February 2014

Today my family and I woke up bright and early to catch a very nice flight on Qantas Airways from Cairns to Ayers Rock. Since we had a spacious plane and it is a very unpopular route, the flight was very relaxed, I got an entire row all to myself, and they even served breakfast on board--a total surprise!

Here is the odd desert landscape of central Australia with salt lakes and various rock formations, viewed from the plane:

As we were approaching our destination, we had our first look at the purely majestic Ayers Rock:

As soon as we got out of the airport, we were expecting it to be pleasantly hot and to have great views of the rock. Well, we did (it turned out to actually be 90 degrees outside, an 80 degree temperature difference from our home near Chicago back in the US and the hottest day on our travels so far). But the thing is, we had one very, very unpleasant surprise. THE BUGS. Those gosh darn little flees are EVERYWHERE, and there are simply multitudes of them! Fifty of them immediately swarm your face as soon as you step outside. It is truly agonizing and maddening, and the pesky little buggers added a strong negative tint to our family's usually positive attitude.

Our first stop was at the Uluru Cultural Center. Uluru is the aboriginal name for Ayers Rock, and the rock is very sacred to the aboriginals. The cultural center had a beautiful display of aboriginal art and played a meaningful video of how much the rock was revered by the aboriginals. It provided them with a beautiful home and a religious way of life. Throughout the entire video, seeing that the aboriginals' traditional clothing is very...er...scant, I was wondering how they fought off all of the flies.

Sadly, taking photographs of the art in the cultural center was not allowed.

Here is a photo of Ayers Rock from the cultural center:

I saw this YELLOW-THROATED MINER there:

And also this CRESTED PIGEON:

Our second stop was to buy veils to put around our heads and faces in order to protect us from the bugs. They worked very well, but the bugs were still extremely irritating on our arms and legs.

Our third stop was at a hike to a billabong (water hole) at the base of Ayers Rock. I saw this ZEBRA FINCH along the way:

As well as this PIED BUTCHERBIRD, which looks like a mini Australian Magpie:

Here is the view of the billabong at the end of the trail just in front of Ayers Rock:

After we checked in to our hotel, I snapped a shot of this fledgling WILLIE WAGTAIL from our hotel window. It put on quite a show, begging for food from the adult.

The rest of the day was spent swimming [mostly underwater] in the hotel pool and having a good pizza dinner. My mom and dad went out to see the rock at sunset, which apparently was stunning, but I stayed back at the hotel to put my little sister, Pearl, to bed.

Bird-of-the-day to the Yellow-throated Miner.

Stay tuned for an interesting post tomorrow to see how my full day in the Land of Bugs will pan out.

Good birding,

Henry
World Life List: 607 Species (7 life birds today)

Today was my last full day in the Cairns region of tropical northeast Australia. My family and I took a full-day driving tour of Daintree National Park, a world heritage sight because some of the rainforest in the park is reported to be the oldest living rainforest in the world, with a pleasant mixture of "modern" rainforest plants and plants that were around before the dinosaurs.

With such a thick, beautiful rainforest, I was sure that I would see some amazing birds. And did I? Not really. That's why I named this post "Un-birding." My target species were Southern Cossawary, a large, flightless bird that looks like an Emu, Victoria's Riflebird, an elegant species of bird-of-paradise, and Buff-breasted Paradise-kingfisher, a beautiful kingfisher with extremely long tail feathers. I didn't see or even hear any of these species. The best birds I got were Metallic Starlings, Australia's only native starling, and a dopey chicken-like bird called an Orange-footed Scrubfowl. Despite being in the rainforest for over six hours and looking in vain for those species; nada. Nothing. No even half-decent birds.

Here area a few photos from the day:

BAR-SHOULDERED DOVE:

SULPHUR-CRESTED COCKATOO (nice hairdo dude):

An interesting buggy thing:

METALLIC STARLINGS:

SATIN BOWERBIRD:

ORANGE-FOOTED SCRUBFOWL (this photo should get the crappiest-bird-photo-in-the-world award):

I am rather grumpy now, so there wild be no bird-of-the-day awards today. Hopefully tomorrow will be more interesting because we fly to Ayers Rock in the center of the continent.

Henry
World Life List: 600 Species (4 life birds today)
Hey, at least my life list reached six hundred today. I am ever closer to my goal of seven hundred avian species by the time we arrive back home from Europe in mid May.

Greetings and salutations blog watchers,

Today my family and I took a pelagic tour of the Great Barrier Reef. We woke up bright and early and drove the forty-five minute drive to Port Douglas, where we boarded our ship for the day. It was a nice, two-story yacht that was very well laid-out; we had room to spare.

Sadly, since our family didn't purchase waterproof cameras today, I didn't manage to photograph any of the stunning underwater scenes we encountered.

I found this WELCOME SWALLOW shortly before we embarked upon our one-and-a-half-hour journey to our first stop on the Great Barrier Reef:

The first thing I noticed when we stopped is how shallow the water was and how far the shallowness of the water extended in a roughly straight line parallel to the faint coastline of Australia we could barely make out. Of course, this shallowness we were seeing was the majestic Great Barrier Reef, extending for miles (or, kilometers, here in Australia), beyond our boat.

My mom and I were snorkel buddies throughout the day and our first snorkel at the first stop was absolutely stunning. The vibrant colors of the fish and the coral, combined with the intricate, submerged topography of the reef made it look like we were peering to a different world. And, in a sense, we were. My favorite part about snorkeling was diving down under water, around the coral, and just listening to the pure silence of the underwater world. I later learned that some faint crackling noises that I heard when I was underwater were actually fish chewing on their food...amazing!

After snorkeling for a good long time, maybe forty-five minutes or and hour or so, we swam back to the boat for the ten minute ride to our next stop. It was then when I noticed that some BROWN BOOBIES as well as COMMON and BLACK NODDIES were perched on a nearby walk:

When we arrived at our next stop, the staff was just then serving lunch, so my family and I ate lunch while everyone was out snorkeling, so we didn't have to wait in any extremely long lines.

Of course, we ate quickly so we still had ample time to snorkel and swim at the second stop. This stop was even more magnificent than the first one, with such a wonderful diversity of marine life, especially the large schools of fish that roamed around as well as the tiny ones that you almost had to almost squint to see. I saw fish of every color of the rainbow, from ones that were various shades of pink to a certain small fish that was orange and blue. The first highlight of that stop was swimming through an underwater archway of coral, which was a truly unique experience. Then, my mom and I immediately found a Giant Oyster; it was nearly the size of a fawn deer! The third and final highlight of that stop was having a six-foot shark swim about twenty feet under my mom and I, which was more intriguing than ominous, contrary to what you would imagine.

The third stop was at about two in the afternoon. It was called Castle Rock, a coral reef elevated upon stark cliffs over a hundred feet in places over the surrounding ocean floor. The drop-offs under the amazing reef were quite a sight to see. At one point there were submerged pinnacles just outside of the Castle Rock that you could swim between, which was my favorite snorkel spot of the day. There are some parts of the Earth that are just stunningly beautiful, and this place was definitely one of them. I was so moved by the last spot that I took my dad to it, also, and he was equally wowed.

The rest of the day was for the most part uneventful. The Great Barrier Reef belongs among the most beautiful places I have ever been to: Yosemite National Park in spring, Idaho's Sawtooth Mountains in summer, the Grand Teton Range any time of year, Volcan Baru in Panama, New Zealand's Mt. Cook National Park, Milford Sound in New Zealand, and now the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Since it is a challenging task to persuade me to believe that anything is more beautiful than snowy mountains, this tour of Great Barrier Reef was truly a life-changing experience. Bird-of-the-day to the lifer BROWN BOOBIES.

Stay tuned because tomorrow I will head with my family to Daintree Rainforest to look for the rare Victoria's Riflebird, a beautiful species of bird-of-paradise.

Good birding,

Henry
World Life List: 596 Species (6 new life birds today)

This is the combined post for yesterday and today.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24:

Yesterday my family and I flew on JetStar Airlines from Adelaide to Cairns. Cairns is on the northern part of the eastern coast of Australia in the tropics. Daily temperatures regularly soar into the 80s and 90s and the humidity is rather intense.

Our motel is very comfortable with nice air conditioning and a heated pool, along with extremely close proximity to the beach. Sadly, swimming at the beach isn't really an option because of an apparent wealth of jellyfish along the coastline here. In Australia, jellyfish are called marine stingers.

The afternoon and evening was pretty uneventful except for in the early nighttime when my mom and dad informed me after arriving from their walk that there were weird stilt-like birds on the beach. Of course, I HAD to go out there, and I found the birds--the uncommon BEACH STONE-CURLEWS. They were life birds for me!

BEACH STONE-CURLEW:

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25:

I spent today lounging around in the pool for the majority of the day, with schooling, birding, and eating mixed in as well.

I went on a birding spree in the late afternoon. I saw a few species, including the following:

PIED IMPERIAL-PIGEON:

BRIDLED TERN:

OSPREY:

WHITE-BELLIED SEA-EAGLE (this bird was far off so the photo wasn't too good of quality):

It was an enjoyable day.

Stay tuned, because tomorrow I will snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef and hopefully do some pelagic birding from the boat, and the next day I will visit the Daintree Rainforest where I can see the Victoria's Riflebird, a species of bird-of-paradise.

Good birding,

Henry
World Life List: 591 Species (5 new life birds in Cairns)

This is the combined post for the last three days. Enjoy!

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21

This day was the travel day from Melbourne to Kangaroo Island. Our family rode a bus to the Melbourne Telamarine Airport and then flew a pleasant flight on JetStar Airlines to Adelaide.

Then, we drove from Adelaide to Cape Jervis. The first excitement of the car ride was seeing a huge herd of EASTERN GREY KANGAROOS (Mainland Subspecies). We stopped and I managed to snap this photo:

They were the first kangaroos we saw in Australia!

Our next stop was at a playground for lunch, and I managed to fit in some birding while my sister frolicked about. I saw the following species there:

LITTLE WATTLEBIRD:

RED WATTLEBIRD:

YELLOW-TAILED BLACK-COCKATOO:

RAINBOW LORIKEET:

After a bit more driving, my family and I took the ferry from Cape Jervis to Kangaroo Island. While on board the ferry, I kept my eyes peeled for skuas, but it was to no avail.

When we arrived at our house on Kangaroo Island, I immediately found this cute Tammar Wallaby in our front yard:

More birding in the evening near our house yielded the following species:

Male SUPERB FAIRY-WREN:

RED-BILLED FINCH:

GALAH:

I also saw four endangered GLOSSY BLACK-COCKATOOS, but the light wasn't good so I didn't manage to capture any decent photos of them.

By the end of the day, I had seen thirty Eastern Grey Kangaroos as well as one Tammar Wallaby.

The bird-of-the-day award will be shared by the two black cockatoo species seen: Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo which is only a slightly uncommon species but I have never photographed it before, and Glossy Black-cockatoo, which is an endangered species but didn't allow for photographs.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22

Yesterday was our full day on Kangaroo Island.

The day started off by seeing more Tammar Wallabies in our yard:

Then we started our driving tour of the island. The overall description of the tour was extremely long and rather boring with a few moments of beauty and interest here and there.

The first birding stop was at a marsh along a dirt road on which we were driving. I saw many species, including the following:

GREY TEAL and AUSTRALIAN SHELDUCK:

PECTORAL SANDPIPER:

YELLOW-BILLED SPOONBILL:

Juvenile BLACK-WINGED STILT:

Our next stop was at Hansen Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. The first notable animal seen there was this CAPE BARREN GOOSE, an endangered species:

Then, we saw three Eastern Grey Kangaroos (Kangaroo Island Subspecies), including these two:

Also this gorgeous male SCARLET ROBIN:

The main gaol of visiting this preserve, however, was taking a small hike around the grounds to see the many Koalas that reside there. We saw a whopping seventeen of them in total, including this especially obliging one, which allowed us to admire it from a mere three feet away:

Then I saw this RAINBOW LORIKEET:

As well as this beautiful male CRIMSON ROSELLA:

And this RED WATTLEBIRD:

The next stop was at the magnificent Admirals Arch by the sea:

A colony of Australian Fur Seals and Australian Sea Lions resides there. I snapped a photo of this sea lion:

I also saw this ARCTIC SKUA (I'm not sure what an Arctic bird is doing in Australia, but, OK):

As well as this PACIFIC GULL:

The AUSTRALIAN RAVEN like the one pictured below was a common species throughout the day:

Next, we stopped at a place called Remarkable Rocks. They are indeed truly remarkable:

My sister and I enjoyed climbing on and around them.

On the way back, I photographed this magnificent male ROSE ROBIN:

Our last stop was at Cape Borda, where we were supposed to see whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions, as well as sea eagles. Of course we saw none of those except for two far-off Australian Fur Seals. Here is the outstanding view from the cape:

I did, however, see this Echidna, which was the "find of the day" in my dad's words:

Did you know that during the breeding season, Echidnas form "Echidna Trains" where a female Echidna walks around and up to ten males follow her in a perfect single-file line?! Echidnas in Australia fill the niche that porcupines satisfy in North America. They look just like a porcupine, also!

By the end of the day, we had seen these classic Australian mammals:

35 Eastern Grey Kangaroos (Kangaroo Island Subspecies)
17 Koalas
14 Tammar Wallabies
1 Echidna

Bird-of-the-day to the obliging yet endangered Cape Barren Goose. Runner-up to the two beautiful robin species seen today: Scarlet Robin and Rose Robin, and also to the Yellow-billed Spoonbills; it was a very nice surprise to see them as well.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23

Today was our travel day from Kangaroo Island to Adelaide.

The first bird of the day was a complete surprise; it was a few endangered GLOSSY BLACK-COCKATOOS which flew into the tree just next to our house right after breakfast!

Here is a picture of one:

After spending a refreshingly lazy morning in our house, we packed up and started our second and smaller driving tour of Kangaroo Island in the late morning.

Our first stop was in the village of American River to look for more Glossy Black-cockatoos. Sadly, we didn't find any, although there is always a nice consolation prize in birding if you don't find your target bird. In this case, our consolation prize where a few pretty GALAHS like the one pictured below:

The next stop was for lunch at a wetlands preserve called Duck Lagoon. I saw quite an assortment of waterbirds, including the following:

PACIFIC BLACK DUCK:

Male CHESTNUT TEAL:

HOARY-HEADED GREBES:

AUSTRALIAN WHITE and STRAW-NECKED IBIS:

Male BLUE-BILLED DUCK:

BLACK SWAN and GREY TEAL:

AUSTRALASIAN GREBES, female BLUE-BILLED DUCK, and EURASIAN COOT:

I also saw a few passerines, including this BROWN SONGLARK:

After a nice ferry ride across to mainland Australia, my family and I drove back to Adelaide. We only had one stop along the way, and it was an unplanned one. At the SAME place we saw kangaroos on the drive to the Kangaroo Island Ferry a few days ago, we saw more there today! Here is a photo of one:

The remainder of the day was spent resting in the pleasant city of Adelaide.

Bird-of-the-day to the first bird seen today in early morning, the endangered GLOSSY BLACK-COCKATOOS in the tree just beside our rental house!

Stay tuned, because tomorrow we travel to Cairns, a city on the eastern coast of Australia. Some highlights there will be snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef as well as birding in the Daintree Rainforest, where you can see rare birds-of-paradise!

Good birding,

Henry
World Life List: 586 Species (22 new life birds on Kangaroo Island)