As I've just come back from my Queensland trip and it's all still fresh in my mind I'll prepone this trip report and then go back and finish the other ones. I have about two weeks where I'm not doing much so hopefully I'll get it all done before I'm off to Perth (and the south-west) for eight days after which I'll be moving to Port Hedland. I hope I won't have to spoil too much of the stuff coming up in this thread. (Look at this one for my target list too.) Also brownie-points for anyone who gets the thread-title references. I had originally planned to just be in the wider Cairns area for two weeks (Cape York seems to be more or less impossible during the wet, so no Cuscus for me), but then halfway through decided to extend for another five days in which I drove down to Brisbane looking for some animals along the way. Well here we go:
Day 1 - Cairns The first day started a mess and I almost didn't make it onto my flight because the shuttle bus I'd booked myself onto from Ballarat decided to leave early that day, which at 5am doesn't leave you with a lot of options. Luckily there was a train to Southern Cross coming in that I jumped onto after the desk person decided to not give a sh*** and being generally unhelpful and no one answering the phone hotline. So after taking the Skytrain from SC (light traffic jam) I arrived to the Tigerair baggage area just to have them have a problem with their luggage carousel thingy. Of course at security my bag had to be checked three times and I got pulled out of the line for a random explosives check. So after all that I arrived to the terminal with minutes to spare and then was made to pay an extra $50 because my carry-on was 2kg over (nevermind that my other bag was lighter and I could have rearranged stuff but Tiger decided to weigh in front of the gate...). When we arrived in Cairns it took an hour to get someone on the phone to arrange for my pick-up to the Atlas rental depot. All in all (as you can imagine) I wasn't the happiest camper that day. Cairns Aquarium My first stop was the new Cairns Aquarium in the inner city. Cairns is another one of those Aussie-towns that turn out to be smaller than you'd expect them to be, but anyway... I won't loose to many words on this one as there's already a pretty thorough walk-through by Sunbear12 here and for the species list click here. Just a couple of impressions: -You could tell that it was fairly new by how clean and not run-down it was. -I liked the comparatively large freshwater section and the whole place overall but was missing a bit of a star species and a differentiating factor. Yes, Emerald Monitor and a couple of others I hadn't seen before but overall it just wasn't different enough from other aquariums around the country. -There was a section about why animals on the reef have certain colours that I thought was a very nice touch. Animals checked off my list: Emerald Monitor Peppermint Stick Insect Large-toothed Sawfish a couple of other fish and crabs Next up: Cairns Wildlife Dome
Cairns Wildlife Dome This one is in walking distance to the aquarium so I decided to do both on the same day. I got a cheaper deal on bookme but it was still a bit expensive for what it was in my opinion. I mainly went for the Papuan Frogmouth which is the first bird you see coming in and which probably wasn't used to people looking at it for such a long time^^ At the 4pm afternoon feeding tour I was the only one there so got a private talk and got to pet the PF. The 5pm nocturnal mammal presentation had a couple more people and was basically a pet and talk session with a Sugar Glider. For a more detailed review I'll refer you to Sunbear12's thread here and to the species list here. Animals checked off my list: Papuan Frogmouth Afterwards I stocked up on food and drinks and had a wander through town. Animals seen: Spectacled Flying-fox Red-tailed Black Cockatoo Australian Pelican Silver Gull Diamond Dove Paradise Kingfisher Next up: Day 2 - Liveaboard
Day 2 / Day 3 - Coral Sea Dreaming Liveaboard Due to another deal I got on bookme I went out diving over the next two days. The weather wasn't the greatest but once you're under water it doesn't matter much. The payment system was a bit unusual in that you payed for the boat trip and the dives and the guiding etc separately. Overall I payed around $500 for five dives. The thing that I didn't enjoy was that the website made it seem like going with a guide would be optional when it wasn't (why charge for it separately then?) or that they billed you for the anti-seasickness pills, that they handed out like candy, afterwards. They also didn't really show a lot of care when it came to the buddy system... The good thing was that we spend a lot of time around Michaelmas Cay and while they didn't have a permit to go on the island I still got to see a lot of birds flying around. It was quite interesting seeing the noddies and terns trying to sneak back with a catch past the frigate birds and the chases when they weren't successful. I would have liked to go on the island too but both companies that take you there cost around $200 for a day trip so that wasn't gonna happen. Animals seen: Greater Frigatebird Lesser Frigatebird Black Noddy Little Tern Brown Booby Sooty Tern Green Seaturtle Reef Shark assorted fish and other marine life Afterwards I drove a couple of the others to their respective accommodations and then some of us went to a bar close to the harbour. They had Licor 43 (was the first time I've even seen the stuff in over a year) so I was happy with my 43-milk-mix Next up: Day 4
Day 4 Cairns Museum I decided to do my usual round to the museum and art gallery in town. The one in Cairns seems relatively new. Entry was $10 or $8 for concession ticket. It was a bit on the smaller side and while I didn't regret going I also don't think that there's much of a reason to go again. Cairns Art Gallery The art gallery was an enjoyable hour (free of charge) and I enjoyed the Manggan and Nightingale exhibitions. Tolga Bat Hospital After I was done with all my "culture" I rang up the Bat Hospital for a tour ($20) which they wanted to do the same day so I drove over there via Kuranda as the other road was closed. The tour started with a video on the work that they are doing and then we had a look at their microbats followed by their flying-foxes with the usual bits of information you get on a tour. The microbats were more interesting to me as I'd seen all the flying-foxes before. The owner also recommended I get in touch with Lumholtz Lodge which is run by an ex-German zookeeper, so I did that and arranged a meeting for the next day before heading off to my next destination. Animals seen at TBH: Common Blossom Bat Diadem Leaf-nosed Bat Eastern Freetail-bat Little Red Flying-fox Black Flying-fox Grey-headed Flying-fox Spectacled Flying-fox Animals seen on the road: Sacred Kingfisher Pheasant Coucal Australian Brushturkey Red-legged Pademelon Mt Hypipamee Crater I went out spotlighting at the crater as this is one of the best locations to see some of the endemic ringtails. Turning into the parking area I saw my first Common Brushtail of this trip. I also got onto a Herbert River Ringtail fairly quick. I saw two Lemuroid Ringtails but they were both so far up in the canopy that I could only identify them by eyeshine and lack of white belly. On my way back from the walking track I found a Coppery Brushtail foraging around near the small bridge. When I approached it ran up a tree. Having used the older Menkhorst guide for most of my time I'd be interested what the consensus is on a lot of the new splits (Brushtails, Feathertails, Greater Gliders, Phascogales, etc) and if Coppery is considered it's own species now, how does that affect the NZ populations (I remember the Brushies in the north-west of the South Island all being quite coppery...)? Animals seen: Herbert River Ringtail Possum Lemuroid Ringtail Possum Coppery Brushtail Possum Common Brushtail Possum Next up: Day 5 - more wildlife
Day 5 Mt Hypipamee I had a quick walk around the walkway in the morning but didn't see much. Animals seen: Brown Cuckoo-dove Little Shrike-thrush Atherton Next I had a quick stop at the Flying-fox colony between Tolga and Atherton before checking in at Chambers Wildlife Lodge, where I only had time to throw my bags into the room, hand in my laundry and have a quick shower before I was off to meet Margit at Lumholtz Lodge. Animals seen: Little Red Flying-fox Next up: Lodges
Lumholtz Lodge Meeting Margit and her rescues was a real pleasure. She actually knew some people from work and we talked way longer than I'd planned on. Dinner and a glass of wine will do that to ya I guess.^^ Other than her Tree-roos (can't get closer than here), she also had a young Echidna and Pademelon rescue in at the time. There's also a couple of bird feeders and when it got dark at least five Brushies and a whole mop of Pademelons came around. Animals seen: Lumholtz's Tree-kangaroo Short-beaked Echidna Red-legged Pademelon Common Brushtail Possum Chambers Wildlife Lodge After leaving Margit's around 8pm I made my way back to Chambers. They have a viewing platform where around 7pm they put some honey out on the trees, which attracts Sugar Gliders, Bandicoots and a Stripey (I guess this would be more or less the only reliable way to see one). Before leaving Lumholtz Lodge we'd joked about me missing the Striped Possum by a minute due to being a tad late and then that was exactly what happened. When I got there the other people told me that it had just left and I only got to see it on the others cameras. There were still three Sugar Gliders around and a LN Bandicoot put in an appearance too. I also saw one Red-legged Pademelon but they are very skittish at Chambers and the views at LL are way better. Animals seen: Sugar Glider Long-nosed Bandicoot Red-legged Pademelon Animals not seen: Striped Possum Next up: Eyes on Wildlife tours
Day 6 For that Monday I had booked a day and evening tour with Patrick who runs Eyes on Wildlife and another evening tour to Mt Lewis the next night. My target list looked as follows: Musky Rat-kangaroo Common Planigale Long-tailed Pygmy-possum Green Ringtail Daintree River Ringtail Herbert River Ringtail Lemuroid River Ringtail Bennett's Tree-kangaroo any of the Eastern Queensland Rock-wallabies (except Mareeba) (less important: any Antechinus (except Yellow-footed) or Dunnart) Spotted, Large-tailed or White-throated Nightjar Painted Snipe Pratincole Chowchilla Eastern Shriketit Varied Sittella Spotted Quail-thrush Yellow-breasted Boatbill Golden-headed Cisticola or Zitting Cisticola Victoria's Riflebird any Blindsnake Day tour: Patrick picked me up early morning and we first went to Lake Barrine where we were very successful with the Musky Rat-kangaroos (at least eight) and unsuccessful with Chowchilla and Riflebird. With some work we did get some good views of a Boatbill though. We went to a different location for another shot at Riflebird (only got a female). We did get lucky with a Green Ringtail during daytime though. As usual mammals are more obliging for me than birds. He also showed me a Blind-snake he'd found in his garden the day before. We had a quick trip to a Lake where we immediately saw Golden-headed Cisticola and a wetlands area. After that we went to a Sclerophyll Forest area to look for Shrike-tit but didn't find any. Then it was another trip back to Lake Barrine and we finally got onto a group of Chowchilla and a male Riflebird. Of course we also saw a bunch of other stuff not on my target list.
Animals seen: Musky Rat-kangaroo Green Ringtail Possum Large-footed Myotis Pacific Black Duck Australian Brushturkey Orange-footed Scrubfowl Australasian Grebe Australian White Ibis Straw-necked Ibis Nankeen Night Heron Australian Pelican Little Black Cormorant Great Cormorant Australasian Darter Pacific Baza Grey Goshawk Black Kite Australasian Swamphen Eurasian Coot Masked Lapwing White-headed Pigeon Crested Pigeon Peaceful Dove Australian Swiftlet Forest Kingfisher Sacred Kingfisher Rainbow Bee-eater Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Little Lorikeet Rainbow Lorikeet Scaly-breasted Lorikeet Spotted Catbird Red-backed Fairywren Dusky Myzomela Scarlet Myzomela Eastern Spinebill Macleay's Honeyeater Little Friarbird Yellow-faced Honeyeater Noisy Miner Fuscous Honeyeater Lewin's Honeyeater Atherton Scrubwren Yellow-throated Scrubwren Large-billed Scrubwren Brown Gerygone Chowchilla Eastern Whipbird Yellow-breasted Boatbill Grey Butcherbird Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike Australian Golden Whistler Rufous Whistler Bower's Shrike-thrush Little Shrike-thrush Australasian Figbird Spangled Drongo Willie Wagtail Grey Fantail Rufous Fantail Spectacled Monarch Black-faced Monarch Pied Monarch Magpie Lark Leaden Flycatcher Victoria's Riflebird Grey-headed Robin Pale-yellow Robin Welcome Swallow Tree Martin Golden-headed Cisticola Common Myna Red-browed Finch Chestnut-breasted Mannikin Australian Pipit Flowerpot Blindsnake Eastern Water-dragon Rainbow Skink Northern Laughing Treefrog Animals not seen: Eastern Shrike-tit Next up: Nocturnal tour
Nocturnal tour: For our first nocturnal we went back to Mt Hypipamee because I wanted to get better views of the Ringtails (just having a better flashlight was already worth it). We found a couple of Lemuroids as well as one Herbert and the Chameleon Gecko. We also went to Curtain Fig Tree where we found a couple of White-tailed Rats (they run off in white light, but aren't bothered in red) as well as large amounts of Leaf-tails and one Tree-roo. Still no Green Ringtails at nighttime though. Animals seen: Herbert River Ringtail Possum Lemuroid Ringtail Possum Lumholtz's Tree-kangaroo Giant White-tailed Rat Red-legged Pademelon Chameleon Gecko Northern Leaf-tailed Gecko After the tour I also saw a couple of Bush Stone-curlews. Next up: Day 7
Day 7 Lake Barrine In the morning I went back to Lake Barrine for a short stint. This time I only saw one Musky but got better views of two Scrubfowl. They are not as easy to see in QLD as they are in the NT. Nothing else of note but I wasn't there long. Animals seen: Musky Rat-kangaroo Orange-footed Scrubfowl Australian Brushturkey Eurasian Coot Australasian Swamphen Grey Fantail Cathedral Fig Tree Next I went to Cathedral Fig Tree (not the same as Curtain Fig) because it's also supposed to be good for Muskies but I only saw heaps of Robins and Mozzies, so I left rather quickly. Animals seen: Grey-headed Robin Yungaburra I had a quick stop at the platypus viewing platform so I could say that I've seen this species in the wild. It was interesting to see one that's not as hectic as the zoo ones usually are. Animals seen: Platypus Laughing Kookaburra Next up: Granite Gorge
Granite Gorge I had about an hour here before I had to meet up with Patrick again so didn't have time to explore the premises which was a bit of a shame. Entry was $10 and wallaby-food another $2 I think. The feeding area is right next to the reception and the wallabies are impossible to miss. They are so used to people that there is absolutely no skittishness which makes it easy to get pictures. Although getting one without a peacock sneaking into the frame can be hard. There was also quite a few joeys in pouches. There's also a couple of aviaries dotted around the place and some lizard-cages on their porch (got to hold the monitor and the python). Animals seen (wild): Mareeba Rock-wallaby Animals seen (captive) Guinea Pig Plum-headed Parakeet Pale-headed Rosella Princess Parrot Eclectus Parrot Alexandrine Parrot Ring-necked Parakeet (?) Galah Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Long-billed Corella Peafowl Chicken Duck Turkey Sand Monitor Eastern Blue-tongued Lizard Water Dragon Bearded Dragon Python
Eyes on Wildlife again Because we'd had to double-back to Lake Barrine the day before Patrick had offered to meet up early so we could have a go at Varied Sitella in the dry country before going to Mt Lewis which of course I didn't say no to. Sadly we didn't see any, but it was still a good outing with quite a few other birds around (Lovely Fairywren were probably my favourite). Animals seen: Whiptail Wallaby Magpie Goose Great Egret Black-shouldered Kite Whistling Kite Nankeen Kestrel Pheasant Coucal Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo Dollarbird Laughing Kookaburra Blue-winged Kookaburra Pale-headed Rosella Lovely Fairywren Brown Honeyeater Noisy Friarbird Blue-faced Honeyeater White-throated Honeyeater Yellow Honeyeater Striated Pardalote Weebill Australian Magpie White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike Olive-backed Oriole Northern Fantail Eastern Yellow Robin Lemon-bellied Flyrobin Silvereye Double-barred Finch Animals not seen: Varied Sitella When it got a bit later we drove to Mt Lewis but had to cancel our plans because there were four fallen trees on the road up the mount. So we called it an early night and I drove back to Kuranda where I saw Bush Stone-curlews again and almost ran over a NB Bandicoot on the way. Animals seen: Northern Brown Bandicoot Bush Stone-curlew Next up: Kuranda Koala Gardens
I didn't realise there was a captive collection there. I thought it was just a normal everyday gorge.
