News from Coquette point (Mar 24)

Hello from camera happy Coquette Point,

When sailors see Frigate birds at sea it is a sign that land is within 200 miles. However, when Frigate birds fly over the land it is time to be afraid, very afraid. Frigate birds over the land are a sign of gale force winds  about to occur and the birds stay, continually in flight, for the duration of the storm. Last Sunday a flock of 60 Greater Frigatebirds arrived and started flying in anticlockwise concentric circles over the Cassowary Coast.

They flew, high in the sky, in one circle from Mission Beach to Bramston Beach and then a smaller circle from Baldy Knob to Mount Annie. They stayed on the coast until Thursday. Around 60% of the flock were female and although it is mating time the males were not showing their red display pouch. This is the greatest number of Frigate birds that I have seen over the Wet Tropics coastline. These birds are very long livered around fifty years.

On Monday night the wind was accompanied with heavy rain as the monsoon descended over the Cassowary Coast. I recorded 350mm of rain overnight, nothing exceptional for this region, after all this is the Wet Tropics. Throughout the sixties and seventies daily rainfall of over 300mm was normal and falls of that amount could last for weeks. It also has not been an infrequent occurrence during the wet seasons of the last forty years.  So I was a surprised when in today’s paper it was reported that the ‘deluge’ caused $20million dollars damage to CCRC (Council) infrastructure. What is the infrastructure made from that is cannot withstand normal Wet Tropics weather?

When the wind and the rain finished we had two nights of red sunsets. ‘ Red sunset at night a sailor’s delight’.  A number of trees that had been damaged in cyclone ‘Yasi’ fell down around the nursery.

Nymph mantis

I had a special visitor on Thursday, a yellow praying mantis. I had never seen a yellow mantis at Coquette Point before and today a yellow mantis nymph landed on my arm. I thought it was a green ant dropped out of one of the fallen trees and I was just about to flick it off my arm when I saw it turn its head to look at me. I placed it gently on a leaf and took some photos for you to see. What a wonderful world we live in full of such amazing creatures. Every tree is home to some special creature and fallen trees contain a wide range of insects and can create niches for other creatures. I have learnt not to be in too great a hurry to clean up a fallen tree.

The blue-tiger butterflies are active at the moment and I found a host of other incredible moths and insects  feeding on fallen fruits and leaves.

Unknown nymph

moths & blue-bottle flies feeding on breadfruit

Whether it was the wind that brought them in or just opportunity but over 40 Nutmeg pigeons settled into my little rainforest last Sunday. I could not reach their nesting tree, the forest is still impenetrable from ‘Yasi’. Early on Tuesday morning I found some pigeons drying out after the heavy rainfall Monday night.

The zephyr- swish of their wings sounded all around me: it was a magical moment.  I saw two birds mating, it is most unusual as it is the end of their season. The crested hawks have been harassing the birds nesting tree all this week.

A new cassowary has turned up on Tuesday. It has copper markings on its casque and a white dot on its left wattle. I estimate it is about three years old. It still has a few brown feathers on its lower flank. I have called this cassowary Dot- reference to its white dot. I do not know its parentage.  The bird is not timid and allowed me to get quite close to take a series of pictures to record its markings.

Subadult cassowary ‘Don’ has been around all week and seems to be living in the forest around my sediment pond.

This afternoon my friend Jacque Grima came over for a chat she told me she saw a cassowary outside the nursery near the road. We raced out with the camera and it was ‘Dad1’ feeding on the fruit of the Leichhardt tree Nauclea orientalis, the trees have been in fruit for over a month and the cassowaries are having a feast.

 As we watched ‘Dad 1’s’ chick ‘Rosie’ turned up. ‘Rosie’ has been an independent subadult for the last two months. ‘Rosie’ started to honk and her Dad took chase, she was gone in a flash and Dad returned and resumed eating the Nauclea fruit unperturbed.

Thank God the State Election is over!  I missed out on a vote as there is no longer a Hinchinbrook booth at East Innisfail school, where I have voted for the last fifty years. (Coquette Point is part of the Hinchinbrook electorate).  The presiding officers could not direct me to another booth close by. As there was a two hour queue wait for absentee votes I walked out, I had to open the nursery at 8.30am. No wonder the Bligh Government has lost by such a landslide their disarray and mismanagement has even extended to the electoral commission.

Cheers for now,

Yvonne C.