Gosh, it's been cold at night lately, but the daytime birding is still
pretty special. Not just birding either - and I hope I won't be getting into
trouble with anyone if I include some mammals in this posting.
Trevor & Kym Ford were here for a couple of days last week, and along with
around 50 bird spp during an extremely lazy breakfast (including Fan-tailed
Cuckoo, Australian Hobby, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater, Azure Kingfisher), we
were all treated to a wonderful performance by a platypus that just didn't
seem to want to call it a night. It appeared on schedule at around 7.30am,
which has been the case for a few weeks now, and dived, floated, swam,
disappeared, reappeared and so as it usually does for maybe 30 minutes or
so. The platypus on this morning (Thursday) was a fair bit bigger than one
that we've been watching lately, and maybe it has different habits, because
it stayed around on and off until 10.30am, that is for around two hours!
Which I suppose was one of the reasons why breakfast got so long and lazy.
It was quite a spectacle. Over the years we've seen platypus at all times of
the day - even noon, usually when it's a little rainy or overcast. But this
was crisp and clear. Then to cap it all he (or she) turned up again the next
day while Eileen and I were having a late lunch on the verandah at about
1.30pm - and cruised and fed in front of us for about an hour. Again, a
bright and clear day. Such a special experience and a feeling of privilege
to just watch quietly while the rest of the world goes by on its busy way.
Good for the soul!
I interrupted the reverie long enough to take a couple of photos of the
Thursday platypus, one of which is now up on the Abberton website
(http://www.abberton.org) along with a shot of a koala which Eileen spotted
in a roadside tree the previous day, and for good measure some new bird
photos - including the Fan-tailed Cuckoo and a few other of our recent
visitors here.
Bill Jolly
"Abberton",
Lockyer Valley, Queensland.
Visit our website at http://www.abberton.org
Email:
Ph: (+61) 7 4697 6111 Fax: (+61) 7 4697 6056
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