Prologue
If you have read other posts in my blog you might recall that I am constantly on the lookout for holiday destinations where I can combine some birding with a family holiday. The two are not always compatible, but once or twice I have got the destination and balance right (e.g. New Caledonia). Cairns — the Great Barrier Reef, and the tropical coastal rainforests — has always seemed like a possibility, but with so much rich birding on offer and so many target species (because I have barely birded here), how could I get the balance right? Adelaide University’s enterprise agreement variation, forcing staff to take leave without pay (euphemistically called “purchased leave”) in the week after school holidays provided an ideal solution: during the second week of school holidays we would have a family holiday, concentrating on beaches and some iconic scenery and wildlife, and when the girls flew home to start school, I would stay on for some dedicated birding. I was buggered if I was going to spend unpaid leave at home doing nothing, or even worse doing work for which I was not being paid!
The only other time I had visited far northern Queensland (FNQ) was a quarter of a century ago, at the beginning of my birding career. Nikki and I got married in March 1997, just over 24 years ago, and as part of a fairly epic honeymoon (that also included time in Florence and Perth) we spent a few nights on Brampton Island and a few nights in Port Douglas. At the time I was only just getting into birding, but – perhaps to her dismay – her wedding gift of a very nice pair of Swarovski binoculars accelerated the process. One of those Port Douglas days we travelled out to the Reef, visiting Michaelmas Cay, where we had some great snorkeling and I was also able to enjoy Noddies, Frigatebirds and even some Brown Boobies (phnarr phnarr) cruising around the island. But otherwise my only birding all trip was a failed attempt one early morning to get to Mt Lewis from Port Douglas. All I remember was getting to the Mt Lewis Road after an hour in the car and thinking I could not risk my shitty little Ford Festiva rental on the trip up the poorly maintained track; I returned to the honeymoon hotel mid-morning, with Brahminy Kite and Dollarbird the deeply unsatisfactory return for my two hours in the car (the circumstances cry out for a pun on “mount Lewis”, but all my efforts were vetoed by Nikki). Fast-forward 24 years and I was hoping to use my dedicated birding week after the girls returned home to rectify this sorry logistical failure.
Day 1, April 9: An unexpected bonus bird
For our first full day on holiday we took a trip on the Kuranda Scenic Railway. This historic railway was originally built to support mining and agricultural activity on the tablelands in the late 19th century and for its time was an engineering marvel. The journey – now of course only for tourists – travels along the coastal plain for a few km through suburban Cairns and sugar cane fields, before rising steeply through lowland rainforest alongside the Barron River gorge to Kuranda at 330m above sea level, crossing 16 bridges and passing through 13 tunnels en route.
We enjoyed a lovely day out, though you may be asking “what about the birds?”. If you’re not, I have no idea why you’ve read this far anyway. But if you are, here’s your answer: Australasian Figbirds were unmissable, loud and ubiquitous inhabitants of most of the trees around the village and I did manage to spot a Wompoo Fruit-dove in one of the trees as we walked into the village for an Australian tick! But this was family time and I didn’t even take my bins with me. I had a plan for later in the day…
Back at the hotel I left the girls to enjoy cocktails at the pool, grabbed my optics and jumped into an Uber to take me to Cairns Esplanade. On 1st Jan a Nordmann’s Greenshank was found by Adrian Walsh, and amazingly was still present in the few days before my trip. I have seen Nordmann’s Greenshank on two previous occasions, in the in gulf of Thailand, and both quite distant views. Its status is officially “Endangered”, with a world population of only around 1500 birds.
For my visit this afternoon, the tide was ideal (not, I swear, planned this way, just amazing serendipity) and I watched as various waders were pushed gradually closer up the mudflats towards the esplanade boardwalk. Almost the first bird I saw was a Common Greenshank, which got the heart racing briefly, and was the subject of some speculation (read, string) from the one other birder there. I was uneasy at best — it did not look right. Twenty minutes later the stringer had gone, but a couple of other birders had joined me at the platform near Muddy’s Café when I located another likely looking bird; compared with the Greenshank this one sported a broader bill, yellower legs and different overall jizz, matching the countless photos of “Nordy” published on the web. Bingo! We observed the Nordmann’s Greenshank for about an hour and gradually the “crowd” grew to about 7 or 8 – pretty impressive for a bird that has been present for nearly 4 months and as big as any twitch I’ve ever been to in Australia. Other waders present included several Whimbrel, a couple of Terek Sandpipers, about 20 Grey-tailed Tattlers and a similar number of Great Knots and Bar-tailed Godwits.
Satisfied with this unexpected bonus, I took an Uber to the Jucy depot where I had arranged an after-hours pickup of our vehicle. Irritatingly, the code provided did not open the key-deposit box, so deeply annoyed and frustrated, and cursing the Jucy jokers who’d f%*ked up, I had to get another Uber back to the hotel. The one compensation was that while trying unsuccessfully to get the box open and then waiting for my lift, I heard a familiar disturbing wailing from the next door railway tracks, and I was able to locate two Bush Stone-curlew. Scarce in SA, they are all over the place up here in north Qld! A fabulous Thai meal with the family, washed down with a few Singha beers, put me in a better mood, able to appreciate what had been a cracking day with the family and with added birding success at the end.
Day 2, April 10: Honeymoon revisited
While the family slept, I walked the 600m from our hotel to Centenary Lakes and the Cairns Botanical Gardens. The first bird I found was an obliging Shining Flycatcher. I then added to my Australian list with Scaly-breasted Munia and found a cooperative Striated Heron, but overall the numbers and diversity of birds I found were a little disappointing considering the size of the list that the ebird hotspot boasts. However on my way out I crossed over a small bridge where the freshwater lake drains into the mangrove channel, and heard a high pitched peep. Could this be what I was thinking? I peered down into the dense mangrove roots and caught a flash of irridescent blue: an utterly stunning Little Kingfisher was perched nearby, almost invisible from the wrong angle but settled enough to pose for pics through various narrow windows in the vegetation. Quality over quantity!
At 8.30 I cut the birding short and returned to Jucy where I was finally able to pick up our rental. I collected the family from the hotel, and we headed north to Palm Cove, a very upmarket, exclusive resort a few km north of Cairns, for a day on the beach. I ticked off Varied Honeyeater as we sunbathed, and later in the day I found a Yellow Oriole.
I was eager to drive the coast road up to Port Douglas because although it is famously spectacular, I remembered very little of it from 24 years ago, despite having driven it 4 times. The drive was indeed very lovely, but we didn’t linger at Port Douglas, which was the least memorable leg of our honeymoon, and IMO the town remains disappointingly rather characterless to this day. One very good memory from honeymoon, though, was that the resort restaurant was the first place I ever tried Laksa, and I was blown away by the insanely big and in-your-face flavours of this incredible Malaysian dish. It was such a revelation that I naively asked the waitress for the recipe. She returned with a message from the chef that it was a secret; of course on reflection I now realise this probably actually meant they got their laksa paste from a jar!
Day 3, April 11: GBR
I ummed and ahhed a lot about a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. Down to me, I would have gone for a full day on the outer reef, trying to experience the best of what it still has to offer before it dies completely. But I was pretty certain the girls would not enjoy the entire day on a boat with nothing but snorkeling to do. Michaelmas Cay was not an option because in these covid-affected times only one operator is going there and only on two days a week. The compromise solution was to book a day-trip to Green Island. Reef wise this was a bit underwhelming, though we had some nice snorkeling around by the jetty, and Louisa saw a turtle to grip us all off (I managed to un-grip by seeing one from the jetty as I walked back to the boat late afternoon), but had the benefits of the girls being able to lie on a beach and for me to do a bit of birding. I have never seen so many Buff-banded Rails; normally shy on the mainland, here they were running around under out feet and I must have seen 30 or more during the day. Also common were Eastern Reef Egrets, especially on the very shallow southern edge of the island where a White-bellied Sea-eagle was soaring. An obliging Pacific Golden Plover and Ruddy Turnstone gave some more photo ops. Scores of Common Noddies perched on boats moored slightly offshore, while in trees over the walkways by the resort I looked up and found a few Black Noddies, distinguished by their neat white cap (in Common the cap merges to grey down the nape). As I walked the jetty to leave a pair of Ospreys cruised by before landing on their huge nest on one of the navigation markers.
Once back on the mainland we still had a two hour drive ahead of us to get to Lake Eacham. A long, winding and increasingly stressful drive, with sick, complaining girls in the back got even worse when we hit roadworks after dark and then a “Road Closed” sign appeared in the head-lights. We finally made it to Chambers, but even then I only really relaxed once we’d driven the extra 10 minutes to Yungaburra and I had a pint in my hand. The pub is a lovely, characterful old building bustling with locals and tourists alike and not a pokie in sight; one of the best country pubs I have ever visited in Australia, and definitely helped de-stress all of us.
Back at Chambers, our very comfortable base for the next 3 nights, I spent an hour or so at the wildlife viewing platform where I saw Sugar Gliders and a Long-nosed Bandicoot before crashing into bed.
Day 4, April 12: Tablelands
I woke the next morning to the incredible sounds of a rainforest dawn chorus. This was not the gentle, tuneful twittering of an English forest: Riflebirds rasped, Spotted Catbirds meowed (it’s how they got their name!), Eastern Whipbirds cracked their piercing call through the forest, a Brush-turkey grunted like old an old man clearing his throat, and dozens of other species all belt out their songs in a dazzling cacophony. Once it was light enough I walked around the grounds outside our cabin taking advantage of these early hours when the girls were still asleep (teenage rhythms mean the can sleep through a jack-hammer, let alone birdsong). I’d wandered up the access road a little way trying to track down a vociferous but mostly invisible Catbird, and to get enough on a small chunky but flighty bird I guessed was a robin (but which I could not pin down) when I noticed a large dark bird sitting on the car-park sign – Victoria’s Riflebird, one of only 4 Birds of Paradise found in Australia and my first proper encounter with one in Australia. Obviously it was one of my top targets for the week. I approached for slightly better photo ops in the gloom, but then, with me staring open-mouthed from only about 15m away, he started flicking his wings up and going into display mode. I’d hoped for, but not expected this, and banged out a bunch of DSLR pics before switching to get some handheld video on my phone.
The gardens and forest were positively heaving with fabulous tropical birds and in a short space of time I added Spectacled and Pied Monarch (the latter a lifer), Grey-headed Robin (lifer), Little Shrikethrush, Pale-yellow Robin, Spotted Catbird (lifer), Lewin’s Honeyeater, Orange-footed Scrubfowl, Australasian Brush-turkey and Pacific Emerald Dove, all within 50m of our cabin.
At 8am I jumped in the car to drive to Yungaburra to pick up coffees and a few groceries. Yungaburra in the light was as exquisite as we might have imagined from how good the pub was the night before. Artsy cafes are scattered around an immaculately kept park, flowering hanging baskets line the streets and Ullyses Butterflies, stunning huge deep blue butterflies, fluttered around the baskets and the flowerbeds in the park.
As I sought a decent pic of one of the numerous Figbirds a chap who looked vaguely familiar approached and asked if I was looking for anything in particular. As we chatted, a pair of small green bullets squeaked overhead and he pointed out they were Double-eyed Fig-parrots, a potential lifer for me. When he introduced himself as “Alan”, I realized why I knew him – Facebook, obviously knowing I’m a birder, and perhaps working out from some dodgy back-channel data sharing that I was traveling to Qld, had been continually flashing me Alan Gillanders as potential Facebook friend, with more than 30 connections in common. Alan leads bird and mammal watching tours in north Queensland, specialising in night walks. It was great to meet him in the flesh, and lovely to chat about his local patch. I promptly sent a friend request later that day, a move that would pay dividends the following week.
Back at Chambers, I delivered coffees to the team and we toasted raisin bread and ate it on the deck. Riflebirds, Catbirds and Lewin’s Honeyeaters joined us on the balcony to take advantage of the banana and papaya pieces I’d placed there.
A particular highlight today for me was swimming in Lake Eacham. Lake Eacham is one of the crater lakes after which the national park is named, a series of extinct volcanoes. Freshwater swimming is not something we do much in Australia, but the lake was not too cold, and it was so refreshing to come out of the water and my skin and hair feel clean and silky, rather than crusty and clammy with salt and/or chlorine. Luckily we saw no sign of the resident crocs! They are freshwater crocs here, so not a danger, but it would still be pretty alarming to see one while takin a dip. They say in northern Australia that you can tell the difference between a freshy and a salty by the way they swim: the former will swim away from you, while the latter swims towards you!
Chilling at Chambers later that afternoon we read our books by the pool (I may have had binoculars close to hand because the pool deck affords great view of the surrounding rainforest canopy) before an unsuccessful search for a platypus along Peterson’s Creek back in Yungaburra.
Day 5, April 13: The world’s weirdest mammal
Once again up while the rest of the family slept in, I used the time to walk the grounds of Chambers again, finding a similar array of species but also adding MacLeay’s Honeyeater and Bower’s Shrike-thrush, both completely new for me.
Nikki joined me for coffee in Yungaburra and as we left the village a group of three Pacific Baza (A) cruised over. I quickly pulled over and grabbed some record shots.
At Nerada Tea Plantation covid rules meant we could not tour the grounds and factory, so we made do with a cup of tea on the lawn and tracked down the resident Lumholtz’s Tree Kangaroos.
Later in the morning we visited Curtain Fig Tree, an immense and old strangler fig that has continued to grow its roots down to the ground since its host toppled many years ago, creating a magnificent curtain effect. As I got out of the car something bright caught the corner of my eye. On closer inspection, this was the famous leucistic Pale-yellow Robin (apparently known as “Lemon Meringue”). Super photogenic.
While Nikki and Lou dozed in the afternoon, I found yet another new honeyeater in the grounds – Bridled Honeyeater – before walking all the way around Lake Eacham with Erica.
Today we wanted another crack at Platypus, but decided to get to Peterson’s Creek earlier than we had yesterday. Despite the received wisdom that the hour before sundown is best, people we met yesterday who’d been successful were there a full hour before us. This new time and tactic paid off handsomely. Erica found one and fortunately was able to raise me via text – I had wandered off upstream, impatient to cover as much ground as possible, while Erica adopted a clearly more effective strategy of staying in one spot and watching intently. In the end this was one of our best wildlife experiences in a trip that provided many. We walked along the bank following the platypus, which paddled around unconcerned by (or unaware of) our presence, approaching to within a metre at times. Nikki’s favourite moment of the trip.
We rewarded ourselves with another fine dinner at the pub!
Day 6, April 14: Back to the coast
Only our 3rd morning at Chambers and I was already into a nice routine. This morning I spent most of my birding time on the pool deck and around the grassed area watching the comings and goings from a couple of large fruiting trees.
Three, maybe more Wompoo Fruit-doves were eating small berries, I finally managed some perched views of Double-eyed Fig-parrots, and a Yellow-breasted Boatbill (Australian tick) put in a brief surprise appearance, as well as most of the other birds I’d been seeing on the previous mornings. At one point some extra vigorous alarm calls from the Figbirds had me scanning the sky just as a Grey Goshawk cruised through.
But it was time to leave the tablelands and head for the coast for our last couple of days. We called in at the absolutely gorgeous Millaa Millaa Falls (so good, they named it twice!), though didn’t swim because it was raining. Slightly odd logic that: I won’t get wet because I’m getting wet…. And then directly to Cardwell Spa Pools, a place we’d found online that has achieved recent Instagram fame for its astonishingly blue waters. It had stopped raining, so we did swim there (go figure!), but then headed to Mission Beach where we settled into Bev’s on the Beach, a gorgeous shack located just a 20m walk through the palms to the beach.
Day 7, April 15: Mission Beach mission: undo the pain of a desperate dip
A crucial day, my first proper crack at Southern Cassowary. In some respects (and please keep this secret from Nikki) I had planned the entire trip around seeing this bird. Why? Because its northern cousin was the subject of one of my most painful dips ever (see blog here). Mission Beach holds the highest density of Southern Cassowary in Australia. Not only that, but since a major cyclone several years ago, when the birds were forced out of the damaged forest to look for food in the village, they have become somewhat accustomed to wandering though the village. These days they are often seen roaming around the town and even in people’s gardens. My aim this morning, then, was to drive around Wongalinga Beach and South Mission Beach, where there were several recent ebird records, visiting each of the spots where they’d been seen as many times as I could (as well as covering other ground) in the 2 hours I had available before the girls would be awake.
For 90 minutes I drove around not seeing much other than the occasional Agile Wallaby. I paid particular attention to the ebird spots and also to forest edges where I imagined the birds might emerge, spending most time near the Jackey Jackey boat-ramp, since this seemed to be most promising, with rainforest on one side, river on another and some open ground I could scan also. None of these places turned up anything for me.
On my way back to Wongalinga for a drive around the town before calling it a day (I did have a few backups over the next day or two) I passed the community hall next to an oval that seemed to have fairly dense forest around the edges – perhaps this would be a good spot, so I turned the car left at Frogs Hollow onto the driveway down to the hall. I was trying to drive and scan the edges of the oval at the same time, when in the corner of my eye I realized I’d just gone past a cassowary! Somewhat panicked, I pulled the car up as quickly as I could, and contorted my body to try and grab a record shot of the bird before it flushed into the forest as I felt sure it inevitably would. Amazingly, it seemed to stay put. It’s massive body is covered in shaggy black “feathers”, like an overgrown kiwi , propped up by prehistoric legs and huge, deadly dinosaur feet. Its neck and head, shining brilliant blue and red, seemed unfeasibly bright for a bird that I knew could be almost impossible to see if it were not in the open. This bird had a smallish wattle and small casque, so I assume it was a young adult. I trembled with excitement and squeezed off some awful record shots, but the bird seemed unconcerned, so gradually I relaxed a bit.
Emboldened to adopt a more comfortable position, I slipped from my car seat to stand by the door, about 10m from the bird, filling my CF card with ISO6400 pictures (it was pretty dark, even on the roadside), and even a bit of handheld phone video. Eventually, perhaps bored with my presence, it loped casually across the driveway to the forest edge and then within seconds had melted away. I deserved this moment after my painful dip in West Papua, and I drove back to the house elated, and also able to devote the rest of the morning to family stuff.
Later that afternoon, while the girls sunbathed on the beach, I went for a walk around Lacey’s Creek in Djiru National Park, just inland from the town. I got eaten alive by mossies, but did manage to find lifer Yellow-spotted and Graceful (now Cryptic) Honeyeaters, feeding high in the canopy along with some stunning Cairns Birdwing butterflies. I cut this short when a text from the girls suggested I join them for cocktails at a beach bar about 100m along the path from our shack.
Day 8: April 16, The end and the beginning
We had to leave Mission Beach early for the two hour drive to Cairns to be sure of getting Erica on her flight to Sydney. She masked-up and passed through security in good time, then barely an hour later I was saying goodbye to Nikki and Lou for their flight to Adelaide. I was sad to see them go, but also excited that for the next week I would be able to do some dedicated birding. It’s only 10 minutes’ drive from Cairns Airport to the Esplanade, so that is where I headed to see if Nordy was still around…
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