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Searching for the Dinosaur Bird

The bird that topped my wishlist for North Queensland (and Australia) is the southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius).

The southern cassowary is a large flightless bird and the second largest bird Down Under only beaten by the emu. It forages on fallen fruit on the rainforest floor. It is a rather docile unless you try to hunt one. The lit lives up to its moniker: Murder Bird!

There are two known instances in which a cassowary has attacked and killed a person. One was a young boy in Australia, who was attempting to hunt a cassowary , the other was a 75-year-old man in Florida (proof that cassowaries don’t make good pets).

How hard can it be to find a large flightless bird in the rainforest? Turns out, pretty hard.

Signs for cassowarys are everywhere in North Queensland. Their images appear on murals, billboards, tour vans, and postcards. But finding one takes sweat (easy in a humid rainforest), perseverance, and patience.

Cassowary skeleton at the Australian Museum.

We first tried for this much sought after bird by walking the boardwalk through Daintree National Park at the Marrjda Botanic Walk. We walked the boardwalk looking and listening for the Dinosaur Bird parting the vegetation with its massive casque or battle helm!

Unfortunately, Bigbird’s angry uncle didn’t show. So we headed out to bird in other parts of the National Park, vowing to return for another try in the afternoon.

A few hours later we returned to the parking lot and as we pulled up, we were told that a Cassowary was on the roadside!

We quickly geared up and sped-walked down the road to where there was a line of people looking down the road. But we could not see the cassowary. We were told the bird had wandered into the forest.

A few seconds later she returned to the grassy roadside. It was a she, in cassowarys, the females are larger and our guide recognized the bird by her casque size and shape. It was cassowary known as “Molly”.

Why couldn’t the cassowary cross the road?

She was trying to cross the road but the mass of people was preventing her from doing so. We all got good looks but “Molly” eventually retreating into the forest to wait it out until the crowds dispersed.

We were lucky enough to not have one cassowary encounter but two.

Our second Cassowary was seen in Mt. Hypipamee National Park, resting just off the trail. This bird was much younger than “Molly”, our guide estimated that this bird was about five years old.

In the young bird’s wandering it headed straight towards me. I stepped aside like a slow motion matador of peace and the bird crossed the path and heard down the bank to the creek.

Corvidsketcher watching a cassowary cross the road.

I watched the cassowary wanted down the hill to the creek where it stood in the cool water and drank. This was a great experience spending some time with the young Murderbird.

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Daintree River Cruise

On day one of my North Queensland birding tour with FNQ Nature Tours I was picked up at my hotel in Cairns at 6:30 AM and met my fellow travelers: three Aussies from Melbourne and two Kiwis and our local guide James.

About forty minutes later we arrived at the banks of the Daintree River.

In case you didn’t know, saltwater crocodiles are the big draw on the Daintree.

While we were sure to see crocodiles, our main focus was on the avian life.

We departed from the dock and headed across the Daintree and went up a creek in search of Australia’s smallest kingfisher, the appropriately named little kingfisher.

On the way there, our guide pointed out a small salty resting on the bank.

A small salty, perhaps a year old.

We peered down every small tributary and every low hanging branch. While everyone had their bins focused on the tributary on the port side, I peered over to the starboard and there it was, perched on a limb over the creek.

A little kingfisher photographed at the Botanical Garden in Cairns.

After getting more looks at the little kingfisher, we headed back to the Daintree to see bigger crocs.

The king of the crocs on this stretch of the river is a large male with three teeth named “Scarface”.

The three-toothed dominant male of the stretch of the river: “Scarface”.

After getting looks at “Scarface”, we headed up another small creek to get a look at a resting female.

Our most interesting sight of the morning, and one our guide had never seen, was an interloping male carrying a bloated feral pig across the Daintree.

Feral pigs, as in parts of the United States, are a major problem in Australia. They eat and destroy crops and destroy native habitats. The open season for hunting pigs is year round. It is assumed this is how a feral pig made it into the river and into the jaws of a hungry male salty.

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Continuous-Line Sketching Part 2

As I headed into the southern hemisphere, I continued on with continuous-line sketching, this time my journals were turned to subjects Down Under.

I found plenty of great subjects in Sydney. Perhaps none better than the curving sails of the Sydney Opera House (featured sketch).

I also sketched one of the most historic buildings in Sydney, the Hyde Park Barracks (1819). This building dates back to the city and countries founding as an English convict colony.

Hyde Park Barracks is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The brick structure was designed by convict-architect Francis Greenway and built between 1811 and 1819. The building’s original use was as a compound to house convicts and now is a wonderful museum revealing the building’s long and colorful history.

I found a bench, opened by panoramic sketchbook, and let my pen do the dancing. It was a wonderful meditation on such a core building in Australia’s history.

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Rambling in the Blue Mountains

I caught the 6:53 train from Sydney Central Station to Katoomba, gateway to the Blue Mountains.

I really didn’t have solid plans, just a day trip with hiking, nature loafing, birding, and sketching. And these could happen in any order.

Central Station is a five minute walk from my digs and it was already buzzing with weekday commuter bustle. I was a little early so I sketched my train at Platform 7.

After a two hour train ride (which I birded along the way) I detrained in Katoomba and walked down the high street toward Echo Point.

This is an extremely popular place to view the vast sweep of the Blue Mountains and the limestone monoliths know as the Three Sisters (certainly the Blue Mountains poster children).

Although it was 9:30, there were a flock of people here already and I felt a tour bus (or three) was about to arrive any minute so I headed out to the trails, a sure fire method for decreasing the masses.

As soon as I was on the trails it seemed I had the National Park to myself. Here I heard the birds and experienced a new fauna and flora. Like what were those plumb greenish looking birds flying across the trail (more about them later).

I headed to an overlook and heard the loud but distinctive calls of the superb lyrebird, the poster bird of the Blue Mountains.

The avian star of the Blue Mountains and a Sir David Attenborough favorite: the superb lyrebird!

I then back tracked and went to another viewpoint of the Three Sisters. I was at the top of the Giant Staircase. It was over 800 steps down to the valley floor. The steep stairway was constructed in 1909, hewn out of sandstone with sections made of metal stairs.

At this point I had to decide if I was going all the way down and hike another two to three hours to Scenic World. This was really a way to avoid the masses. I swear I could hear another tour bus arriving at Echo Point! Why not, I thought as I took my first step.

One of the Three Sisters at the top of the Giant Staircase. I think this is Madge. Only 788 more steps to go.

As I took the first flight of steps I passed a young lass who was butt-scooting down one trend at a time. “You’re brave,” she commented. “Or stupid,” I replied.

I guess I’d soon know the answer if I didn’t roll an ankle or fall to my death before I reached the last step.

This warning is no joke, these steps are step and don’t meet OSHA standards.

I finally made it to the end of the Giant Staircase with my quadriceps and calves burning (They were still burning after three days giving me the gait of a person 25 to 30 years my age!)

I rambled through the forest with the sandstone cliffs rising above through the gum trees.

And those plumb green birds? They were another Attenborough favorite: the satin bowerbird.

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Circular Quay

Circular Quay is the epicenter of Sydney. This is where the First Fleet landed in 1788 and established first settlements at the Rocks.

Today it is a bustling transit hub bringing together trams, trains, and ferries. And bookended by two iconic architectural masterpieces: the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

I first became aware of the quay in Eric Bogle’s antiwar song, “And the Band Plays Waltzing Matilda”. The song is narrated by an Australian man who fights in World War I in the battle of Galipoli, where he loses both legs. Here are a few verses:

And when the ship pulled into Circular Quay
I looked at the place where me legs used to be
And thank Christ there was no one there waiting for me
To grieve and to mourn and to pity 

And the Band played Waltzing Matilda
When they carried us down the gangway
Oh nobody cheered, they just stood there and stared
Then they turned all their faces away

On some days a massive cruise ship is docked in the Quay. On my visit there was a Princess Cruise ship disgorging its many passengers and their equally massive bits of luggage.

I was going to take the ferry to Manly after my Opera House tour. Before the tour, as a light drizzle puddled the pavement (it is winter after all), I sat under an umbrella at a cafe and sipped a cappuccino and started to sketch the view of the Quay before me (featured sketch).

The size of the cruise ship almost blots out the Sidney Harbour Bridge. When you are on the starboard side of the ship while it is at the terminal, the size of the floating city completely blots out the Opera House. I somehow wanted to convene it’s massive, eclipsing size in my sketch.

The view from the stern of the ferry leaving Circular Quay to Manly is hard to beat.
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Megabats of Centennial Park

Sydney is known as the Emerald City because it has so many parks and there is none bigger than Centennial Park (founded in 1888, one hundred years after the First Fleet entered Sydney Harbour.)

This park had been on my birding list for months before my arrival. It is an urban birding Mecca.

While I was birding in the massive park between the Duck Pond and Lachlan Swamp I heard an unworldly racket coming from the gum trees.

I saw what I took to be a large bird flying from one tree to another. I had to get a closer look. Perhaps another lifer!

What I stumbled upon was Centennial Park’s flying-fox colony!

The gum trees were adorned with these mega bats, all making a cacophonous symphony with individuals switching trees and other resting.

This is Sydney’s largest flying fox colony with numbers between 5,000 to 45,000 individuals.

This was another “I’m not in Kansas anymore!” experiences as we only have microbats in the Northern Hemisphere. I figured anything that I saw flying in the Australian skies would be feathered.

The bats that roost in Centennial Park are grey-faced and black flying-foxes.

I pulled out my sketchbook and drew the roosting bats in the gum trees, the result looked like a very odd Christmas tree. My sketching was in the presence of an observant perched kookaburra.

The kookaburra in question.
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Bondi to Coogee

A former parent from Sydney highly recommend the four mile coastside walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee and even with overcast skies, the walk was absolutely stunning. And also very birdy.

A quick sketch of Bondi Beach with its many winter surfers.

I took two buses from my digs in Surry Hills, via Bondi Junction to Bondi Beach. The beach was all Australian but the buildings around it seems more Blackpool or Brighton, showing Australia’s English influence. The windy cold-gray weather even suited the English seaside.

Oceanside swimming at Bondi.

I was starting my coastal walk here and heading south toward Coogee. I had a few birds on my wishlist: Australasian gannet and superb fairywren topped the list.

A post trek map of my journey.

I had the Pacific Ocean on my left as I headed south toward the town on Coogee and I kept one eye out to my left for gannet and looked and listened as I passed vegetation for the fairywren.

I came to a point close to Bondi Beach when I saw the telltale sign of a gannet just off the beach. Lifer!

Now it was time to find the 2021 Australian Bird of the Year, the superb fairywren.

As I walked by every trail side bush, I listened for the tell-tale trill of a fairywren, even though I had never heard one before.

The nice thing about the walk is there are plenty of places to stop and have a cup of joe. I stopped at the cafe at Tamarama Beach and had a cappuccino and sketched the scene over my seaside table.

After finishing my cappuccino, I continued my southward journey towards Coogee. As I neared Waverly Cemetery, the bushes grew denser and more birdy. I heard a high trill nearby and knew there must be fairywrens.

I saw movement in a seaside bush below. With a little patience, a non breeding male with a deep blue tail appeared! I knew that fairywrens forage in family groups. Now with a little more luck a stunning male would appear. So I continued waiting.

A stunning male!

My wait paid off and I had prolonged looks at the vibrant male fairywren. He even perched out on the rock giving me many reason to understand why this was such a beloved Aussie bird!

As I continued south, bordering the cemetery I added grey butcherbird and the amazing yellow-tailed black-cockatoo.

As I neared Coogee, I spotted my first raptor of the trip: a Nankeen kestrel.

On the final third of my journey I added more birds (some lifers) to my list: my fist raptor of the trip, Nankeen kestrel, white-faced heron, another family of fairywrens, a pair of crested pigeons, New Holland honeyeaters, and a foraging gannet in Coogee Bay.

A treat was seeing an Australasian gannet plunge diving into Coogee Bay at the end of my walk!
To celebrate the completion of my walk and the many lifers along the way, I had a schooner of fermented liquid bread at a Coogee pub.
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Sketching a Masterpiece: Sydney Opera House

There is one Sydney building that I wanted to add to my sketchbooks more than any other: Sydney Opera House.

There are few structures in the world that are instantly recognizable whether you’ve seen then in person or not: Stonehenge, Eiffel Tower, Machu Pichu, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pyramids of Giza, the Taj Mahal, and the Sydney Opera House.

One of the best views of the Opera House is from the Harbour itself, in this case aboard the Manly Ferry.

The opera house was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon after a 1955 completion with 233 entries. Utzon’s innovative design was chosen and construction started on March 1, 1959. After many set backs, budget overruns, and redesigns, including the firing of Utzon, the opera house was inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II on October 20, 1973.

After his firing Utzon never returned to Sydney to see his completed masterpiece.

I was captivated by the Opera House and I did a total of six sketches of the masterpiece and with each sketch, I began to understand the structure a little more.

A sketch from the forecourt. Many concerts have been held in the forecourt perhaps none more famous than Crowded House’s last concert on November 24, 1996. The free concert was attended by about 250,000, which was way more than the forecourt could hold.
A look at the tiled sails of the opera house from the inside while on a tour of the building.
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Sydney at First Sketch

On my first morning in Sydney I left my digs in Surry Hills and took the L2 tram line towards Circular Quay.

Circular Quay is a very famous spot in Australian history because it was here that the First Fleet landed with its first batch of convict colonizers in 1788.

Two of Australia’s most famous sites bookend Circular Quay: Sidney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. This is the epicenter of Sydney.

I picked a bench in the shade of the iconic sails of the Opera House and sketched the equally iconic Harbour Bridge.

I then walked around the Opera House wondering how on earth I was going to fit this architectural masterpiece into the pages of my journal. (Maybe I needed a bigger journal!) First I needed to get a further perspective so I headed into the Royal Botanic Gardens, picking up life birds along the way like such iconic Aussie species as sulphur-crested cockatoo and the laughing kookaburra.

It was thrilling to get a first look at a kookaburra!

I found a bench and attempted a first sketch. Capturing the sails was going to be a challenge and I figured I’d needed a few attempts from different perspectives.

In the meantime I continued to bird.

One of those “I’m not in Kansas” moments. These are not escaped cockatoos but wild sulphur-crested cockatoos feeding on seed like pigeons in a park!

I headed out to Mrs. Macquarie’s Point, after picking up more lifers, to get a further perspective of the Opera House and Bridge.

My sketching bench with a view of two of Sydney’s most iconic structures produced the featured sketch.
A self portrait view from the deck of my Surry Hills fifth floor flat looking toward downtown Sydney. A frequent morning visitor to the trees in the foreground and my first Aussie lifer was the beautiful rainbow lorikeet.

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Continuous-Line Sketching Part 1

While on O’ahu I continued with continuous-line sketching.

I had originally wanted to keep a separate journal and only sketch with this freeing technique but I didn’t follow my own challenge and spread continuous-line sketches throughout my three watercolor journals that I brought with me to Hawaii and Australia.

I grew to love this method in proportion to by own leaning curve. I didn’t want to sketch this way on every sketch but sprinkle it about as the subject seems fit.

What I love about this technique is it is a puzzle; figuring out how to get to one part of the sketch to the other. You simply draw your way there, sometimes doubling or tripling back on already existing pen marks. And of course pencils are never allowed for Continuous-Lines Sketches (CLS).

My first CLS was of the famed statue of King Kamehameha in front of the ‘Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu.

While I initially looked at the complex details of the building I let it rip with a single pen line and I liked the results.
The final continuous-line sketch with watercolor washes.

After sketching the palace I caught an Uber up to the Punchbowl Cemetery where the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific is located. The cemetery sits in a volcanic crater and many of the victims of the attack of Pearl Harbor are buried here.

I rendered the monument in a single, unbroken one line and I am pleased with the result.

Is this the most precise and accurate sketch of the monument? No, but is has something more, a feeling of spontaneity.

I had to continuously-line sketch the one view that says “Waikiki” more than all others: Diamond Head from Waikiki Beach.

I walked out to a stone jetty, in front of the lifeguard station and let my pen do the dancing. Instead of attempting to draw every palm leaf on every frond, I look for shapes not details (featured sketch).

A great way to end the day was to sit on my hotel room balcony with an adult beverage and my sketchbook while looking over the “Las Vegas” of Hawaii.

CLS view from my La Croix Hotel balcony.