After visiting Iron Range (next post) we had a few days relaxing in Cairns. From our hotel balcony on the esplanade (a favourite outlook for decades) we had good numbers of Torresian Imperial-Pigeon about, as expected for this time of year.
Varied Honeyeater was plentiful along the foreshore.
We moved on for a couple of nights at Wongaling Beach, near Mission Beach. This is a well-known hotspot for Southern Cassowary but we didn’t expect three encounters in two days. An adult male and two medium-sized chicks were spotted on South Mission Beach Road on our first morning. They moved on and off the road over about 10 minutes, drinking from roadside water pools. Vehicles in both directions slowed down or stopped, flashing warning lights. While locals and visitors often try to do the right thing, too many people ignore warning signs and speed, and way too many cassowaries in the area continue to be killed by motor vehicle strike.
That afternoon, as I was taking a stroll from our Wongaling Beach caravan park, an adult female cassowary crossed the road and entered the forest. I watched her for some time as she wandered about, feeding on fallen fruit and drinking from a large pool (first image in post). The next morning, another adult female (below) was seen on the forest edge along the main Tully-Mission Beach Road, 12km north of Tully. On this open stretch of road - through the last big rainforest patch before Tully coming from Mission Beach - vehicles barely slowed down, although the bird may not have been immediately obvious to motorists.
Also near the Wongaling caravan park, a Papuan Frogmouth showed very nicely in a rainforest patch after dark.
Shining Starling was nesting in large numbers around Wongaling Beach.
It was then on to Bowen for a couple of days. Radjah Shelduck was again present in numbers at Muller’s Lagoon.
Beach Stone-Curlew (below) and Great Bowerbird were among the birds at the mouth of the Don River.
Quite a few Lesser Crested Terns (below right) were on the rocks with Greater Crested Terns (below left) at Clump Point.
Further south, another fruitless attempt was made to photograph Yellow Chat along the Port Alma Road, south of Rockhampton. Good birds included displaying Zitting Cisticola, Diamond Dove, Australian Bustard (above) and Brown Songlark (below).
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