Missed at Mission but easy at Etty....

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain hammering onto the deck and roof...

....not an auspicious start but as nothing much was planned was not too bothered and settled down to enjoy the cool that the rain brings with it.
I had left Tish to sleep as she was on a late shift so was a tad annoyed when her mobile went off just after 0900. It turned out to be her boss who was ringing to offer Tish a days Annual Leave as the ward was very quiet. Tish gratefully accepted and we decided to brave the weather and head out for the day.
Our goal was to head off to Mission Beach with the target being....

One of Tish's colleagues had visited last week and had watched one walking across the high street!
To put this in context post Cyclone Yasi the rainforest in the National Park around this small village had been devastated and in order to survive the Cassowarys had become accustomed to entering the streets looking for fruit trees in peoples gardens and supplementary food dumps provided for them.
The area is beautiful, the beaches are stunning..

and completely empty both of people and flightless birds.
As by this stage it was lunch time we called in to the local cafe for a sandwich, during which a group of Lesser Frigatebirds flew over...

not something I expected to see.
We stopped briefly at the Environment Centre where we did see a Cassowary with eggs

Hamish though was far more taken with the smaller occupants of the buildings

Having completely lucked out we decided to go for a short walk through an area of forest we had been told was a dead cert, they lied!
We saw plenty of cassowary food some of which had already been used..

and the walk itself was beautiful if slightly wet

but there were no large flightless birds!
As the rain was getting steadily heavier we decided to call it a day and headed home whilst planing to return on a day that was a tad drier.
On the drive back we decided to make a short detour to an area we had visited on the drive up from Townsville. As I was driving up the hill leading to Etty Bay I saw blob in a field that did not look quite right and so quickly pulled off onto the side of the road. Tish very sensibly suggested that I should check this suspicious blob out myself.
And much to my surprise I was right

As you can clearly see a female Cassowary walking down the tree line before it joins the forest. Not convinced yet a slightly zoomed in view...

..the bottom black blob is it, honest!
Whilst not the most mind blowing of views I have to say we all felt remarkably pleased with ourselves.
We decided to carry on to the beach to get an ice cream to celebrate. We had only gone hundred yards when I noticed this brown bird running in the middle of the road

yep a Cassowary chick, and where there is a chick there has to be a male (males incubate the eggs and raise the chicks until they boot them out after 13 months) and sure enough he was right by the side of the road.

We then drove forward very slowly and were treated to amazing views

What a bird.