January 07: Gavin Bieber on his recently completed tour, Australia: Queensland and New South Wales
Our Eastern Australia Tour kicked off with a fantastic week around Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands. This region hosts the highest biological diversity in the country, including a number of the continent’s signature species, and this year we had incredible experiences with many of them. Just a sampling of our favorite sightings included...
a family group of Southern Cassowaries walking around near a stunning white-sand tropical beach...
White-browed Crakes in the open in a small roadside marsh...
Azure Kingfishers sitting along a mangrove laden creek...
Brown Cuckoo-Doves scarfing fruit in the rainforest...
and a pair of Noisy Pittas just a few feet away from our sumptuous breakfast at Kingfisher Park.
Our views of feeding Spangled Drongo...
Squatter Pigeon...
and Laughing Kookaburra in the drier forest to the west of the tablelands were excellent.
As always, tours to Australia are never solely about the birds;and in particular our lengthy views of Platypus near Yungaburra (one of an impressive 25 species of mammals for the tour) were a real highlight for many.
The second week kicked off on the idyllic Lady Elliot Island, on the southern edge of the Great Barrier Reef.
Here we marveled at nesting Black Noddies...
and Red-tailed Tropicbirds just feet from our lenses, as well as a host of other seabirds and a wide array of marine life, including an impressive 9-foot wide stingray.
A stop in at Inskip Point a bit to the south of Lady Elliot revealed some very cooperative Beach Thick-Knees...
a couple of large Lace Monitors...
and a family group of Variegated Fairywren (amazingly the 10th species of these charismatic birds we found over the 2019 tours; a clean sweep of the Australian group).
A little to the south around the famous O’Reilly’s Lodge the birds are almost tame, and forest birds often come to investigate your shoelaces.
Normally shy Eastern Whipbirds...
...and gorgeous Regent and Satin Bowerbirds are common visitors around the lodge, where they look over (or from) your shoulder for any dropped tidbits.
After O’Reilly’s we flew down to Sydney where we spent some time in the stunning and large Royal National Park that lies just a little to the south of the city. This park provided a great and scenic backdrop for our final day and a half, with a family group of Powerful Owls on a day roost
and a nice array of waterbirds including our first Chestnut Teal.
A pelagic trip out of Sydney harbor proved bucolic, with nearly flat seas and great viewing conditions. Hundreds of dolphins danced around the boat at times,
and we enjoyed repeated views of Campbell Albatross and Providence Petrels.
We finished the Eastern Tour with 299 species, and an amazing 451 species for the two tours combined. It is always with a touch of sadness that I board the plane to leave this amazing continent, and I very much look forward to next year’s duo of tours!
Posted: January 07, 2020