Osprey

It has been a very dry wet season so far, according to Alan the wet is currently about seven weeks late and there is a danger of it being a "failed" wet season - that said further south in Queensland and in Western Australia they are experiencing horrible weather, severe flooding and yet another cyclone respectively.
Despite it being relatively dry all of the pools at Cattana are very full making it very difficult to find waders at the moment, in fact there are non at all at Cattana as they are using an area of tidal flood pools just off the main road into Yorkeys.
Getting close to them can be quite difficult as they are quite jumpy but when you do get in close there are some great photo opportunities.

Pied Stilt - recently split from Black-winged Stilt

Marsh Sandpiper - at least five feeding in the shallows.

When looking along the edges of the main pools it is quite easy to see some of the fish that are prevalent in the area - unfortunately at Cattana the commonest fish are Tilapia.

These are an introduced pest species which have had a devastating impact on the native species - so much so that I don't think I have seen any native species in Cattana.
The Government are very strict on trying to control the spread of them and it is illegal to fish in affected  areas in an attempt to stop the accidental spread of fish eggs, it is an offence to be found in possession of one. Luckily there are certain native predators that are rather fond of them...

bit warmer than at Garten!!

Outlook and Origami

Today was Xanthe's second session in her art course. Not sure if I mentioned last week but she is doing sculpture, at first she was less than enamoured by the idea but she is really getting into the swing of it. We are not allowed to see the sculpture yet as it is not finished, next week she has to take in two pieces of "interesting garbage" one to use and one to swop.....
Once we had dropped her off the boys and I took Tish up to the viewing point

We sat there for a while enjoying the view

before heading off to a local park for a session on the swings - well the boys did Tish and I just sat and watched the world go by before we collected Xanthe at 1230.

Xanthe bought home a book on Australian Animal Origami and we have been having a bash, the instructions are a tad simplistic but so far we have made a Penguim, &-spot Ladybird, Blue Grooper and Black-Headed Honeyeater...

Tomorrow Xanthe wants us to try and bring back the Thylacine.....

Wonderful Waders on the Esplanade

Tish had had a stomach bug this week and had to collect a doctors certificate today - she is feeling better but as she has been vomiting she is not allowed back into work until next week. Before going to the doctors we called in briefly at the Esplanade. Tish took her Kindle and I of course had my bins.
The tide was going out which meant that the waders were close in, almost too close at times! The Esplanade is a world famous site for passage waders and is probably the most relaxing birding you can do. You  sit on a nice bench in the shade and watch a range of species that a birder from the Northern Hemisphere could only dream of in the UK

Great Knot - this bird was quite obliging and was not feeding as rapidly as the others (probably due to fact that he only had one leg)

Lesser Sandplover - there were small numbers of these around, some of which were starting to moult into breeding plumage

Terek Sandpiper - there were several of these feeding very actively along the waters edge, which made getting a decent picture virtually impossible.

Grey-tailed Tattler

All of the above are on the UK list each with fewer than five records but here they are routine and easily seen!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?.....

No its a flying stick.....
There was a bit of a queue to get on to the trampoline this afternoon

Though once the children started to bounce it was less than impressed and flew off

Before settling on the wall and watching the world go by

they are decidedly odd when you watch them fly!

Bitterns and Barras

Saturday evening Tish and I were rather tired so decided to have an early night and we were both fast asleep by 9.30pm. As they say though the best laid plans of mice and men...
We were woken up very suddenly by a torrential downpour - the sound of the rain hitting the roof was deafening, I went outside onto the deck and you could feel the wooden planks moving as a result of how hard they were being hit. Both Tish and I thought well at least we had had a few hours sleep but NO, when we checked the time it was only 1045! And that was that, neither of us could get back to sleep..............
So by 0545 I had had enough and as Tish was dozing and went out birding for a couple of hours. It is not that often that I can get out at first light so I wanted to make the most of it and try and find the Black Bittern at Cattana - these are smallish, black herons vaguely similar in shape to Night Heron. I have flushed them a couple of times and had poor views as it flew through the forest and vanished into the trees, but I knew that first thing there was a favoured feeding pool close to one of the paths. Off I set taking the camera and crept to the viewing area and sure enough about 30m away there was a Black Bittern hunting frogs, I moved slightly to get a better view and snapped a twig and of course the bird promptly flew off and vanished! Feeling slightly aggrieved I moved more into the open to see if I could see it from a different angle and blow me if there had not been a second one about ten foot away behind one of the trees, obviously I was not prepared as I had bins not camera in hand so (yes you've guessed it) another spot the birdie picture...

and a zoomed in shot

another time I will take my scope and digiscope kit and try and get a shot of it in the trees!
It was nice to wander round that early as many of the birds had not got moved off the temporary pools and so I was able to get some slightly better pictures of a few waders

 Red Kneed Dotterel

 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Red Kneed Dotterel and Black Fronted Dotterel

Red Kneed Dotterel and two Black Fronted Dotterel

On returning home we cleaned the house and then tried to go out swimming, but following an on going disagreement between the boys and Tish as to what was acceptable behaviour when I came out of the servo having filled the car we returned home where they spent the next 45 mins in separate rooms! We got everything ready for our BBQ this afternoon when Alan and Jen came round.
The Barra was great!! Cooked slowely over the braai with butter, garlic and limes and herbs straight from the garden. Jen had cooked pudding, sort of apple version of milktart absolutely yummy!
With many grumpy looks from the children we got them showered and into bed by 8pm and then chatted for a further couple of hours, we had moved inside by this stage as everyone was being eaten alive, before Alan remembered he was off fishing at 4am so decided to head off!

Manic week for Tish as she is on four nights, so I shall go for a walk in the forest on Tuesday before the car goes into the servo on Wednesday to get the transmission fixed, hopefully under warrantee still!

Barron River

Today was Xanthe first art class - she is on a six week sculpture class based at the Community Hall in Kuranda. The classes run between 11 -1230 so once we had dropped her off I took the boys to Barron Gorge National Park where they can have a run around and I can do a bit of birding whilst we wait.
The National Park is at the top of the Kuranda Range and as such was noticeably cooler than the lowlands.
The views from Wrights Lookout was spectacular

until these two muppets came along....

They had a great time, playing huntsmen and terrorising the local Australian Brush Turkeys!
The birding wasn't bad either - I think this will be our regular Saturday spot whilst the course is on.

Other than that it will be a quiet Saturday, Tish is on an early so we shall pick her up and then go for a swim before relaxing in the garden with something long and cold..

The garden bird list has been relatively static for the last couple of weeks, though there has been plenty of interest in it.

Small moon, BIG fish...

It was another warm night last night. It started off crystal clear as you can see from the pixs below

with just a sliver of the moon showing.
By the time we woke up this morning it was a slightly different story as it was lashing with rain and very overcast.
Our school run was interrupted by Alan who bought round his mornings catch to show us...

He caught this barramundi up one of the creeks close to the Boat Club.
Cameron was not completely sure about it which given its size is no surprise

Not much smaller than Cameron and certainly weighed about the same!
Alan is going to bring some fillets round when they come for a BBQ on Sunday!

Cartoons and caterpillars

Tish and I popped round to Alan's briefly this morning so I could take a couple of photos of this rather spectacular beast..

this is the caterpillar of the Cairns Birdwing Butterfly

He was incredibly soft to touch, very velvety!


The rest of the afternoon was spent trying to edit some of Xanthe's cartoons into a short movie. Some are slightly out of focus and the timings are bit suspect but as I had to paste them into powerpoint  then rehearse timings before saving as a media file there is not much I can do I'm afraid.
Anyway here is the link.
http://youtu.be/Th6VHl8RK88

I also found this webpage that may be of interest to show you a little bit more about where we live
http://www.yorkeysknob.com/

Our tale of car woes continues - the aircon has broken now!!!!

Rollerblades

This afternoon after work Tish took Xanthe out to her birthday party.
Xanthe had decided she wanted to go rollerblading so Tish took Xanthe and two of her school friends along to Cairns Recreation Centre for a couple of hours.
I am pleased to say that they all came back in one piece with nothing worse than tired legs to show for it

The boys stayed at home with me. My task for the afternoon was making "The Castle" again which was another hours task despite taking more and better pictures of it.

There are beasts in that there forest...

Today in between preparing for a job interview on Monday and writing a couple of job applications I went for a walk round Cattana Wetlands.
I was only out for an hour or so and spent most of the time on the boardwalk through the rainforest section hoping to see the Fairy Gerygone and get a decent picture. I failed completely and got only brief views of what were probably a couple of Gerygone as they flew off.
As is always the case though there was plenty to see with good numbers and variety of butterflies including several male Ulysses Swallowtails but as the forest was dark and they were very fast moving I got nothing other than out of focus blurs.
I was in the process of walking back when I heard something large moving through the undergrowth and stood still to see what emerged. I was treated to superb views of this Lace Monitor hugging a tre and pretending it was not there..

It did eventually realise that it had not fooled me and moved off into the forest