Tour Part II - Cairns

After the first ten days in a rather hot Darwin we relocated to Cairns where we spent four days. We used this time to visit all the local sites and get the common North Queensland birds "out the way" before heading onto the Tablelands and dry country.
One site that we visited several times was the Esplanade as over summering waders were starting to return
Bar-tailed Godwit

 Black-fronted Dotterel

 Great Knot

 Grey-tailed Tattler

 Greater Sandplover

 Masked Lapwing

 Pied Stilt

 Red-necked Stint

 Red-capped Plover

 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

 Whimbrel

 Terek Sandpiper

In addition to the waders there are always a few terns and herons knocking around

Caspian Tern

 dark morph Eastern Reef Heron

 Gull-billed Tern

 Silver Gull

There are always a few surprises as well

Beach Thick-knee occur occasionally and are always great to see

 Mangrove Robin appear out of the mangroves at the north of the esplanade

 Rufous Owl has been roosting in a large Fig tree at the southern end of the Esplanade for a while now

 One of the highlights when based in Cairns is a trip out to Michaelmas Cay for the seabirds

Brown Booby

 General shot of the colony

 Common or Brown Noddy

 Crested Tern

 Lesser Frigatebird

 Sooty Tern

A few other common Queensland birds
Aus Figbird - male

 Pelican

 Australian White Ibis

 Bar-shouldered Dove

 Darter - male

 Dusky Moorhen

 Grey Goshawk - this is the male from a local pair  that have been nest building in a site I visit regularly

 Intermediate Egret

 Large-billed Gerygone

 Little Egret

 Masked Lapwing

 Mistletoebird

 Nankeen / Rufous Night Heron

 Orange-footed Scrubfowl

 Peaceful Dove

 Royal Spoonbill

 Spangled Drongo

 Spotted Dove

 Striated Heron

 Torresian Crow

 Whistling Kite

 Willie Wagtail