Home to strange creatures and many birds the rain forest canopy, its floor and streams are full of surprises, some visible to the naked eye, others not. We walked through the graded paths, stroked by the ferns which reached out, almost tempted to pluck the pendulous berries of red of the strangely named "walking stick palm" that was the only shot of deep red in a sea of green, avoiding the stinging nettle tree which is notorious for not being kind. We looked up and we looked down, we paddled in streams and on one occasion fell in looking for the crayfish, we saw the amazing front door of a trap door spider made with mucous and mud and with a perfect hinge in silk - an undisputed "keep out" to the world at large. We sat tired to soak in a view and then soak in the sun after the coolness of the forest.
Mushrooms having a field day on a mossy branch
The door to a trap door spider's nest
The crimson Rosellas on our balcony
The Eastern yellow Robin
The Eastern Whip bird
A delicate flower that C and I spotted independently of each other
A king parrot in the canopy
On open grass we saw many pademelons, a smaller form of wallaby, foraging in the grass. Bandicoots and other smaller rodents scurried around.
The glow worms lit up a whole bank and their lights were reflected in the stream below. They were mesmerising enough that I forgot to take a picture so here is David Attenborough with his little clip.
The birds are what we really loved to listen to and watch and we very much enjoyed spotting them around the retreat and in the forest. Not always easy to see, their calls and songs, their only give aways.
A bower
The door to a trap door spider's nest
The glow worms lit up a whole bank and their lights were reflected in the stream below. They were mesmerising enough that I forgot to take a picture so here is David Attenborough with his little clip.
The birds are what we really loved to listen to and watch and we very much enjoyed spotting them around the retreat and in the forest. Not always easy to see, their calls and songs, their only give aways.
The crimson rosellas were astoundingly bright and colourful and tame enough to come to our balcony. The Australian King Parrots with their royal red heads and their body of green occasionally high in the branches above our heads. The pied currawong with its unmistakable song - red browed finches with their red mask like spiderman across their eyes. The wonderfully named Wonga Pigeon with its patterned belly. A rare sighting of a noisy Pitta and of an Albert's Lyrebird the latter known to do a dance close to a Spanish Flamenco to attract its mate. The jovial and flashy Eastern Yellow Robin, the Log Runners scurrying around in the undergrowth and the unmistakable whip bird with its whip whip call. Too many perhaps to mention them all but the Regent bower bird is one which is so memorable with its fiery yellow on its body and the impressive bowers that they form to attract their women folk.
Picture from Graeme Chapman
A bower
Lying in the ground in areas which are a little secluded and protected they will collect "treasures" for their women, Bic pens, bottle tops, straws and blue feathers. What a welcome to a wife.
I am madly in love with the collection of treasures. What fascinating creatures! Which bird is it that does this, the Bower?
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