Posts by author: Seamus
Watching a sunbird frolicking in the rain. Although I try to avoid anthropomorphism, it was hard to not feel that this little bird was having a great deal of fun.
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Our neighbour on the hill behind us brought down this strange coloured beetle that he’d found. He’s been here for 20 odd years and has never seen one this colour before. If anyone knows what this beetle is let us know. We think it’s a Christmas Beetle (Scarabaeidae Rutelinae) but can’t find these colours anywhere [...]
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Our baby sunbirds left the nest today. I’m assuming both of them left as I only actually saw one go. Both parents were hovering close by the nest, twittering away. The baby cautiously crawled out of the nest, holding on with it’s claws until it’s beak was pointing vertically towards the floor. Then with much [...]
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I was woken at 4am by the noise of hundreds of Dainty Green Tree Frogs (Litoria gracilenta). The noise was enough to wake and the bedroom was over 100 metres from where the frogs were. They are beautiful little frogs (also known as Graceful Tree Frog) only about 40mm – 45mm long. I could only see a [...]
Continue Reading →We’ve had a couple of sunbirds nesting in our verandah at Portland Roads Beach Shack. They build a nest hanging off a piece of string in about 2 weeks, then have the babies. We have been watching them and noticed that they seem to take the babies shit (neatly wrapped in a little white bundle) [...]
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The other night I was met at our back door by a 3.5m python. It was very quiet and relaxed but it too big to have around the house. Earlier in the day some of our little birds had been getting quite agitated and making warning noises, but I couldn’t see anything at the time. [...]
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This little Orange-naped snake (Furina ornata) was hiding next to our outside stairs. In spite of it’s very, very bright orange colouring, it was well camouflaged in the dull brown leaf litter. I presume it was a young one as it was only about 30 cms long – they apparently grow to around 70 cms.
Continue Reading →There is some quite interesting history in the naming of Portland Roads (Cate will write an a post on this soon). The ‘Roads’ is short for Roadstead which is an old nautical term for shelter. We often have boats, yachts and ships moored in our sheltered bay. Everything from sports-fishing (Nomad Sportfishing), motherships from Seaswift, to [...]
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I’m not sure that we actually have spring here, but the plants and trees are bursting with new life. And we are seeing more and more different animals and insects each day. Of course the humidity keeps rising too. But the winds are lessening and the sea is calming and becoming glass-like in the mornings. [...]
Continue Reading →I’d never heard of nurdles before – it’s a beautiful sounding word but unfortunately has sinister connotations. Nurdles are small plastic resin pellets (usually under 5 mm diameter) used as the main raw product in the manufacture of plastic products. They are one of the main sources of marine debris. Nurdles resemble fish eggs, absorb toxins [...]
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We were just talking about how much wildlife we have – we see some amazing creature most days. It was dark, Boomer started barking and wagging his tail wildly. I was about to tell him off; he usually barks at squeaky branches other weird noises. Then we spotted this guy in the dark, sitting on our [...]
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We are now experiencing “the wet”. It’s generally very humid but quite a few days are reasonably cool and quite pleasant. Mostly when it does rain it really pisses down, but we also get soft gentle rain. Our daughter Zoe loves it when it does rain – it’s warm and fun and just fantastic just [...]
Continue Reading →A. Yes, you can visit Cape York in the wet season. Most people think that it is impossible to visit Cape York in the wet season. It is true that the major rivers flood, cutting off road access. However you can still explore the Iron Range National Park, Portland Roads and Chili Beach. Forget your [...]
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We had 2 guests stay for a week in December this year – a birdwatcher and a guide (Jun Matsui) from Sicklebill Safaris. They had flown in to Lockhart, hired a 4wd and stayed with us. Jun (the guide) found a cuscus in one of our mango trees just up the road; came running back [...]
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A tiny little cameraman sailed into our bay today. Our bay is approx 220 kms south-east of Bamaga at the tip of Cape York, and about 800 kms (by road) North of Cairns. I was surprised – I assumed that it had been launched from the point just up the road about 250 metres, and [...]
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Boomer was barking ferociously at something behind the kitchen wall. I thought it must have been a snake, so very gingerly peered around the corner. I caught it in a bucket – to give you an idea of it’s size – it only just fitted on the bottom of the bucket (about 200 mm in [...]
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I heard a strange scuffling, scrunching sound outside our verandah. Looked over the edge and on the lawn noticed a small 80 cm or so long python inexorably dragging a much larger cane toad back along the grass. The cane toad appeared stunned and although obviously alive, struggled very little. The python was only a [...]
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We saw, just outside our back door on the rock wall, a bloody big snail – think it’s either Gnarosophia bellendenkerensis or Hadra webbi. We have seen a few of these around the place (often at night) as well as discarded shells. The shells are amazingly strong – you could probably break one with a [...]
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This is the place we are looking after. We have the cottage halfway up the hill, and this is where the visitors stay. The Beach Shack accommodates up to 4 people with a double and two single beds. It is self contained with a bathroom and cooking facilities for self-catering. The living area is on [...]
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Very cold today – had to put a long-sleeved shirt on when it got down to 25 degrees! Also rained most of the day and when it didn’t we had a beautiful rainbow. I had 3 young men from Weipa staying (trying to fish but unable to stay out long in their boat because of [...]
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