Cycle Plugin - Issues with IE8

Cycle Plugin - Issues with IE8

I'm using Malsup's wonderful jQuery cycle plugin on a website, utilizing the fade effect.  It works just fine on FF, Safari, and Chrome, but I'm having a hell of a time getting it to work in IE. I have used it before on different sites with no problems, but on this site I have transparent pngs and a background already set in the css.  If you look at the transition, you can see that in IE there's a long pause between subsequent images so you see the plain background for a second or two and when they transition there's an ugly black-ish border showing up.

here's the link: http://responsiblefinancialsolutions.com.au

Here's my code, I've kept is simple:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('.header_rotate').cycle({
        fx: 'fade'
    });
});

Any help would be appreciated.

thanks