Its not just birds....

Although we specialise in birding with our clients Australia is such a rich Continent from a wildlife point of view that it is impossible not to be captivated by the diversity and spectacle of other wildlife on offer.
Be it large in the shape of the iconic Australian mammal the Kangaroo:
Eastern Grey's

Euro

Agile Wallaby with joey

Swamp Wallaby

Mareeba Rock Wallaby

Lumholtz's Tree Kangaroo (picture by Patrick De Geest)

....or less cuddly
Green Tree Snake

Lace Monitor

Tommy Round-head

...or the stunningly beautiful butterflies
Blue-banded Eggfly

Cairns Birdwing

...the weird fish
Common Lionfish

 
....the bewildering array of plants
  Dendrobium nindii orchid

 Elkhorn or Staghorn Fern

Maniltoa lenticellata

...or the surprise when you are scanning the herons on the opposite bank of a river and you see one of these

we have something to fascinate and amaze you so why not join us.....

Waterfowl

One of the features of local birding as the dry season progresses is the increase in both number and diversity of waterfowl. As the interior continues to dry out the ducks get pushed towards the coast and concentrated in areas of open water.
The resident species such as....
Pacific Black Duck

Green Pygmy Goose (picture by Patrick de Geest)

Gray Teal

Hardhead (picture by Patrick De Geest)

 Australian Wood Duck or Maned Duck

Radjah Shelduck - a recent colonist to the Cairns area

...are joined by several species that only occur here when water starts to become scarce inland.
There are three species that occur in good numbers each year
Magpie Goose

Plumed Whistling-Duck

Wandering Whistling-Duck

Another annual visitor usually in small numbers is the Pink-eared Duck

This year small numbers have turned up at a range of sites from March onwards with larger numbers at a couple of bigger wetland sites such as Hasties Swamp where well over 100 can be found feeding.
However the undoubted highlight this year has been the number of Freckled Duck that have arrived at Hasties Swamp. This is Australia's most threatened duck and there are only a handful of records from North Queensland, the first birds arrived back in March and there are now 14 birds there

There have also been a couple of records of Australian Shoveler in the region.
All in all an excellent winter for ducks and the dry is not over yet.....

North West Tablelands and beyond

As we are moving into spring and the dry in the interior continues to bite we headed off to try and find some dry country specialities that were being pushed East. It was ironic that on the trip we actually had pretty poor weather - strong winds and rain which made finding some of these specialities very difficult - coupled with the fact that the one river crossing we found with water in had a road crew carrying out repairs meant that birds were quite hard to find.
A few of the Melaleuca's were in flower and these certainly concentrated the Honeyeaters in particular - although it was still very hard work getting decent views of anything. Rather disappointingly we failed to find Banded Honeyeater but I think this was due in part to the viewing conditions. In addition where we did find shelter and birds the light conditions were too poor for photography. Trips like this though always throw up some goodies and this was no exception.
In one stream bed we found three Shining Bronze-Cuckoos feeding very actively

We also found a single Pallid Cuckoo but it was far to flighty and we were never able to get any pictures of it.

The one dry country migrant that we found in good numbers was the Diamond Dove. This diminutive dove is normally found further west in arid  or semi arid woodlands with the occasional bird pushed east as their habitat dries out. During the day in addition to several widely scattered individuals we also found one flock of over 100 birds

The flock was feeding beside the road and was very jumpy, but with patience we got some great views of this exceedingly attractive bird

One of the features of the pasture land in the N W Tablelands are the Australian Bustards. We are lucky in this region that our population seems to be stable and they are still a feature in our landscape but as you move south they become progressively scarcer due to among other things habitat loss and the introduction of intensive grazing.

Watching these magnificent birds is a highlight of any trip particularly if the males are displaying. At least two of the males that we found were "warming up" by puffing up their throat and neck feathers but I think it was just too cold and windy for them to get into full swing

Due to the weather there were fewer raptors on the wing than we had hoped for but it did give us the opportunity to get some brilliant views such as this Nankeen (or Australian) Kestrel

A very interesting trip to an area that holds huge potential, and one that we hope to repeat again soon