Day 13:
I booked a day tour with Seastar Cruises to visit the world renowned Great Barrier Reef, if you ever wish to visit the reef I highly recommend going with them, they were very well organised and staffs were extremely helpful and friendly. As birders, we are not just interested in the colourful coral reefs and fishes, we are especially interested in the birdlife that make this world heritage site their home. A small sandy island call Michaelmas Cay interested me, being the 5th largest seabird colony in the Great Barrier Reef, it is also the most accessible. There are at the moment two commercial cruises that are allowed to land on the Cay each day, and Seastar Cruise gets to land earlier in the morning, making it the more ideal company to go with as birders.
We walked over to the pier from our hotel and arrived at 7:30am. After some safety briefing the boat which hosted just under 20 guests headed out of Cairns. It took roughly an hour to get from Cairns to Michaelmas Cay. Upon seeing the flat sandy island you can see thousands and thousands of seabirds all roosting and flying around the island.
Michaelmas Cay
All the other visitors changed into their wetsuits and prepared a snorkelling session around the Cay, Hoiling and I however got our binoculars and cameras ready. From the boat we saw plenty of Brown Boobies flying around, I also spotted two Red-footed Boobies but they flew off soon after and were not seen again.
Brown Booby - female
Red-footed Booby - only brief views
Numerous Lesser Crested Terns came back to the island with fish in their beak, this obviously attracts the attention of Frigatebirds which patrols the Cay, I saw mainly Great Frigatebirds with very few Lesser Frigatebirds flying in the distant.
Lesser Crested Tern
Great Frigatebird - female
Upon landing on Michaelmas Cay, you must pause for a moment to gather yourself the spectacle that surrounds you. It's as if you have entered bird paradise! Everywhere you looked there were seabirds, some literally right by your feet! As a bird sanctuary, they have fenced off most of the island with some rope, visitors are not allowed to go past the rope and into the nesting area, but honestly there is no real need as the birds were all so close!
All the seabirds by your feet!
Brown Boobies greeting us on the sign
Thousands of Greater Crested Terns nested near the middle, all protecting their eggs with their own body from the relentless sun. On the outskirt of these terns were a few Brown Booby chicks accompanied by their parents, these fluffy chicks were extremely adorable and we spent the most time looking at them.
Greater Crested Terns colony
Male Brown Booby with chick
Brown Noddy was one of the commonest species on the Cay, you have to be careful where you step as sometimes they were just roosting next to your feet! I looked for Black Noddy but didn't see any.
Brown Noddy
Several Lesser Crested Terns landed on the beach, as it turns out there were a few young chicks there begging for food, although looking at the chaos it seems the chick don't really know which one is its parent, other scavenging terns came in trying to steal the fish out of the parents beak just added to the drama.
Lesser Crested Tern with chick
Only a few Greater Crested Terns roosted up on the beach, while I saw a few chicks strayed all the way to the beach, likely that its parents are out fishing somewhere now that it's big enough to fend for itself.
Greater Crested Tern & Brown Noddy
Greater Crested Tern chick
Sooty Terns were also in good numbers, being a rare species in Hong Kong I've only seen juveniles before, so I was very happy to finally see adults flying around. Most of the roosted far away from the beach, but a few young birds were there which meant the parents had to come over to feed it.
Sooty Tern juvenile with adult
Great Frigatebirds soared over our heads like planes, I was hoping to get some that perch closer to the beach but all of them were roosting pretty far away.
Great Frigatebird - female
The sun was most unforgiving, and soon we were overheating. We could only retreat back to the shades of the boat where I continued with some flight shots of various seabirds. There were small numbers of Black-naped Terns breeding on the Cay as well, we saw several flying past our boat.
Lesser Crested Tern
Brown Noddy
Brown Booby
Black-naped Tern
After lunch our boat headed over to Hastings Reef, a outer reef on the very edge of open water where corals thrives. We got in our wetsuits here and jumped into the water for some snorkelling, our TG5 came into great use! Although I was not particularly good at taking photos underwater, this will take some more practice...
Hastings Reef
The most abundant fishes were hundreds of Scissortail Sergeants swimming right beside you. A pair of Black-backed Butterflyfish came past us.
Scissortail Sergeants - we called them the 'stripy fish'
Black-backed Butterflyfish
We saw quite a few beautiful Six-banded Parrotfishes, these interesting looking fish apparently spends over 90% of their day feeding on algae that grows on the corals, which in turn keeps the reef healthy. Their strong beak is also able to crush dead corals and they will literally poop out white sand...so next time you sit on a white sandy beach just remember you are literally sitting on a large pile parrotfish poop.
Six-banded Parrotfish
A slightly bigger Spotted Parrotfish came very close, it was accompanied by a Checkerboard Wrasse. A different looking individual also came close, this species changes colour throughout it's life stages, this one is probably a younger individual, it was accompanied by a Sixbar Wrasse.
Adult Spotted Parrotfish & Checkerboard Wrasse
Juvenile Spotted Parrotfish & Sixbar Wrasse
The third Parrotfish species we saw was the Steephead Parrotfish, easily recognised by it's large bump on the forehead. It was accompanied by a Orangestripe Triggerfish and a Striped Surgeonfish.
Orangestripe Triggerfish (left), Steephead Parrotfish (middle), Striped Surgeonfish (right)
A little deeper down we saw several Bluespotted Cornetfish, a curious looking fish with elongated body and beak. Sitting motionlessly on the bottom was a Titan Triggerfish.
Bluespotted Cornetfish
Titan Triggerfish
I noticed a fish that sat on the coral, it was a Freckled Hawkfish, while a few Clark's Anemonefish were swimming in the open instead of hiding within the cover of soft corals.
Freckled Hawkfish
Clark's Anemonefish
Another fish I've often seen in aquarium was the Foxface, but I prefer to see them in the wild. We also saw a Small Giant Clam, this species doesn't grow larger than 20cm, but is just as colourful as any other Giant Clams.
Foxface
Small Giant Clam
Schools of Chinese Demoiselle swam below us, a much larger Two-spot Red Snapper stayed motionlessly as I swam past it while getting back onto the boat.
Two-spotted Red Snapper & Chinese Demoiselles
We got back to Cairns at around 4pm. After a little rest in the hotel we decided to head out to the esplanade once again for some casual birding. Bush Stone-curlews are very common around Cairns and in the park opposite to our hotel we found many sitting below trees during the day. They are nocturnal birds, being a lot more active by night and often very noisy.
Bush Stone-curlew
The Australian Pelicans were even closer than the previous day, many tourists sat down to look at these funny looking birds, it was a lot of fun just looking at them preening and stretching out their throat pouch.
Australian Pelican
The tide was a lot higher, leaving little space for waders to perch and feed, although this doesn't affect the Great Egret. We found a few Bar-tailed Godwits roosting at the beach towards the end of the esplanade.
Great Egret
Bar-tailed Godwit
On our way back a few more waders flew in to roost, including many Whimbrels. I was delighted to find a flock of Great Knots as well as a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper also decided to come into roost. I added a single Grey-tailed Tattler while walking to the restaurant for dinner.
Whimbrel
Great Knot with single Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
Grey-tailed Tattler
After dinner we enjoyed the night scenery along the esplanade, I noticed a bird out on the mudflat, turns out it was a Rufous Night Heron, another addition to our trip list!
Cairns Esplanade at night
Rufous Night Heron
Day 14:
For our last morning at Cairns we didn't really want to go very far and decided to head back towards the Botanic Gardens to look for the Papuan Frogmouth one last time. We were again disappointed, and there wasn't a lot of interesting birds to be seen. A Bush Stone-curlew and it's chick was probably the only highlight of the morning.
Bush Stone-curlew - with chick
The streets was boiling, temperature soared to 36°C on the day which made this the hottest day we've experienced the whole trip. Seeing that it probably wasn't a good idea to engage in anymore outdoor activities, we paid a visit to the Cairns Aquarium, which we throughly enjoyed! The aquarium housed many native animals including freshwater fish, reptiles, amphibians and of course reef fishes. It was quite large and you can easily spend two to three hours strolling through the various exhibitions.
Freshwater Turtle Exhibition at Cairns Aquarium
Barramundi, one of Australia's favourite food fish...
Show piece reef tank at Cairns Aquarium
After lunch and some last minute shopping we returned our car at the airport and that was the end of our time at Cairns. Overall, Cairns got this unique charm that is quite unlike other parts of Australia I've visited, its got an almost South East Asia feel to it.
Cairns from above
Day 15:
This was our final day at Brisbane before departing back to Hong Kong. My aunt let us borrow her car again for the last day, we first visited the Tinchi Tamba Wetland Reserve, located just north of Brisbane. Here you can find mangroves, woodlands as well as tidal mudflats. Unfortunately, the tide was very high during our visit. Our first and probably best bird there was a male Rose-crowned Fruit Dove which Hoiling spotted, this was the last resident Fruit Dove species we were missing from Queensland, so I was glad to get this on our list!
Boardwalk at Tinchi Tamba Wetland Reserve
Rose-crowned Fruit Dove - male
In the nearby woodlands we saw many Spangled Drongos, a Black-faced Cuckooshrike dropped in on a tree quite far away. We also saw a few female Red-backed Fairywrens but they didn't show very well.
Spangled Drongo
Black-faced Cuckooshrike
Along the river channel we saw a flock of Little Black Cormorants diving and feeding. Australian Swamphens foraged on the lawns, this species was formerly lumped together with other Porphyrio as Purple Swamphen, they have since been split into six species.
Little Black Cormorant
Australian Swamphen
Next we visited the Boondall Wetlands, the circuit walk from the information centre was very pleasant. I especially like the 'Wildlife Alert' signs saying 'Do not disturb the birds and the birdwatchers', never knew birdwatchers are considered wildlife in Australia!
Boardwalk at Boondall Wetlands
We need signs like this in Hong Kong!
The woodlands around the wetland was quite productive, we saw a Pied Butcherbird, a Brush Cuckoo singing from its perch and a Rufous Whistler. A few Grey Fantails also showed well.
Pied Butcherbird
Brush Cuckoo
Rufous Whistler
Grey Fantail
Along the trail Hoiling spotted four Tawny Frogmouths roosting together. These comical birds are never boring to look at, two of them were quite alert at our presence and kept a watchful eye on us, while the other two just carried on sleeping.
Tawny Frogmouth - giving us 'the look'
It started raining so we took shelter inside the bird hide. We watched a few Torresian Crows sitting on the boardwalk, they are common and widespread in Australia, although I love their unique blue greyish eyes which stands out from the rest of its plumage. Across the river channel we added a Torresian Kingfisher, a split from the Collared Kingfisher.
Torresian Crow
Torresian Kingfisher
We continued after the shower had subsided. A fairly confiding Laughing Kookaburra was our last one of the trip. We also found a group of Red-backed Fairywrens, the bold male showed off its bright colours, a male in moult and female was also nearby.
Laughing Kookaburra
Red-backed Fairywren - showy male
Red-backed Fairywren - moulting male & female
Our final stop for the day was Nudgee Beach, we only walked to the bird hide and back to the carpark, here we were able to add two mangrove specialist in form of a Mangrove Gerygone and a small flock of Mangrove Honeyeaters.
Boardwalk through mangroves at Nudgee Beach
Mangrove Gerygone
Mangrove Honeyeater
On our way out we also saw a few Greater Crested Terns flying around the river mouth, whereas a White-bellied Sea Eagle perched up on a dead tree for good views. We drove back to my aunt's place for a family dinner before taking the evening flight back to Hong Kong.
Greater Crested Tern
White-bellied Sea Eagle
It was most unfortunate that during our visit the neighbouring states of New South Wales and Victoria experienced some of the worst bushfires in recent history, whether these disasters were manmade or natural shows what thin-line we are walking on, if we are not careful we could endanger even more of these unique animals, worst still lose some of these incredible wildlife.
The sad reality is, Queensland is now listed as a deforestation hotspot, clearing forests and bushland in an unprecedented rate. In 2015-16 alone around 395,000 hectares of lands were cleared in Queensland, that is equivalent to 1,500 football fields per day. We did experienced this first hand, as we birded at Kuranda, trucks loaded with timber hauled out one after the other, while emptied trucks drove back up the hill for more, I was horrified by the fact that commercial logging was going on within state forests, and God knows what chemicals they may be spraying up there! Habitat loss is therefore a huge concern for many species in Australia, the recent bushfires may have made this worst.
Negativity aside, almost everyone we have met during the trip was extremely helpful and friendly, making our trip in Queensland incredibly enjoyable. Despite the flu which hindered our mobility slightly, I am glad it didn't really affect our itinerary too much. When it comes to birding, Australia really has a lot to offer, not only does it have some of the most unique birds in the world, but the fact that many of these birds live in close proximity to human makes birding in Australia so much fun. We ended up with 221 species of birds in just 15 days, and not all of those days were purely spent birding. We also recorded many key target species, including 13 of the 14 wet tropic endemics, although out of those 2 were heard only (Lesser Sooty Owl and Tooth-billed Bowerbird), but considered the limited time we had I thought we did pretty well.
Bird list:
Mammal List:
Enjoyed your account Matthew, especially while cooped up at home, thanks!
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