Spring is now officially two days away and our mango trees are in glorious bloom. Unfortunately mangoes don't do too well here and tend to suffer from various pests and diseases and usually most of the blossoms drop off before the fruit sets. We don't use any chemicals on them so just hope that a small crop will mature and that we salvage some for ourselves once the Spectacled Flying Foxes have had their fill!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Mangoes
Spring is now officially two days away and our mango trees are in glorious bloom. Unfortunately mangoes don't do too well here and tend to suffer from various pests and diseases and usually most of the blossoms drop off before the fruit sets. We don't use any chemicals on them so just hope that a small crop will mature and that we salvage some for ourselves once the Spectacled Flying Foxes have had their fill!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Springtime - almost

This Brown Cuckoo-Dove was busily feeding on rainforest fruits a couple of days ago and yesterday we saw and heard a couple of Double-eyed Fig Parrots in the Tahitian Apple tree outside the office - the one in which we had nesting parrots last year (see Archive - Double-eyed Fig Parrots). So fingers crossed that they may nest there again this season.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Peter's new toy!
Now to find out how ev

Sunday, August 23, 2009
A beautiful Sunday!

It reminded us again how lucky we are to live in Daintree with such a diverse range of destinations on our doorstep - rainforest, 'outback' Australia, farmland and fantastic beaches all within an hour's drive. And we shared our beautiful beach with (and I counted them) exactly twelve other people!
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Yellow Oriole

We've had a little rain over the past few days but much of the surrounding country is now starting to look dry and the grass is browning-off. Lovely and green at Daintree Valley Haven though as we are watering several hours a day.
Soon the local cattle-farmers will burn-off their grasslands to get rid of weeds ready for the new season's growth. It's an amazing sight as the cattle paddocks grow right up to the rainforest a little way up the valley hillsides but as soon as the fire reaches the treeline it immediately dies as the forest is so dense that there is no dry ground-cover under the canopy to feed the fire. So farmers and rainforest live happily together.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Honeyeaters
Monday, August 10, 2009
This frog's no mug ... !
Saturday, August 8, 2009
The forest is aflame

The vine only seems to produce seeds very occasionally and they are very slow to germinate. The photo shows another vine on the other side of the house which I started from one of the seeds about 10 years ago and it took about 5-6 years before flowering. Now look at it!
These are actually a number of bracts which just happen to have opened alongside each other - to the bottm right you can see another bract just starting to open - the vine it's attached to is the thick stem just to the right of the big bunch.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Egrets


A few minutes ago there were two Great Egrets (with the long neck) and this smaller Intermediate Egret, plus a White-Faced Heron which disappeared before I could take a photo.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
More colour in the rainforest
We have lots of them in the rainforest on our property - they actually adhere to other trees and can reach great heights - this one is probably about 10 meters high. Most of the year they are totally green but now their crowns are turning orange and will then change to red and produce their fruits. I'll try to take a few more shots as the colours change.
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