Note that my desert-trip post for September 28 is now published – The Red Centre – West MacDonnell National Park: Ormiston Gorge, Ormiston Pound, Serpentine Gorge. This post may have more photographs than any other post I’ve published.
Palms along Ross River, Townsville, Queensland (© Magi Nams)
At dawn, the stuttering ‘p-p-p-wee, p-wee’ call of a white-gaped honeyeater contrasting with the graceful cooing of a peaceful dove had me envisioning an awkward young man sputtering in the presence of his favourite girl. Koels and rainbow lorikeets added their voices to the chorus, and as I cycled the Ross River Parkway, more and more birds chipped in with their species-specific renditions of territorial defence and mating desire. Laughing kookaburras cackled madly in the distance, brown honeyeaters belted out ringing tones so much ‘bigger’ than their body size, and a brush cuckoo hidden in a gum tree cautioned endlessly with descending vocal ladders of ‘fear-fear-fear-fear.’
A refreshing breeze nudged the surface of the river beneath curdled clouds. Pacific black ducks maneuvered among lily pads near shore, while a comb-crested jacana busily hunted breakfast on the same ruffled platters of green. One little pied cormorant dove among the lilies while another on a shoreline tree hung wings out to dry, and a family of magpie geese sailed across the water in a straight line coordinated by much nasal discusssion among its members. Beside Palmetum Park, blue-winged kookaburras barked and brayed cacophonously, their beaks raised to the sky, their voices rending the parkway air and spilling out across the river. Torresian crows muttered ‘Ah!‘ in paperbarks with tattered, beige bark, an Australian brush-turkey scratched litter beneath the spreading boughs of a rain tree, and an Australian pelican flushed from the river surface, its long, black-and-white wings flapping heavily past a stand of slim-boled palms, some of them fruiting.
Female Blue-winged Kookaburra Vocalizing (© Vilis Nams)
I rode fast, revelling in the cool air laden with song and racket and flapping wings. It was the gift of the river.
Today’s birds: white-gaped honeyeater, peaceful doves, koels, rainbow lorikeets, mynas, magpie-larks, Australian magpies, house sparrow, figbirds, laughing kookaburra, brown honeyeaters, Australian white ibises, welcome swallows, yellow honeyeaters, spangled drongos, brush cuckoo, rainbow bee-eaters, blue-faced honeyeaters, masked lapwings, Torresian crows, black kite, anhingas, great bowerbird, magpie geese, little pied cormorants, comb-crested jacanas, blue-winged kookaburras, scaly-breasted lorikeets, Pacific black ducks, intermediate egret, helmeted friarbird, varied triller, white-throated honeyeater, mistletoebird, galahs, Australian pelican, Australian brush-turkey.
