Hi all,
The rainforest of the Wet Tropics are mysterious and wonderful and full of rare plants. The unusual climbing supplejack forms green towers as it climbs up its host tree in search of the light above the canopy. The flower is fragrant and is followed by grape like bunches of reddish fruit. “ Aboriginal people used the plant to make strong rope for climbing and the stems were woven into fish and eel traps or used to sew together bark canoes”. This information is from John Beasley’s book Plants of Tropical North Queensland If you live near rainforest please look carefully and you may see more of these plants in flower.
The rainforest of the Wet Tropics are mysterious and wonderful and full of rare plants. The unusual climbing supplejack forms green towers as it climbs up its host tree in search of the light above the canopy. The flower is fragrant and is followed by grape like bunches of reddish fruit. “ Aboriginal people used the plant to make strong rope for climbing and the stems were woven into fish and eel traps or used to sew together bark canoes”. This information is from John Beasley’s book Plants of Tropical North Queensland If you live near rainforest please look carefully and you may see more of these plants in flower.
Just to reinforce how amazing the plants and animals of our rainforests are my neighbour Bill Farmsworth found a leaf stick insect in his backyard this week. Bill brought it down to show me and I took this photo.
Bill has gone to Sydney, his mother died this week and on behalf of all of us, on this group email, Bill, we extend our thoughts and support to you and Kerry at this time.
When Bill comes back to the rainforest hopefully he will add some comments on missionbeachcassowaries.com about this incredible creature.
Bill has gone to Sydney, his mother died this week and on behalf of all of us, on this group email, Bill, we extend our thoughts and support to you and Kerry at this time.
When Bill comes back to the rainforest hopefully he will add some comments on missionbeachcassowaries.com about this incredible creature.
I think if I had nothing else to do I would spend my day watching the behaviours of the cassowaries. On Wednesday morning about 9am I heard a lot of splashing sounds in the melaleuca swamp. ‘Little Runt’ was having a bath. I rushed for the camera and carefully concealed myself behind a tree and watched. By the time I had returned the full dip in the water was over and ‘Little Runt’ was busy giving himself a preen.
The bath and feather cleaning continued for about ten minutes. Every feather was straightened. The cassowaries neck was extended to reach every part of his body.
The meticulous cleaning behaviour changed in a flash and without any signal ‘Little Runt’ threw himself aggressively at a nearby tree-stump.
He clawed the tree stump with his feet, kicking it many times. From the front, then with a rear kick. He rode the tree-stump seemingly climbing onto it and it kicking it viciously as he played.
His clean feathers were soon covered with bark.
He then ran around the stump in widening circles. He startled an orange footed scrub-fowl which came running out of the swamp in great fright.
Suddenly he was gone running towards the beach and it was quiet again: the shinning starlings twittered knowingly.
The male emerald doves have reached a comprise. They have divided up the yard: one stays around the front near the beach the other dove has claimed the territory around the nursery.
Occasionally they come together on the road but the front bird retreats back quickly.
I have not seen the female all week. Hopefully she is nesting.
The male fig-bird continues to sing to the female but there has been no sign of nest building.
Every afternoon the sacred kingfisher positions himself on the power lines over the road and watches for anything that moves in the grass below. His mates are generally in the mangroves using a vantage point on a high branch. This modern bird however, prefers the power-lines.
Only a few black cockatoos are still in the area. This very old female flies with another three males. She is often left behind when the boys take to the air.
The echoing of the nutmeg pigeon’s cooooo- can be heard late in the afternoon. I regularly see three birds in my patch of rainforest. This is dramatically down from pre-Larry and even post- Larry: I n the past I saw over 20 birds every day around Coquette Point. However, I often see a large flock of Nutmegs flying into the Ella Bay rainforest.
This spectacular pandanus species is flowering alongside the Coquette Point Road. And in the Moresby Range National Park the Candlenuts , Aleurites rockinghamensis are starting to fruit.
Signing off from the mysterious forests of Coquette Point,
Cheers Yvonne C.
Signing off from the mysterious forests of Coquette Point,
Cheers Yvonne C.
