South Pacific Float - days 4-7 (Sea Day, Townsville, Cairns)

     After leaving Brisbane, the weather has gotten a bit rocky.  The captain steered the ship around a cyclone.  But we ended up missing some of our ports/stops.

    Day 4 - Sea day.  Not much to talk about.

    Day 5 - we were supposed to stop at Townsville, Australia.  But the Port Authority closed the Port to all commercial traffic (including us).  The Townsville local Facebook group said something along the lines of "There will be flooding and strong winds.  The locals know how to behave and hunker down, so we are not worried about them.  Tourists should shelter-in-place and not go adventuring about - you will get yourself trapped - and this is not an 'if' but a certainty.  Please hunker down and stay in your hotel/shelter, and don't put our Emergency Service people in peril because you did something very stupid."
    A big disappointment, but understandable.
    One plus, though.  My team won one of the Trivia Contests (after multiple times coming in 2nd), and I got a prize of a wooden tulip.

    Day 6 - we were supposed to have two full days in Cairns.  We arrived, but the dock was closed (cyclone moving past Cairns and to Townsville), and had not re-opened yet due to winds and swells.  Finally, the weather abated enough that we were able to dock at 6PM.  Jana and I walked for a short bit, and returned after the sunset.

    Day 7 - an exciting day.  First thing in the morning, Jana and I took the bus to the Botanical Gardens (which is really just a natural jungle rainforest, with some maintained paths).  Saw a lot of critters, mostly birds.  Then walked through a park across the street.  After, Jana and I parted ways - she headed back towards city-center to catch a bus back to the ship;  I meandered the 3 miles through a local park corridor through the center of the city, and then along the shoreline, back to the ship (overall, about an 8-hour, 12-mile walk).  Lots of photos.
    Warm day.  Over 90F and infinite humidity.  No real wind/breeze.  A lot of direct sunlight.   
    All-aboard was 5PM, and the ship left port shortly after.

    Australia is now behind us.  Today is a sea-day, as the ship chugs towards Alotau, one the west side of Papua New Guinea.
    Today is also very rough seas. Swells >10feet.  A lot of ill folks.  Fortunately, our room is low, and near the middle of the ship.  And I have pills.  Rumor is that some of this will settle by tonight.

    29 new birds on the 2nd day at Cairns, bringing the Australia count to 80 new species.
    Merlin knows only about 30% of likely species in the region, so good photos have been essential in identifying birds.

    Now, a boatload of photos:

    Cairns in the distance, behind sheets of rain:

    When not much else to do, laps around the lower deck.  3 laps is one mile.  I walked a number of laps.

    A lone sighting on one of the many laps on Cairns Day-1 - a Bridled Tern stopped for a rest:

    In the evening, after we docked, one reasonable photo in the fading light.  A tree full of Torresian Imperial-Pigeons:

    Cairns Day-2
    The morning started wet.  Through the drippy window of the ship, saw a few Welcome Swallows:

    A Double-Eyed Fig Parrot hanging upside-down and squawking, as we walked towards the Botanical Garden, and a second picture, better showing its head colors:

    In the park, noticed a whole lot of crabs, which would quickly burrow if they spotted you.

    So many butterflies.  But with this heat, they never land, and the phone does not focus on them, so very few photos.

    One of the more prevalent birds in Cairns is the Willie Wagtail, with a special side-to-side waggle dance.  A couple of them below:

    The highlight of the day was a Papuan Frogmouth.  A local spotted it (mom in the nest with a chick, which is out of view), and all of the other local birders on the Facebook group were out finding it, and one of them pointed it out to us.  Frogmouths blend in well with their surroundings, and almost never move, so are very hard to find.  This species of frogmouth is large - maybe the size of a crow.  Even at that size, we would never have spotted it without help.  Picture taken from behind, and in front.

    A ground forager - the Orange-Footed Megapode:

    Spangled Drongos:

Walking through the woods:

Pacific Black Ducks crossing the path:

    Australian Darter (type of cormorant):

    A flock of Radjah Shelducks:

    One butterfly I was able to catch.  I think it is a Euploea Core (Common Crow Butterfly).

    At the nearby public park, a Sehun Sunbird hovering below some flowers.  And a picture of it hanging on a branch.  Huge curve to the beak.:

    A Mistletoe Bird:

    Brownback Honeyeater, not to be confused with the Brown Honeyeater:

    

Black-Faced Cuckooshrike:

    Red-Tailed Black Cockatoos.  About turkey-sized.  The tree had more than a dozen of them.

    Rainbow Bee-Eater:

    And then I ran into the bats.  Dozens of trees, each with many hundreds of bats.  Note that the pictures of the two zoomed-out pictures of trees below are different trees.

    Scaly-Breasted Munia - we saw these near Houston, but they are considered to be invasive escapees in Texas.  Here is one in its native area:

    White-Bellied Woodswallows:

    White-Bellied Cuckooshrike:

    Peaceful Dove - a little smaller than a robin.

    Rainbow Lorikeet:

    Pacific Reef-Heron:

    Pied Oystercatchers:

    Varied Honeyeaters:

    A Greater-Crested Tern:

    I ran across a flock of about 50 shore-birds.  I identified three species (there may be more).  The biggest ones are Bar-Tailed Godwits.  Most of the smaller ones are Great Knots.  A few are intermediate-sized with slightly downturned bills, and are Curlew Sandpipers.  Someone I had seen up the path said there were Greenshanks in there, but I could not identify one.  And there may be some other characters.  A handful of the photos as I scanned through the crowd:

    A view of the bay as I headed back towards the ship:

    More after our next stop!