Feb 18 2012 Hello from Coquette Point, Many years ago, around 1976, I decided to complete an inventory of the mangrove species along the foreshore of Coquette Point. One day struggling through the mangroves with my little notebook I tripped over a piece of steel. When I examined it to my amazement I found it was the fluke of a large anchor. Only the discovery of an anchor would persuade my husband Bill to enter the mangroves and he soon confirmed my theory. Before the tide covered the anchor we dug most of it out and were excited to see that it was a complete anchor. The next day we put a chain on it and with the aid of a bulldozer we dragged it out of the mangroves and up onto the lawn. |
_Hi all, This week Ian Penberthy has gone to that great ‘recycle bin’ in the sky. Ian died in his beloved Innisfail of a heart attack on Wednesday. Ian’s life was a celebration of the natural world. He is best known for his Camel Tours, particularly with Sinai Guides, however his work with MATE, Man and the Environment, best explains Ian’s philosophy in life. Thank you Ian you were an example to all of us on how we can live a simple life and be content. Cloud cover this afternoon brought a welcome relief to the oppressive heat. January without rain is certainly unusual and even more remarkable is the twinkling, turquoise Johnstone River and clear blue sky. The river at the mouth is thick with bait-fish and I found this small sting-ray swimming in the shallows off my beach, easy to see in the glass-clear water. Hello and Happy New Year from Coquette Point, This week I closed my Garden Centre in Innisfail and am now operating solely from the nursery at Coquette Point. I followed the old adage ‘If you are not enjoying what you are doing then stop’. It is interesting times for the Coquette Point cassowaries. On Tuesday it was a thrill to see ‘Dad 4’ again, first time since August 8. Unfortunately he did not have chicks with him. 'Dad 2' and his chicks A big new-year’s-hello from Coquette Point, It’s that time of the year for some retrospection and in so doing I would like to congratulate the National Parks Rangers and all at DERM, including the pollies, for their response to the critical plight of the endangered populations of Cassowaries and Mahogany Gliders: these creatures lost their habitat and food supply from the damage done to the forest by cyclone ‘Yasi’. The work of the rangers would not have been possible without the dedicated support of volunteers who chopped over three ton of fruit per week and also helped in so many other ways to ensure the supplementary feeding programmes were successful. A Merry hello from sunny Coquette Point, How lucky we are to have perfect conditions for a tropical Christmas this year. However Darwin may not be so lucky! I received news from friends at El Arish this week, they received a wonderful Christmas surprise on December 19. The resident male cassowary which has been managing without official supplementary feed since cyclone ‘Yasi’ brought in three tiny chicks to show off. The event was reported to the Cassowary sighting web-site and within two days an official food station was established for them. I received a report today that Dad and chicks were fine and Dad was seen scratching the ground and unearthing insects and worms which the chicks were gobbling up. Hi from the rain soaked Johnstone River, The rain fell on Friday and overnight the Johnstone River turned from blue to brown. However, it was a welcome relief from the oppressive heat we have experienced over the last couple of weeks: in the nursery the temperature fell from 36 to 25 degrees. The wet season has well and truly started with the monsoon trough dotted in on the weather chart across the Torres Strait: it is expected to drop down over the gulf this coming week. The fresh, sweet grass shoots brought the wallabies out of their day-time seclusion to browse in the open. The mosquitoes are out in force and to walk anywhere you need to ‘ slip and slop’. Coquette Point is mosquito heaven. I find light coloured clothes are less likely to attract mosquitoes. Certainly red, black and blue are attractant colours. Light cotton clothes breathe rather than synthetic fabric which induces sweating and of course wearing a hat at all times is necessary to protect the eyes and the face from the glare of the sun. Ho Ho Ho from the rainforest at Coquette Point, The forest in a spurt of exuberance, no doubt brought on by the deluge it has received this week, has put out the Christmas decorations. The Leichhardt tree, Nauclea orientalis, was the first and it hung gold and white Christmas bubbles, then Brachychiton acerifolius, the flame tree dotted the Moresby Range with red. The brash young Alphitoni petriei, the sarsaparilla tree, not to be outdone, has covered its foliage in snow-white flowers. Yo yall, Cassowaries are really on the move, up here at the Moresby Range National Park (with DERM exempt chicken coop) end of Coquette Point. A coquette is a type of colourful bird I read once, (click on photo for website source) and the word has other meanings of course. I recently bought myself a cheap motion detector camera, commonly used for game spotting. The photo quality is only fair to poor but it works OK in the detection and image capturing area. There is some lag between sensing movement and activating the shutter, so some fast moving animals can be missed. Cassowaries often canter through our property. |
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