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Sunday, 20 October, 2013

 

Today was another travel day, my last long day of driving of the trip.  After this, my longest drive will be just over two hours.

 

It was foggy and windy overnight up at Eungella.  I was very comfortable in my little cabin with a view.  I slept in until after 5:30 this morning, and I was on the road by about 8, and the fog was clearing away by then.  I theoretically had about 5 hours of driving, but there is lots of road work going on, and even though it was Sunday, they still had the speed limit signs for the road work out.  In the places where there would have been flaggers on a work day, they had traffic signals, set on timers, so a lot of time was wasted there.  Then there are the slow drivers, the oversized loads, the slowdowns for every little town or crossroad.  It is hard to appreciate the difference it makes to have a four lane divided highway, like the US interstates.  This is all two lane road, with all that involves.  Anyway, the drive today was boring, long, and frustrating.  I had made myself a double iced coffee and milk drink last night, with a little sugar in it, and I drank that in the middle of the day to keep myself awake.  Now I feel kind of shaky from the aftereffects of the caffeine.

 

I did nothing but drive, with a couple of bathroom breaks, until close to noon.  At that point, I ate the lunch I had made for myself, while driving.  Ham and cheese rollups, veggies, and potato chips.  A good meal to munch on while driving.  I hadn’t seen any trip birds, of course, but I was planning on stopping at a place called Horseshoe Lagoon, which is about 30 or 40 minutes south of Townsville, my destination for today, and I had hopes of seeing something there.  It was hot, though, in the mid-90’s F, and it has been very dry in the Townsville area, I understand, so I didn’t know what I would find there.  For all I knew, the lagoon could be dry.

 

I got there about 1 o’clock and stopped to view it from the highway first.  I didn’t see anything new there, but at least there was plenty of water in the lagoon.  I knew there was a bird hide around the side of the lagoon, so I made my way there.  On the way from the car to the hide, I saw a couple of little birds on the lily pads at the edge of the lagoon.  One of them was a Comb-crested Jacana, which I had already seen and taken pictures of, but the other one was a new one for me, WHITE-BROWED CRAKE.  I managed one picture before it scampered away, but it and a friend came back later, when I was in the hide, and I got a number of pictures of them.

 

Check out that foot.  That is how they can walk on the top of the lily pads and algae, with that big foot to spread out their weight.  Here is another picture.

 

Here is a picture of one part of Horseshoe Lagoon, from the hide.

 

I realized when I got there that I had been there before.  It was in 2008, and I was on a big day of birding around Townsville with my mate Ken who I spent so much time with this trip, and two other birders.  Tomorrow I plan to visit some other places that we went in 2008, too.

 

So, I had my bird for the day, but there weren’t any of the water birds I hoped to see there.  There were a lot of birds, but nothing new for me.  I was debating on what to do next when I saw a couple of red birds fly in.  Yes!  I added CRIMSON FINCH to my trip list.  The birds were feeding in the grass and reeds right out in front of the hide, but they were mostly hidden in the grass.  I managed to get this picture, which I call peek-a-boo Crimson Finch.

 

Finally one of them flew out into the open and perched for a few seconds, and I got this kind of strange view of it, from head on.

 

That was the best I could do of this colorful species, as they flew away right after that.

 

It was hot out there, and I had my bird for the day, so I decided to call it a day and head for my motel.  I did stop briefly at a place called Alligator Creek, which is part of a National Park, but it was very dry and there were a lot of people there on a Sunday afternoon, so I gave that up, too.  I was amused by a sign that said that swimming wasn’t recommended.  I would heed that advice at a place called Alligator Creek, although they don’t have alligators here.  They do have crocodiles, though.  This place wouldn’t have them, though, so the warning must have been for some other reason.

 

So, I stopped at Woolies and stocked up on groceries, and I filled the car with petrol, and then I checked into my motel.  The place isn’t a palace, but it is clean, it has a nice little kitchenette, the a/c works well, and there is a king size bed, so I’m happy with it.  I have three nights here.  I’m using my smartphone to connect to the internet again, like I did last night.  That sure has worked out well on this trip.  One of the first things I check about a room is to see if there is an outlet for my CPAP machine.  There wasn’t, so I went back to the office.  They guy gave me an extension cord and apologized.  He said he had been quoted a thousand bucks per room to put in an outlet on that wall, so he bought some extension cords instead.  He mentioned CPAP machines without any prompting from me, so he knew the problem.

 

Tomorrow I plan to bird around Townsville on my own, and then I have a local birder lined up to take me out on Tuesday.  We are supposed to talk on the phone tonight, to make plans.  It should be easy enough to keep from being skunked here, but with the weather so hot and the area so arid, the birding might not be great.  When I keep saying it is dry, I mean they haven’t had rain in a long time.  The air is not dry at all, it is humid, and it makes it uncomfortable to be out in the sun.

 

With the two birds today, I am now at 280 species, of which 24 of them are lifers.

 

Oh yes, there was the question of those two mystery birds from yesterday.  Ken confirmed that they were both cisticolas, but the pictures are ambiguous as to which of the two species they are.  There are various factors, and I’m still weighing them.  Either one would be an addition to my trip list, at this point.  I want to do some more research and maybe talk to the Townsville birder I’m seeing on Tuesday about it.  For now, they are in abeyance.