St Lawrence Wetlands

You could drive through the wetlands on a causeway, which was alarming at times as it was covered in water. Across the other side were trees lining the road and I spotted a pair of Channel-billed Cuckoo sitting quietly. I love this enormous cuckoo, the hornbills of Australia.

Being such large cuckoos they target the nests of larger birds like the Australian Magpies, Pied Currawongs and members of the Crow Family like ravens and crows.

Channel-billed Cuckoo (Scythrops novaehollandiae) 

Wallabies and kangaroo were present all through this area, usually gathered in families centred around the female with very young and older juveniles hanging around. The big males were often alone and no wonder. They are so big that they are quite scary!

Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus)

At the wetlands themselves, there were plenty of small birds flitting about and I sat for a while trying to keep track of them and possibly get some shots off. It is always lovely when I am travelling as visiting new areas brings new species of birds and this was no exception. The plaintive call of the Little Grassbird was a suitable background for the lovely lilt of the Singing Bushlark. 

Little Grassbird (Megalurus gramineus) 

There were plenty of fairywren around the area. I could hear them calling to each other in the long grass. According to eBird, there were several species seen here: Purple-backed, Superb, White-winged and Red-backed. I only saw a few groups of the Red-backed and it was that time of year when the juveniles were moulting into their adult colours. This is a young male just turning.

Red-backed Fairywren (Malurus melanocephalus) 

Back at the campsite at dusk, hundreds of Rainbow Lorikeet came in to roost and the doves and pigeons scoured the ground for a last meal. I was really pleased to see the southern species of the Squatter Pigeon that has much less colouring on the face to the more common northern species found in Far North Queensland.

Squatter Pigeon (Geophaps scripta)