Monday 9 August 2010

More from Down Under...

A few more images from my November trip to Australia...covering the Wet Tropics of Queensland as well as Darwin and surrounds.

Bush stone curlews are a common sight in Cairns - most open grassland such as parks seem to have a resident group. This bird was one of about a dozen keeping watch over the tombstones in Cairns cemetery. Other frequently-seen species in and around Cairns were Pied pigeon, Varied honeyeater, Collared kingfisher, Mangrove robin, Spangled drongo, Rainbow bee-eater, Rainbow lorikeet and many Asiatic waders.

A day trip out to Michaelmas Cay gave superb close views of some mouthwatering seabirds such as Common noddy, Crested and Lesser crested tern, Sooty tern, Bridled tern, Great frigatebird and Brown and Red-footed booby.




The monsoon forest around Fogg Dam in the Northern Territory was baking hot, but there were birds around such as Broad-billed myiagras (flycatchers). Similar habitat at Buffalo Creek north of Darwin held many stunning species such as Yellow fly-robin, Oriental cuckoo, Red-headed myzomela, Yellow white-eye and Rainbow pitta. Stars of the show here though were the pair of Chestnut rails that crept along the mangrove edge early one morning.











































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