Oh how a beautiful day can suddenly turn sour. Yesterday afternoon I was busy picking papaws when I heard the sound of dogs, baying loudly and running, in the melaleuca and mangrove forest meters away from me. Only moments before cassowary chick ‘Don’ was checking out the pawpaw trees and vegetable garden behind me, I looked for him in a panic but could not see him.
Hi all,
Oh how a beautiful day can suddenly turn sour. Yesterday afternoon I was busy picking papaws when I heard the sound of dogs, baying loudly and running, in the melaleuca and mangrove forest meters away from me. Only moments before cassowary chick ‘Don’ was checking out the pawpaw trees and vegetable garden behind me, I looked for him in a panic but could not see him. Hi All, Last night the heavy dew turned to drizzle and continued all day until a welcome storm with lots of thunder cleared the sticky air this afternoon. The frogs are in their element and every drainpipe and toilet bowl is resounding with a chorus of frog-croaks. This morning all the ponds were covered in white frothy frog eggs. You can feel the pulse of the wet- season starting. I was silly enough to leave a fluorescent light on in the kitchen on Thursday night and had an invasion of insects from the forest. In the morning I swept up two litres of insects. Perhaps that was why the frogs were so happy. 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. The devastation to a natural beach environment by vehicles is heartbreakingly demonstrated at Cowley Beach. Conservationist and campaigner Russell Constable gives an update on the situation at Cowley Beach in this video which includes Channel 7's news story on Wednesday. Russell added photos at the end of the video to show what happens to a beach when it is used as a local road. 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. The Bingil Bay community has been wathcing Bernie's progress since he was struck by a car trying to cross the Bingil Bay Road. QPWS have been overseeing his recovery within his environment and are now weaning him off supplementary food. Today he ventured south east across the gully. It is the second time I have seen him since the accident. He is beginning to get his adult colours. His foot is still swollen but he can walk without a limp now and the three claws he lost are starting to regrow. We are all very happy for Bernie surviving this round. 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. The scramble to lodge development applications ahead of the deadline of the FNQ2031 Regional Plan in 2009 saw at one stage 35 proposals in the Mission Beach area referred to the Federal Environment agency to be assessed under the EPBC Act. To date, except for the then minister Peter Garrett's 'clearly unacceptable' decision on Lot 66, all developments assessed have been approved with various conditions and offsets. Photo taken by Jeff Larson in January this year Very sad that yet another cassowary was killed on Mission Beach roads on 13 Sept. QPWS records show it was at a location where there has been multiple deaths. The cassowary (left) photographed in January this year fits the description of the dead bird which had been observed recently in the area. I am waiting for QPWS to confirm if this is the bird. There has been a very high number of recorded cassowary deaths along the South Mission Beach Road which is well sign posted as a cassowary conservation area with a speed limit of 80 kph. 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. |
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