back in Queensland again

---

well I'm back in Queensland once again. As is usually the case when flying from Christchurch to Cairns, there is a transfer through Brisbane which kind of sucks. You spend several hours on a plane, get off and want to go exploring but instead you have to get on another plane for another couple of hours. Anyway, I stayed at a backpackers called Traveller's Oasis. I was going to get a single room all to myself because I've had enough of dorms, especially after the incident on my final night in Brisbane last month with a guy whacked off his gourd on drugs, but they only had dorms left so whatcha gonna do? For birders, Cairns is well-known for the Esplanade. Unlike most tropical resort cities Cairns doesn't have a beach, it has mudflats with the Esplanade walk running the length of them, for 2.5km. The tide was out when I first arrived so there weren't many wading birds visible from the walkway, but in the trees alongside were full of all sorts of nice birds like double-eyed fig parrots (which I was very excited about, probably to the mystification of the sunbathing girls on the grass nearby), varied honeyeaters and figbirds. Also I found a big roost site for spectacled flying foxes just by the library. Cairns is good like that.

The next day I went for a big long walk, starting at the Esplanade in the early morning when the tide was just right for the waders to be nice and close, then to the Botanic Gardens. The Gardens themselves are pretty small but next to them on one side are the Centenary Lakes where I saw amongst other nice birds, lovely fairy-wrens, orange-footed scrubfowl and white-browed crakes (that's a type of sneaky rail), and where there is now a resident crocodile who remained hidden. And on the other side is the Mt. Whitfield Conservation Park, which is rainforest where I saw various little rainforesty birds and a lace monitor up a tree.

In the evening I went for a visit to the Cairns Wildlife Dome, which is a glass dome on top of the casino that houses native Queensland animals. Being on top of a building its only small but its basically a walk-through aviary with some additional pens for little things like pademelons, as well as a glass-fronted tank for a 350kg saltwater crocodile. If you didn't actually look at anything it would take about two minutes to walk around the Dome, but especially if you like photographing birds you could be there all day. Its $22 normally but after 5pm the price drops to $15 -- and the ticket lets you have free returns for the next four days!! How good is that? (Unfortunately I won't be in Cairns during the next four days but never mind).

Today I'm off to Kuranda to look for more little rainforesty birds (and one big one, the cassowary).

---

Photos

white-lipped tree frog (Litoria infrafrenata) at the Cairns Wildlife Dome
jejeje he's sitting on the glass!!