I went birding in the Botanic Gardens and added Welcome Swallow, Laughing Kookaburra and Australian White Ibis to the trip bird list. It was in Brisbane that I saw on the news that an interesting new global flu pandemic, known as swine flu and originating in Mexico, was quickly spreading with all the related panic. By now, it was everywhere, including Australia, Thailand and Britain (when in Chiang Mai I caught a vicious type of flu and I think it was this, especially as I found I was totally immune to it when I got home and it was sweeping through Britain later in the year).
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| Australian White Ibis |
Brisbane to Cairns seemed to go on forever and you really get a good impression of just how immense Australia is when you travel overland instead of flying. I'd done lengthy bus rides in Australia before and swore I'd never do it again, but I did it on grounds of cost. Fares aren't too pricey, compared to flying, and you can save on the price of accommodation but the downside is the fact it's very uncomfortable indeed. You get precious little sleep and usually have someone sat next to you.
Anyway, after a long trek up the eastern coast of NSW and Queensland, via some interesting-looking places that I'd love to have a proper look round one day, I arrived in Cairns in the late afternoon. I'd already booked a hostel, Castaways Backpackers, which is located in Sheridan Street, and this was a great hostel, run by friendly Canadian and British staff. I loved my time at Castaways and, if I ever return to Cairns, this is where I'll stay.
While in Cairns, I arranged to meet up with an expat British birder, Tony, who showed me the area. While I have no worries or qualms about travelling alone, it's always nice to meet a friendly face and Tony, who is a nurse at the local hospital, is definitely a friendly face.
With Tony, I went birding around Cairns, including the cemetery, which is an excellent place to see Rainbow Bee-eaters and Bush Stone-Curlews, and the Esplanade, which is famous for waders and seabirds. We also went up to Lake Barrine and Picnic Crossing Road (which is near Yungaburra) where, in addition to birds, we saw Agile Wallabies and, the strangest of mammals, a Duck-billed Platypus.
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| Duck-billed Platypus |
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| Rainbow Bee-eater |
Cairns bird-list: Yellow Oriole, Brown Honeyeater, Bush Stone-curlew, Rainbow Bee-eater, Figbird, Brush Cuckoo, Fig Parrot, Scrub Fowl, Dusky Honeyeater, Yellow Honeyeater, Spangled Drongo, Large-billed Gerygone, Straw-necked Ibis, White-breasted Woodswallow, White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike, Black Butcherbird, Little Kingfisher, Wandering Whistling-duck, Osprey, Intermediate Egret, Australian Goshawk, White-rumped Swiftlet, Great White Egret, Black-fronted Dotterel, Red-capped Plover, Gull-billed Tern, Caspian Tern, Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Varied Honeyeater, Masked Lapwing, Red-necked Stint, Royal Spoonbill, Spice Finch (also known as Nutmeg Mannikin), Metallic Starling (or Shining Starling), Rainbow Lorikeet and Yellow-bellied Sunbird (aka Olive-backed Sunbird).
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| Rainbow Lorikeets in Cairns town centre at dusk |
While in north Queensland, I arranged to visit Cassowary House, near Kuranda, for three nights as Southern Cassowary and Victoria's Riflebird (among others) were on my 'want to see' list. Cassowary House is run by Phil and Sue Gregory, expat British birders (Phil is a fellow Southampton FC fan, and at the time, Saints had recently fallen into administration and subsequently been relegated to League 1, so we commiserated with each other and discussed all the unspeakable things we'd like to have done to the Chairman who'd presided over the whole sorry affair, Rupert Lowe).
I travelled to Kuranda on the bus from Cairns one afternoon: it took half an hour and was only a couple of dollars one way. I'd arranged to phone Sue when I got there but my mobile had run out of credit and the pay phones were hogged by the local Aboriginal teens, 'I'll just be a minute, mate, no worries' but, as I was waiting for the guy and his girlfriend to finish their seemingly-interminable phone call (and feeling somewhat pissed off by then) I heard someone say my name and Sue was standing behind me.
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| Yellow-bellied Sunbird (female) |
Once I'd put my stuff in the room, I went birding around the local area, although I stuck to the garden and the surrounding rainforest. The birds included Macleay's Honeyeater, Pied Monarch, Red-browed Firetail (one of my favourites), Yellow-throated Scrubwren, Yellow-bellied (Olive-backed) Sunbird and Fairy Gerygone. Mammals I saw included the cute Musky Rat-kangaroo, which came out at dusk. As for reptiles, I didn't see any snakes, rather disappointingly, but I did have two geckos in my room. These lived behind the fridge and on a couple of occasions I saw tails vanishing behind it and heard bird-like cries coming from there.
At 0700 the next morning, there was a knock on my door, it was Sue to say that the Southern Cassowary was around so I grabbed my camera and went outside, without bothering to change from pj's into jeans. I came face-to-face with a huge dinosaurian-looking bird, whose eyes were easily on a level with mine and, at 5' 8", I am not that short. However she posed no threat to me, as long as I kept a respectful distance as I intended to do, mindful of a nice big inner claw on the bird's foot perfect for disembowelling those who threaten it. The bird clearly hadn't read that script as, after I took some pictures, she happily wandered along behind me as I headed back to my room to get dressed! However, while the female was a nice gentle bird, it's the males who can be really dangerous as they are the ones responsible for the care and rearing of the chicks. Later that day, I came across her again when I went for a walk, she was in the rainforest by the path.
My first ever pyjama tick and what a tick! Anyone who doubts that there's a link between dinosaurs and birds needs to see one of these, it looks just like a feathered dinosaur. A fantastic bird and one of my favourites of the entire trip. Sadly, the Southern Cassowary is endangered, with only 1200 birds left in Australia. Black Mountain Road, where Cassowary House is, has the highest density of Cassowaries anywhere in Australia.
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| Southern Cassowary |
The dining table is outside on the veranda and, from there, you can watch the cassowary and the other birds and animals. The feeders, and fruit put on the ground attracts them in and it's a very civilised way of adding to your list without going to too much effort. Over a couple of hours I saw Graceful Honeyeater, Emerald Ground-dove, Victoria's Riflebird - this just edged out the cassowary as my favourite bird, because it was my first-ever Bird of Paradise! - Spotted Catbird, Macleay's Honeyeater, Brush Turkey, Yellow-spotted Honeyeater, Helmeted Friarbird and Dusky Honeyeater. During the day, other birds were Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (very common throughout Australia), Eastern Yellow Robin, Spectacled Monarch, Yellow-breasted Boatbill, Rufous Fantail and Fairy Gerygone. The day was pretty wet, so I didn't see much else.
The Victoria's Riflebird is a very noisy flyer, he sounds like paper rustling - and that 'tyre' that someone's seemingly gone to a lot of bother pointlessly nailing to the top of the tall dead tree stump isn't actually a tyre, it's the male Victoria's display.
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| Helmeted Friarbird |
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| Macleay's Honeyeater |
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| Victoria's Riflebird |
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| Yellow-spotted Honeyeater |
I had an unfortunate experience the second night; I have an aversion to creepy-crawlies and I positively loathe spiders; while I love the tropics, I never get a good nights sleep in them thanks to my phobia of anything with more than four legs, especially spiders and centipedes. I woke up at 0500 and, in the half-light, saw an immense black spider on the ceiling and, needless to say, I was not happy. Leaving the spider where it was was not an option but, as it was only just gone 5am I couldn't very well seek out help. The lesser of the two evils - leave the spider in the room or get rid - was to attempt to remove it. There was nothing for it other than to get a saucepan - the only thing large enough to put over the hideous animal - prod him into it with a magazine and carry him outside. I was rather proud of my own bravery! I rather wished, though, that the geckos had eaten the spider although I have a suspicion that the spider would probably have eaten them instead, as it was huge and probably lived on reptiles and birds.
May 7th wasn't the best day of my birding life. It hadn't got off to a great start with the unwanted visitor in my room and went down hill after that. I got a lift up the mountain and planned to walk back down it and see what I could see. It didn't work out like that. It absolutely pissed it down in short but very heavy downpours and, when the sun came out, it got extremely hot. I got plastered in mud, soaked and baked and, several times, asked myself just what the bloody hell I thought I was doing and considered myself certifiable. Birds were in short supply so, by the time I got back to CH three hours later, I was not in the best of moods. Despite this, though, I still managed to add a few birds to the list including Barred Cuckoo-shrike, Brown Gerygone and Australian King Parrot. That evening, I saw the elusive and secretive Red-necked Crake.
The next day, I headed back to Cairns after an enjoyable, despite the unpleasant walk back down the mountain, trip into the rainforest. It was worth it for the cassowary and the riflebird alone.
To be continued...
