September 11, 2007

Woke up at 5:30 am to the incredibly loud shriek of a bird outside our window. This started a half hour of raucous screeching and hooting right outside our window. We lay there with the blinds closed imagining monkeys and exotic birds. I peeked out the blinds, but couldn’t see anything in the dark. No monkeys of course – it was all birds. Unbelievably tropical!

 

Oddly enough, the sun didn’t rise until 6am. We had been very startled by the sun setting so early last night. Basically, by 6:30pm, the sun was completely down. So with that late dawn, we have practically a 12-hour day!! This was weird to us, because with the balmy weather, it feels like summer, and to us that means long days with sun until 9pm and light by 5am. I knew that those long days meant we were far from the equator in Vermont and Hobart and clearly in Port Douglas we’re close, but it was still a surprise every evening to be walking back in the dark or eating our dinner in the dark at a table on the street!

 

In a short while we were sitting at a table on the street having breakfast at the bakery a few blocks away (around 7:30am). We saw and heard lots of birds on the way, but nowhere near as many as we heard from bed.

 

Breakfast at the bakery!

 

An excellent cappuccino!

 

We were renting a holiday apartment (one of the more common options in Port Douglas), with a full kitchen. So our next stop was a Cole’s supermarket. We wandered around trying to find the things we’d need. It takes a surprisingly long time to find things in a foreign grocery store, even in an English speaking country and we were itching to go do something fun instead of shop! So we just got a few key things for the apartment, and headed back to plan our day.

 

We had been reading about the area before we left home and I had lots of things that I wanted to see and do both in the rainforest and the reef. So before we started out today, we had to make arrangements for some of the special things. Unfortunately, most of them needed to be planned in advance so we couldn’t do any of them today :-( AND, planning all of this took some time, so we got a late start. Fortunately, Carol and John, who ran the hotel, actually took the time to go through several of the options with us and actually made all the arrangements! So, a late start, but not too bad. The kids were a little tired of waiting around for an hour, which was what this took.

 

Since we couldn’t do any of the trips today, we decided to take the local shuttle bus to the Rainforest Habitat, a wildlife park focusing on the animals and birds of the rainforest and local area. The last thing I wanted to do was go to another wildlife park when we actually had all this wonderful natural area around us, but it turned out to be a great place to start. We were mystified by all the birds around us and one of the things the Rainforest Habitat had in abundance was birds!

 

Oddly enough, while we were waiting for the bus, we saw a kookaburra fly by and land in a nearby tree. Then we heard it laugh. I don’t know why it is described as laughter – if I heard this anywhere but on a sunny day on a shiny resort town street, I would run as fast as I could in the opposite direction! Annapurna described it as ghastly, Eileen as other-worldly and Rama as manic. I thought it was alien. But we all agreed there was something both very unhuman and very unbirdlike about it. Very weird!

 

We did see lots and lots of birds at Rainforest Habitat, but the one that really grabbed our attention within the first minute was the cassowary. It wasn’t just his striking coloring, but his imposing size and presence.

 

He was right by the entrance, walking back and forth. The kids spent 10 minutes photographing him. For some reason, he was hard to photograph in the dappled light. These lovely photos are by Annapurna. We heard later that despite their brilliant coloring, cassowaries are surprisingly hard to see in a dim rainforest.

 

When we were finally able to tear ourselves away from the cassowary (we did come back again later!) we next spotted the black-necked storks just a few feet farther away. Black-necked storks are not really black – they have amazing iridescent blues and greens and purples. They are quite large and have a surprisingly stately walk.

 

A little further, we noticed its nest.

 

 

WOW! That nest was at least 5 feet across! How could we not have seen it instantly? I guess because we were so focused on the Cassowary. Apparently, the stork pair spent 3 years building nests in different parts of the exhibit until they settled on this one as a good place to start their family. They usually nest in large trees at the very top of the rainforest canopy, so it was hard finding a place in the habitat that would suit. The Rainforest Habitat is the only place in the world where these black-necked storks have bred in captivity. There was a fledgling in the nest and last year’s young ones were wandering around – they looked just like the parents. 

 

Annapurna actually saw two of these storks in the wild while we were driving, but I missed them. Such cool birds!

 

There were many, many ducks in the exhibit. At this point we were in the Rainforest portion of the park. There was also a wetland section and a grassland area. All of them were full of birds.

Whistling Ducks

 

 

The funny thing was that although all the birds we saw at the zoo seemed terribly exotic, we actually ended up seeing them over and over again all week long. The next few pictures are birds we saw often while walking around Port Douglas, but were harder to photograph in the wild, because they move around so quickly.

 

Rainbow Lorikeets

These brightly colored had big shrieks and liked to race along the street our hotel was on, ending up in a tree with big red hanging flowers. They’re nectar eaters, and hang on the flowers as they feed. We found they’re particularly active in the morning and early evening.

 

Cattle egret

Once we got to recognize them, we saw these cattle egrets a lot, especially in fields with horses or cows. We also saw them in cane fields that had just been harvested.

 

We didn’t see this next guy in the wild, but he was so amazing, we had to photograph him!

 

A spoonbill.

We were surprised to see the spoonbill at all. It looked incredibly prehistoric. Not too surprising, I guess, since the Daintree Rainforest is the last remnant of the rainforest that once covered all of Gondwana. It’s the oldest continuous rainforest in the world. When people go and have a look they discover all sorts of plants they had known only from fossils.

 

But before we saw more birds, we had to pet the crocodile. Here’s an 8-year old freshwater crocodile. The salties get much larger (we saw those in the wild a few days later. WOW!). And yes, his mouth was taped shut.

 

Eileen petting the croc.

 

Annapurna petting the croc.

 

Lunch with the Lorikeets

We signed up for a buffet lunch called “Lunch with the Lorikeets” in the cafeteria in the middle of Rainforest Habitat. It was not only a convenient lunch, it was billed as a way to meet the birds.  We took our plates over to a picnic table in the middle of the pavilion.

 

The pavilion was just that – a tent roof with open walls, a brick floor and a bunch of picnic tables set right in the middle of the open area where the birds were! At first, we were a little disappointed not to see any birds, but we were charmed when a cattle egret flew over to our table!

The people working there had warned us that the cattle egrets like meat, and that we should not feed them.

 

The bold fellow came closer, and closer,

 

He had definitely pegged Eileen as being a good target, and when she moved to take a bite, he suddenly MOVED! He lunged toward the plate and we grabbed it off the table!

This guy is used to grabbing fast-moving bugs and frogs. He had incredibly fast reflexes!

 

We finished our meal, somewhat terrorized. Eileen felt nervous about birds every time we picnicked after that!

 

And yes, eventually the Rainbow Lorikeets, who gave the event their name, flew over. They were interested in our fruit, not our sausages!

 

We were also intrigued by the ibis at the table near us. He hopped up on the bench and rapidly and methodically began removing the napkins that covered the plates.

 

Success!

Apparently people often cover their food with a napkin, so that the birds don’t see it. The ibis is a clever bird, and learned that if he pulls the napkin away, he’ll often find food! Unfortunately, at this table it was just the place setting. When I went to Sydney a couple of weeks later, I saw huge numbers of these impressive birds nesting in the palm trees right at Darling Harbour (a tremendously urban environment). So I guess they’re pretty adaptable!

 

Then a zookeeper brought some Rainbow Lorikeets by. He put them on our heads and shoulders! We all wore a lorikeet.

 

Annapurna and  Lorikeet.

 

Rama with a Lorikeet

 

Jeanne with Lorikeets

 

Eileen also wore two!

 

Eventually, we finished and left the table. What a free for all!!

We wandered on to see the rest of the exhibits. We saw many, many more birds and animals.  Here are some standouts:

 

The pelican – I hadn’t realized how beautiful they could be.

 

We were stopped in our path by a Brolga, a kind of stork. It was huge! And beautiful. (Anna took this lovely photo.)

 

It was spring and there were lots of babies.

 

Eileen took a picture of these baby ducklings.

 

By this time we were pretty tired. But we were surprised to see the Koalas moving! Apparently they only move around for less than one hour a day. So I guess we caught them at a good time.

 

Finally we caught the shuttle back to the hotel.

After that we were ready for a swim. The hotel pool was lovely!

 

Eileen having fun in the pool!

 

 

And this wasn’t even the end of the day! Tune in soon for dinner at the Iron Bar

with Cane Toad Racing!!