Hi all,

The clouds dropped down onto the rainforest this week and released their wet load.

The rain fell relentlessly for four days.

The rainforest swelled and new seedlings broke through the damp compost on the forest floor while new fern fronds pushed out from brown baskets. The rainforest woke from its dry sleep.

Ninds Creek filled with muddy brown water and the little holy-leaf mangrove opened its flowers to the cool rain. A taste of the wet season has come in October.

Grevillea baileyana is in flower in the rainforest and frogs are doing what frogs do in the rain. 

Eastern dwarf treefrogs mating while another female looks on.

On Thursday morning two visitors from the west turned up blown in on a storm. They stayed all day enjoying the puddles then disappeared late in the afternoon. I found their footprints leading down  the beach and have not seen them since.

I have never seen Burdekin ducks here before and it was a delight to see them make themselves at home for the day wandering around the nursery finding puddles 

The big wet has prompted the skinks to lay eggs. The little skink I photographed last week, Lampropholis coggeri, laid five eggs in a tray of seedlings on Wednesday. By chance we were potting up the tray at the time and I saw her bent in half and standing up with her little foot clenched as she pushed out the eggs. Unfortunately I had a camera malfunction so I cannot share it with you. Photograph of eggs (right)

The female Indian koel turned up this week and has sent the male into an ecstasy of calling. She must enjoy his serenade as she replies with rolls of chuckling enthusiasm.

Both birds are feasting on the fruits of the macaranga.

The female fig-birds have also turned up and the males will fly onto a branch near a female and chatter away for 10 to 15 minutes at a time.

The cattle egrets have their mating colours and the greater egrets are pairing up and appeared to be dancing on the beach.

The Grey heron has been sitting on the old derrick on the beach and is keeping an eye on Charlene who has been on the beach the last two days.

Charlene is about three metres. Sorry about the photos but my good camera has gone to the camera hospital.

After I signed off last week I heard a funny noise in the kitchen and a small amethystine python was trying to remove its skin on the fly screen. At some stage during the night she was successful as there was a skin on the ground in the morning.

Cheers from the wet rainforest of Coquette Point.

Yvonne C.

Hello from the refreshed rainforest of Coquette Point, 

The Nutmeg Pigeons returned to their nest early this afternoon as the sky darkened and fresh winds blew from storm clouds that cooled the forest. Sheet lightning split the sky and rain fell gently. The  rumble of thunder startled the cassowaries and sent the starlings scurrying for shelter in the safety of a macaranga’s broad leaves.  The first summer-storm was welcome.

Hello from the rainforest of Coquette Point,

The rainforest is waiting for rain. The large leaves on the rainforest trees are folded and bent down in a prayer for rain. The summer storms are near and the trees should not need to wait long. This is the longest dry period we have had for five years.

The pheasant coucals have left their ground nests and have again taken to the trees. Every evening the birds laboriously climb to the very top of the rainforest to roost. In the early hours of the morning you can hear them call from the tree-tops and the long note ‘ooopp’ wakes the forest sleepers.

Hello from Coquette Point,

The female olive backed sunbirds are busy renovating old nest and building new ones. Meanwhile the male birds are preoccupied with territorial displays. One male bird was upset with the side mirrors of Robert’s truck. He got so upset at the reflection that in the end Robert covered his mirrors with a bag.

Hi all,

On Tuesday last week two metallic starlings arrived in the nursery. By Thursday there was a flock of a hundred very hungry birds. It’s so good to see them back. As nature arranges, the macaranga are in fruit and the trees vibrate as the birds feed from  inside the dense foliage. Saturday the metallic starlings were showing signs of courtship. Male song imitating canaries and budgerigars, or at least that what it sounded like to me. The female with head bent tweeting.

Hello from Coquette Point Cassowary Country (3C)! 

Jessie, the matriarch cassowary returned this week.   I photographed her on the 13th of August, as she went off with the male bird.  I have now established it was Dad 4. Dad 4 has not been sighted since that time. On her return Jessie looked very thin and I found her at the Eastern feed station Wednesday morning at 6.30am.  

Hello again from Coquette Point,

The Ospreys have been successful in protesting their nest from the air by day but on Wednesday night the nest came under attack and went crashing to the ground: eggs and all. We think a sand goanna climbed the tree to steal the eggs and in the ensuring battle the nest was destroyed. Dee and John told me that on Thursday the birds cried in alarm all day flying in circles around the nest debris. Since then the female has sat in silent vigil on the tree that once held her nest.

Hello from the very wet Coquette Point,

After a month of sunny days the rain has returned, drizzle morphing into constant light rain for most of today. The trees need the rain and best of all it will stop the fires.  The Cowley fires are well and truly out and the reply to my complaint, via DERM,  was relayed  thus:  “The Defence Department were only burning the melaleuca forest and there were no cassowaries in this forest. However,  there was a lot of debris that needed cleaning up.”  

The large melaleuca forest at Cowley is the main source of food for the spectacled flying fox colony on King Island. After the fire the trees will not flower this year! 

The melaleuca forests at Coquette Point  are home to sugar gliders, striped possums, and a nesting site for nutmeg pigeons sea eagles, osprey and red-necked rails. Whatever wildlife was in the Cowley Beach forest it is not there now as the fire was of very high intensity and burnt for ten days.

(27 August 2011)
Hi All,

All last week a thick smoke haze filled the Johnstone River valley. The Defence Department lands at Cowley Beach are undergoing a ‘controlled burn’. This area at Cowley Beach is a  ‘ hot spot’ for cassowaries. The forests consist of a mosaic of sand dune vegetation, mangroves and melaleuca swamp blending into rainforest, a favoured cassowary habitat.  August is the prime month for cassowary breeding and over the last few weeks most male cassowaries have disappeared  and are believed to be sitting on eggs. If by chance the birds escape the fire certainly the eggs cannot. Insult upon insult; cars, pig cages, dogs, loss of habitat and burning what hope do the cassowaries have?

Hello from the mangrove forest of Coquette Point
                            
After a long battle of wits I caught the pig that was destroying my pandanus. Pigs are out of control at Coquette Point and are causing a great deal of damage to the rainforest of the Moresby Range National Park. Unfortunately it is not easy catching them at times. It has taken me one month to lure this fellow into the cage. I let him feed in the cage for a week before I set it. The bait I am using is coconut palm heart, the white salad meat of the palm, its blood good to eat and the pigs can’t resist it. The most important thing is that the cassowaries don’t eat it and so they are not tempted to come near the cage. Although it is a bit of an effort to cut palm heart, I have a good source and its free. A win-win situation.