I started the day with the best thing to do first thing in the morning in Cairns: birding the Cairns Esplanade at sunrise. Although it’s not wader time of year in Australia, plenty of waders do overwinter anyway, I believe first year birds especially, and given how urban and in the middle of the city it is, the trees that line the esplanade do hold lots of interesting birds too including Metallic Starlings, Figbirds, and Fig Parrots. The latter is surprisingly easy to find just in the trees right around there. Despite having birding the esplanade on several mornings when I was last in Cairns, I even managed a rather nice lifer in the form of a Yellow Honeyeater which is quite an attractive honeyeater species. I birded the esplanade for a good couple of hours
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