I was going to go out to the esplanade for sunrise, but I was feeling too tired this morning so slept in until 7. Waking up at 7 AM is a massive lie in for a birder (but an early start for a mammalwatcher who's been spotlighting. So it can be both for me, as it suits). Instead, I packed my stuff and was out to the esplanade after breakfast to pass the time birding before everyone else is ready to leave. As I briefly mentioned yesterday, my parents caught cold-type illnesses so they went to a doctor to check it. I'm just going to note that here for continuity in case they get too ill to be able to continue the trip as planned and drive me to all the places that I have planned ... read more

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 ... read more

I had a day on my own for today, back to wandering around aimlessly, or rather with the one sole aim of finding animals. I covered over 20ks today so it's a good thing I like walking. I like doing this, wandering around on my own is good fun. Not when it's costing me an average of 150 to 200 dollars (Australian) per day though which is I think is the absolute best cast scenario if I did a long trip in Australia on my own. That's the main reason I'm sponging off, I mean catching up with, family while in Australia and doing my wandering about on my own in Asia on the cheap (though I don't think my time in Singapore will be all that much cheaper. Anyway, I headed off on my own ... read more

We started the morning with a quick pop back into Litchfield National Park to look around a bit and see if there was anything interesting about. The most interesting thing for me was that near one of the big waterfalls (Wangi Falls) there was a trail going through a small patch of monsoon forest where the trees above were absolutely filled with Black Flying Foxes. Hundreds of them, possibly into the thousands, making a huge amount of noise, showering the ground below with droppings (though I didn’t get hit) and just making a spectacular sight. I also finally managed to get a picture of Red-winged Parrots. I’ve been seeing them flying around and they are stunning in flight over the road, but today was my first view of them perched. We then checked out of the ... read more

We started the morning by heading back to Nourlangie Rock for the third time this trip, but this time getting there early in the morning with one goal: Black Wallaroo. I had found out that the best way to see these, was to make sure you are the first person down the path in the morning and apparently they are generally easy enough to see if you are the first person down the track. That’s what I had heard anyway. I walked down the path slowly, looking carefully at the base of the escarpment and in rocky areas because Black Wallaroos are actually a generally nocturnal species, coming down to the base of the escarpment to feed before sheltering in caves or under ledges during the day, but I knew people do see them here. It ... read more