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| Southern Cassowary |
Following our visit to Cairns (see following post) we headed south to the pretty coastal settlement of Etty Bay, south-east of Innisfail.
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| Southern Cassowary |
Etty Bay is arguably the best place in Australia to see the Southern Cassowary - the avian icon of the wet tropics. We had a cassowary wandering by the roadside as soon as we arrived at Etty Bay.
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| Arrival at Etty Bay |
We saw the birds repeatedly during our two days camped in the caravan park, seeing about half the local population of 10-12 birds.
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| Southern Cassowary checks out the campervan |
Cassowaries wandered freely through the camping ground and along Etty Bay's small street, oblivious to human interlopers other than hoping to be fed. Feeding the cassowaries is discouraged but people were doing it anyway.
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| Southern Cassowary |
The female cassowary appears to be larger with brighter wattles. The birds were mostly singles but occasionally a pair would wander through the camping ground.
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| Cassowary on road |
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| Etty Bay |
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| Blue Ulysses |
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| Shining Starlings |
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| Spectacled Flying-Fox |
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| No stranger to humans |