Watching and monitoring ...

Sat waiting without luck for some action at the Azure Kingfisher nest tunnel in the rainforest creek bank today but found something much bigger crunching around in the leaf litter.

Don't see many Lace Monitors near Ingham and certainly nothing near the 1.2-metre size of today's wary big guy. Too wary for me, anyway. Couldn't get close enough for any sort of picture.

So I'll throw in a shot of a smaller monitor I photographed a few weeks back on the other side of the rainforest.

And I'll spare you yet another lovely Red-bellied Black Snake I'd hoped to sneak right up on. Didn't get close enough for the super closeup!

But did manage to tiptoe towards a juvenile Brown Cuckoo-Dove (Macropygia amboinensis). The bird untypically chose a low branch on the edge of the rainforest. Must confess to not having in the past noticed the full attractiveness of the scalloped juvenile plumage.

Less lucky inside the rainforest. Chased in after a Noisy Pitta (Pitta versicolor). And saw at an obscured distance two birds whose paths crossed atop a fallen tree (Pittas often hop along fallen timber). Result? Two gloriously coloured blurs of bluey-greens toned with orangey-reds. In the bin!

Rounded off the increasingly sunny day with a quick loop through Tyto and a brief interlude with a Golden-headed Cisticola (Cisticola exilis).

All the Hardheads, the two Glossy Ibises and many other waterbirds have gone from the main lagoon following the recent run of night showers and rain. Seems the national Little Bittern survey transect I'd notionally mapped out will be more waterlogged than I'd expected.