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:

 

Many of our guests have high-quality camera equipment and are excellent photographers.

Here is a selection of their images, taken while staying at the cabin:

 

More images are to be found in the bird gallery on our “birds and birding’ page.

Peter Day took some good video footage:

 

There are orchids to be found in bloom throughout the year, but spring seems to be a particularly good time.

From the possibly tiniest flower (1-1.5mm),

to our most spectacular

orchids are to be found in many places.

Since our last orchid blog a year ago, we added a few more species to our property’s list:

Tree Spider Orchid, Dendrobium tetragonum, by Julia Sumerling

Visiting nature photographer Julia Sumerling introduced me to seeing the natural world in a new light: Many birds and insects can see in the UV spectrum, and Julia patiently took this image under UV light with an elaborate set-up:

 

daylight                                                                                         UV light

I was hooked, and bought a small UV torch. Lichen, especially, change their appearance dramatically: these images were taken by our friend Manfred Schoeler:

daylight                                                                                      UV light

A walk through a nearby forest revealed more flowering orchid species. New to us was this Creeping Brittle Orchid.

It seems to be a good year for orchids: many species are flowering abundantly, in the dry Herberton Hills as well as in the rainforest.

For a few more orchid images from our property, check out our orchid gallery on the flora page.