Many of our guests are keen photographers and have very good equipment. Here are a few recent images.
Steve McLean got all three of our robin species:
and Mrs and Mr Satin Bowerbird:
The riflebirds are displaying, despite the display post becoming quite worn on the top:
my favourite male pademelon, Nicko:
Several orchid species are flowering at the moment:
Middle Mum is a very good mother, all her joeys seem to survive. She has another one in the pouch (yesterday a tiny, naked head poked out), but she still lets her previous offspring, he is about 14 months old now, suckle, and they often groom each other.
Yesterday a lonely chick showed up at midday. They sometimes get separated from their dad, but usually not for long, as they call for him and he has very good hearing. This chick didn’t vocalize much, but it certainly knew how to make itself almost invisible to potential predators like Grey Goshawks:
It was joined by one of its siblings an hour later. Now we started to worry: surely Dad would have noticed that 2 out of 3 chicks went missing! Maybe he chased another adult cassowary and left the chicks behind? We were very relieved to see Dad together with all 3 chicks later in the afternoon!
It was interesting that the two lonely chicks started fighting with each other, and continued to do so on and off. We’ve never seen such small cassowaries fighting, only when they were at least about 6 months old. Maybe Dad keeps them in check when they are in his presence?
Last seen in February, our cassowary Dad is now back with 3 tiny chicks. They might even be only a few days old!
Dad is doing his best to keep them close to him, but one managed to get separated from the group and only rejoined them a couple of hours later.
They rest often, and Dad nods off every now and then,
The chicks are very cute, but not if you are a finch! They caught a red-browed finch and, after a few attempts, one of the little chicks wolfed it down.
Hey, you’ve got something on your face!
Since the Cissus vines have started fruiting, an ever increasing raiding party of Topknot Pigeons is feeding an the grapes.
They come in quickly, feed for a few minutes, then fly off into nearby trees to rest and digest before coming back about half an hour later for another feed. Today we saw about 20 pigeons. They are very large and conspicuous, flying noisily between roosting and feeding trees. As they are quite wary, I didn’t get close enough for a really good photograph.
Another topknot down the road:
Two mature male Victoria’s Riflebirds have started displaying a few weeks ago, after finishing their moult.
Ready
A 2.3m Carpet Python patiently, but unsuccessfully, looked for a King Parrot meal.
