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The first was a Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta), who had apparently struck nesting gold in the eye of a fig tree near the library. It so excitedly pulled the spider webbing out of the eye that a few times this little honeyeater even got itself tangled.

The second was a dried out Bird’s Nest Fern which contained the nest of a White-breasted Woodswallow (Artamus leucorynchus), the screeching near-fledging chick drew my attention. Here are a couple of shots. After 15 minutes of standing and watching the nest, I noticed a crowd of spectators had swarmed around me.

Some other interesting species seen included a lone female Mistletoebird (Dicaeum hirundinaceum), several Varied Honeyeaters (Lichenostomus versicolor) and three nesting Pied Imperial-Pigeons (Ducula bicolor).

Now today! Today, although scorching hot was much more interesting. Apart from getting some good photos, I managed to see a few species I had never seen before. This is always a thrill, although having only recently moved to Cairns from NSW, it is starting to lose a bit of its magic! The trip today was to Yorkeys Knob Golf Course lagoon.

The best shot of the day must be this one of a female Yellow-bellied Sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis). I spent 15 minutes being baked standing near this shrub trying to get this shot. This little lady was very accepting of my presence.

The best sighting of the day, albeit somewhat expected, was of two pairs of Green Pygmy-geese (Nettapus pulchellus). These birds seemed to like to stay and feed right at the edge of a large mass of green weed that was in the centre of the lagoon, so as the day went on, and the wind pushed the weed closer to the edge, I managed to get some decent shots.

I also managed to get some decent shots of some Welcome Swallows (Hirundo neoxema), a couple of Helmeted Friarbirds (Philemon buceroides), some Rainbow Bee-eaters (Merops ornatus) and a Dusky Honeyeater (Myzomela obscura). I won’t put all these images up of course!

Many, many more photos were taken, including of a fair few more species but these were the most interesting of the lot for me.

While chasing these buggers, I snapped some shots of an as yet unidentified skink and a Rhinoceros Beetle being devoured by some Green Ants.

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The actual point of my expedition yesterday morning was to get some good photos and videos of the local Metallic Starling (Aplonis metallica) colony, which I did, but Youtube seems intent on frustrating me by making the video choppy after processing. So to compensate, here is a short video of an Orange-footed Scrubfowl (Megapodius reinwardt) digging about in the scrub near the beach out at Yorkey’s Knob that I shot yesterday afternoon.

This was the first time I had been to Yorkeys with the specific intent of shooting some birds. The trip was arranged under the guise of visiting friends, but unluckily heavy cloud cover late in the day stopped the trip from reaching its full potential! Here are some of the clean shots I managed to get.

While photographing this little Woodswallow, my girlfriend notified me of the presence of another nest hovering about 50cm above my head. On a limb from the same tree dangling above my head was an Australasian Figbird (Sphecotheres viridis) nest. Both the male and female were incubating at once.
To give you an idea of just how spindly this limb was and how ill-supported the nest seemed, I included a shot taken at a wider angle.

I also got video of both these birds which you can view on my Youtube channel. The link is also on the right hand sidebar.

If you are wondering, the bird in the header is of a nesting White-breasted Woodswallow (Artamus leucorynchus) I photographed a few days ago (03/11) on one of the busiest streets in Cairns.