HASTIES SWAMP and PLATYPUS ROCK, LAKE TINAROO

We visited the bird hide at Hasties Swamp just before dusk one evening. When we arrived there were a large number of cattle egrets on the edge of the water. A little later they all flew off just prior to the arrival of approx 200 Saras Cranes flying across in front of us and landing on the far bank. It was one of those special moments as many pairs of Saras Cranes performed a courtship dance once they had landed. We were captivated.

After leaving Lake Eacham Faye discovered she had left her remote car key behind in a shop the previous day. Unfortunately it was the weekend and we had to wait until the shop opened on Monday so we decided on stay at the free campsite at Platypus Rock, Lake Tinaroo. As seen in the above photo is was another beautiful site with many ducks, egrets, cormorants and more unusual birds in the surrounding bush.

Sunset from our camper

Sunrise the following morning

We spotted a flock of the above finches on an early morning walk.

MALANDRA

Malandra Falls, Atherton Tablelands, Queensland

We spotted many tortoises on our walk

We often stop on our walks to look at the patterns formed by trees and vines in their effort to survive in the crowded rain forest.

We gave this indigenous reptile RIGHT OF WAY when we spotted it beside the walking track and waited until it was well out of view before proceeding.

Tamarillo Tree

Paw Paw Tree

The groundsperson at Malandra who walked with us to show us the green ringtail possum he had spotted earlier in the morning. We were fortunate he was on duty as he had detected it earlier that morning with his keen sense of smell.

The Green Ringtail Possum has greenish coloured soft and thick fur due to a mixture of black, grey, yellow and white hairs. The tail has a thick base and is shorter than the head and body.

The Green Ringtail Possum has a distinguished resting posture. It sleeps curled in a tight ball, gripping the branch with one or both hind feet, and sitting on the base of its coiled tail, with its forefeet, face and tip of the tail tucked tightly into its belly. David was able to catch this on video.

ATHERTON TABLELANDS - Curtain Fig Tree

Curtain Fig Tree, Atherton Tablelands

A ranger drew our attention to a Boyds Rainforest Dragon climbing up one of the roots of the curtin fig tree as it is so rarely seen. It is unique to this area of the rainforest and is in limited numbers. Although the quality of the photos is poor they have been included as a reminder of this special viewing.
Boyds Rainforest Dragon climbing up a root


The dragon dropped to the rainforest floor, scurried off and wasn't seen again

A female Golden Orb Spider identified by the yellow bands on her legs

ATHERTON TABLELANDS - Platypus Hunting

Our main reason for returning to the Atherton Tablelands was to hopefully see both a platypus and a tree kangaroo, the two major attractions in this area. We saw neither during a week of searching in 2007.

We spent hours walking alongside Petersen Creek and around Allumba Pocket, Yungaburra, in the hope of seeing a platypus.

Allumba Pocket was beautiful, like walking through well maintained grassy parkland

Swimming Hole

Swing Bridge over Petersen Creek

On our third attempt we were returning to our car when David spotted this platypus who swam on the surface of the water for approx. two minutes.

Just before dark on the same day we returned to see this platypus having a lovely time, diving and feeding. We were able to sit and watch him until dark, we were overjoyed.

ATHERTON TABLELANDS - LAKE EACHAM

Lake Eacham is a Crater Lake and is a popular swimming and picnic area surrounded by rainforest. There is a 3 km bushwalking track around the lake.

We are always surprised with the intricacies of nature, the neatness of this vine winding its way up the trunk of the tree caught our eye.

We saw a number of these trees on our walk. Known as the Brown Gardenia (Randia fitzalanii) it is a small glossy foliaged tree with large yellow "Mangosteen" like fruit.

The clearing behind these trees is the bower of the Tooth-Billed Bowerbird. It lives in the Atherton Region of Australia. It is unlike other bowerbirds as the male bird does not build a bower, instead he clears a small area of land. This is referred to as his stage or court, and because of this the bird is also known as the Stage-maker. We were impressed with the size of the stage which was around the size of a large truck tyre. It is constructed at the beginning of the breeding season from October to January. The male uses the same area of rainforest floor for constructing his stage as the year before.

As decorations, he places fresh leaves with their paler sides turned up (to provide greater contrast on the floor of leaf litter and debris) on the ground. The dark bill has notches in it used to cut off leaves from trees by using a difficult gnawing action through their stems. Up to 180 small leaves may be collected for a single stage, and the males compete and copy each other to find the biggest or most valuable leaves for their own use.
Tooth-Billed Bowerbird
We were fortunate to be told by a local resident the precise location of the bower and as the male averages 95 percent of the day singing from his perch, just 2-3m above his stage we had little difficulty finding it. What a privilege.

We also saw this beautiful Forest Kingfisher at Lake Eacham.

We stayed at Lake Eacham Caravan Park in 2007 and were happy to return. It is a lovely friendly park and has a good name amongst backpackers. We have spent many enjoyable nights in the camp kitchen talking to international travellers.

The garden is filled with tropical plants and many varieties of grevillias that attract a wide variety of birds. Apart from many honeyeaters, finches, and rainbow loorikeets, we saw some more unusual species including the striking Mistletoe bird, Crimson finch, the Australian Fig Bird and Helmeted Friarbird.

This turkey was strutting around in front of the Caravan Office one morning. He had been reared by hand and the previous owner had recently given it to the pet loving family at the Eacham Caravan Park knowing they would not eat him at Christmas time.

MAREEBA WETLANDS

Australian Bustard (the world's largest bird capable of flight) spotted on our way to the Mareeba Wetlands. The following images were taken at the wetlands.

Pied Honeyeater (female)

Goudian Finch

White lipped Green Tree Frog

White lipped green tree frog on wooden architrave of the wetlands visitor centre. It changes colour to camouflage to the surroundings.

Darter

Helmeted Guinea Fowl

GRANITE GORGE

Granite Gorge is a privately run park, a friendly place to stay with a fantastic circuit walk amongst the granite formations. The place abounds with Mareeba Agile Wallabies and a variety of birds.

An easy part of the walk



I wouldn't have been able to go far without David's assistance. It was often difficult scrambling over and around the boulders and we were exhausted at the end of the circuit.

Deep Swimming Hole

Mareeba Agile Wallabies

Feeding time

Squatter Pigeons