Overnight rain on the Sunday bought 7.5mm which did not turn the brown grass green. The rest of the week was mild nights and hot days with lots of sunshine.
The total birds seen was 87 with a further 10 heard, mammals and reptiles was 15.
Birding highlights were actually seeing a (Lesser) Sooty Owl perched high in a rainforest tree behind our unit accommodation, made a change from hearing often and this only the 4th sighting of the year. The Red-necked Crake made an appearance at the Crake Pool just before dark at 6.20pm on one occasion, a pair of Red-winged Parrot turned up in the adjacent Geraghty Park,which is quite unusual, normally they are in the dryer country around Mount Molloy and north towards Mt. Carbine. A Noisy Pitta was drinking early in the morning at the crake pool before hopping up onto a tree stump for great views – where’s the camera when you need it! Pale-vented Bush-hen was heard calling from long grass beside the road when a noisy motorbike and noisy car went past, not seen though (they have been seen along the Daintree River on a couple of occasions from Chris Dahlberg’s boat on early morning birding trips this week). Loud noises also triggered off the Bush-hens to call when we lived in Cairns, usually low flying aircraft. Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfishers are flying around and appear to be taking up last years territories, at least 6 pairs are showing well. The Spotted Catbirds continue to harass the smaller birds and one was seen flying by with an egg in its bill.
The Green Tree Snakes are more active at the moment and showed well for one of our tour groups,
Green Tree Snakethe Platypus in Bushy Creek is still performing and the Boyd’s Forest Dragons are entertaining as they run across the grassy areas on their hind legs. Two sightings of Green Ringtail Possum was welcome as we had not seen them for a few months. One was during the day of a mother and baby and the other was on a spotlighting tour.
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