New Years Day 2013

After having worked late and arriving home after 1 o'clock in the morning for 2 nights in a row (Ian waited up for me in sympathy), I wasn't going to have another late night on New Year's Eve.  Ian and I went to bed early and woke at 7 - a sleep in for us!

Waking refreshed, we decided to check and see what was happening at Hasties Swamp and anywhere else along the way.

So, up the scenic Kuranda Range we went, looking for Cassowaries along the way (in vain).  The low lying cloud amongst the rain forest trees created an eerie atmosphere.  I suppose the Cassowaries may have been a bit spooked and were hiding.

Then it was on to the Mareeba Saleyards which is usually a hive of activity for all sorts of birds - especially Channel-billed Cuckoos.

Channel-billed Cuckoos are the largest of our parasitic birds.  They migrate to New Guinea and Indonesia for the winter and come to the Mareeba Saleyards in summer to breed (they might go to other places as well).  They mainly use Currawongs, magpies and crows for their host as they are a large bird of 58-65cm.

Channel-billed Cuckoo

This Channel-billed Cuckoo got self concious when he caught me looking at his beak, so he flew away.

Channel-billed Cuckoo

Looking about for more victims for my camera lens, I spotted this mangy looking Sulphur-crested Cockatoo - minus his crest.

He also got self concious



                                                                     and flew away.


The reason there are so many birds at these saleyards is because of the huge and very old Fig Trees which grow there.

The cattle that come to the saleyards to be sold, enjoy the cool shade they provide.

Female Fig-bird

The Fig-birds that come to the saleyards, come there for the Fig Trees.  They love figs.

There is more than enough figs to go around and the Pale-headed Rosellas are taking their share.

Watching all the birds eating figs made us hungry, so we had some too. YUK! We had better go to McDonalds for some people food.

They forgot to put the sausage in Ian's Egg and Sausage burger.  He is used to them getting his order wrong and wouldn't let me take it back.

It was time to go to Hasties Swamp at Atherton.  As I watched the newly ploughed rich red earth of the Atherton Tablelands, I got my hopes up that I would see some Brolgas.

We have had a long dry season this year in the Wet Tropics and Hasties Swamp was transformed to Hasties Paddock with a small puddle.

Intermediate Egret in Breeding Plumage

But the small puddle held a beautiful treasure.

An Egret stood among a group of Glossy Ibis.  His filament-like breeding plumage couldn't fail to impress some luck lady Egret.

Then we got too close and he flew away.










Since the star of Hasties Swamp had flown away, we jumped back in the car and continued on our merry way.

Not long after we were treated to this family of Brolgas feeding in a paddock.  Brolgas eat snails, frogs, small fish, beetles etc and they also eat roots.



Birds that dwell on the waters edge and in wide open spaces have quite a large personal space that they don't like you to intrude into and Brolgas fall into this group so we left them in peace before they flew away.

Next place we dropped into was Lake Barrine which is always a popular place for locals and tourists alike.  It was so popular today that there were no parking places left, so we flew away.

Down the Gillies Range we went to make our circuit home.

"STOP!!!", I cried.

Ian stopped the car.

"Jabiru", I said.

Ian backed the car up to the previous paddock to where there was a stately Black-necked Stork, minding his own business.

We took photos, then I got out of the car to try and get closer.  Although he wasn't alarmed by me, he had his personal space of about 100 meters and as I got closer, he casually moved away so as to keep that distance.

The funny thing was that, as he was keeping his distance from me, he was moving into the territory of the Plovers which breed at this time of the year.  This caused them to turn into  what Ian calls 'Messerschmidts'.






So, I take a step forward and so does the Stork.  In swoops the plover.

The Messerschmidt  gets in closer and closer. . .

Too close for comfort.








The Black-necked Stork flies away with the Messerschmidt in hot pursuit.

 The beginning of a Happy New Bird Year for us and for you too.