The other day the leaves were stripped from a young grape vine I had planted
behind my house, and late every afternoon "my" brushtail possum gazes innocently
from her box in the leopard tree.
Leanne and I went for a stroll along the track from Jollys Lkt to Bombana NP
with a friend [who has an injured ankle yesterday]. Another dry day in SEQ. We
saw a pair of logrunners in the first rainforest patch [which meant a bit of
paper work since I have this tendancy to do an atlas sheet when I come across at
'species not listed'].
It was also nice to hear the accelerating call of a rose-crowned pigeon. It has
been a poor season for fruit doves year [presumably as a result of the drought],
so it was nice to have a full and frank discussion with a pair of wompoos where
the old forestry track cuts across. A spectacled monarch was flitting about,
and I managed to whistle a male golden whistler into a couple of metres of where
I was standing [I also managed to offend a pair of whipbirds in a thicket of
lantana - they love the stuff].
Leanne flushed a noisy pitta as we were heading back from our coffee break [got
a fresh batch of beans from Lakeland the other week], but for me, the zoological
highlight was coming across [what I believe was] a yellow-footed antechinus
perched about 30cm up the base of modest sized tree at mid-morning. [The last
time I saw one of these was back in the 80s when one poked around in my hair
before crawling down to the base of my bivi sac in the early hours of the
morning out on the Mistake range - perhaps it sensed the spotted quoll we found
lurking nearby]. Anyhow, I take it is unusual for antechinus to be out and
about during daylight hours, so it was nice to be able to have a good look at
the little chap without artificial illumination.
Regards, Laurie.
.
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