The tropical north
Hot on the heels of my sister, Mum and Dad also managed to pay us a visit in the spring as, finally, also did the Covid which Mum kindly brought down from Scotland with her! Luckily we were only side-lined for a couple of days and were able to head up to tropical North Queensland as planned.
After a few days at the legendary Kingfisher Park birdwatchers' lodge up in the Cairns hinterland we headed north over the river into the Daintree rainforest wilderness before ending our stay in Cairns itself.
Kingfisher Park and surrounds delivered Graceful Honeyeater #516 (now known as the Cryptic Honeyeater by most folks), Northern Fantail #517, and the skulking and highly sought after Red-necked Crake #518. The local Platypus and a hefty Northern Brown Bandicoot also put in appearances.
The Daintree is known for the Cassowary and, although Dad, Emily, and I encountered one on the first morning on our way to snorkelling on the reef, we didn't find one with Mum until the very last evening when we saw three in the space of a few minutes.
An Asian Dowitcher has been hanging out on the mud-flats of the Cairns esplanade for quite a while now and, although it was reported during our stay, extensive searching failed to turn it up. During one of our searches a local bloke on a bicycle gave us details of the nearby daytime roosts of a Rufous Owl #519 and Papuan Frogmouth #520. Pretty solid compensation.
My folks gave us a night-vision wildlife trail camera while they were down and so now I have the equipment to uncover the mystery of the holes that appear in my back lawn from time to time, what's flattening the grass at the bottom of my in-laws' yard, and is it really wallaby poo next to my letterbox. Watch this space...
posted by Iain @ 12/18/2022
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home