Hello from sunny Coquette Point,

The suspense leading up to the solar eclipse on the 14/11/12 could have been written by Alfred Hitchcock. Dark clouds gathered on the days before the event and the weather gurus held very little hope that we, on the far northern coast, would have clear skies to see the sun. Thousands left the coast and travelled hundreds of miles inland to find clear skies.  However, that was no excuse for us to miss out on a neighbourhood get together and breakfast-party.

At 5.30am on Wednesday I walked out of my mangrove hideaway and went up the range to join a gathering crowd for the viewing.

We were soon met by visitors from Sydney and Melbourne, some who camped overnight on the hill. At the top of the Moresby Range an even larger crowd of Innisfail people had gathered to see this once in a lifetime event.

The skies opened and heavy rain fell, no hope of seeing the sun we thought dejectedly.

 

 Someone shouted, "Look a rainbow."  Amazingly a rainbow had formed over Coquette Point and the end fell close to where we were standing. The girls ran to dance in the rainbow's hues. Suddenly the sun came out from behind the clouds and there it was in a golden crescent shaped by the moon.

 

We noticed the increasing dimness surrounding us and we left the rainbow to look to the east in time to view the total eclipse.

 

The blackness enclosed us, as black as night and from the youngest to the oldest we gasped in amazement as the magic of the moment filled us with joy and wonder. We saw earth's small moon block out the mighty sun's light and we joined the millions through the ages who felt the mysterious  power of the universe.

We had a dozen welding helmets and they sat like strange masks on our faces as we gazed skywards.

All to quickly the moon moved across the face of the sun and the sun's bright light removed the blackness just as quickly as the moon had plunged us into darkness.

 

 I ran to the osprey nest just in time to notice Osprey's head had fallen onto his breast ready to sleep as darkness had swooped over him.  The light returned and with a jerk he was awake again. We had all experienced a moment of earthly magic.

The ospreys have been displaying courtship behaviour and engaging in lots of preening  since they completed their nest building.

The scrub fowls have been working on their mound bringing in new material and calling loudly. The large males stand and crow and crow from well before sunrise and when the females see them they run away in freight emitting long gurgles.

Male scrub fowl crows loudly early in the morning.

 

 

The activity in the

scrub fowl's mound is happening at night -  so no photo yet.

 

The metallic starlings are still building new nests. Their building activity happens in the cool of the morning and again in the late afternoon: they are not stupid.

I watched as a great flock of metallic starlings descended on a tree. One bird pulled and pulled and cut and sawed with his beak until he had harvested the desired piece. It was a long vine and several birds descended on it and tried to steal his bounty. It resulted in a massive midair tug of war between four birds as they flew across the river towards the nest-sight all pulling and tugging at the vine.

 

While the metallic starlings are roaming free at Coquette Point, in Innisfail's CBD they are being hounded. The metallic starling is an extremely beautiful Australian native, migratory bird. - but it is not welcome in Innisfail. Apparently it is too hard to shift a couple of seats from under the starling's nesting trees near the Post Office or to hose the cement under the trees once or twice a week. Instead  the Council wants to shift the birds. Visitors have told me they see the  birds as an attraction to observe and photograph, a reason to stop in the CBD. One person said to me. "You can't be serious, who wants to shift them? These birds add colour and charm its part of what makes Innisfail special!"

 

I was delighted when Jeff and Helen Larsen joined me to take a look at the dying mangrove forest at Coquette Point. We have had strong, southerly winds over the last couple of weeks and a lot of scouring has shifted sand from the flats and washed it up on the high water mark. The action of wave and wind has exposed the roots of the old mangrove forest and we were able to examine the remains of the old forest some 300 metres out from the present high water mark.

Jeff and Helen examine small fish in the shallow pools left by the out-going tide.

 

Helen made a list of 18 species of birds seen on the walk, 17 of which were shorebirds.

Little Egret, Eastern Reef Egret, Beach Stone-curlew, Masked Lapwing, Pacific Golden Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Red-capped Plover, Australian Pied Oystercatcher, Common Sandpiper, Grey-tailed Tattler, Whimbrel, Black-tailed Godwit, Bar-tailed Godwit, Red-necked Stint, Little Tern, Gull-billed Tern, Crested Tern.

 

We met Ross and Pelican fishing on the beach.

 

A flock of 50 Gull-billed Terns were busy fishing over the estuary.

We saw several Little Terns and a number of adult and juvenile Crested Terns.

We watched as the juvenile Crested Terns fished for sand dollars in the wet sand, or at least we think they were.

The peace was broken as we saw two young

lads with four stroppy dogs walking on the Wet Tropics Esplanade. As they approached the Moresby Range National Park they let the dogs off the leads and they all disappeared into the Moresby Range National Park.

Soon we heard dogs barking and growling, they had bailed something up. We heard the barking coming from a distance in the National Park followed by whistling and shouting as the boys tried to get the dogs back. The whistling, calling, barking and growling continued for over an hour. We saw one of the boys come out of the forest with a lead in his had but no dog. We heard the dogs chasing and then growling, in kill-mode, high up in the Moresby Range National Park and both boys still calling.

We turned to go home as the tide was coming in when a local passed high up in the Wet Tropics Esplanade walking his dog without a lead. When he saw me he gave me the finger.

Many shorebirds fly thousands of miles to rest and breed on our shores. They face every danger in their journey but it seems now, because of the actions of a few,  the shorebirds can no longer find sanctuary on the shores of the Cassowary Coast.

Yvonne C.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello from Coquette Point,

On Thursday the Cassowary Coast Regional Council, CCRC, approved the reconfiguration of the Metricon marina development at 65 Coquette Point Road. This 89.26ha marina development abuts Ninds Creek, on the east and fronts the Johnstone River to the north. It is part of the old Ninds Creek Wetlands and as such the soils are acid sulphate. The site was cleared 100 years ago for agricultural and cattle farming purposes.

The reconfiguration of the 180 water lots, granted on Thursday (8.11.12), allows the water-front-landholders, within the marina, free access to the canal and lake without the restriction of an easement: just a bit of plan-tiding-up.

Preliminary approval for this development was made by the Administrator of the old Johnstone Shire Council in December 2007. The Administrator in 2007, agreed to Metricon's request, when the construction is completed Council will take over ownership of the park lands and marina and will maintain them. The water-lot-landholders will be charged a benefited rate fee of $2000 per year to cover these costs. As this development is complex with a lock system and a closed marina some have estimated the annual cost to CCRC ratepayer to be within the vicinity of one million per year; and that is without dredging. The amount CCRC will recover under the present arrangement is $360,000 per year, giving a ratepayer subsidy to the development, on these figures, of $640,000 per year.

A permissible change was negotiated with CCRC on the 2.12.2010 included in this was an extension to 13 March 2016 of the development approval.

 

This development was approved under the constraints of the FNQ2031 Coastal Plan!  "However, a development may not need to comply with the above policy outcomes outlined in the Part C of the Queensland Coastal plan, as there may be acceptable circumstances for not fully achieving the overall policy outcome......when the proposed development is a development commitment.' There has always been a backdoor: and so Sea Haven was approved.

 

One of the conditions placed on Metricon is that the development 'is in keeping with the predominant character of the locality'. I think that is amusing as the CCRC sewerage farm is across the road on the western side and mangroves, mosquitoes and mud line the entrance through Ninds Creek. 

 

Historically this land has always flooded, it is after all a wetland, and I understand Metricon plan to use the fill, from the canals and lakes, in part, to raise the height of the land some four metres. It is likely that this will act like a dam blocking flood waters, which naturally are released in an easterly flow into Ninds Creek, and it is thought this will extend the duration of floods in the surrounding urban area of Howe Street and ironically all road access to the Metricon Sea Haven development. However, the EIS shows this will only happen in a 1/100 year flood. The locals of the area think otherwise and only time will tell.

 

Marching ahead of time this week is the caterpillars of the 4 o'clock moth. Normally they hatch in mid summer, this year they are early.

O dear that tasty tip is all gone.

Let me see what can I eat next?

Left right, left right. That look good to eat!

yumm.............

4 o'clock moth.

 

The Ospreys have rebuilt their nest, torn down by a goanna last year. They have been taking turns to guard the nest. I watch them every day flying over the river estuary looking for a meal.

Osprey's nest site overlooks the Johnstone  River valley.

Osprey feasts on a yellow fish.

 

 

Running around under Osprey's nest are dozens of cattle egrets. The egrets have started to develop their breeding plumage.

 

This week I heard the distressed call of a frog. Running towards the sound I saw a butcher bird with a very large frog in its mouth.

 

With one big swallow the frog went down.

 

Cassowary Jessie is still walking-out with Snout. I don't know if they just like each others company or if Snout is reluctant to nest again, as this courtship has been going on for over seven weeks.

Lots of longicorn bugs have suddenly turned up in the nursery, they are such strange insects.

The flower longicorn an important pollinator.

The larva of most longicorns are wood-borers

 

Stick insects of many kinds are also suddenly numerous in the rainforest. The female stick insect has no wings and can be confused with mantis. However, the stick insect eats foliage and does not possess spined forelegs for capturing prey.

Female stick insect.

 

CCRC officers delivered the shorebird pamphlet, 'Protecting the Little Terns of the Cassowary Coast' this week and I have started handing it out to local residents.

I happened to see CCRC law officers taking a photo of the vandalised sign at the end of Coquette Point Road.

Hopefully the sign will be repainted soon and the Little Terns can nest with out the fear of dogs.

cheers for now,

Yvonne C.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello from the mouth of the Johnstone River,

The development application for 27V Coquette Point has been rejected by the Federal Government as well as the Cassowary Coast Regional Council's, (CCRC) town planners.

The development application was referred to the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, (SEWPC), and was accessed under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act of 1999. (EPBC act).  The development was deemed to be a controlled action and the project was sent for public environment referral (PER) on a cost recovery basis to the developer.

It is my understanding the PER found the development would impact adversely on listed threatened species like the Southern Cassowary. The development was refused by SEWPC under section 18 and 18A of the EPBC act.

CCRC Councillor, Mark Nolan advised me the development had also been adversely assessed by the CCRC town planners on the access, water and sewerage provisions.

I rang the developer Rick Gore for his reaction to these adverse assessment and he told me confidently. "The development will happen, I haven't got the energy at the moment, but all the issues can be addressed and we will eventually have it. It will happen. Its nothing like what people think it is. There is no problem with access. I am doing this to help the town out." Mr Gore told me.

The mouth of the Johnstone River, Coquette Point 27V is on the right side of photo.

 

"There is no problem with access" Gore said.

 

The little sun bird of north Queensland has learnt to prosper in the face of spreading suburbia. There are few houses in north Queensland without a sun bird nest or two. Sun birds take advantage of the protection given by Queensland's verandas and happily raise their young amidst the comings and goings of busy families.

The sunbird baby waits for a feed.

 

While the female is busy feeding the baby the male stand guard and alerts her if danger approaches.  This  male sun bird, below, proudly erects his pectoral tufts in a display of his virility.

 

Lurking nearby mother butcher birds hunts to feed her babies.

 

 

            While sun-birds have learnt to coexist with humans the shorebirds of the world have not and recent studies have found a dramatic fall in the numbers of migratory shorebirds around the world. Of the 836 species of birds protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act about a quarter are known to be in trouble according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. They go on to say "The majority of the challenges faced by migratory birds are related to human activities.  The greatest threat to birds, and all wildlife, continues to be loss and degradation of habitat due to human development and disturbance. For migratory birds and other species that require multiple areas for wintering, breeding and stopovers points, the effects of habitat loss can be complex and far-reaching.'                              The spit at Coquette Point is both a stop over point and a breeding area for migratory birds. The extensive sand flats at the mouth of the Johnstone River at Coquette Point are important feeding grounds for both migratory and sedentary species of birds. In summer millions of soldier crabs emerge to run and feed on the sand flats at low tide. It is not unusual to find cassowaries, beach stone curlews and other resident birds competing for a feed of crabs on the sand banks with migratory shore birds like the endangered                                                                   little  tern.                                                                        Coquette Point is a special place where the rain forest join the tidal lagoons and melaleuca swamps of the  World Heritage Wet Tropics and link with the World Heritage Great Barrier Reef lagoon. 

 

 

              This week 12 juvenile crested terns arrived on the beach. It was a magical moment. Aboriginal elder Victor Cassidy was fishing on the beach and the terns flew around and around him. He dragged his bait net up from the river and a few fish fell out of the net onto the sand. At once the young crested terns swooped down, coming so close to me one brushed my arm with its wing. Victor gathered his bait and put it in a bucket with the lid fixed tightly, while the terns watched closely from the nearby rocks. As soon as one of us moved they were in the air naive to any danger from us. They allowed me to approach them and photograph them from  three metres distance.                                                         Victor decided not to continue fishing but to sit and enjoy the terns as they flew around and around him, inquisitive and playful. At the first sign of bait activity the terns dived into the river, emerging with a fish tightly grasped in their beaks.                          While we watched the terns a turtle surfaced and looked to see what all the fuss was about. The turtle surfaced again and again with  long deep sounding grasps as it gulped in air.  As hard as I tried I only managed to capture the turtle's shadow as it disappeared under the water.

One tern appeared very sleepy and continually dropped his beak to his chest. It was so amusing I called him Noddy.

 

                                                                               

Jumping spiders were very active in my garden this week and I photographed three species I had not seen before with my camera.

 

This spider has a good head of hair.

 

While the jumping spiders are busy eating moths, mosquitoes, and flies around the garden the praying

mantis are eating white fly, aphids and grasshoppers. The young praying mantis, below, is licking its lips after a feed of white fly in my garden.

Gertrude the green tree snake is on the move in the leaf litter. She is looking for mice and any little birds that might fall from a nest. Her beautiful yellow belly contrast with the blue flecks on her flank. She is a slim 1.5 metres in length and has been in the nursery for ten years. Green tree snakes are non venomous and play a beneficial role around the home and farm by eating feral mice.

The northern dwarf tree frog is only tiny

but she has a big voice and her mating call, a long 'wreek' has already begun to sing the rain.

Major skink is on the hunt for cockroaches,

they are his favourite food. Unless, of course, you put a little bit of cake down for him. One of these

skinks has moved into my house and he has eaten all the cockroaches but he wont go outside, so

I leave a few dog biscuits and some water for him and he seems quite happy.

 

Another major skink sleeps on the EFT machine in the shop. Perhaps the light attracts insects.

 

 

In the rain forest the beautiful Evodiella Muelleri is flowering.This little evodia is one of the host plants of the blue Ulysses butterfly.

 

 

Falling on the leaf litter and into streams the

spent flowers of hibiscus tiliaceus turn from yellow to crimson as they age. The flowers and the

young leaves of this tree can be added to salads for extra colour and flavour.

Driving home from town this week I 

stopped to take a photo of John Roach the curator of CCRC parks and gardens. John was photographing the very large fruits of this undiscribed pandanus species. According to Anton Van Der Schans, a landscape designer who is now working at the Singapore Gardens "This is probably an undescribed sp in the Pandanus gemmifer complex. It is one of the "Puppy" pandans that produces plantlets on the branches, independent of the fruit. It is very common at the Russell River Landing near Hervey Creek, again at East Russell, behind the beach at Etty Bay, along the low lying parts of the road down to Coquette Point and there is a small swamp full of it on the east side of the highway immediately north of Moresby village. This gemmifer type has normal big phalanges like the common P. solms-laubachii, which can grow side by side, the difference in foliage colour is distinctive, solms-laubachii tending to be a matt, dull green or slightly glaucous, whereas this species is a rich glossy dark green. The gemmifer populations in Barron Gorge, on the tablelands at Lake Eacham and in the Tully Gorge are all slightly different.

The pandanus in the picture above, is growing beside the Coquette Point road at Ninds Creek. It can be propagated from the 'pups' which it drops from its trunk and also from the seed which take about three months to germinate. Cassowary scats containing the fruits were beside and on the road close to the tree.  John Roach has some plants from this tree growing in the Council nursery.

 

Visitors from Finland, this week, came to north Queensland to see the

flora and fauna of the Wet Tropics Rainforests. I photographed them standing under

 the giant strangler fig in my front yard.    The trees of the Wet Tropics are wonderfully strange.

 

cheers for now,

Yvonne.