Townsville is now getting back on line after a touch up with category 2
Tropical Cyclone Tessi in the early hours of Sunday morning, which brought
winds of 110 km / hr, uprooted trees and generally shredded gardens and
street trees, then dumped 460mm of rain in 24 hours (that's about 18 inches
in the old money). There is localised flooding and landslips in some parts
of the city; the highway north to Cairns is open but the highway to the
south is cut by flood waters.
The sun is shining again but many suburbs are still without power - I live
near the airport so our suburb rarely loses power and I was fortunate
enough to put the washing machine on this morning.
The birds: during the heavy rains the usual garden birds braved the
elements to peck for food around the bird table so we pulled away fallen
branches to clear a space and left bird seed for waterlooged Peaceful
Doves, Zebra Finches and Sparrows; the White-gaped and Brown Honeyeaters
seem to have survived okay; peewees and Torresian Crows are virtually
indestructible, as are Masked Lapwings. No sign of Bush Stone-curlews which
have gone to ground; figbirds; Rainbow Bee-eaters and Rainbow Lorikeets
have taken to the skies again; Ibis are out scavenging; but I haven't heard
any Magpie Geese, Whistling Ducks or Red-tailed Black cockatoos, and
surprisingly there are few raptors about.
Those subscribers who have visited Paluma at the top of the range will be
interested to know that the people running Ivy Cottage tearooms reported
that the rainforest birds disappeared early on Sunday, so birds obviously
know more about weather reporting than we mere mortals.
Cheers everyone
Alex Appleman
Townsville,
North Queensland.
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