up here which range from painful, to really painful to often lethal.....

We didn't dig out our board shorts...











 After a few wrong turns we found the correct esplanade near the beach where two Beach Stone-curlews hang out. Wonderful birds but threatened - these two were sauntering about the tide flats...  Their habitat is 'open, undisturbed beaches' an un-common combination of conditions, at least pertaining to the middle word.

These tide flats were an unexpected place to find sacred kingfishers, but there they were (no, not the people with bins glued to their eyes, what they were looking at, silly!)

 A lemon-bellied flycatcher, these birds live only in northern Australia--we saw them also at Kakadu in the NT

Another wet tropics bird , the Blue-winged Kookaburra. I really want to get my hair to look like this - frighten the students!







OK - maybe this appeals to a certain demographic but I decided not to quit my job and go join up! (A billboard in Cairns advertising for mining jobs)

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

191) Brief Interlude II


Reconstruction of Fantoft Stave Church
The original was built in 1150 in Sogn NO and moved to Fantoft in 1883. It burned down in 1992 but has been reconstructed.It was closed for the season but I was fortunate to have a splendid sunny day while taking a break from work in Oslo


 From the ferry on Aurlandsfjord en-route from Flam to Gundvagen


One of dozens of waterfalls along the fjord - all roaring due to snow in the mountains.
The  Bryggen wooden houses in Bergen, NO



Saturday, October 20, 2012

190) Cassowary House

A Lovely Fairy-wren
 Really - that is the species name. Finally a bird with an appropos name! We spent two nights at the Cassowary House, as it is the center for many birding hotspots. We were in search of this (fairy-wren) endemic and received excellent advice "Drive to km 4.8 and stop right before the bridge. They will be in the bushes on the left"

Yep - the lovely girls (left) were there too!


 A female  Victoria's Riflebird coming in for a feed at Cassowary House during breakfast - an event not to be missed as the hosts put out all kinds of healthy goodies for the bird guests (as well as the house-guests--yumm!).


Mcleay's Honeyeater (another endemic)














Posing again with a different background...


I am not sure who is most suprised in the shot - this fine Black Butcherbird or me! He was being "councilled' by the owner after apparently raiding another birds nest - he was being encouraged to become more Buddhist and learn to be a vegetarian. So he got cheese for his protein!









 An endemic Dusky Rat-kangaroo - (not a Kangaroo-rat which would be a type of rat.

They are the smallest of the kangaroos (macropods).... hmmmm

Also, the only ones with 5 toes, the first being opposeable; they are also normally quadrupedal, similar to a bandicoot.










Another endemic - the Spotted Catbird. We heard these quite often throughout the trip but these were the best views - These guys could really put it away.

Unfortunately no Cassowaries passed through when we were there and our return out to the Mareeba wetlands was thwarted when they closed the area for maintenance. The Black-throated finches will just have to wait....

Friday, October 19, 2012

189 ) A very brief interlude


Christiansborg castle, Copenhagen

A brief interlude from the Cairns birds to report on my meanderings  I have been in Roskilde, DK for the past 3 weeks on sabbatical. I did get out in the country to ride a bit on one of the few sunny days









The famous world heritage Roskilde Cathedral - 800 or so years old and with great bells







 A reconstruction of a Viking ship - Roskilde is the home of a fantastic archaeological site of scuttle 1000 year old ships. They created an island (now the museum as they excavated the ships from the harbor and now build, and sail reproductions, using only technology from the time. I have a short video of this ship - the Sea Stallion, at sea- rather frightening!















One of the Danish royal crowns at the Rosenberg Castle.

 I am currently aboard the Pearl Seaways traveling up the arm of the N Sea to Oslo. Quite a flossy ship (multiple restaurants, a piano bar, a casino  yes that is a hot tub in the lower left...
 Just outside Copenhagen - doing it right...







Sunset over the North Sea

Saturday, October 13, 2012

188) The Abattoir Swamp - how charming

Northern Fantail
From our base at Kingfisher Park, we went out to visit the charmingly-named Abattoir Swamp. Although the crakes we were hoping for stayed well out-of-sight and sound, we did find a Northern Fantail, not to be mistaken with a Grey Fantail.

A number of Yellow Honeyeaters were flitting about....



















The elegant Emerald Doves were strutting about at Kingfisher Park
















A Little Shrike-thrush--Birding by photo trumps all in identifying LBBs!


We also travelled over to Mareeba Wetlands where Nancy and Claire saw some waterbirds (although not so many, and at a great distance - thus no pictures). The wetlands there are quite controversial as they are an artificial lake and didn't follow some of the best practices for conservation ecology. They originally had a breeding/release program for Gouldian Finches (here is one in the aviary) but that didn't go so well - the local hawks thought of them as 'brightly-colored snacks" and they disappeared quickly.

We still want to see these marvels in the wild..... back to WA or the NT for that...  Although Nancy recently staked out the famous NT Excavation Pits (no photos) in an unsuccessful bid to miraculously spot them where they haven't been spotted in ages...


We  also took a scenic route out to find the Squatter-pigeon. According to our best info they "practically hop on the picnic tables" out at a rather dodgy looking campground/picnic area where we saw none and quickly left rather than paying the fees to simply park the car. We did find a small bevy scurrying across a recent grass burn.










A splendid pair of Ospreys checking out their nest

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

187). North to Kingfisher Park

White-browed Robin



We found this beautiful endemic robin after wandering through a most-unlikely, dry, twisting stream-bed where the guide-book said these rare birds could be found. Lo-and-behold - there he was! We saw ONE the entire trip! So our foray into this buggy, hot, dead-fell-choked stream was a success.



The Richmond Birdwing Butterfly (this is a female) was reported in the 1870s in the thousands in the streets of Brisbane. Now populations are "of concern" due to the usual forces But in 2010 there were confirmed signs of recovery after 100 years of population decline and range contraction.






We did a night-spotting tour at Kingfisher Park -a marvelous bit of preserved rainforest (literally surrounded by sugarcane fields). The owners really know their birds and beasts.

A Striped Possum giving us the eye...










Also out in the dark were Long-nosed Bandicoots snuffling about in the leaf-litter looking for tasty critters to eat. We had seen these fellows earlier  whizzing across the road near Lake Eacham, but this guy was far less manic and watched us for a bit...










And his cousin the little Brown Bandicoot (notice the small rounded ears)











A local wetland hosted hundreds of  Plumed Whistling Ducks. Here they are following the leader out into deep water --- or something















.....Coming in en masses to land.....












I spotted large green movements in the trees along the road - investigation revealed a flock of Red-winged Parrots. I kept telling Nancy "sure- sure I see why they are called that--sort of. Yeah, kind of red(ish) wings............"

...




Then I saw the male ---who exemplifies the name!
We had to make a pilgrimage out to some grasslands in search of - yep. Australian Bustards. That's them out there periscoping...... As they stand 3' tall that's some mighty high grass!


Australian recycling -need a new mailbox?
I have some old white-goods!


Or... a  new form of drive-thru kitchen......

Spectacled Monarch coming in for afternoon bath


















The creek through Kingfisher Park was the place to be late afternoon. Dozens of birds came in for a drink and a bath. Here is Rufous Fantail heading jumping in....














and then winging back to the woods.







In search of the (still) elusive Blue-face Parrot Finch....