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.
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.
Dragon-fly numbers have dramatically increased along with their food supply, mosquitoes. Beautifully coloured moths are laying eggs that will hatch out into plant eating machines. Life in the rainforest is abundant.
The mangrove crabs were out and about in the rain and even venturing into the dampness of the nursery shed and along the road.
Jessie the matriarch cassowary disturbed the crocodiles and they slid back into the water leaving their tell-tale slide-marks on the beach.
Yesterday I heard a persistent drumming coming from the forest. Old man kookaburra was sitting on a dead tree branch hitting the wood with his beak. Perhaps he was trying to flush out a creature from the hollow inside or maybe he was trying to create a nest hole. The banging continued for almost an hour. He was at it again today on another tree but without any sign of achievement.
For almost a month now the cassowaries have been behaving secretly. The food has been taken from the feed stations but over the last month I have only seen them a few times. It all changed this week ‘secret cassowary business’ is over and they are back out and about again and very hungry.
I was getting a bit lax and not visiting the feed stations until after 6am. I was sprung on Monday morning and my tardiness was met with a hungry cassowary ‘Big Sis’ appearing as I was carrying the bucket of food to the station. Oh well one of these days I will get to sleep-in again now it is back to 4.30am starts.
I had hoped that the forest was at last able to supply the food that the cassowaries need. However, I ventured into the forest a little way and found no food on the forest floor.
I was getting a bit lax and not visiting the feed stations until after 6am. I was sprung on Monday morning and my tardiness was met with a hungry cassowary ‘Big Sis’ appearing as I was carrying the bucket of food to the station. Oh well one of these days I will get to sleep-in again now it is back to 4.30am starts.
I had hoped that the forest was at last able to supply the food that the cassowaries need. However, I ventured into the forest a little way and found no food on the forest floor.
The cassowaries being the ever resilient creatures that they are have found my vegetable garden.
I caught cassowary sub-adult ‘Don’ eating my tomatoes and I found a paw-paw tree knocked down and the green fruit half eaten. Not far away matriarch ‘Jessie’ was standing and looking innocent. Did I complain about the pigs eating my vegetables?!!!!!!!!!!!!
I caught cassowary sub-adult ‘Don’ eating my tomatoes and I found a paw-paw tree knocked down and the green fruit half eaten. Not far away matriarch ‘Jessie’ was standing and looking innocent. Did I complain about the pigs eating my vegetables?!!!!!!!!!!!!
‘Q’ came right into the nursery to eat fox-tail palm seeds. It is most unusual for the cassowaries to come into the nursery.
Four Corners Monday night 7 Nov covered a story on Port developments along the Queensland coast, including Gladstone. Apparently over the next five years we will see a tenfold increase in shipping traffic within the Great Barrier Reef.
The shark (left)showing red-spot disease was washed up on the Coquette Point beach early this year.
Cheers for now,
Yvonne C.
Cheers for now,
Yvonne C.
Hey Yvonne that shark pic brought back memories of our walk and here are some pics that show the red “Rash” on the shark.
What was strange was that it appeared to be in perfect health and sharks are extremely resistant to diseases generally.!
That day you showed us the mangrove dieback at Coquette Point as well.
Cheers Russ
Cheers Russ
