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Sunday, 27 October, 2013

 

Today was my day to leave the highlands and go down to the lowlands, by the sea.  I was up about 5 and got away by 7:30 or so.  I stopped at the Curtain Fig Tree to see if I could see any of those pesky rainforest birds that I haven’t had any luck with, but again, I had no luck.  I saw a Pied Monarch, an excellent bird, but one I had already seen.  I heard several that would have added to my trip list, but no sight of them.  Many birders count birds they hear, as well as ones they see.  It is completely “legal” and legitimate, but so far, I have chosen to stay “pure” and only count birds that I actually see and can identify.  I’m willing to use the call or song of the bird as an identification point, but I need to actually set eyes on the bird to count it.  This morning I was thinking about it, and I easily came up with 7 species of rainforest birds that I have heard on this trip but not seen.  I still hope to see some of those in the last place I’m stopping, Kingfisher Park Lodge, especially on the day I have booked with a paid professional guide, but we will see.

 

Anyway, after the Curtain Fig Tree, I stopped at Lake Eacham.  Here is a picture of that beautiful lake, which is in an old volcanic crater.

 

There were people swimming, snorkeling, and paddle boarding (stand up style).  There were birds around, and I managed to identify Brown Gerygone and Barred Cuckoo-shrike, but I had already counted those species.

 

So, I gave up on rainforests.  I headed down to the coast.  Going down meant going down the Gillies Highway, which is the twisty-turniest road I have ever been on.  For 25 minutes, I turned right, then left, then right, etc, at about 25 to 30 mph.  I had been down that road before, so I was ready for it, but it is the most boring stretch of road I have ever been on.  Constant turns, hitting the brakes all the time because it is all downhill, for 25 minutes.

 

When I finally got to the bottom, I found my way to the Edmonton turf farms and a place near there to look for some species I needed.  It all seemed to be a big waste of time, as I saw nothing of interest in the way of birds, but I did see another little piece of this incredible world we live in, so the time wasn’t really wasted after all.  While I was cruising the back roads, I ate my humble lunch, which consisted of ham and cheese rollups, cucumber, potato chips, and a Diet Coke.  I have to admit that I’m getting a little tired of ham.

 

I drove on into Cairns (which is pronounced “cans”, as in Coke comes in bottles or cans), and I stopped at a Woolies to stock up a little on groceries, although I had realized by then that I wasn’t going to have a kitchen in my new digs in Cairns.  I do have a microwave and little fridge, though, and even a couple of dishes and some utensils.  I got to my caravan park, where I had a studio villa booked, at about 12:30 PM, and I wondered if I would be too early to check in.  There was a sign on the door of the office that said no check-ins before 11 AM, so that reassured me.  No problem, I was told, and they checked me in.  Unfortunately, when I got to my villa, it hadn’t been cleaned yet.  I went back and told them, and rather than offer me another villa (maybe they were fully booked, I don’t know), they told me to come back in an hour.

 

So, I went down to the ocean front, which is called the Esplanade.  It was damned hot, mid-90’s by then, and damned humid as well.  I was back into the sauna again, worse than ever, after a couple of days of respite in the highlands.  I drove around, checking out locations and refreshing my memory from the last time I was here, five years ago.  I went by the apartment-hotel I stayed at last time, and I wondered if I had made a mistake going cheap this time.  I am paying less than $70 a night here, and the apartment hotel would have been about $140 a night this year, I think.  I can afford that, but I am cheap, and my cheapness ruled this time.

 

As I mentioned last time, I have a guy lined up to take me out tomorrow morning, and I had arranged to meet him on the Esplanade at 4 PM today.  I didn’t have a trip bird at this point, but I was confident I would get at least one on the Esplanade later.  There are four species of shorebirds I needed still for my trip list that are commonly seen on the Esplanade, and I figured I could get at least one of them.  High tide was due at about 5:30, according to my research, and the best birding is supposed to be about two hours before high tide.

 

So, I went on down to the Esplanade, as I waited for my villa to be cleaned.  I was kind of surprised at how high the tide was already, and I wondered about my theory of getting a trip bird easily.  I checked out where I was to meet my new guide, John, at 4, and I went on back to the caravan park.  The room still wasn’t quite ready, but they gave me the key and I parked and started moving stuff to the front porch of my villa, as the cleaner finished the cleaning.  When he was done, I moved in and turned on the a/c.  I was wearing my long pants and shoes, and I was wiped out by the heat.  I got my stuff moved in and changed to shorts and sandals with no socks, and I sat in front of the air conditioner.

 

This place is quite compact, but it will do for me.  The bed is large, but it turns out to be two single beds pushed together and made up as one bed, and that leaves a big ridge in the center.  It will be interesting to see how that goes tonight.  There was an ice tray in the little freezer compartment, but it wasn’t frozen.  I had ice in my cooler from Atherton, so tonight it isn’t a problem, but I hope I can make ice for my drinkie tomorrow night.  Oh, the trials and tribulations of the Old Rambler, as he deals with the adversity of foreign travel.  Ice, internet access, beds that are too hard – it is a constant struggle.

 

The room was pretty damn hot, but the a/c does put out some good cold air.  They have a scheme I have run into before, in which you have to put your room key in a slot (actually, in this case, it is the fob of the room key that goes into the slot).  Unless the key fob is in the slot, the air conditioning won’t work.  The idea is to keep you from running the a/c when you are not in the room.  I’ve never seen that in an American motel, but I have seen it here several times.  Anyway, when I went out again, I defeated the system by removing the key from the key ring that attached it to the fob.  So, I could leave the a/c running while I was out.  This was very un-green, and probably rude, but the room was too damn hot, and I wanted it cooler.

 

So, leaving the a/c running, I went back on down to the Esplanade to meet John, my Cairns birding pal.  The tide was even higher, and there were very few shorebirds around.  I started to worry about my theory of getting a trip bird today.  In fact, after checking out the few birds that were around where I was to meet John, I pretty much gave it up.

 

I was early, though, to be safe, and I had at least a half hour before our assigned time of 4 PM, so I walked down the Esplanade toward the casino (the big white building in this picture of the Esplanade with the tide high).

 

At the next point where there was a little sand and mud still showing, there were some more shorebirds.  I got this picture of a couple of Sharp-tailed Sandpipers.

 

I had already seen them a few times, though, and the same applied to the other species there.  But then I saw one bird amongst the couple or three dozen birds there, and it was one I was looking for, TEREK SANDPIPER.  Here is a picture of that guy.

 

That upturned bill is a real giveaway, and I had no trouble identifying this one.  It was the only Terek Sandpiper in the whole mob of birds, and I had him.  I must say, it was a relief to have gotten a trip bird and to dodge the skunk still again.  I had thought it would be easy, and in fact, it was, but for a while there, I had just about given up.

 

Here is a picture of a Curlew Sandpiper, I think.  Its bill is curved in the other direction, downward.

 

It was getting close to 4, and birds were leaving anyway, as the tide kept coming in, leaving them no room to stand around and wait for it to go out again.  Shorebirds feed in the sand and mud, going after little creatures under the mud or sand, and when the tide is high, they have to just sit around and loaf until they can feed again, when the tide goes out.  To view shorebirds, birders aim to be at the shore about two hours before high tide, but today the tide was especially high, I think, so that was thrown off a bit.  Tides are totally weird here anyway, I presume due to the Great Barrier Reef offshore.  Normally, tides are high or low in about six hour increments, but there can be a low and a high within a couple of hours.  As I said, totally weird.  I can’t imagine how they predict them.

 

Back where I was supposed to meet John, most of the birds had flown off.  I did spot another one for my trip list, though, to my great surprise.  I hadn’t seen it twenty minutes before when I was there, but maybe it flew in while I was down the beach.  Here is a picture of a STRIATED HERON.

 

That’s a front view, here is a view of its back, after it cooperatively turned around for me.

 

So, after my serious concerns, I had two for my trip list today.  I got a couple more pictures worth showing.  Here is a Common Greenshank, a bird I had gotten way back on the Sunshine Coast.

 

There were also Pied Imperial-Pigeons flying around, a bird I had counted in Townsville.  I got a picture today of two of them, though.

 

By that time it was approaching 4:30, and there was no sign of John.  I wasn’t worried, because he had implied that he might not make it, and I had his phone number.  So, I returned to my new little villa, and I started my evening routines.  I called John about 5:15 and left a message, and he called back a little later. 

 

Interestingly, he wants to go back up onto the Atherton Tablelands tomorrow morning, back to the rainforest.  A female friend of his is going to accompany us, and I gather that she is the one who wants to see rainforest birds.  Since I missed so many rainforest birds, it is probably fine, but it means going back up the Gillies Highway (25 minutes of twisting and turning) and then coming back down again later in the day.  He said we would be back “about 2”, and I have to turn in my rental car by something like 2 or 3 PM and pick up another one, so it is going to be kind of interesting tomorrow.  I need to check the contract to see what time I picked the car up, and then be back in time to turn it in by that time, to avoid another day’s charge.

 

It is going to make it interesting tomorrow in terms of not getting skunked, too.  If I can pick up a rainforest bird I missed, that would be great.  If not, there are two other possibilities.  First, John is picking up the female friend at 8, and he is picking me up at 7, and we are going to go to the local park and try for some Cairns birds.  I could get a trip bird in the half hour or so that we will have there.  If not, and if I don’t get a rainforest bird, then when we get back, and after I have turned in my car and gotten my new one (I have explained that little circus, haven’t I?), I can still go looking for a trip bird locally.  There are a couple of good possibilities to look for, but it is far from certain.

 

So, that is the story for tomorrow.  For today, I got two more trip birds (but not until after about 3:45 PM), which brings me to a total of 322 for the trip, of which 28 are lifers.  I’m back into the heat and humidity, too, which completely saps my energy.