Mission Beach
Sunday, October 18, 2009:
We went into town for breakfast. Some Metallic Starlings were flying around. Figbirds were nesting at the restaurant, while a sunbird nested across the street. Several other birds, such as Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo were also seen.
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| Creek Views | |
After breakfast we went to the Lacey Creek State Forest Park. A Noisy Pitta was near the entrance. Walking the trail, we heard a bird call wom....poo, a Wompoo Fruit-Dove. Other new birds in this area were Large-billed Gerygone and Black Butcherbird.
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| Fungi | Water Striders |
A stop near the coast brought a dark-morph Pacific Reef-Heron, while one near mangroves added Mangrove Gerygone. We continued our search for cassowaries. Another flock of birds included a few Fairy Gerygones, but no luck with the cassowaries.
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| Pacific Reef-Heron (dark morph) | |
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| Soaring Birds |
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| Metallic Starling | Agile Wallaby |
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| Black Butcherbird | Fairy Gerygone |
We had a break after lunch. I took Jeri's suggestion and walked down to the point where I found Great Crested Tern. Dave and Sharon found a Whimbrel further on, but I missed it. We eventually found about 6 Crested Terns. Three sulids were further out. One was plunge-diving, but we didn't manage to identify them as to species. I don't think they were gannets.
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| Australasian Figbird |
Later, we walked the Licuala State Forest Track again. Although the forest itself is quite interesting, there were few birds present. All of them were species we'd seen before. After that, we checked some farm fields and a couple of spots along the beach before heading to dinner. Once again, the birds were repeats. One interesting thing was watching the Pied Imperial-Pigeons fly low over the water toward their roost islands.
Trip total—196 species including 185 lifers.
Eco Village Resort, Mission Beach