Tag Archives: Saltwater Crocodile

Taking time to enjoy the moment

Posted on 8 September, 2022 by Barbara | 3 comments

For the last couple of months I’ve been gradually working my way around our house, cleaning and painting whenever the weather has been fine and sunny. I’m now onto the final wall which just happens to have been the most tedious to prepare and so I’ve been more easily distracted than usual from the work in hand. Listening to loud calls of a Great-billed Heron a couple of days ago gave me a great excuse to down tools and head to the bird hide. Not a water-bird in sight, but just as I was about to leave I noticed our resident crocodile, Betty, was slowly swimming around the pond. She provided a perfect excuse to indulge in a few peaceful minutes of observation until she hid behind some water chestnut.

Native stingless bees have established nests, or attempted to, in many places on our concrete block house. Green Ants use the house as a highway, spiders make webs and occasionally Sunbirds make nests. A Black Butcherbird regularly patrols the verandah looking for frogs and baby birds so the populations are kept in balance. Sometimes I think the Butcherbird might be taking more than his share but the frogs are still around, they have just got better at hiding! Anyway, back to the cleaning which disturbed the Green Ants and then the bees got nervous and suddenly there was a cloud of upset bees and some brutal murders taking place on the wall.

An interesting star pattern of ants but a rather gruesome end for the poor little stingless bee.

Another creature to suffer disturbance from my activities along the wall was this delicate and very striking Humped Silver Orb-weaver. When I first noticed it there was no web (I suspect I had blundered into it, intent on my cleaning work), and it was running up and down a single strand of web. I managed a couple of photos when it had a rest on the wall.

*Leucauge dromedaria* – Humped Silver Orb-weaver

Yesterday the spider had rebuilt its web but unfortunately the victims of its sticky strands were native bees – they have certainly been having a tough time here.

In the family *Tetragnathidae* (Long-jawed spiders) the Humped Silver Orb-weaver is found in parks and gardens from north Qld all the way south to Tasmania.

The afternoon light shows the delicate web and highlights the spider’s light green legs.

And the day I saw Betty I did return to the hide with a camera after lunch just in time to see her emerged from the water onto the bund wall to bask in the sun. It was such a treat to be able to see her out of the water, they are amazing creatures and deserve to be treated with respect for many different reasons.

Out of ‘Graham’s Pond’ and resting on the bund wall in the sun.

I find it particularly interesting to watch her move – trying to maximize her sun exposure then having to open her mouth to cool down a bit. In this side view it’s just possible to see some of the unique markings along the tail.

3 Comments

Posted in Arachnids, Reptiles, Spiders, Spiders

Tagged Humped Silver Orb-weaver, Saltwater Crocodile

Hard Rains ……

Posted on 11 January, 2022 by Barbara | 2 comments

Well not really – we’ve had glorious steady rain and much cooler temperatures have been a welcome relief to us after the recent extreme heat and humidity. So far the violent storms and torrential rain have missed us and my newly planted fruit trees have had a chance to settle in. When we plant trees we always give them a good watering but it doesn’t match the benefit of a decent rainfall. Allen thought this morning was a good opportunity to plant out a few more rainforest trees that he’s grown. His timing was perfect for the trees but as the rain got heavier I was very pleased he hadn’t needed an assistant!

*Tarennia dallechiana* flowers just visible through the rain. These beautifully perfumed flowers are one of the many rainforest species to make late summer afternoons such a sensory experience.

About a week ago Betty finally made a reappearance in our wetlands! She quietly slid into the water as Allen watched from the bird hide. She had been lying on a bank in the shade, blending so well into her environment that he didn’t see her until she moved. On subsequent days we saw her in the water, sometimes with part of her back exposed to absorb the sun’s heat. As the days have been so hot recently it wasn’t long before she quietly submerged, leaving a trail of bubbles for us to follow.

Only necessary to expose a small portion of the back when it was so hot as the raised scales have a plentiful blood supply transporting heat into the body of the crocodile.

Barely a ripple on the water as she swims quietly through the water lilies.

There has been some speculation regarding potential crocodile nest construction in our swamps. Although it would be confirmation of a successful wetland restoration project I must admit to some nervousness at the prospect. Continuing this theme one might consider why Betty has not nested when she appears to be a mature female. Might she, in fact, be Bob and not Betty?

2 Comments

Posted in Pond Life, Reptiles

Tagged Saltwater Crocodile

Not Sitting Ducks

Posted on 28 August, 2019 by Barbara | Leave a comment

A beautiful, sunny day and a quiet afternoon with time for a walk but I didn’t get much further than the bird hide. Finally it was my turn to get a good look at the Burdekin Duck family! There had been no sign of them for nearly a week so I was thrilled to have a chance to observe them. They were just coming down to the water as I carefully made my way into the hide without alerting them.

After a splash in the water while staying very close to the bank the ducklings swam along a little channel behind Crake Island.

A quick swim with a few dives, a bit of a wash then they moved on.

As I watched the duck family I could see a Magpie goose moving around on Crake Island then the ducks swam behind the island and the goose family walked into the sun with their 3 gangly goslings. The ducks appeared a short distance away on the same little island but only to dry off in the sun before they retreated out of sight.

With all this paddling about in the mud it is no wonder the water is a bit stirred up.

So where was Betty Barratt while all this splashing and preening was going on? She was in the next door pond hiding fairly effectively in a patch of Persicaria strigosa. This photo of her tail is taken from a safe distance just to illustrate her ability to warm in the sun while remaining less than obvious to a casual observer.

Winter Update

Posted on 21 July, 2019 by Barbara | 2 comments

The wet season has drizzled to a close through June and we are now experiencing some dry weather with mostly sunny days and quite cold nights. River mist is often a feature of these cold, clear mornings as we experienced yesterday at the start of a tour with Murray the Daintree Boatman. In spite of the cold it was a wonderful morning excursion and we were able to enjoy lengthy observations of a Great-billed Heron both on the main river and in Barratt Creek. It was peaceful on the water in the early morning, watching the bird with only occasional quiet talk and the whir of camera motor-drives breaking the silence.

Murray heading in to pick up his passengers

Fabulous reflections in the still water as we waited for the Heron to move into better light

Back at Wild Wings & Swampy Things ……..in early June a little flock of Spotted Whistling ducks arrived and stayed for a few weeks. We watched their movements with interest as they shared a pond with Betty Barratt, the crocodile who frequently enjoys our hospitality. The larger and apparently more senior Spotted Whistling Duck, which we took to be the male, kept a very close look-out after one of the flock went missing.

Spotted Whistling Ducks in the background – living dangerously.

Betty continues her quiet life in our ponds while they hold sufficient water for her to feel comfortable. She is becoming a little more adventurous this year with more frequent movements between ‘Graham’ and ‘Rupert’ (all our ponds have names) leaving a muddy track on the bund wall separating the two ponds.

Many of the ‘bush birds’ have been a little quiet in the last week, possibly due to cold and sometimes windy weather. A few Magpie geese have been hanging around recently and several days ago, having noticed some trampled sedge, I was able to observe an adult goose with at least four, possibly five goslings. My dusk sighting didn’t enable a good view so Allen and I went out the next morning to see what was happening. We walked to Graham’s hide first; no visible goose activity but Betty was sunning herself amongst the waterlilies looking distinctly satisfied.

Is that a self-satisfied gleam in her eye?

We walked down to the ’07 ponds (never properly named!) from where we could hear geese. There were several lookout birds honking from surrounding trees and nervous parents on the water with only two goslings. As Allen saw both a Sea Eagle and a Brahminy Kite having a go at the goslings later in the morning he was loath to blame Betty but the next morning only one gosling remained.

This morning the geese were sounding very unsettled, Betty was swimming around below the trees in which they perched and there was no gosling to be seen. There was, however, a Black Bittern skulking around on a small island in between the sedge plants (Rhynchospora corymbosa). It’s fun to have the opportunity to observe a BB without being seen although I didn’t see any dramatic action. Their ability to hold a pose for minutes on end with no apparent movement is extraordinary.

Female Black Bittern in typical pose on Crake Island in Graham’s Pond

And so life on the ponds continues, a visiting friend today suggested that a renaming of the property to Wild Wings & Bitey Things might be appropriate as we await our official Crocodile warning sign! My mind immediately thought of the Faulty Towers television series and the fun we could have with an easily altered sign.

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Posted in Bird Observations, Daintree wetlands, Day excursions, Reptiles

Tagged Black Bittern, Great-billed Heron, Magpie Geese and goslings, Saltwater Crocodile, Spotted Whistling Duck

Floods, mud and more…..

Posted on 28 February, 2019 by Barbara | 1 comment

It has indeed been very wet this summer and it’s probably not over yet. We’ve had several floods including one major one which deposited a great deal of silt in our orchard as well as all areas below our house and garden surrounds. While watching the flood waters rise can be ‘exciting’ at times the aftermath is not, but we are exceedingly grateful that our house avoided inundation.

A layer of silt over the track to the orchard

A thick layer of mud stuck on a Mangosteen leaf -although these leaves are quite shiny the mud doesn’t wash off even when heavy rain follows the flood.

Malay Apple *(Syzygium puberulum)* – bursting out with it’s brilliantly coloured blooms a week after total inundation.

During the big flood, a saltwater crocodile moved into our front wetland system for a holiday. There are no pesky tour boats to disturb her here so she is able to enjoy the peace and quiet, apart from Allen occasionally mowing the bank of her pond . We first noticed her after a flood last year and she stayed for a few months only returning to the creek when our ponds became too shallow for her.
Betty Barratt appears to prefer Rupert’s pond which is the deepest and has easy access to the creek as well as convenient sunny banks on which to warm up. While it is a privilege to host an apex predator her presence does limit the delights of loitering around the edges of the ponds.