I woke up at about 5:45, got ready and then birded Cassowary Lodge and surrounds. At first I didn't see much apart from Australian brush turkeys and orange-billed scrubfowl due to the fact every bird was up in the canopy trying to broadcast its voice over as large an area as it could get. However this all changed at around 8 am when breakfast was served by our great hosts, Sue and Phil. I walked to the breakfast area and immediately was stunned. There, right in front of me, was a lifer, a beautiful male Victoria's riflebird with an entourage of females and immature males following him. Sue invited me up for breakfast, near to the feeders. The birds were amazing. Victoria's riflebirds were jumping forward, almost in reach of my hand, snapping up fruit and cheese. In a small flowering tree behind them a yellow-spotted honeyeater was slowly drinking some nectar. On the ground was a single emerald dove, several musky rat-kangaroos and many Australian brush turkeys. As breakfast went on more birds joined the table: horn-billed friarbirds, and finally several spotted catbirds. The riflebirds and catbirds were species I would have had to go through quite a bit of trouble to see normally, and here they were dancing around in front of my face!
The male Victoria's riflebird perches, waiting for his feed
He nears his breakfast, ready for a bite
He flies straight in and snaps it up hungrily
These cute little musky rat-kangaroos are one of the most primitive marsupials still alive
The female/young male Victoria's riflebird also has her/his own beauty
Normally shy, spotted catbirds will do anything for cheese
A black butcherbird scares some of the smaller birds away as he takes his turn eating
After this Phil recommended walking along Black Mountain Road and along the driveway to us, and we tried this out. At first we saw little but we soon stumbled into a small flock of Macleay's honeyeaters, along with a single little shrike-thrush. On our return I spotted an extremely obliging pale yellow-robin who allowed three photos before flying off. Unfortunately after that it was time to head back to Cairns. I didn't see anything of note in Cairns and will thus end the post here with some pictures of the aforementioned birds.
A shy and rather fast little shrike-thrush was met right outside the driveway
These Macleay's honeyeaters were extremely common on our short walk
Pale yellow-robins look much prettier than their southern cousin to me
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