News from Coquette Point

19/4/2012

Hello from windy Coquette Point,

Cool and sunny Easter weather has morphed into wet and wild gale force winds which have lashed the coast since Thursday and more is to come. An area of low pressure, which is moving west coupled with a very large southern high has turned the normally gentle trade winds into the roaring 40’s.

The butterflies are having difficulty in managing the wind and a pale lemon form, or at least that is what I think it is, of the Pale Triangle, graphium eurypylus, which is seldom seen in a resting mode, was easy to photograph this week. Its cousin the green-spotted triangle seemed to cope better with the wind.

Meanwhile the Cairns birdwings are still mating furiously and using the nursery shade house for protection from the wind while their caterpillars are eating themselves out of house and home.

Cassowary ‘Little Dad’ is still walking out with ‘Jessie’, I see them almost every day. ‘Little Dad’ emerges from the forest and ‘Jessie’ follows soon after. They come to check out my pawpaw trees and will jump up and knock fruit off. ‘Jessie’ is totally subservient to him and waits for him to eat first. They stay only a few minutes then leave, ‘Little Dad’ in the lead and ‘Jessie’ following.

'Little Dad' and 'Jessie'

An old van with a large side mirror sometimes attracts ‘Little dad’. He attacks the reflection with vengeance but so far has not broken the mirror

Cassowary ‘Dot’ has found an appetite for passionfruit. It is fascinating to watch the large fruit disappear down her neck.

'Dot'

'Don'

The subadult ‘Don’ is having a hard time as all the other cassowaries chase him however he seems to have settled down here and does not intend to move into new territory. I see him wandering around once or twice every day. However I have not seen ‘Don’s’ sibling ‘Q’ for three months.

The crocodiles ‘Midget’ about 1.5 metres and ‘Charlene’ about 2.5 metres are regularly on the beach.

Crocodile 'Midget'

Crodile 'Charlene' asleep

I looked down the beach and two very small children were playing in the water within metres of ‘Charlene’s’ last position.

I went down showed the people, who were visiting from Bougia Island in the Torres Straits, the photos and slide marks of ‘Charlene’ and advised them to keep the children away from the water’s edge. They thanked me and told the children to play high up on the beach.

There is a crocodile sign on the beach, I don’t know what more can be done, it is only a matter of time before someone is taken by a crocodile.

Liz and Tony came over on a perfect day and we went for a walk around to the front beach. Soldier crabs were everywhere and the sand showed the feeding endeavours of many tiny creatures.

We estimated about 100 crested terns were resting on a sand-bar however there were no signs of the two pairs of beach stone curlews that have lived on the sand dunes for as long as I can remember. One pair had their territory on the far end of the beach and another close to the Johnstone River mouth. Again we saw a man walking two dogs, not of leashes and there were signs of bike tracks over the rookery. We also saw pig tracks in the sand.

River estuaries are dynamic systems and it was interesting to see a new dune system establishing, already above the high tide mark, and a lagoon forming behind it. It will be interesting to see what happens to this formation following the strong winds over the last few days.

I have added three new Jumping Spiders to my photographic collection this week, I hope you can enjoy them and are not arachnophobias.