Bittern by a toad...

... just kidding!
Today as Tish was going for coffee with the mum of one of Hamish's friends I nipped out at dawn to Cattana to see if I could get a better shot of the Black Bittern. I crept in all commando style to the area that it has been using for the last four month but nope no sign!
As it was nice and cool I wandered off round the pits to see what was around and hey guess what the bittern was feeding in a new area and flew past me from no more than a couple of foot away but the camera was over my shoulder not in my hands so I missed it. I did manage this slight improvement on my earlier attempts although it is still hardly convincing as a bird I accept.

With the recent rain - we have had two decent storms the last couple of days and more is forecast for the weekend - there are lots of little flooded areas of grassland. These gave me my best opportunity to photograph Red-Kneed Dotterel. Prior to moving to Cairns I had seen just one distantly at Fogg Dam in the NT, here they seem to be a commoner visitor.
Whilst not perfect these are by far the best shots I have

The rains have also bought out some rather cute locals..
Last weekend we had been out with Alan lamping on the local golf course to see what was around, which was a rather depressing experience as we basically saw cane toads and nothing else. These alien pest were introduced to control sugar cane pests but instead have eaten huge quantities of native wildlife.
In the garden today thoough i was delighted to see these little beauties

These are Sand Toads -  a native species that as their name suggests live in sandy areas. This was one of three that watched me hanging out the washing this morning!