• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

My Cairns city block list. (1 Viewer)

chowchilla

Well-known member
Seeing as this wasn't really working as a concept on the 'Garden List' (under 'Birds and Birding') without annoying people, I thought I'd post it here where I can annoy other people instead.;)

For the purposes of this list I have the self-imposed challenge of seeing what birds (and for a future thread, all living things) I see/hear on or from the city block on which I live in the city of Cairns.

My city block is roughly rectangular and is about half a kilometre by three quarters of a kilometre in extent. It contains my apartment, one in a block of nine, and a number of other apartments and houses. It also however contains lowland tropical rainforest, littoral forest, palm and paperbark swamp, grassland, fresh and salt water lakes, intertidal creeks, mangroves and mudflats. Without giving away my precise location, those familiar with Cairns will be able to work out pretty quickly the block on which I live.

The block lies about half a kilometre from the coast and the world famous Cairns Esplanade, and yet despite its proximity, I don't get more than a small fraction of the waders and other shore and pelagic birds one would reasonably expect on the 'Nade'. Nonetheless this city block does contain a terrific mosaic of habitats and does get quite a lot of short stayers, more often birds from the drier interior usually during late winter and early spring, but good stuff can and does turn up any time.

All comments welcome!

EDIT: I should perhaps point out that this is a 2014 list not a lifetime list. ;)
 
Last edited:
Here's my list so far:

Rainbow Lorikeet.
Pied Imperial Pigeon.
Figbird.
Spangled Drongo.
Mistletoebird.
Olive-backed Sunbird.
Common Mynah.
Varied Triller,
Peaceful Dove.
Yellow Honeyeater.
White-breasted Woodswallow.
Yellow Oriole.
Magpie Lark.
Australian Brush Turkey.
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike.
Metallic Starling.
Pacific Baza.
Helmeted Friarbird.
Cicadabird.
Rainbow Bee-eater.
Collared Kingfisher.
Radjah Shelduck.
Brown Honeyeater.
Pacific Black Duck.
Feral Pigeon.
Eastern Great Egret.
Emerald Dove.
Willy Wagtail.
Large-billed Gerygone.
Brown-backed Honeyeater.
Little Egret.
Royal Spoonbill.
Little Black Cormorant.
Welcome Swallow.
Magpie Goose.
Australian White Ibis.
Masked Lapwing.
Dusky Honeyeater.
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
Hardhead - good one this; first on the Lakes for bloody ages.
Darter
House Sparrow.
Spotted Turtle Dove
Orange-footed Scrubfowl
Spice Finch
Rose-crowned Fruit Dove - good to get this one so soon.
Brush Cuckoo
Bar-shouldered Dove.

48 species.

Ridiculously, stupidly, horribly hot at the moment. They claimed it was only 34C yesterday. I'd estimate that on the ground in Cairns it was at least 40c with high humidity making it sweatier than a Turkish sauna.
 
Took another short walk today until I thought I would die of exposure. Managed to add four more species however, now on 52 species:

Laughing Kookaburra.
Striated Heron.
Bush Stone Curlew.
White-throated Honeyeater.
 
I'll need nearly all of them when I get there Chow. Just lock them in please, although we're staying at Port Douglas, so may need a quick ride into town one day!! 8th March we arrive.....
 
No worries Jon, I'll buy some nails and nail as many of them to perches as I can.:t:

Hopefully it'll've cooled down a bit by the time you get here...
 
Been stupidly busy with work of late and it's been stupidly hot, though it is starting to cool down a bit now so managed to add a couple more whilst cycling to work:

Graceful Honeyeater
Fairy Gerygone

Now on 54. I've finally got a few days off now so will get out and try and add more stuff over the next few days without dying of exposure.
 
I'm cautiously optimistic of getting Chestnut-breasted Mannikins this year. I reckon they hang out in the tall grass near where my road crosses Saltwater Creek. I'd have to watch them from across the road though otherwise I'm off limits. Might tick them and Crimsons off in one go as I often see them in mixed flocks hereabouts, but usually further down the track towards Aeroglen which is definitely off limits.
 
Added four more today; now on 58:

Intermediate Egret -the permanently resident bird on the Freshwater Lake went missing for the first week of the year for the first time I can remember!
White-rumped Swiftlet -none, then still none, then hundreds going over at last....
Double-eyed Fig Parrot
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo - no idea how this one has eluded me until now. You can hear them calling from about 2 kms away and they are hardly rare!
 
Been crazy busy with work doing 'double shifts' and now totally buggered.

Nonetheless managed to add (59) Nankeen Night Heron early this morning returning from night shift.
 
Low flying White-bellied Sea Eagle seen from my study a short while ago. Probably just trying to stay aloft in the bad weather!

60 species.

The very wet weather we've been experiencing is hampering efforts to boost my total even with some common stuff that's eluded me so far.
 
Little Bronze Cuckoo on the way through the Lakes on the way to work this avo; rather better was the Yellow-billed Spoonbill that flew over almost at the same time I heard the Cuckoo, in the exact opposite direction from the one I saw a couple of years back at almost the same spot. Very nice!

62 species.
 
Had my first proper day off yesterday since before Christmas and it chucked it down all day. We need the rain but it's seriously cramping my style when it comes to birding...

Had my second proper day off today but had a lot to do so had to shoehorn a visit to the Lakes around visits to the bank, doctors' and PO. On the way back through the Lakes it was very hot and humid and threatening to rain but fortunately it held off whilst I was there. I caught the tide just right for a bird I've been trying to add since the beginning of the year as a Common Sandpiper was bobbing about on the exposed mud of saltwater creek. Another bird I've been trying to add since then also finally gave up the ghost as I heard Lovely Wrens calling from across the creek on the Lakes Resort side. I usually hear, and sometimes see, them on the north side from the track there.

I checked out two known Papuan Frogmouth roosts on the block with no luck; also having no luck (surprisingly, considering the rain) with Rails or Crakes, Kingfishers, BOPs, Herons including Black Bittern, White-faced Heron and that spectacular occasional visitor the Great-billed Heron. Up until late last year I could easily have ticked off Comb-crested Jacana, Grey Teal, Pacific Heron and Little Pied Cormorant due to long stayers of these 'occasional' birds, but they've now all gone.

As well as this, still lots of bread and butter birds missing. A lot of stuff is nesting and is proving tricky so lots of potential species still.

With the addition of the Wren and the Sandpiper: 64 species.
 
Last edited:
We're having pretty wild and windy weather at the mo', being pushed landwards by a mini-cyclone in the Coral Sea. I thought I'd head out on my first day off this week to see if I could tick off some pelagics. Surprisingly I got none and got completely soaked despite my umbrella as the squalls threatened to snatch the umbrella permanently from my grasp.

I had to go to the chemist and as luck would have it, the rain suddenly stopped completely as I walked through the Lakes. Bird activity was sudden and frenetic: first up was a Brahminy Kite quickly followed by a Whimbrel flushed from Saltwater Creek. A solitary Fairy Martin by Saltwater Creek bridge was the third new bird for the year list and there was even a singing Spectacled Monarch in cover at the same spot. My second Rose-crowned Fruit Dove of the year was calling from the forest here as well. Not bad at all!

68 species.
 
I haven't been keeping an official work list but considering the hospital is right by the centre of the city I've not done too badly there for birds this year. In the last couple of weeks alone I've recorded White-throated Needletail, Fork-tailed Swift, Peregrine, Grey Goshawk, Buff-banded Rail, Varied Honeyeater and numerous waders and terns; none of which I've currently had on my city block as yet.

The resident Red-necked Crakes that I used to hear and occasionally see in the courtyard at work seem to have copped it since cats moved in a couple of months back...:-C
 
A dawn visit to the Boardwalk this AM had the express purpose of trying to tick Red-necked Crake which can be pretty reliable along here. No joy alas so instead I enjoyed the company of about a billion mozzies many of which deftly found the gaps in my insect repellant coverage.

Emerging from the boardwalk I headed for more open ground to see what might be going over. I could hardly miss the Channel-billed Cuckoo flying north calling loudly. Great looking (and sounding) bird!

Further on, at the Saltwater Lake I had a duetting pair of Blue-winged Kookaburras. This would have constituted a rarity once upon a time but nowadays is regular at the Lakes. In fact my only half decent pic of one was taken on the wire by this Lake.

As I headed back along past the Freshwater Lake I wandered along the edge of the water channel that borders the swamp forest at this point. I had almost reached the end and was in a bit of a daydream when a movement caught my eye. I was just quick enough to catch the arse end of a Pale-vented Bush Hen (the only view I had of this notorious skulker for years) disappearing into the forest. I watched the spot where it went in and then caught another movement as the bird suddenly appeared again in a gap to the left pausing almost in full view before disappearing once again.

I came for one crake and got another often much trickier one. I hear them occasionally at my place but haven't heard one for a while so I'm really chuffed to get such a good view. I'll get Red-necked Crake eventually; they're common around my place, just not quite yet...

69) Channel-billed Cuckoo.
70) Blue-winged Kookaburra.
71) Pale-vented Bush Hen.

And here are both Kooks for comparison: the former was photographed by Saltwater Lake, the latter down South near the Glasshouse Mountains.
 

Attachments

  • Blue-winged Kookaburra..jpg
    Blue-winged Kookaburra..jpg
    110.6 KB · Views: 86
  • Laughing Kookaburra..jpg
    Laughing Kookaburra..jpg
    129.4 KB · Views: 89
Last edited:
We are having a good rainy season this year evidenced by the fact that we have had almost continuous rain for weeks now, often quite heavy. The fact that it has cleared up a bit as I type this took me by surprise as even the sun has managed to peep out!

Great for the forest; not so conducive to good birding... Nonetheless I headed down to the Freshwater Lake with a brolly. There was so much standing water en route that I practically had to wade across the grass where the forest ends abruptly at the end of Woodward Street.

On arrival I was not too surprised to see the Lake practically devoid of birds. There's so much water about right now, the water birds have dispersed far and yonder. Three Nankeen Night Herons going over however was a nice highlight.

In my haste I had forgotten to put mozzie repellent on and they descended in hoards. Mozzies love me.... I kept moving and used my ears more. The Spectacled Monarch was still calling near the Saltwater Creek bridge as were a pair of Bar-shouldered Doves, and there were some very vocal Lovely Wrens in the mangroves further along. What chance Red-backed Fairy Wrens here? I get them occasionally further north on the grassy slopes of Mt. Whitfield. They may just wander this way from time to time...

The highlight of the morning came next however: as I scanned the southern outlet of Saltwater Creek I heard a loud wheezy chuckle from the mangroves across the river: a White-browed Crake! Common enough in the Cairns region, but this is my first record for the Lakes. They used to be regular here; I hope this one sticks around.

At the end of the path by the Collins Avenue bridge, I finally caught up with not one but several Fork-tailed Swifts, but I scanned for White-throated Needletail in vain. I also came up empty once more at the Papuan Frogmouth roost near here once more. However I did hear Blue-winged Kookaburra once again, this time within a stone's throw of home.

72) White-browed Crake.
73) Fork-tailed Swift.

Still plenty of common stuff missing. Where on earth are all the Straw-necked Ibises?
 
We are having a good rainy season this year evidenced by the fact that we have had almost continuous rain for weeks now, often quite heavy. The fact that it has cleared up a bit as I type this took me by surprise as even the sun has managed to peep out!

Still plenty of common stuff missing. Where on earth are all the Straw-necked Ibises?

Sounds like you're having the same weather as us! Perhapd the Ibises are away on the floods?
 
Sounds like you're having the same weather as us! Perhapd the Ibises are away on the floods?

You may be right. However the Aussie White Ibises are still around in numbers. Hope you get some decent weather when you arrive!

Had Red-tailed Black Cockatoo this morning, or at least I heard them from my study for all of a minute which means they were probably in flight. Sometimes they come into the huge trees around the Botanical Gardens feeding on nuts and presumably fruit.

74 species.
 
I knew if I kept my eye on the swift flocks long enough I'd get White-throated Needletail and so I did and more Fork-tailed Swifts to boot...

75 species.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 9 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top