First Foray

Tuesday Sep 20
Awake early again but after 6 hours sleep this time. I felt like myself for the first time since arriving. After letting Zulu (cat) in, he was calling outside the bedroom door, I showered and then read yesterday's Telegraph and Sun on my IPad. Brilliant. I also managed to fix my frozen Kindle with a little help from Amazon's 'Troubleshooting' section.
Josh's friend Ryan, his seven year old sister plus two others were due round this morning. We went out.....We didn't leave until 10.30, after breakfast sitting on the shed patio looking over the garden. The birds have found the bird bath which Mike filled yesterday and are using it well. We could watch the activity from our bedroom window.
First stop was a shop at Karanda Downs to get water and a snack for lunch, we were not our usual organised selves and had just walked out. Colleges Crossing for the promised photos of the devastation, only really obvious when compared with the past.

All that remains of the cafe, no sign of the centuries old fig tree under which it was built.

The island is new, the lagoon much extended

The cafe kitchen was moved on a flatbed to higher ground

We sat under an awning to eat our icecreams, birding all the while. We had a Sea Eagle, Brown Falcon, Corella, Willie Wagtail, Great Egret and a small grey heron sp, briefly.

The road to Lake Manchester is mostly gravel, occasionally tarred through a wooded area fringed with large tracts of land and dwellings, many of them enormous. Seems to be horse country. An iguana sp. posed on a tree stump, Pam's still trying to identify it. Grassland Earless Dragon is a possibility.

The unknown Dragon

I photographed a delightful small bird singing its heart out on a barbed wire fence.... we can't ID that either. We'll have to ask Nic to-morrow.

Why can't we ID this? Looks obvious!
Female Golden Whistler.

Lake Manchester was viewable distantly through the trees but entailed a long walk downhill which we eschewed (one for Mags). After a snack and a drink in the semi shade in a small parking area, we returned past the warden's house. There, Pam heard a lot of bird noise from a fruiting Fig. Most of the birds were Figbirds (aptly named) but there was a Topknot Pigeon which I manage to photo, hidden amongst the leaves. This is a rainforest pigeon, usually seen flying fast and low, in small groups over the tops of the trees. Our first good view of one ever. I took lots of pics, couldn't resist it.

We let Martina guide us home via a short cut down Kangaroo Gully, an excellent and much shorter route.
Harry was the only one in. The children and Ryan's mum had gone to the cinema, Mike was out as was Sara who was too unwell for work. She'd gone for some medication.

I watched a film with H whilst Pam used Mike's new and mansized fork to dig out Sansiveria from the front garden. It was another hot and cloudless day so she didn't last long out there.
A short period of uncertainty soon after Josh arrived home - the pump which the poolman had installed to empty the pool had shorted the electrics. Mike soon fixed that but, in the meantime, Josh was grovelling arond on his tummy 'fixing' the spaghetti of connections in the sitting room. He reckoned that he fixed it.......Bless...

I made the promised phone call to Nic who lives a few minutes away, we arranged to pick him up at 3 to-morrow so that he can take us - hopefully - to see a Sooty Owl at dusk up Mount Nebo through The Gap. One of our favourite runs actually. We'll do some other birding beforehand. Looking forward to that.
We've just watched the first half of the Man U / Chelsea match. Chelsea had heaps of chances. The Nani goal was spectacular. Time for dinner, pizza and salad. Hope Sara feels better soon, she's pretty rough - I don't want it either.

Happy Birthday Rai