Notes from the field: what we saw, where we went, and what surprised us.
Thursday 1 October 2026
Eighty-two species on a day when rain over Cairns sent us north and west into the dry savanna. A Spectacled Flying Fox roost, a singing Mistletoebird, drongos and babblers at Granite Gorge, and a Platypus feeding in the open at Peterson Creek.
Sunday 30 August 2026
A photography-focused day for the Cairns Birders' Festival with photographer Jon Westaway and OM System. Bustards at first light, Brolgas at Lake Mitchell and honeyeaters in the Mount Molloy calliandra.
Thursday 30 July 2026
A photography tour west from Kuranda into the dry country. Australian Bustard through morning mist, a bowerbird at work at Mt Carbine, and more than three thousand frames in five hours. Photographs taken on this tour.
Monday 6 July 2026
A half-day out of Kuranda into the Mareeba savannah country. Australian Bustards in the fog, kingfishers on the Barron River, and Black Kites over Pickford Road.
Sunday 28 June 2026
A wet cruise-ship day chasing mammals: Platypus, Red-legged Pademelon, Green Ringtail Possum and Spectacled Flying Fox, finishing on the Cairns Esplanade.
Monday 1 June 2026
With the wet season behind us, we spent a full winter's day working the eucalypt woodland west of the Wet Tropics, from Wondecla and Springvale across to the crater lakes and the dry country around Mareeba.
Monday 25 May 2026
Our inaugural day tour: 90 species, three bowerbirds before noon, a Platypus and Little Kingfisher simultaneously at Petersen Creek.