Friday, April 6, 2012
Travelling North
A quick trip from Townsville airport to Cairns airport, collecting incoming passengers at both airports did not allow me time to stop on the way up, but passing through Tully, fifteen months after Cyclone Yasi, revealed just how devastating the cyclone had been. The sight of huge coconut trees still lying where they had been uprooted and tossed around by the gales, and of gutted buildings, was a reminder that though natural disasters quickly fade from the public interest, their legacy lasts a long time.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Brolgas
Early afternoon - yesterday
A pair of grey feathered brolgas in a paddock recently harvested of cane beside Sandy Creek turn alert pink heads to the observers on the road.
My first sighting of brolgas in this area was in the ti-tree swamp on the McEwens Beach road last January. Since then I have seen them, not often but regularly during drives in the area, sometimes surprisingly close to town.
7th August 2011
ClaireWood
Daily Blog: http://JustClaireWood.blogspot.com
Longlines Blog: http://longline8.blogspot.com
A pair of grey feathered brolgas in a paddock recently harvested of cane beside Sandy Creek turn alert pink heads to the observers on the road.
My first sighting of brolgas in this area was in the ti-tree swamp on the McEwens Beach road last January. Since then I have seen them, not often but regularly during drives in the area, sometimes surprisingly close to town.
7th August 2011
ClaireWood
Daily Blog: http://JustClaireWood.blogspot.com
Longlines Blog: http://longline8.blogspot.com
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Spectacled Monarch Flycatcher
Early Sunday morning
The spectacled monarch, with its blue cape, rufous breast, black band through its eyes and black tail, is a dandy. It flashes its brilliant colours through the cane and along waterways choked with vine and brush, chattering continually in search of insects.
Claire Wood
Daily Blog: http://JustClaireWood.blogspot.com
Longlines Blog: http://longline8.blogspot.com
The spectacled monarch, with its blue cape, rufous breast, black band through its eyes and black tail, is a dandy. It flashes its brilliant colours through the cane and along waterways choked with vine and brush, chattering continually in search of insects.
Claire Wood
Daily Blog: http://JustClaireWood.blogspot.com
Longlines Blog: http://longline8.blogspot.com
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Brahminy Kite
Morning
This morning a Brahminy Kite swooped low over the traffic crossing the Ron Camm Bridge. She hovered for a moment then swooped away, upstream.
Claire Wood
Daily Blog: http://JustClaireWood.blogspot.com
Longlines Blog: http://longline8.blogspot.com
This morning a Brahminy Kite swooped low over the traffic crossing the Ron Camm Bridge. She hovered for a moment then swooped away, upstream.
Claire Wood
Daily Blog: http://JustClaireWood.blogspot.com
Longlines Blog: http://longline8.blogspot.com
Masked Lapwings/Plovers
In the Wet Tropics we do not lack for sources of water. Rivers, creeks, lakes, swamps are in abundance. Masked Lapwings, or plovers as they are commonly called, reside on almost every footpath, park or paddock in the area. Our street's resident plovers took advantage of the afternoon's rain and afterwards bathed, with much shaking of feathers and ducking under the surface, in the shallow gutter that lines the street.
email: JustClaireWood@gmail.com
Daily Blog: http://www.justclairewood.blogspot.com/
Longlines Blog: http://www.longline8.blogspot.com
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Swamp Hens
Afternoon
The swamp hens near the golf course were leading their chick across the floodway this afternoon. The parents with their red combs and purple heads contrast with the chick, all leggy and half grown looking, but still a soft downy pitch black.
Claire Wood
The swamp hens near the golf course were leading their chick across the floodway this afternoon. The parents with their red combs and purple heads contrast with the chick, all leggy and half grown looking, but still a soft downy pitch black.
Claire Wood
email: JustClaireWood@gmail.com
Daily Blog: http://www.justclairewood.blogspot.com/
Longlines Blog: http://www.longline8.blogspot.com
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Spangled Drongo
Morning
Yesterday morning a Spangled Drongo was perched on the lowest limb of the paperbark that overhangs the driveway. This is a bird that truly does not deserve its name. Irridescent black and green with a graceful forked tail and red eye, the "spangled"part of the name fits, but what cruel person decided on adding "drongo"? This bird spends a lot of time in the foliage in the garden, perching, still and intent, for minutes at a time before swooping across to another branch, presumably catching an unwary insect in flight.
Claire Wood
Yesterday morning a Spangled Drongo was perched on the lowest limb of the paperbark that overhangs the driveway. This is a bird that truly does not deserve its name. Irridescent black and green with a graceful forked tail and red eye, the "spangled"part of the name fits, but what cruel person decided on adding "drongo"? This bird spends a lot of time in the foliage in the garden, perching, still and intent, for minutes at a time before swooping across to another branch, presumably catching an unwary insect in flight.
Claire Wood
email: JustClaireWood@gmail.com
Daily Blog: http://www.justclairewood.blogspot.com/
Longlines Blog: http://www.longline8.blogspot.com
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