News from Coquette Point

Hello from the mouth of the Johnstone River,
 
For the last week the afternoon sky has been dotted with the fluttering wings of the Zodiac Moth. This is the time of year when the moth population of the Mt Annie National Park journey across the rainforest, the mangrove forest the river fly up over the range and land in the rainforest of the Moresby Range National Park.

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Their strong wings push into the south east trades and they reach their destination in about 30 minutes of flying. These remarkably patterned day flying moths, as beautiful as any butterfly, are important pollinators in the rainforests of the Wet Tropics. They can often be seen drawing nectar from Pendas, Melaleucas and Barringtonia flowers. When the caterpillars pupate the cocoon is hidden amongst the leaf litter on the forest floor.  Be careful where you walk in the forest.

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On Monday morning the buoy marking the Coquette Point rocks was dragged back into position. This is an important navigational aid to boats using the river and one can but ask why it took six months for it to be dragged back in place?

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Three Laughing Kookaburras turned up on Wednesday afternoon. They noisily announced their presence flying from tree to tree annoying the catbirds before settling down in the melaleucas.   On Thursday morning they were laughing before any of the other birds had woken and they noisily flew along the mangrove forest with their song echoing on the river in the thin early morning air.  These birds are not sedentary here and leave at the onset of the wet season.  Each year, when they return, they build a nest in a large hollow in an old mango tree.

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 I took advantage of the neap tides and went for a walk on the sand bar exposed in the wide Johnstone River estuary.  What an amazing river we have, you can walk for miles on the sandbar. The soldier crabs and the little terns have not as yet arrived  but there were two Pied Oystercatchers searching the sand for food. 

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These birds are not often seen in north Queensland but are common in Tasmania. The Lesser Crested Terns, that are sedentary at Coquette Point were on the very outer sandbank and were fishing for bait in the shallows. 



I spoke to a fisherman and he told me that it was his third day trying to get a feed. Normally at this time of the year he can catch a bucket full in a few hours but has not been able to do so this year!

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No sign of pigs in the nursery for the last few weeks but I did notice some large track on the beach. My trap is set open and I monitor it every day, it is only a matter of time!

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Cheers for now,
Yvonne C.

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Hi Yvonne and others!

Was interesting to see your pics of zodiac moths.I posted a video of this migration at Ella Bay 2 years ago. 
You  can’t hear it properly in the video but they were quite noisy!

Cheers Russ

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Zodiac moths for the zodiac months eh? We've always called them Day Moths, same species I think (?)
They have a distinctive mating flight display that takes place around dusk. The female just hovers
several metres over the rainforest while the attention seeking male flies energetically and repeatedly
up and down on a semicircular path in front of the fluttering female.

Some photos of the outcome of the latest 'campfire' on the old wooden bridge at Ninds
Creek about 2 weeks ago. Whoever thought there were so many idiots out there? We've now had
about a dozen separate fires lit on the bridge in the past few years and its probably only our heavy
rainfall that's stopped it being burnt down completely by now.

All the best


Bill