Birdwatching Tropical Australia: 2012 The First Three Months and a Bit

What a busy few months! January started with a Big Day Out to see if we, my friend Peter and I, could bag 100 or more birds on New Year’s Day, After a quick scan of the local area around Shannonvale, we headed up to Julatten and Mt Molloy. The weather was good until just before lunch time when the rain came down. This was just after we had met Keith from Kingfisher Lodge and his neighbours Carol and Andrew who were doing much the same thing. Needless to say, the rain was not welcome and Peter and I headed home.

Later in the afternoon I was off again to reach the 100 target which was still shy by about 20 birds. I visited Cooya Beach and Newell Beach and upped the list to almost 100. I met up with my friend Murray at Newell Beach where he was showing a friend around. I told him what I was up to and he suggested we go to Daintree Village, where he keeps his bird spotting tour boat, and take it for a spin. How could I refuse!

On the way to Daintree I stopped at the Wonga Barramundi Farm and padded out my list with a few Black-winged Stilt and Radjah Shelduck which can usually be found here. Murray put the boat in near the ferry crossing and we headed down river all the way to the heads. I could now add Little Kingfisher, Azure Kingfisher, Shining Flycatcher and several terns to the list. Thanks to Murray the list topped out at 112 birds! If I had gone up Mt Lewis as did Keith, I could have added at least 10 more birds.

During January I paid a rare visit to the Cairns Esplanade to view the shore birds. I had just bought a new camera with a 500mm zoom lens and so hope to improve, with a lot of practice, the quality of photographs included in this blog.

Bar-tailed Godwit

The highlight of January however was a visit to Michaelmas Cay to view the Red-footed Booby with the BirdLife North Queensland group. What a fantastic trip! The snorkelling was also great. It is a shame that only two of us took advantage of this great opportunity.

February went by with a blur as I took delivery of the new Toyota 4x4 for Birdwatching Tropical Australia, fought red tape and managed to get my driver authorisation and “Certificate of the Registration of a Business Name”. Getting operator accreditation was another long winded affair. I managed to get my temporary accreditation from the Department of Transport by the end of the month. I also received a workbook and computer disc with all the information I needed to complete my full accreditation.

The new Toyota 4x4

Whilst doing all this, I still managed a few rewarding birding trips and managed to expand the bird list for 2012 to over 200 species.

During March the rain finally arrived and soaked everything. Thank goodness it also brought the temperatures down a bit. I managed to finish my workbook and sent it off to one of the Department of Transport Approved Assessors for assessment. To my delight I received a phone call just before the Easter weekend telling me everything was in order and my Accreditation Certificate would be arriving soon. March saw another trip on the Daintree with Murray and several visits to Julatten and the surrounding areas.

Murray Hunt - Daintree River Boatman

I ended the month attending the Wave the Waders Goodbye gathering at the Cairns Esplanade. My list for the afternoon can be found here. I found the Wader ID course which took place beforehand most helpfull.

Common Greenshank

April arrived and things have begun to dry out a bit. We had great weather over the Easter Weekend and managed to squeeze in a trip up Mt Lewis on Saturday morning. Another birder who had arrived earlier reported at least 40 Blue-faced Parrot-Finch (we only saw 3) and a male and female Golden Bowerbird. We were lucky enough to see a small flock of 7 Australian King Parrot.

Last week Cooya Beach turned up a rather unusual visitor. A lone masked lapwing at the roadside looked a bit unusual. On Closer inspection it turned out to be the southern form, Vanellus miles novaehollandiae.