On the first day of the Cairns Trip the first thing I did was go down to the Cairns Esplanade, seeing as our hotel was right next to it. The Esplanade is a well-known spot for waders in season, but we were mostly there for some other birds common in the area like varied honeyeaters and beach stone-curlews. The Esplanade has been considered the easiest place in Australia to see the varied honeyeater, which I hadn't seen yet. So early in the morning me and my mum walked out.
We were walking along the path when a cacophony of birdcalls drew our attention. We looked in a nearby tree and saw a rare Rufous owl! Many honeyeaters were mobbing the bird and it quickly flew off before we could get a photo. Apparently one of these owls once inhabited the area but left when its main food source, a colony of spectacled flying-foxes, left the area.
A bar-tailed godwit who for some reason didn't want to migrate
We walked down to the mudflats and walked along the path. Immediately we saw many bar-tailed godwits that obviously hadn't bothered to leave on migration. My mum's careful spotting yielded a small striated heron. Just behind that was another great bird, a beach stone-curlew!
A rare beach stone-curlew . . .
And the striated heron that was in front of it
Further on we saw many silver gulls and several Australian pelicans. Just in front of the path was a beautiful dark-form eastern reef egret.
The slaty-grey dark form eastern reef egret
The main reason we went to the Esplanade was to see varied honeyeaters and they didn't disappoint. A particular tree was flowering and attracting many varied honeyeaters, along with a helmeted friarbird and some brown honeyeaters as well.
The varied honeyeaters were easily seen and their calls filled the air
This lone helmeted friarbird was another lifer that visited the tree
Finally brown honeyeaters are common throughout Cairns (this picture was taken at our hotel)
As we walked back we tried for the owl again but instead only saw a white-bellied cuckoo shrike.
White-bellied cuckoo shrikes are also fairly common throughout Cairns
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