We celebrate with Cairns, we know not what, this weekend.  Yesterday morning we walked to the Esplanade stopping for most every bird to identify it as a new one for us.  Was a kilometer to the beach.  There we were greeted by a great mud flat at low tide.  There we found north Asian migrants already arrived, both birds and primates.  Rainbow lorrekeets cackled in the trees along the Esplanade, a walkway and park that extends along the shoreline in this tourist town.  

In the afternoon we came back for the parade, but I wandered back to the water where I found an Aussie birder.  He told me the council had considered dredging the mud and creating a sand beach there.  They wanted to remove an International Natural Resource because the mud was muddy.  I watched with him a flock of Sharp-tailed Sandpipers.  These come from Siberia.  Rarely one reaches North America, usually along the west coast.  I had never seen one before yesterday.  

An hour later these birds left suddenly as the fireworks display began.  I had observed the two boats in the harbour with warning signs on them.  So, after the parade we had seats reserved and enjoyed the great show.  The firing was clearly programmed and automatic.   In the end the operators hosed down the fire that remained.  We walked back to our lodgings.  

This morning we walked to the harbor for a Sunday breakfast and visited the aquarium.  Tomorrow we will visit the botanical gardens.  On Tuesday we go to Papua New Guiana.