Category: tropical rainforest

Mating Cassowaries, May 2012

Christina

This morning we had the privilege to observe cassowaries mating.

First the female sits down, then the male behind her, shuffling closer and closer.

It looks rather clumsy and it is impossible to tell whether he was successful, too many long feathers obscuring the view…

Male cassowaries, as the other ratites, have a pseudo-penis, which may make mating easier.

The adult birds were very relaxed, they did not even mind one of the chicks stepping over the female’s neck while she was sitting down for mating!

We watched the same pair mating in almost the same spot two years ago; maybe the female prefers the soft grass to a prickly forest floor and enjoys the ” privacy” of a Heliconia leaf over her head.

We didn’t expect the cassowaries to be in mating mood as yet, he usually looks after the chicks a bit longer.

What triggers the mating behaviour?

It has been a very good season with plenty of food and he only had to share it with 2 chicks, having lost the other 3 very early after hatching. He also recovered very well from a deep wound to his left heel. He does not look as exhausted and appears to be in better condition than in previous years.

I am writing this blog on our front veranda, while cassowary dad and the 2 chicks are strolling past, what a fantastic place to be!

Frogs, Frogs, Frogs, April 2012

Christina

It appears the wet season is over; it was a strange one this time: mostly very dry, then more than 1000mm in March and April.

During the few wetter nights in October and December, we had dozens of Dainty Green Tree Frogs (Litoria gracilenta) sitting in the shrubs and Heliconias around the pond, calling all night and laying many clutches of eggs.

One night more  Common Tree Frogs (Litoria caerulea) than ever  called and mated

and a few Northern Barred Frogs (Mixophyes coggeri) joined the chorus.

frogs

There were so many frogs everywhere, that this one only found a place to sit on top of another frog:

Now that it is drier, it is the time of the Barred Frogs:

They do not like flooding rains, laying their eggs not into the water, but propelling  them onto rocks along the creek and our pond with their hindlegs. The tadpoles hatch after about a week and drop into the water, where they grow into very large (50-60mm) tadpoles.  We have seen an adult frog, that was 120mm long. They spend their lives on the forest floor, being perfectly camouflaged among the leaf litter. They do not hop away when approached and we have to manually move the odd one sitting in the driveway.

The wet season has arrived! March 2012

Christina

The wet season has finally arrived in Kuranda! We had more than 400mm of rain since Friday, our little creek is 1 metre higher than normally and the nearby Barron Falls are at their best since January 2007.
It will be some time before the cassowaries come visiting us again, their preferred creek crossing is 2 metres under water.
The red-necked crakes (Rallina tricolor) are enjoying the wet, being more active all over the forest and garden during daylight hours, so they are much easier to observe. Their 3 chicks, little black fluff-balls on long, skinny legs only 3 weeks ago, are now almost as big as the parents.
This yellow-spotted honeyeater (Meliphaga notata) found a dry spot for the night:

Common tree snake hatchling (Dendrelaphis punctulatus) in the rain:

Barron Falls on Monday, 19/03/2012:[

Visiting Cassowary, March 2012

Christina

February 2012

The resident cassowary with his 2 three months old chicks is visiting almost daily to feed on the many native fruits which are available at the moment. They particularly like the fruits of the native Black Palm (Normanby normanbia) , native Ginger (Alpinia coerulea) and the exotic Queen Palm (Syagrum romanzoffia).

This season’s chicks seem feistier than usual, they are already chasing the red-legged pademelons and our male brush-turkey, who has his mound just behind our pond.

The brush-turkey always acts very nervously when the cassowaries are here, torn between fight and flight.

I do not think that the cassowaries pose a threat to the brush-turkey’s brood, but the turkey has every reason to discourage the lace monitors (Varanus varius) from coming too close – they would dig out and eat the eggs.

He vehemently defends the area around his mound, chasing the goannas across the garden into the forest, throwing dirt and mulch at them and  the lizards mostly end up clinging to a tree out of the turkey’s reach.

This one lost the tip of its tail in an earlier incident:

cassowary chick chasing brush turkey: