Daintree Valley

New Year Mangoes!

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 01:47:00 +0000

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.

Spot the Proper Frog!

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:28:00 +0000

A 'plunk' on the coffee table just now and there was a Giant White-lipped Tree Frog. It's wonderful to know that these lovely creatures are thriving in the rainforest - we're hearing them all the time and often find them in the house (see our Blog archive). Almost tripped over one last night sitting in the middle of the office floor - lucky I'd turned the light on!

Brown Cuckoo-Dove

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 02:46:00 +0000

Whew, what a strange year it's been - normally-busy times have been quiet yet November, usually a slow month, has been our second-busiest Nov in Daintree Valley Haven's 11 years so the Blog has taken a back seat for the past few weeks.

Here's one of our regular residents, a Brown Cuckoo-Dove (also known as a Long-tailed Pigeon).

The obstacle course

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:29:00 +0000

Yesterday evening we heard a loud crrraasshh nearby - quite a common sound in the rainforest as the trunks or branches of older trees sometimes rot away sending them crashing down (self-pruning we call it!) - so we didn't think too much about it until we saw guests who had gone into Daintree Village for dinner walking up the drive in the pitch dark. They said a tree was blocking the way so they'd left their car the other side.

Peter took the tractor down but a) it was too dark to see much and b) the trunk he did see was too big for the tractor to move. So early this morning we found it was actually two huge trees which had brought down a lot of other folliage and vines too. Out with the chainsaw ... which instantly got jammed into the trunk. Out with the tractor to try and move it a little so Peter could get the chainsaw free ... to find the tractor and the spare drum were both out of diesel! So a 40km round trip into Mossman for fuel.

But a happy ending with a clear driveway again - thank heavens for tractors!

Wallaby Mum

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:37:00 +0000

We wandered out of the kitchen a few minutes ago and this cute sight was awaiting us! Peter ducked back for the camera but there was no hurry as Mum and her joey calmly carried on feeding on the grass and, as you can see in her paws, Mum was into one of the dropped Star Apples.

It looks like the family is happy to stay around the house for a while - see Dad in my post the other day. In fact yesterday when I was nursing a stunned Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher (see my Facebook Page post - www.facebook.com/daintreevalleyhaven) after it had flown into a window I looked up to see him watching the proceedings which, happily, did end happily!

(I'm trying not to duplicate too many posts on Blog and Facebook!)

What a difference a few days make

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 06:49:00 +0000

Such beautiful weather again after a few very unusually-wet October days (17 inches of rain) following a VERY dry couple of months the dam is now full to the brim and the spillway running over. Lovely! Early in the year we had so much rain a huge section of the dam wall was washed away and we lost most of the water - took a huge excavator 7 hours to repair. We thought we'd have to wait till the official wet season at the beginning of next year before it refilled and now look at it! This is the view from Sunbird Sanctuary and all three bungalows now have lovely water-views again.

We took a run up to Cape Tribulation this morning and it was so nice to see the rainforest looking so vibrant against the clear blue sky! But hardly any visitors around and we almost had the road and the ferry to ourselves. Sadly the media has done it again and scared everyone away with doom and gloom stories of 'all the water and floods in north Queensland' ... !!!

Sunbird babies!

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 00:45:00 +0000

For the first time this morning we're watching Mum feeding her babies (or perhaps baby as we're not sure if she laid another egg) which must have hatched overnight - yesterday she was still sitting in the nest.

It's now day 29 since she started building. I'll keep you posted on progress! (There are far too many Butcherbirds around for our liking so we're forever chasing them away.)

The face at the window

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:10:00 +0000

Looked out of the bedroom window the other day and found I was being observed by a little Northern Swamp Wallaby!

Got the camera and went outside and he (I, er, could see it was a 'he'!) calmly watched me for a while and then went back to munching on some leaves.

Guests often spot one or two of them on our walking track although sometimes they hide in the long grass until they get close and then suddenly take off through the bush ... a few folks have had the fright of their lives 'cos they can't see what they've disturbed!

We don't have many fruits in season at the moment - only some white Star Apples - but later on when we'll hopefully have bumper crops of lychees, mangoes and carambolas (star fruit) the wallabies will have a ball eating the dropped fruits.

FALSE ALARM!

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 02:01:00 +0000

Yesterday we were so upset to think we had lost our little Sunbird - and today she's back again and happily sitting in her nest! Sometimes they disappear for a few days before they are ready to lay their eggs but it had worried us that there was one egg and no sign of Mum!

Sad news

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:45:00 +0000

It appears our worst fears may have happened. Our little Sunbird has been missing for the past few days and on checking her nest this morning we found a single, cold, little egg. And there has been a Black Butcherbird hanging around which we have tried to chase away whenever we could. However ...

As I said earlier, there really only is so much you can do to give Nature a hand ...

Giving nature a hand - day 9

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 07:10:00 +0000

At last, completion day. For a while we thought she'd really lost the plot as the nest was getting bigger but there was no actual nesting hole!

A couple of days ago I caught sight of her flying in with a HUGE white feather, about twice as long as her, and it was fascinating to watch her break it down and stuff it inside as a nice soft lining for her nest.

Now we just wait until she lays her eggs - usually 1 or 2.

Giving nature a hand - Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 05:24:00 +0000

Not much progress during Day 3 but it's now the afternoon of Day 4.

Who's watching who?!

Giving nature a helping hand - Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 06:10:00 +0000

Much industrious to-ing and fro-ing today and this is Mrs Sunbird's nest at 4pm on Day 2!

Giving Nature a helping hand

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 01:32:00 +0000

Springtime here and our beautiful tiny Sunbirds are in a nesting frenzy and have decided that an insect-screen is the perfect spot for their suspended nest. The first we knew was seeing the pile of 'first attempts' on our patio this morning. The holes in the screen are just too tiny so, as we've done before, we poked a paperclip through the mesh and draped some of the dropped bits over it to give her a start. I think she was a bit puzzled at first but building is now proceeding at a furious pace! Now we'll just hope she stays safe - Black Butcherbirds are a terrible menace, but there's only so much you can do to help Nature. I'll keep posting progress reports!

Faster Mum!

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 05:30:00 +0000

We have daily sightings of these long-time resident, fresh water, Saw-shelled Turtles in the dam. They usually dive into the water as you approach but just now I was able to creep a little closer and snap this cute family photo!

Stingless Bees

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 02:02:00 +0000

I've just been having a clean-up in the shed and unearthed the old electric BBQ grill from under an old towel and was stunned to find it being used as a hive by a colony of tiny stingless native bees! We often see tiny openings in buildings and old trees with dozens of the little creatures flying in and out but have never seen what the hive looks like inside. Now, having Googled (as you do!) I find that the larger round globules are the honey-pots which, when you squeeze, emit a small amount of rather runny mildly-sweet honey - you can just see them stuck to the standing grill at the back. I think the mass in the middle may be the pollen pots but I'm not sure.

These bees do not produce a lot of honey so could not be used commercially, however they are wonderful pollinators for gardens. So I've carefully replaced the top of the grill and the old towel and the bees are heading back in droves!

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 23:35:00 +0000

Hi Everyone - as you may have noticed I haven't been blogging much lately. As we get further into our busiest visitor season (and coping with a few health issues) I'll be concentrating more on our Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/daintreevalleyhaven) and posting anything interesting there instead. At the moment my Blog posts are automatically duplicated there anyway. So I hope you'll visit our Page and hopefully 'like' us there if you'd like to keep current with happenings in the Daintree Valley!

Grass spiders

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:56:00 +0000

Some mornings the grass is covered with these little spider webs which really show up with the dew on them. They're made by harmless little grass spiders although I've no idea what they're called other than that I gather they are from the family agelenidae which are funnel-weaving spiders - happily no relation to the highly venomous Funnel Web Spider which is of the family hexatheloidae.

Another butterfly

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 00:20:00 +0000

As promised - this is another common tropical species, a Union Jack (delias mysis), and yesterday this one was fluttering around the Caliandra bush behind one of the bungalows, 'Sunbird Sanctuary'. It's a little fuzzy I'm afraid.

Red Lacewing Butterfly

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 08:00:00 +0000

So many butterflies! So many different species seldom seen here before, like this beautiful Red Lacewing (cethosia cydippe) which we are now seeing all over the property. I took this shot this morning alongside our walking track - I'll post some other varieties over the next day or so. A real kaleidescope of colours in the gardens and on our walking trails!

Trees

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 22:51:00 +0000

Such beautiful light through the trees on these lovely early-winter afternoons.

The trunks in the foreground are a couple of our huge very old mango trees which hopefully will start to blossom in the next month or two. Two years ago we had the biggest crop ever - last year we had just ONE fruit ... and something ate it before we could pick it!

Fruits

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Fri, 27 May 2011 23:07:00 +0000

Not much in the way of ripe fruits at the moment although several are 'in the pipeline'. This is a young Soursop - related to the Custard Apple (also known as the Sweetsop) - they grow on the trunk and it's always a battle to get the ripe ones before the Flying Foxes do!

The Jakfruits (which we don't like anyway!) are not doing well after such a wet season but the Malay Apples are in full blossom and the Honeyeaters are going wild. Quite a few bunches of green bananas coming on and after Cyclone Yasi devastated much of Queensland's banana crop they are hugely expensive in the shops so we're looking forward to having our own lovely sweet Ducasse bananas again. The Limes and Lemonade fruits are almost finished now but there are a few Carambolas (Star Fruit) and yellow Passionfruit around.

Orange Cruiser

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Mon, 16 May 2011 22:59:00 +0000

We never imagined a month ago that we would be praying for rain! But after only 12mm (half an inch) in 4 weeks the earth was bone dry and we've been running the sprinklers every day. But last night some lovely gentle showers brought 7mm so all is fresh and green again, the dust on the road has settled and the butterflies, like this Orange Cruiser, are out in force again. More showers forecast so it might be a catch-up-with-bookwork day!

Tree Frogs

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Wed, 11 May 2011 01:37:00 +0000

It's been a while since we've had a visit from a Giant (or White-lipped) Tree Frog and this big guy spent the weekend on one of our front windows. You can just see the white lip. We love these guys 'tho they have a loud croak - especially if they get inside a downpipe from the gutter!

Orange-footed Scrub Fowl

noreply@blogger.com (Daphne) — Sun, 08 May 2011 07:59:00 +0000

We call these resident birds "the Roosters" 'cos they make the most amazing raucous call - usually outside the bedroom window in the early hours! There were two of them feeding on fallen Carambolas (also called 5-Corner or Star Fruit) this afternoon and we think they may be the offspring of our previously-resident adults as they are still quite small - and quite tame.

They build up a huge pile of dead leaves for their nest - sometimes up to 1.5 metres (about 4-5 feet) high - and they regulate the inner temperature by rearranging the leaves and digging holes in the pile to control the airflow - amazing.