IN August and September 2011 I went to Cairns with my Dad (pictured, in the top right-hand side photo) to escape the southern winter and also see some birds, which are his big passion. We stopped on the side of a waterway, which was supposed to be a good place to see finches. Sitting by a little creek, which is actually the mighty Wenlock River. On the dry creek bed, loads of flying critters presented themselves, such as the Ulysses butterfly, the Cape York airplane (another kind of butterfly), the dusky honeyeater, and the brown-backed honeyeater. In the thickets, lovely fairy wrens hopped about. I found a large billed gerrygone nest lying on the ground. A brown goshawk surveyed the scene from above. As I sat in the back of the 4WD, it felt like I was watching an old western film, in a cinema on wheels, and all the colours were psyched up. There was a water tank behind the remains of the house, where Chook said finches like to gather. Behind that, a huge wetland opened out, dotted with dunking terns, egrets swallowing fish, and pelicans.
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