News from Coquette point

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Hello from Coquette Point,

While Sydney is experience anticyclones and the Philippines the worst floods in living memory the weather in North Queensland has been perfect. Nights of 16 to 18 degrees and days in the mid 20’s with cloudless skies and gentle sea breezes, where else would you live?

Enjoying the weather has been tempered with the possibility of a 90 site, 240 bed RV Park being constructed on Lot 27V across the road from me at Coquette Point.

The objections to the EPA closed on Tuesday the 7th August, however, if you are concerned about the development and the impact it may have on the wildlife at Coquette Point, particularly on cassowaries, see attached map, you can write a letter to the editor of the Innisfail Advocate and or the Cairns Post expressing you concerns. Please phone me on 0740612687 for more details.

The warm days have been the stimulus for praying mantis to hatch. When I checked on the, ootheca,( egg sack),  only one mantis was left to emerge and I captured a photo of it as it scrambled out into the bright sunshine. Dozens of other baby mantises swarmed on the rough leaves of the pineapple plant.

As I watched the predators arrived, predatory flies including the dolichopodid fly and one of my little friends, a jumping spider.

The Jumping spider soon caught a baby mantid and over the next hour it sucked the flesh from the mantid’s body and left only the outer skeleton.

The meal finished Jumping Spider moved on. Life is a battlefield!   

Later in the day my attention was drawn to the loud croaking of a frog in distress. Gertrude the green tree snake had crawled up a down pipe and caught a frog.

I tried to pull her out but she would not budge and with a frog in her mouth she wrapped her tail around my finger, thinking she had caught another meal. A case of her eyes too big for her belly. I untangled my finger with difficulty and left her to the frog-meal.

The first of the shorebird migratory birds has arrived for this season and this little stint has been fishing on the beach all week. Out on Crocodile Rocks Darter and Greater Egret command a strategic fishing position overlooking the mangroves.

Stint

Darter and Greater Egret

I walked down to the beach early the other morning thinking I would photograph the sunrise and to my surprise Cassowary ‘Dot’ appeared out of the mangroves and looked at me wondering what I was doing on the beach so early in the morning.

On my way back to the house I saw Emerald Dove getting his breakfast and heard the little Dwarf Eastern Tree Frog calling for rain.  I forgot to photograph the sunrise.

Dwarf Eastern Tree-frog.

I downloaded the camera from the pig cage and was surprised to see the number of animals that walked in and out of the cage as it has been set open all week.  Tonight I have closed it and hope to catch the two pigs that have been having a free feed all week.

The irresponsible use of pig cages can pose a real danger to wildlife.

I have not been successful in obtaining a photo of Cassowary ‘Little Dad’ and his chicks however the O’Brian’s are seeing them regularly and had an incident this week when ‘Little Dad’ attacked their car.

He threw himself at the car ripping off the flicker light on the side of the car, scratching the paintwork and twisting the rear vision mirror.  John has now covered the mirrors so he cannot see his reflection. ‘Little Dad’ is a particularly successful cassowary dad and this behaviour demonstrates how dangerous a cassowary can be when protecting their young.

I took a photo of Little Dad on the 18.3.11 when he was pealing bananas, from the QPWS (Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service) supplementary feed station, to feed his chicks Don and Q. John told me that the new chicks were coloured golden with black stripes.

Lots of exciting news from the inshore Cassowary Coast Region waters with a humpback whale nursing a calf in Boat Bay,( Russell has video and am looking forward to seeing it).

Female humpback whale with calf at Boat Bay (Photo taken by Russell Constable on Aug 5 while on a whale watching trip with Mission Beach Charters)

Libby reports snub-nosed dolphin off Flying Fish Point and Turtles, Dugong and more whales have been sighted off the mouth of the Johnstone River.

A very happy birthday to Connie Symons. Connie is one of our CCR’s (Cassowary Coast Region) stalwart volunteers, cutting up fruit over the last eighteen months for the cassowary supplementary feed stations and always around when work has to be done planting trees. If you want a job done ask a busy person. 

Cheers for now Yvonne C.

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Hello from the other end of Coquette Point,  No cassowary photos from me this time... cameras playing up a bit.

Jesse, the big female with the curvy helmet, has been through our yard daily for about a week, and there is no sign of the young dad (that's what I call him). It's like a changing of the guard, you could say. I can't wait to see the new chicks, if they make it up this far. 

During the week I visited the Atherton Tablelands and stopped near the Beatrice River. Under a rock, I found my first ever wild scorpion.  I got some nice close ups of (what I think is a) rainforest scorpion Liocheles sp. before leaving it in peace.

It's interesting (to me anyway) that constellation Scorpius is very large and bright in the night sky atm (southwestern sky 8-10pm).

Click for image source

According to one version of Greek mythology, Orion was cruel to animals and boasted to goddess Artemis that he would kill every animal on earth.

 Artemis sent a scorpion to stop Orion, and in the fierce battle that followed, Orion was killed.   Zeus saw the contest and decided to raise the scorpion to the sky as symbol of what will happen if you are boastful and cruel to animals. Orion also got a gig in the night sky, but he always appears to be going away from the scorpion. 

Thanks for your weekly news and photos Yvonne. Always great to read. 

Regards  Bill Farnsworth
296 Coquette Point Rd  

Stay on CCA (Cassowary Coast Alliance) website   or Return to Mission Beach Cassowaries