Africa Wild

It’s me back again. Phew, what a couple of weeks. My trip to Australia was at the end of a 10 month career break. I enjoyed myself enormously but on my return I started a challenging new job. I have very much been thrown in at the deep end and it has been tough time with long days and lots of travel. A couple of days off now and time to post again. It is only a brief rest as I’m driving my daughter back to university tomorrow and back to work on Monday.

After Sydney we fly north to Cairns in tropical Queensland. My first visit to the tropics and there was so much to see. First stop was a mangrove boardwalk just south of Cairns airport. What an amazing experience. The mangrove here starts quite sparse with predominantly grey mangrove.



It then gets thicker and thicker.




Near the tideline is an impenetrable thicket of roots and stems.



It got quick dark and even scary. There is a near constant popping sound. This is made by the pistol shrimp but I didn’t see any. I did see Fiddler crabs. Here’s a male about to disappear into his hole.



Mud crabs which proved particularly difficult to photograph as they were all either covered in mud or well hidden under the mud.



I’ve since learnt that mangrove mud is one of the most productive habitats in the world. A teaspoon of mud from the coastal forests in northern Queensland contains over 10 billion bacteria. One scary fish in the dark gloom in the mangrove was the mudskipper. They slither and splash all round often pausing above water.



Looking in at the mangrove from the outside it is easy to see how thick it is.



More information of the Mangroves of Australia here:
http://www.mesa.edu.au/mangroves/default.asp

Oh, great, you save me from working on my own TT. Don't want to challenge the Greenies too much with out of Africa accounts.

This is particularly interesting to me as we opted for not going up to Cairns since we didn't have enough time.
But as I'll definitely go back one day, I might just make it up there as well.

What were the temps like when you were there? And how about the mosquito situation? Those were practically eating me up in Kakadu.

It must have been a very interesting experience

Good luck with your new job

Mangrove is generaly sur-inhabited... and a bit scary like you said
but interesting
the Fish is the one who run/walk
the firt Crab is very nice, but the second

nice episode

Mel you may indeed want to go to Cairns and surrounding area. I'll describe our trip as best I can and I think you'll love it. **
Our trip finished with the most magical moment just a hop, skip and small jump from Cairns. It will stay with us all for a very, very long time. More of that later.

In the mangrove the mozzie situation was not good but it was the only place I got very badly bitten. Temperatures were fine (mid 20's) but it was the southern winter. Humidity was high and at times it poured with rain that did for some of my camera equipment. More of that later.

The mudskipper is an amphibious fish, a fish that can use their pectoral fins to walk on land. It was a special experience to see them.

for best wishes with the job. I'm going to need it!

Cairns in 9393 miles from home so I'm only sixty miles from our final destination. It may not seem far but I am going to take you round the houses before we get there.

**A great deal of time and effort went into choosing trips to take and places to stay. Nearly all had a big ecology/nature/wildlife aspect and, if allowed as I know it wouldn't be in another place, I would be happy to share the detail at the end of this TT. OK?

You're allowed anything, Seiont. It's your TT after all. And I can be patient... at times.
Kidding! But I'm really intrigued by what you had to say so far and will stay glued to learn more.

I think I saw a similar amphibian fish in Kakadu. It was just pretty colourless. Like an albino version of yours.
And unfortunately it only swam past and I never got to see it hopping around on land. They are fascinating
critters. Although I only came to that conclusion a short while ago when I watched a documentary on telly.

Stunning, Seiont!

So you've seen whales near Wales and mudskippers on mud!

I've been to a couple of mangrove swamps and found them to be scary...maybe because I was alone in one?

Also very smelly!

Glad your job is sorted!

WoW Seiont,

stunning landscape and colourful crabs and scary fishes on top

Thanks for continued interest.

Cairns has two great bird watching sites. There is a nice long walk along the Esplanade looking out onto the foreshore mudflats and then just north of the town centre is the botanical gardens. The botanical gardens are an easy place to get lost for a few hours. I didn’t have that long to spend in either place but I did manage to increase my bird count.



Australian Brush-turkey Alectura lathami

My first ever megapode! The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae. Megapodes are mainly solitary birds that do not incubate their eggs with their body heat as other birds do, but bury them. Their eggs are unique in having a large yolk, making up 50-70% of the egg weight. They are best known for building massive nest-mounds of decaying vegetation, which the male attends, adding or removing litter to regulate the internal heat while the eggs hatch. More on megapodes later.



Another Rainbow Lorikeet – amazing birds.



Black-fronted Dotterel Elseyornis melanops



Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica



Little Egret Egretta garzetta

More birds to follow.

Magnificent variety of bird, Seiont

Love the rainbow lorikeet