Author: Christina

Zero is back! A few days ago, a juvenile cassowary walked up from the creek towards our house, behaving as if it was familiar with its surrounds (and us). As it doesn’t have any wattles, we are sure that it is Zero, Dad’s chick from early 2021. Having put on quite some weight, wearing a short skirt and having BIG feet, makes us assume that Zero is a female.

After they are being chased away by their father at around 9 months of age, young cassowaries have to avoid encounters with adult birds and find their own territory.

We rarely see any cassowaries at that stage. Juveniles/ sub-adults passing through have always been about 2 years old, mostly with black feathers, except for some brown ones around the tail, blue and red colours developing on the neck and with a small casque.

Zero was a very lucky bird, being together with Dad for more than a year.

She was about 2 months old when Dad first came by with her in early May 2021.

June 2021: young cassowaries have blue eyes:

The stripes are fading, August 2021:

October 2021:

January 2022: a big chick!

Starting to go blue in the face, February 2022:

May 2022: more colour developing down the neck:

August 2022: (2 images by Lorraine Harris)

The casque is starting to grow.

When she was about 1 1/2 years old, she disappeared, showing up once on our wildlife camera in January 2023.

June 2023: Now almost 2 1/2 years old, she has returned.

Image by Marcus Odgaard:

Lemon Aspen trees in the rainforest seem to be the attraction: their fruits are prominent in the cassowaries’ droppings.

Summer is, of course, also a good time to observe reptiles, as they are much more active then.

This goanna ambled past me on the veranda and only noticed me when he turned around before climbing over a log.

We do not see Northern Dwarf Crowned Snakes very often. This one was fully grown at almost half a meter. It hunted among leaf litter and completely ignored us.

More alert to our presence was this Carpet Python, which has (again) climbed into the birdfeeder.

Male skinks are very colourful in the breeding season:

It is now mid- April, and warmer than normally at this time of the year, around 25 degrees Celsius maximum. Geckos and snakes are still quite active.

2 days ago “Dad” reappeared with two tiny chicks. They are about 4 weeks old.

Native Ginger berries are perfect baby food.

The little ones stay close to Dad. If they stray too much, he makes grunting noises.

Off they go…

 

 

We have had many tree-kangaroo sightings lately. The older female, in particular, has been around the cabin and house for  many hours, preventing me from attending to entropy-fighting indoor chores 🙂

How is one to concentrate on cleaning the cabin, when she is bending a shrub to the ground near the birdbath, trying to balance on small branches, while reaching out for the fresh shoots at the tips?

Here she is just outside our office, while a visiting friend is editing her photographs taken the previous day:

She gave us ample opportunities to watch her feeding in very low shrubs just meters away. Not sure, whether she noticed us and chose to ignore us (she should be used to us by now, after sharing her territory with us for many years), or whether she is not the brightest of forest dwellers.

She has been feeding constantly for many hours, even forgoing her usual siesta. Our assumption is, that she is eating for two now, as we observed her cleaning her pouch in December, and an older male tree-roo was here, too.

The honey-eaters were quite acrobatic, too, on their wildly swinging feeder!

As if that wasn’t enough entertainment, an immature Victoria’s Riflebird started displaying above the tree-roo:

The riflebirds have been making themselves scarce lately, probably knowing that they are not looking their best while they are moulting. Nevertheless, one adult male briefly hopped onto the display perch near the cabin:

While the female tree-kangaroo was happily feeding almost at ground level, two weeks ago the male climbed to dizzying heights in a big Rose Gum, feasting for hours on a Silkpod Vine, which probably has never encountered a tree-kangaroo in its life before.

It has been a good wet season here, nothing dramatic like in many parts across northern Australia, but regular, moderate rainfall. After about 1.5 metres of rain since October, it is nice to see the sun for a whole day!

The bridging planks across our little creek have been submerged for a while.

Most of our frogs do not breed in fast-flowing, deep water, they prefer the shallow ‘creek’ that forms along our driveway. The Orange-thighed Treefrogs had an excellent season, with noisy orgies almost every night for weeks.

The finches love to bath in the shallow water:

Summer is the best time to see insects, like this Spiny Forest Katydid nymph.

It is also the season for cicadas. This summer we had especially many Golden Emperors:

Spiders are plentiful, too, like this tiny Jumping Spider. 6 of him would fit easily onto my fingernail:

Velvet Worms are not uncommon, but very secretive and seldomly seen. Humid conditions bring them to the surface:

They are not worms at all, and their stumpy legs are filled with fluid. For more interesting facts about them, have a look at this website: https://www.wettropics.gov.au/the-velvet-worm

New shoots everywhere:

Many birds are now showing their offspring around. Laughing Kookaburras are only occasional visitors here:

Bassian Thrushes are secretive, but youngsters sometimes do unexpected things, like perching high on a branch:

The latest addition to our group of Red-legged Pademelons: