Apologies for no daily update to the Blog, unfortunately we don't have internet access.  The nearby MacDonalds has Wifi so I am going to have to swallow my pride or something similar and patronise one of my most despised institutions.  If you are wanting to contact me in any way, then please email as normal and eventually we will get back to you. We want to hear from you!

Well, what a fabulous place Northern Queensland is.  It is like living in a zoo, animals everywhere, magnificent scenery and lonely beaches just yards from town, mountains, rain forests and green green grass! It's like Florida with scenery and greenery, but of course deserted in comparison. There are no drawbacks except beer is £30 + for a case and as an example a chocolate bar costs nearly £3 and a bunch of bananas is almost too expensive to even contemplate…….. 

We share the house with Tree Frogs……. yes literally and it was an excitement for Jenny to discover one on the wardrobe door as she hung her clothes and apparently the one that jumped in to the sink while she was doing her hair made her jump too. They are small Brown Tree Frogs, but the "pet" Green Tree Frog that lives with us on the balcony is 4 times the size, bright green and has a mouth as big as mine…… well almost , but you get the picture. He just sits and stares at you.

There are butterflies as big as saucers, gliding too and fro constantly, these are bird-wing butterflies and are black with vibrant iridescent blues and greens that catch the light as they flutter by.  All this to a backdrop of exotic bird calls that mesmerise me, all of a sudden you will catch a glimpse of yet another species that is  new  to me. Zebra Finches live on the grass verges outside the house and we have seen them almost every time we have walked by.

On Sunday we had our first glimpse of a Kingfisher species.  The Forest Kingfisher is just one of the Australian Kingfishers that includes the Kookabura (haven't seen one yet surprisingly). barking owls are fascinating, a large owl specie with a bark like a Jack Russell Terrier! 

Amazingly, yesterday we went on a trip to Paluma with the Townsville Bird Group.  This is a "town" at the top of a hill 100k away.  It is in the Rain Forest and therefore  hosts lots of species which you don't get close to town here. Without listing everything we saw and photographed, the Victorias Rifle Bird, a species of Bird of Paradise was really special and, as you can see from the photographs, just amazing in every way.

This is a beautiful male.  He was coming down to fruit left out by a bird loving home owner. The Rifle Birds are members of the Bird of Paradise Family and you can see the "gorget" on the throat which he probably uses to display to his female, (pictured below). This species is very Dimorphic, the males and females being totally different.

 

Honeyeaters are a "group" of nectar and fruit eating birds with 20 species or more that are really common, beautiful and great to photograph. (We have them in the garden with us now as I write). This is  Macleay's Honeyeater.

 all of this was overshadowed by a bird that you could only dream of finding. A Cassowary!  The brother of one of the Townsville Bird Group worked on a Pineapple Farm, in it's self a fascinating place. Apparently the bird, a youngster, had become accustomed to the sound of vehicles close to the tracks that bordered the fields.  It had learned that the sound of a vehicle might mean a free offering of fruit.  We reached our destination a few hundred yards up a dirt track and over a river which we crossed in the 4×4's with some difficulty.  We stopped the car and climbed out, and there wandering in to view, right on cue was a Cassowary……. even the resident club members were excited and began to make sure that I knew how lucky I was, of course…….. I did……. probably the bird sighting of a lifetime!