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News from Coquette Point

17/4/2011

 
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Hi all,
A little bit of sunshine and what a difference it makes to getting into and finishing the clean-up.

Biosecurity have two Asian honey-bee lures again at Coquette Point. Fortunately I have not seen any of them here but some were found, last year, at Flying Fish Point.

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This week I found a cassowary scat full of hookworm. It was from Dad 4’s chick. Have not seen any hookworm in the adult birds scats, ever.
 
One good thing saw some figs in a scat on Wednesday and the source is my large strangler fig on the front lawn which is in fruit again. This one tree will feed all the fruit eaters of a day time, the flying foxes at night and what falls to the ground will be eaten by cassowaries, pigs and rats. The feast generally last for three weeks.

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Saw Cassowary, Dad 2, ‘Brown Cone’ on Monday 12.30pm he was coming out of the forestry track and moving very slowly. Although it does not show in the photo he was very thin and weak. He moved into grass on the northern side of the road.

Two crested hawks have been harassing the drongos. The drongos were chasing the hawks aggressively and noisily, they may have chicks to protect. In the end the hawks gave up and observed the landscape from a coconut tree.

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Went to CCRC meeting on Thursday, about Cowley Beach, let us hope vehicles will be kept off the dunes this time.  Afterwards walked around to the front beach with Richard, Russell and Bernadette. Wonderful day for a walk on the beach. All along the beach we found metre deep piles of detritus deposited up to high water mark. Photo shows ‘Bernie’ on the soft carpet of detritus.

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We came across a shark dead on the beach with strange pink pigmentations on its skin: it did not have a hook or spear marks on the body.

We saw Several illegal camping sites above high water mark. What was sad is that they had cut down mangroves to make their camp:

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 why when there were logs all over the beach?

Bernie picked up some Tellin Clam shells. I had often seen them on the beach but did not realize they are regarded as  ‘uncommon’. They are not uncommon on the Coquette Point beach. Russell and Richard identified them more

Yesterday Sam Davis from the ABC Cairns came out to do a webcam story on food. We were in the orchard filming the breadfruit tree when a very, very loud crashing noise came from the forest. I thought a cassowary chase was on. I went to pull Sam back against a tree when a medium sized black and white pig came running at great speed directly towards us. Just as I was about to throw myself and Sam into the tree, the pig who I had eye contact with turned to avoid us. Whew! Sam didn’t have the camera rolling. From the forest we heard angry honking from a cassowary. It appears the cassowary chased the pig! The honking and drumming from the cassowary lasted several minutes but it did not come out of the forest.

Later Sam got some great shots of Dad 4 and the chicks as they ate figs from under the tree.

In today’s Innisfail Advocate page six, a story showing members of the Chamber of Commerce and CCRC, with Kate Jones and Curtis Pitt. They are lobbying  the pollies to dredge the mouth of the Johnstone River.

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On page one of the advocate today the story goes that Metricon are going to fast track their canal estate development.  They want the river dredged to make their project viable and it looks as if we are going to pay for a feasibility study with money contributed from State and Local Governments. Of course one dredging will never do the job: every time there is a flood in the river the silt will deposit in the channel. Then there are the shallow areas all along the river. 

That is of course if you can get out of Ninds Creek and its shifting sand bar.

The Johnstone River is a high energy river carrying large amounts of silt. The sandbars in the river are dynamic and the river has always been difficult to navigate as its levels change after every flood event; all the locals know this. As the ratepayers of CCRC will be the owners of ‘Sea Haven’ when it is completed we will be legally liable to maintain deep water access to the boat users in the Sea Haven Marina. When this happens rates will double to cover the legal ramifications of this development.  What a nightmare we are entering into.

Work harder everyone,
Cheers Yvonne C.


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