A young Eastern Water Dragon
Month: September 2019
Still Birding up in the Atherton Tablelands
Featured Image : Rufous Fantail
Certainly a prize bird for this region
Victoria’s Riflebird
Press Play to View a snippet of our day at Lake Barrine
Tick tock tick tock……how time flies. It’s hard to believe another week plus has flown by so quickly.
We have been out and about pretty much every day. We keep doing the rounds of all our little hotspots, which is fantastic fun though some places have their little pitfalls.
Like Lake Barrine…..every time we visit, which is very often, we can’t pass up the award winning scones 🙄🙄 which is usually in the morning.
One day it took us around 4 hours to walk the 5 km circuit around the lake so of course we had to have lunch there as well.
So we are putting on some weight but figure when we get back to work on our shaking cherry pickers in Stanthorpe it will all miraculously melt away again.
The weather hasn’t been the best really.
We had some hot days last week and all the birds and bugs seemed to be more abundant and then the weather turned back to almost wintery conditions.
I had to have my jumper on the last few days in the rainforests…..very chilly.
I don’t think the birds like it much either. This morning it’s drizzling so hopefully the sun pops out a bit later.
Press Play to view a short snippet of Hasties Swamp, Atherton
Pied Cormorant & Plumed Egret
Plumed Egret & Whistling Ducks
Plumed Egret and Friends
We are trying our best to get more photos and video of the male Victoria’s Riflebird.
He is just amazing to watch when he starts displaying.
We found a great broken tree stump in the Wongabel Forest with the male sitting on top.
He did start to display a little, a female did come through and he took off after her but did stay in the area so we are keen to go back when the sun comes out and try again for some Wow pics and video.
Pied Monarch
Spotted Catbird
Wompoo Fruitdove
Brown Cuckoo-dove
More Rainforest Birds
Press Play to view another short Video snippet of
Curtain Fig Tree
and
Wongabel State Forest
We are coming up to our last weekend in this area so will have to start heading south again next week, but there will be plenty of nature stops along the way. Enjoy all the pics and videos.
Cheers Steph and Anthony.
Inspirational Quote of the Week
Back up in the Southern Tablelands
Featured Image – Pied Monarch (Adult Male)
Well all is just fantastic in our little world……
We are almost healthy again. I don’t know about anyone else but I must say whenever I get even the inkling of a sore throat I think I’ve come down with some deadly virus and probably the stress of that makes me go downhill even quicker.
But whatever we both had went on it’s way pretty quickly ( thank god ) and maybe I shouldn’t read the news so much….the stuff about viruses anyway. Watching the movie “ Contagen” on the way home on the plane didn’t help either😳😳
It certainly hasn’t stopped us getting out and about. It was great coming back to Yungaburra, we are even in the same van site as last time with the same neighbours we had last time, so it really was a bit like “coming home”.
Lovely Fairywrens
Gorgeous Green Ring-tail Possum with ultra cute Bub
Press Play to view Steph’s Video Snippets
Here I was wishing This (Adult male) Victoria’s Riflebird would hop down lower in the tree for a better Shot
At that moment, to our amazement he dropped the fruit and followed it to the ground.
Life in Nature is soooooo good.
The Apprentice
This Immature Victoria’s Riflebird is certainly not yet ‘dressed to impress’ a female, However is giving it a good go.
We have been very lucky with our wildlife spotting as you can see by the pics and
video……absolutely amazing. Many birds on our bucket list have just been appearing
before our eyes. Of course we are putting ourselves in the best places to see these
amazing animals.
A Medley of Flutterers
Pied Monarch (Bucket List Bird)
Very Excited to finally photograph this stunning Bird at Lake Eacham
Rainforest Birds
The Golden Bowerbird is a story in itself. (Pictured above)
It’s the same bower at Mount Hypipamee where we got chased away by a very aggressive rather large male Cassowary two years ago. Terrifying I know but that was a while ago now and I mean….what are the chances of having another run in…plus we will really keep our eyes peeled.
So we found the bower and to our delight it has been worked on…lots of nice new mossy wallpaper, we heard the male bowerbird’s very loud distinctive chatter so settled down ready with camera and video in anticipation and then out of the corner of my eye I saw a big black shadow, quickly looked through my binoculars and saw the blue head of that monster cassowary heading our way…yikes….you’ve never seen us move so quick, we were out of there in a flash.
After we settled down a bit, and the monster didn’t come out and chase us down the road, we decided we could sneak back later and just keep an eye out for him, pretty brave aren’t we🙄.
Well we did just that and never saw the Cassowary again, Anthony got a photo of what at first we thought was the female but turns out it’s a immature male without his adult colours yet ( this can take up to 7 years ).
We stayed for quite some time and never saw another Bowerbird come in and also we heard a horror story from another birder, that the adult pair that were at this site had been poached last year. Also some other pairs have been taken from other well know locations so that is pretty upsetting but as with all wildlife, if it’s pretty or has a nice voice or is rare, it sadly has a price tag on its head. We feel we are very fortunate to be able to see these amazing creatures while it’s still possible.
Chestnut Brested Mannequin
Australasian Pipit
Golden Headed Cisticola
Grassland Birds
Other Birds
We have another week or so in this beautiful area so will get out as much as possible, there is a lot more action out in the rainforests now that the weather has warmed up. Please enjoy the pics and video.
Cheers and bye for now, Steph and Anthony.
Koh Samui, Thailand. ‘In between Dental appointments’
Featured Image : Fisherman’s Village, Bophut Beach
Hello again from Cairns…..
We got back from Thailand around lunch time today, it was great to have my sister Denise pick us up, and she did a fine job of looking after our cat Chloe while we were away.
All went extremely well at the Dentist…..
The worry and stress I had invested in this Dental journey were unfounded. As all I got from that was some virus I must have picked up a few days ago🙄🙄
I have had an implant for two years now, and was thinking I would never get the two molars on it, after having two lots of bone grafting done.
Happily, our Dentist, Dr Lee did the moulds and abutment Wednesday morning, on the Island of Koh Samui, and my nice new molars arrived and were fitted on Friday morning…..
How incredible is that?? Anthony and I also had plenty of fillings done and each a deep clean in that time, amazing.
It probably sounds like our teeth are rotting away in our heads but I think we are like most people, never bother too much with your teeth till you lose a couple, or your gums start hurting real bad then all of a sudden all hell breaks loose.
We can’t say enough good things about Dr Lee at the Dental Home on Koh Samui.
He works there 3 days a week, another two days a week at his surgery in Bangkok and also teaches at the University In Bangkok…..
One very busy and Talented Dentist.
Press Play to view Stephanies Video Snipetts
Yellow vented Bulbul
A poor shot of a Brown Throated Sunbird.
Indian Roller
A very ordinary effort photographing Birds this trip
So in between Dental visits we got out and about with our hire car.
This is our third time to the Island so we do have some favourite spots to visit.
The Hin Lat Waterfall is always good for a slow hour and a half of meandering up to the top of the Falls. You never know what you will see.
We have seen a huge array of lizards on this walk, some birds too though they are near impossible to get photos of in the thick rainforest.
Also insects, beautiful butterflies and dragonflies.
You do have to walk slow and really keep your eyes peeled.
Common Lascar Butterfly
Day Moth
Common Sailor Butterfly
Also little luck with Butterflies
We stayed at the Smile House at the Fisherman’s Village so could walk to a huge selection of cafes and restaurants.
The weather was fantastic too though very stormy on our arrival.
All very calm above the cloud
I did a little better with Odonata (Dragon and Damselflies)
So now it’s great to be back in our Pod.
We are a bit Jet lagged at present and not really functioning 100%.
Anthony also came down with some Bizarre BUG on the flight home.
So hopefully we can rest up tomorrow before heading back up to Yungaburra on the Tablelands on Monday, via the steep ascend up the Kuranda Range😬😬
Chloe was happy to see us again ( I think ) it’s great to know that we can go overseas for a short time and she is just fine with someone coming to feed her and open her tunnel everyday.
Please enjoy the pics and video.
Bye for now Steph and Anthony.
