Finding Duck-billed Platypus in the Atherton Tablelands.

To see duck-billed platypus was the fulfilment of a lifetimes ambition. When I was a young child I read about and saw t.v. programmes about this mysterious, venemous mammal with a ducks bill, which lays eggs and lives on the other side of the world, way beyond the reach of my travel ambitions. Today I finally managed to see one.

We arrived at Peterson creek near Yungaburra in the Atherton Tablelands at about lunch time. We knew platypus were often seen here because there is a viewpoint,  but invariably all of the sightings are at dawn or dusk. Still, we had to give it a try.

Having no success from the viewpoint we walked along the footpath which follows the creek and saw a decent variety of birds and some water lizards. Suddenly I couldn't believe my eyes, right in front of me the unmistakable shape of a platypus appeared in the water. I beckoned Elaine over and we watched it at close range for a couple of minutes before it disappeared into the vegetation. For a while we could see the vegetation moving, and even caught a glimpse of parts of the animal, but it never showed itself as well again. What an awesome experience though, highlight of the holiday by far for me.

My first sighting of this fantastic animal. I don't know how I supressed a yell of delight when I saw this distinctive shape in the water!

And this is where it lives, Peterson creek.

On the way to Yungaburra we came across this superb spotted harrier.

Mistletoe bird.

Black-faced monarch.

Michaelmas Cay and the Great Barrier Reef

We had an awesome visit to the Great Barrier Reef today. We started at Michaelmas Cay this morning with the large seabird colony, and spent the afternoon snorkeling at Hastings Reef.

Common noddies breed on the Cay in their thousands, along with sooty terns and brown boobies.  There are also black noddies, Greater and lesser frigatebirds,  black-naped terns and crested terns.

We went on this trip with Seastar cruises from Cairns and we chose them specifically because they are one of the very few boats which is allowed to land on Michaelmas Cay. I'm not trying to promote Seastar, except to say that they were very good, and in the end they were the only operator I considered because landing on Michaelmas Cay was the most important part of the day for me. The photos at the bottom of this post of the coral reef and fish were taken by the crew of the boat during our visit. 

Common noddy.

Bridled terns.

Brown booby, common noddies and sooty terns.

Crested tern.

Brown booby

Great frigatebird, female or juvenile.

Male lesser frigatebird. Notice the white armpits.

Crested terns.

Brown boobies and bridled terns.

Common noddy. Notice the grey rather than white cap and brown plumage.

Black noddy (left) and common noddies.

Great frigatebird. The angel of death!

Sooty tern.

Michaelmas Cay! There's not much to these cays, makes me wonder how they can survive the annual cyclones which pass their way! Hard to believe, but these cays are made by and exist purely because of parrotfish. The corals are ground down by the fish and their poo makes these cays!

The following photos were taken by the crew of the boat during our visit.

Beach thick-knee, Cairns

I've been on so many seemingly perfect beaches and not seen them,that I'd given up hope of seeing beach thick-knee this holiday. However a chance remark by a local birder at the esplanade led me to an industrial estate on the outskirts of town where I was made up to find two birds, along with bush thick-knee. With the exception of Cassowary which was always unlikely, beach thick-knee was my number one target species of the holiday.

Now that was worth travelling 10,000 miles for!

Beach thick-knee  with bush thick-knee.

RIP Cairns Esplanade

Apparently the reason why the esplanade is now a poor shadow of its former self is that the local council has been dumping sand on the beach and thus reducing feeding opportunities for waders. Just three waders seen today. Hopeless!

Royal spoonbill

Cairns esplanade

A very disappointing visit to Cairns esplande, it was nowhere near as good as I expected. We were there three hours before high tide and waited as the tide came in, and saw in total little more than 100 birds. Hardly Morecombe bay or the Wash.  Ok there were three or four new species for me, but I would expect that 12,000 miles from home or whatever.

Perhaps my expectations were too high or perhaps we misjudged the tide in some way, but we saw a far bigger variety of waders at Port Douglas at the southern end of Four Mile Beach. It didn't even look great habitat for waders at Cairns, nothing to make me think that we were just unlucky.

However, we did see several of these impressive Australian terns also known as Australian gull-billed tern Gelochelidon macrotarsa. Until recently this was considered a subspecies gull-billed tern.

Black-fronted dotterel.

Great knot

Royal Spoonbill

Australian pelican

Rainbow bee-eater

Varied honeyeater