The sound of Allen chatting quietly in our bathroom last Sunday morning alerted me to the visit of a cassowary. While this may seem odd, he doesn’t usually talk to himself and he has a particular tone he uses when talking to cassowaries.
I was astonished to see the size of this bird standing just a few metres away on the lawn – definitely a different, older bird compared to our most recent visiting cassowary. As we stepped outside to take some photos she walked towards us, so we stood still and continued talking quietly. She emphasized her size by stretching upwards and gave a short rumble before moving away slightly to look around.
For reference, the pavers are 400mm x 400mm.
She is a mature bird but not very old judging by the size of the casque. We believe that the size of her feet identifies her as female. We wondered if she may have chased off the younger cassowary but later in the afternoon the younger cassowary appeared again. Our domestic chooks who had been pecking around in front of the verandah suddenly took off in fright as the younger cassowary strolled past on the lawn.
The next morning, washing dishes and occasionally casting my gaze around outside I thought perhaps all the action was over for the moment but a few minutes later the younger of the two birds approached the other side of the house. As I greeted it with ‘there you are…’ it briefly stepped onto the verandah, then turned to check a wind chime for edibility before walking off downhill.
The next day we left early for Cairns leaving the chooks locked up in their secure pen with extra greens for the day, as Allen thought the python sunning near the outdoor enclosure was a little close for comfort.
Probably the same python which caused a night-time disturbance recently. I was in our outside shower when one of the chooks started screaming so grabbing my glasses and some sandals I took off after Allen who had sensibly grabbed a torch. We both expected to find a chook being strangled by a python. There was a python but it was on the floor of the shed with a mouthful of feathers and a furious Layla (our blue egger) standing next to it still screaming and giving it an occasional peck! Allen opened the door and ‘encouraged’ the snake to leave but it took quite some effort to persuade it to move on. The snake had made a hole in some rusty wire which was repaired by Allen the following day.
Anyway…….. back to cassowaries. Daily sightings of at least one bird continued for the week. We’ve been pondering what fruit is attracting them. A couple of weeks ago Allen identified Ficus hispida in a scat but in recent days we have noticed both birds have very muddy legs and feet. As the Nauclea orientalis (Leichhardt trees) are fruiting we think both birds have been in the swampy areas. This theory is also supported by the tracks they are using.
On Friday afternoon Allen walked down to the bird hide just to check out the pond scene. All fairly quiet but he did spy the young cassowary on the bund wall and with a ‘oh there you are’ he took a few photos. Hearing footsteps a few minutes later he opened the door of the hide thinking I had come to join him but it was the young cassowary standing half-way down the stone steps just wanting to see what was happening.
What a wonderful week it has been, with so many special moments worth recording. We have constant reminders that we form only a very small part of the big picture and we need to do our best to fit in.
Allen
Barbara
Wild Wings & Swampy Things 