Friday Night

Cairns

Here is what I hope will be a brief Ramblings, telling about today.  I hadn’t gotten any groceries in yesterday afternoon, because when I got into my air conditioned room, I just didn’t want to go out again, as I had feared.  So, this morning I went out to McDonalds for my brekkie.  I drove through the arboretum and on the way, I got a trip bird, Orange-footed Scrubfowl.  A really goofy looking bird with a tiny head for its body size.  So, after that, I didn’t have to worry about getting a trip bird today, to keep my streak alive.

It was raining off and on this morning, but after breakfast, I went to the Freshwater Lake at Centenary Lakes, to look for the Little Kingfisher.  I didn’t find one, but I got some pictures of a Darter, to follow, if I ever catch up with my photos.  I also checked out the Esplanade (shoreline) this morning, but the tide was too far in for there to be many birds.  Still, even with the tide in so far, I was able to add 3 trip birds there.  The numbers and variety of shore birds on the Esplanade are amazing.

As the morning ran down, I went grocery shopping.  I drove across town to the Woolworths, but it was raining and the traffic was terrible around the store, and there was no place nearby to park, so I gave it up and stopped at a Coles on the way back.  I got myself stocked up with food for the next few days.

I did some updating of my lists and spreadsheets then, which took quite a while.  I think I am on target for about 275 trip birds and about 65 lifers, but we will see.

In the late afternoon, I went down to the Esplanade again, and the tide was much better.  Amazingly, I added 7 more birds to my trip list, which included two lifers – Lesser Sand Plover and Varied Honeyeater.  I talked with a gentleman from Stanthorpe, a town near Girraween National Park, where I was early in my trip, and he actually pointed out two of the birds I added to my list, so thanks to him.  I must have spent close to two hours, in just one place, watching the birds and taking some photos, to be posted someday, as I always promise.

I came back to the apartment about 5:30, had a drink and a shower, in that order, and got cooled down. I had really gotten overheated moving the rest of my stuff from the car up to my room, because tomorrow morning I have to turn in my current car and get a new one from a different company.

After that I had my dinner and then processed photos, and made the album for Photos09.  I am posting it now, as I type this, so if you look, you should see Photos09, under Mission Beach.  Yes, I am definitely running behind on my photo processing and posting.  The pictures are going up slowly, because of my dial up connection.   I hope it all gets there correctly.  There could be problems.

So, tomorrow I need to switch cars and then at 10 AM I am supposed to meet my first Cairns Birdingpal, and we are supposed to go birding for about 5 or 6 hours.  He is the one who suggested we go for the mangrove species, which means sandflies.   I wasn’t able to get the insect repellant he recommended, but I do have a little 100% DEET with me, and maybe it will be enough to protect me.

I’m actually more worried about the heat and the amount of walking I might have to do, but we’ll just have to see how it goes.  The sandflies are supposed to be very annoying.  I gather that they bite like mosquitoes, giving you itchy spots afterwards.

For dinner tonight, I had a frozen meat pie (heated up, of course) and two packs of microwave frozen veggies, with a couple slices of cheese on them, to make them slide down all the better.  For dessert, I had raspberry jam tarts and lemon jam tarts.  Good stuff.

So, check out Photos09, and maybe there will be more tomorrow.

Barry Downunder, not liking the heat and humidity at all