Happy Census Day!

The chaos continues: I am so glad I am not involved other than as a respondent. I've just completed our form at Rocky (ie Rockhampton) and it was OK, but a few strange bits of design.

When we got up it was a very dewy morning and the humidity was evident in these clouds.

 What about the rat you ask?  It had cleaned out one of the traps without firing it.  Tonight I will try to set them very sensitively, and donate some more Ratsak to the cause.

The coconuts look a bit threatening.

The caravan park was a tad basic but having a resident flock of PWDs  is a bonus.

When we left I called in to thank them for allowing Tammie (despite signs to the contrary).  The two ladies on deck were very pleased that I took the time to do so.  Given their evident low occupancy rate they need to get every punter they can.

It was still humid and quite cool over night , so lots of dew on the camper.  Also attractive clouds over the mountains a bit South of Mackay.

The drive was strange as it seemed to take forever to get anywhere.  For the first 80 or so kms this was because of continual small settlements and/or roadworks.  After that the speed limit went up to 110 but it still seemed slow.  At one point a B-double came past us and had to cut in a bit, but no biggie.  We then followed it for about the next 100kms.  Still time went slowly - was it because we were going through sclerophyll woodland?

Eventually we got to Rockhampton.  It was huge.  Lots of flashing lights resolved to cops (1) escorting this massive load (2) - no idea what it was.

After dropping the camper off we went back to Rockie to look round the Kershaw Gardens.  Generally good, with this palm clad pool the highlight.

They have solved the problem of how many trees by painting a number on them!

On the way back out to the camp we took a look at Shanessy Park.  Another huge aggregation of Plumed Whistling Ducks (this time I guessed 2000).

Back at the camp a moggie was evident.  Physical warfare didn't happen, but neither looked likely to back down until I intervened on Tammy's side.

I like this night shot of Frances preparing an excellent tea.

Here is the entrance to the camp at night.

I'd gone to the gate to photograph the passing trucks, but they were too fast.  They were also continual through the night, as were the coal trains (ie trains carrying coal, not carrying miners as per Hugh Masakela's song) across the highway.  Each train took ~70 seconds to pass so my guess is they were about 1km long.  Despite this continual racket we slept quite well.

Update: in daylight a few of the trains were gereal freight and others passenger carriers.

• Bird of the day: Little Lorikeet pulls down the prize as most everything more interesting has already been used.  Nope: Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo got the nod.    Flock is (again) Plumed Whistling Duck at Shanessy Park
• Vegetation of the day:   Palms at Kershaw Gardens
• Memorable moment:  It was actually many moments following a truck for about 60km!
• Comment of the day: "Someone just refused."  The poor Census Collector at our campground.  She is damn lucky in the circumstances that anyone has cooperated.
• Pie of the day: Non existent.
• Troppo moment of the day. Misinterpreting the signs to the Rockhampton VIC  and doing an exploration as a result.  This meets both definitions of troppo: bloody stupid and becoming angry!

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Excellent birds, several. Tree-kangaroos 0

After a few adventures - see entries for troppo moment of the day below - we had a very pleasant run out to the Avenue of Valour to start the day.  Back home for showers and breakfast and we decided to go and check on Tree-kangaroo habitat along Peterson's Creek.

Before getting there Frances noticed this very unwell moth.  I have found an image of it on the web, but not named.  I will try to look it up in my moth book at home. Ha!! When in doubt, ask an entomologist; Roger Farrow quickly identified this as a 4 o'clock moth Dysphania fenestrata.

The tree-kangaroos were not evident but we did see a Pied Monarch - BoD - as well as more specimens of Spectacled Monarch and Pale-yellow Robin.

Things get a little out of temporal sequence here.  When I returned from a visit to the Mather Rd fig tree Frances reported an Emerald Dove walking about on the lawn  Despite the effluxion of time - about 30 minutes I was able to relocate the bird and get a snap.

A  bit later I took a Nana-nap and when I emerged Frances reported "swift-like things" overflying the house.  I was able to pin them down to Australian Swiftlets (with a few field marks as well as them being the only game in town at this time of year).  Well done that woman: 2 biggies in one arvo!!

I had earlier imaged a Bar-shouldered Dove, taken after it had itself had a nana-nap on the lawn.

 Here we have an Olive-backed Oriole (L) and an Australasian Figbird (R) dining on Palm-fruit in the garden.

 On our way back from the walk we passed the bowlo.  Rainbow is the new black for bowls  ...

 .. and the new white for attire!  That shirt is my souvenir of choice for this trip.

 I have obfuscated their faces in case they'd told the priest they were visiting a sick nun instead of attending Mass at 11:30 on a Sunday morning.

Some fungi.

Some flowers here and there around the village.  I'll begin with Syzygium wilsonii

• Bird of the day: Pied Monarch gets the award.  Emerald Dove and Australian Swiftlet complete the podium, with the Swiftlet gets the flock award
• Vegetation of the day:  Trees along Peterson Creek which look to offer excellent tree-kangaroo habitat, if only the marsupials would realise this!
• Memorable moment:  This has to be the realisation of what had happened with the shoe incident described below.
• Comment of the day: "Its OK, she's older than you."   Owner of a small black dog which came to greet Carol and I on our morning run.  We felt this was a trifle harsh on all concerned.
• Pie of the day: No sampling
• Troppo moment of the day.  Three contenders before breakfast.  In ascending order of troppocity.
• I managed to get us spatially misplaced on our run out to the Avenue of Honour.
• I managed to trip over an a-frame sign outside one of the cafe's as we started the run.  This possibly explains  the previous contender.
• After putting on my shoes for the run I noticed they felt a bit tight.  Going round to the back door, Rob also had his shoes on.  I asked him if he wore New Balance.  He answered in the positive so I followed up by asking why he was wearing Brooks.  Our shoes looked very similar but we'd managed to put on each others, and mine were about half a size bigger.  I don't think this explains the subsequent trip-up.

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Back on track

Arachnophobes be wary of this post!

After a rather unenjoyable visit to Cairns, today was back to the Yungaburra/Atherton area.  Judging by the number of photos taken it was a relatively quiet day - to the benefit of your download limits.

An early excitement was finding a large Huntsman type spider in the bathroom.  It was much more colourful than the ones around home.

 Our morning dog walk, in drizzle which continued most of the day,  was to the Curtain Fig Tree, on the edge of Yungaburra.  Before we left the village Tammy found a pair of Stone Curlews to look at.  I am unsure that their reaction of 'freezing' is good strategy for dogs not on a lead.

 The Fig is in the middle of a patch of rainforest with good epiphytic ferns.

 Here is the whole tree.  Apparently a crucial part of its formation was the host tree falling over.

 I thought the amount of work put into the boardwalk was most impressive.

 Late in the day we revisite Hasties Swamp, where I thought the number of ducks was even higher than on previous visits.  They also seemed to be more into swimming - with this species usually a sign of predators.  An Intermediate Egret posed nicely.

 Here is a GOOD cane toad!

 In Atherton I snapped the Grand Hotel  ...

 and some art deco(ish) roof lines.

While in Atherton I visited the Police Station to get an update on the car crash from yesterday.  The very pleasant lady on the desk was aware of the incident but it had been looked after by people from Yungaburra and Gordonvale so she knew what I already knew but nothing more.  I was quite impressed that the desk lady was not at all fussed by my carrying a small dog into her workplace.

A row of flowering trees were quite  popular with various birds including White-cheeked Honeyeaters.

Possibly Golden Penda.

Spathodea campanulata

Possibly Justicia

We briefly visited the Peterson's Creek walk and were able to show some visiting friends a Platypus swimming around.  A very regular sighting!

• Bird of the Day: Pale Yellow Robin at the Curtain Fig.  Flock of the day was 100 Chestnut-breasted Mannikins at the Atherton Sewage Works.
• Vegetation of the day:  The lurid orange flowers in Atherton..
• Memorable moment: Nothing startling springs to mind.  
• Comment of the day:  "You'd be disappointed in Mareeba Wetlands after this."  Our friends comment on visiting Hasties Swamp.
• Pie of the day: No sample.
• Troppo moment of the day.  While at the platypus area being greeted by someone from ABS who I hadn't met for about 25 years.  He recognised me!!!

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You want Whistling Ducks?

Hasties Swamp has got them.'

Before getting to them I will deal with a matter outstanding from Saturday. where I think I mentioned that Tammy had to go back to the vet today.  We were not that optimistic about the outcome as most of the easy options had been ruled out.  However it turns out her problem was a couple of rotten molars which the vet has removed and he reckons she should be OK.  She's currently a bit dopey but we are expecting dancing dog back in a short while.

So after dropping Tammy off at the vet's (the excellent Ready Vet practise) we headed out to Hastie's Swamp on the outskirts of Atherton.  As we pulled up we could hear a lot of bird calls.

 I have no real idea how many Plumed Whistling Ducks there were there, but have put a guess of 5,000 into eBird.  (I have since rationalised this by calculating the flock covering 500m, and being 10 birds deep @ 1m per duck.) I also had no idea of the Magpie geese,  There were less of them - say 2,000.

 Here is an overview of both species.

 More Magpie Geese flew in....

 .. as did Plumed Whistling Ducks.

 Here is a close up of a Plumed Whistling Duck: note the light brown head and particularly the pink legs.  The bills are also allegedly pink, but many of them seemed to be patchy.  We couldn't spot a Wandering Whistling Duck amongst the horde.

 For fairness here are a couple of Magpie Geese.

We eventually left to do a leg along Danbulla Rd on the Northern side of Lake Tinnaroo.  We went the longer way round to check out the Tolga Woodworks (excellent - certainly comparable with the Bungendore Woodworks.  On the way I noticed this place - a nice play on the institution at Longreach, to be looked at in a few weeks.

 Here is one part of the Lake, with the hills in the background.  Near here we spotted a Victoria's Riflebird a lifer and (I think my first Bird of Paradise).

Frances spotted this facility in one of the campsites - note the hook to haul up the shower.

 That campground also featured some planted Callistemons which were proving very attractive to honeyeaters and lorikeets.  In one case the ground under the bush was covered in flower parts.

Some fungus on the Lake Eumaloo walk

 Here is Lake Eumaloo.  Geologically this is a maar - a crater within a crater.

While we were looking at this, 2 male Ulysses butterflies (Papilio ulysses) fluttered by.  I am not sure if we have ever seen them before but they were absolutely magnificent.  They kept on flying so no photo (yet).

Our final stroll was the Mobo Creek Crater walk. It turns out it isn't a crater at all but merely where the creek has swung around a basalt outcrop.  This image shows the creek, with some tall tree ferns catching the sun in the distance.

As we got back to the car a Grey-headed Robin flew across the road: another lifer.

An attraction of the area is the Cathedral Fig.  This really is a huge tree and the roots do look a bit like the buttresses of cathedrals.

Back home the first Bar-shouldered Dove of the trip turned up to check us out.

 We have started to sort out the garden birds, many of which seem to find good food in the Coral Tree (Erythina sp.).

 This white Bauhinia sp. just looks nice.

• Bird of the Day: The flock category was an easy win for Plumed Whistling Duck.  In the individual awards, I gave the medal to Victoria's Riflebird, an endemic to the area.  Olive-backed Sunbird and Spectacled Monarch was a strong contender.
• Vegetation of the day:  Cathedral Fig!
• Memorable moment: Ulysses butterflies.  (It was memorable, but with a 14 hour lag as I didn't recall it until the next morning!).
• Comment of the day:  I asked a guy wearing a black shirt with a yellow and red logo where in Super Cheap Auto I could find an extension cord.  His response was "I don't work here", and indeed on looking closer the logo was indeed quite different!
• Pie of the day: None eaten
• Troppo moment of the day.  The shower cubicle!

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