Having arrived home late last night after a wonderful holiday, our enthusiasm for our weekly afternoon of voluntary work at the Daintree Cassowary Care Group nursery was not as great as usual. However, after a pleasant drive north over the Daintree River and the Alexandra Range we were soon busy with a couple of other volunteers potting up plants, taking stock out of the shadehouse and collating a substantial order. A short time after our tea break I heard a movement amongst the trees and looked up to see a Cassowary not more than 3 metres away. She (we think she was a young female, possibly about 5yr old) was unconcerned with the sound of our voices and calmly continued her search for fruit on the ground as she walked past our potting bench. The sight of a Cassowary in its natural habitat is a very special experience….. the blue skin of the head and neck contrasts with the red wattles and the colours gleam brilliantly against the black feathers. We all stood watching with enormous pleasure as this majestic bird strolled through trees we had grown and planted. It was a special moment to remember and cheered us all immensely on a drizzly wet afternoon.
WILD WINGS & SWAMPY THINGS
Now that our major restoration projects are complete we are taking more time to simply enjoy the privilege of living in such a beautiful, peaceful and endlessly interesting area. While there are always a few maintenance tasks the work is not onerous and we can take time out to enjoy our walking tracks as well as to sit and simply look around. It is immensely rewarding to observe the growth in the vegetation, watch trees mature and to delight in the variety and number of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects both residing on and visiting the property.-
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Wild Wings & Swampy Things Nature Refuge
That’s great that you were actually there to see the cassowary walk by! And definite proof that all your replanting work is worth it! But no camera? Tut! Tut! Bloggers are supposed to have a camera permanently attached to one hand 🙂
Oh Mick if only …. its not the same blogging without a photo but I just had to tell the story! As it was a rainy day we didn’t even have the camera in the car!