Magpie Geese

An unusual sound in the valley this morning - the honking of geese.  And there, flying above Stewart Creek, was a flock of Magpie Geese.  Although they are not rare birds they are certainly not a frequent sight here.  No chance to grab the camera so this is a cheating-shot off the internet!

Bar-shouldered Dove

On my way to pick the last of the Lychees (after the Rainbow Lorikeets have just about stripped all the trees!) three Bar-shouldered Doves flew up into a tree, so I just managed to snap this one.  Mostly we see them foraging on the ground.

White-necked Heron

Despite some welcome showers in the past week the wetlands-dam is now rapidly drying out, to the delight of many water-birds.  This White-necked Heron was lunching on tadpoles in the shallow water today (and we really hope they're cane-toad tadpoles!) - with the neck-markings it looks like a juvenile.

 

Dinner!

Our guests receive a daily complimentary breakfast basket, delivered to their bungalows each afternoon, but if they haven't brought any food supplies with them we have a small menu of self-cook meals.  This is a special tray I made up for folks celebrating a special anniversary - delicious wild-caught Barramundi fish (it would have to be one of the best-tasting fish in the world!), home-grown bush-lemon, mixed salad, semi-cooked jacket potatoes, my home-made carrot cake, plus a bottle of Wine Men of Gotham chardonnay.  (Total cost for two people AU$52)

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A sad wallaby tale

A month ago I posted a photo of a little Swamp Wallaby with a badly-wounded 'elbow' outside the office.  The next time we saw him he was looking very sick and the wound had swelled up, but a few days later there he was again, swelling had gone down and he was looking much better.  Today on their walk our guests found him in a very, very bad way and close to the end so very sadly we put him out of his obvious agony.  On a happier note his 'missus' and her fast-growing joey are now regular visitors to the bungalows much to the joy of everyone, especially the folks from overseas.  This is not our 'current' family but one I snapped a while ago.

Golden Whistler

It's lovely to see so many birds returning to the valley and this afternoon I spent an hour or so wandering around the gardens with the camera.  Spotted this 'new' (for me) bird next to one of the bungalows and I am fairly sure it is a Golden Whistler, probably a female juvenile.   (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong).  We have often seen Grey Whistlers here but I read that the Golden species normally inhabits higher rainforest although they sometimes come down to the coastal rainforest during winter.

... and here comes the Jade Vine

More and more of the Flame of the Forest is starting to bloom and now we are getting glimpses of aquamarine as the Jade Vine starts to open up.  Both vines are well intermingled so it promises to be a beautiful display soon.  In the next few weeks we should start to see more and more species of birds as spring approaches - already dozens of Rainbow Bee-eaters are having a great time swooping over the wetlands-dam chasing insects.

Return of the Flame

A first glimpse of red amongst the trees in front of the house and there are the first bracts of this year's Flame of the Forest Vine ... and also the first as-yet-unopened flowers of the beautiful Jade Vine.  Both of these tropical vines have hundreds of flowers coming on so it promises to be a really spectacular display this year, much to the delight of our guests - already lots of photos taken!

Dawn Chorus

The early-morning birds have been fairly quiet lately with our cool winter mornings but at dawn this morning it sounded like an "Oriole Convention" - several of our Yellow Orioles with their amazingly varied calls, creating an incredible chorus in the trees outside our bedroom.  I've just found this lovely little track on YouTube - just imagine the sound of half a dozen or so of them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGyol_Dc3JA

Can't believe it's 5 months since my last blog in February!  Where has this year gone to?

It's been a roller-coaster since then as at the end of February Peter had a mild heart attack on our NZ cruise and we ended up in Auckland for 3 weeks where he underwent a (thankfully, hugely successful!) quadruple bypass.   Fit as a fiddle now apart from a cracked rib from tripping over a step!  Mind you he now has a new cardiologist as his last one, just before we went on holiday, said he was so happy with him not to come back for another 5 years!!!

Also a hugely successful year for Daintree Valley Haven - after several quiet years this one is storming along with loads of delightful guests.  Really keeping our noses to the grindstone!

As a result I've been mainly concentrating on our Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/daintreevalleyhaven) however we have been asked to 'keep blogging' by guests who are not 'into' Facebook so I'll endeavour to find time to get the camera snapping again for some more, hopefully, interesting Daintree images.

This little fellow is a male Northern Swamp Wallaby which, with Mum and Joey, are currently often seen around the house and the cabins - this was taken from the office window a couple of weeks ago.  You can just see on his left 'elbow' a nasty red wound which, a few days later, had swelled to an enormous size and he had lost all condition and we really thought he was doomed.  We were absolutely thrilled the other morning to see him again (outside the office) looking very healthy and with the wound looking much better.

So a couple of good-news stories to start the blog rolling again!

Cockatoos and Rambutans

A huge crop of rambutans this year ....

And don't the Sulphur-crested Cockatoos love them!:-

Grasshopper

Quite a striking Grasshopper at the front of the house this morning.  Yes, they eat the vegetation but we have soooo much to spare that they are welcome to help themselves!

Hot and humid here now with some good storms to cool things off.  Thank goodness our air-conditioners in the bedroom and office have now been repaired - thanks Josh!

New Year Mangoes!

Once again the Blog has been on the backburner for a while - it's been a very busy couple of months at Daintree Valley Haven ... and we just cannot believe that another year is down the gurgler!

After a very poor year for fruit last year - everything was out of kilter with the extreme weather patterns - at last we have a wonderful crop of mangoes, our most favourite fruit of all.  They are R2E2 variety and as you can see are enormous with a delicious soft sweet flesh.

And after not a single rambutan last year now all our trees are loaded with still-green fruit, which we hope the birds and flying foxes will leave alone for a while as they have to ripen on the tree.  Same for the carambolas and yellow passionfruit which are also ripening.