Journey Jottings

A few days ago I spotted this out of the window…

What? You may ask!

A Masked Lapwing (also known as a Masked Plover or the  Spur Winged Plover ~ Vanellus miles)

So I took a closer look (when the bird had gone for a walk)  and look what she was sitting on

Then on mid-winter’s day…

The parents are very defensive of their young and are known to swoop to scare intruders away, or feign a broken wing to detract attention away from their chicks

But the instinct of the young upon hearing the danger call from their parent is to duck and freeze ~ Can you see anything by the stick on the left above?

Barely visible even this close up

A camouflaged baby chick ducking out of harm’s way!

‘Mangroves‘  vegetate the inter-tidal area between land and sea that gets flooded with the tides. The name Mangrove is therefore applied to any plant that is able to live in salt water whether a tree, a bush, a fern, grass or shrub.

Over 18% of the Australian coast line is vegetated with mangroves ~

This week, I was sent an invitation to a gallery exhibition opening in Port Hedland with this beautiful pastel image on canvas of mangroves, by artist Sharon Jack.

Pastel on canvas by artist Sharon Jack

The exhibition of her work is to run through July to the end of August, should you be lucky enough to be in Western Australia during this period ~

The islands in the Bay off Brisbane, where I’m based, are surrounded by some beautiful species of mangrove ~

More than anything, I love their arched root systems

And these that must be years old with amazing gnarled and weathered trunks

As the soils in these zones have little oxygen the root systems are  generally close to the surface, and do a great job of helping to prevent erosion

Journey Jottings:

Where/When/How ~ What did I See, Hear, Smell, Touch, Taste?

• Australia’s inter-tidal zone

• Arching roots
• Clicking of crabs disappearing down holes
• Un-oxygenated mud
• Shiny leaves, slippery mud
• Salt

What am I doing walking along with a stick held aloft?

Water divining?

…  Water divining?

Nope ~ Just out for a leisurely evening stroll in the bush

But it’s spoilt when I walk into one of these!

Spider across the path

A spider draped across my path waiting for dinner to drop in!

I’m not quite sure what type they are  Do you know?

Spider waiting for dinner

They’re about 4 to 6 cm across

Spider's web between the trees

And they like to make their webs in the space across the path from bush to bush ~

Spider

When spotted in time, I’ll duck so as to leave the web unscathed and intact ~

Spider on his web

But there’s just nothing worse than having an unexpected face to face encounter! Hence the safety precaution of the stick

These little chaps are a bit shier

Spider camouflaged as a leaf

Camouflaged in a curled up leaf they lay in wait in bushes along the sides of the track ~

Looking down into the curled up leaf

Obviously after smaller prey!

Journey Jottings:

Where/When/How ~ What did I See, Hear, Smell, Touch, Taste?

• Stradbroke Island, Q. Evening walk

• long brown & yellow scampering spider legs, bulbous bodies
• scrunching of dead leaves & twigs underfoot, snapping of surprisingly strong web strands across the path
• honey myrtle & anticipation of an encounter
• sticky pieces of web stuck in my hair & down my arms
• natural Aussie bushland

Its funny how we clamber to travel and explore other parts of the globe, whilst travellers from other parts of the globe clamber to travel and experience our home turf! Places, that to us are merely where we go about our everyday business are to them a far off distant land worthy of exploring; areas that we think of as ‘boring back waters’ to them arouse wide-eyed interest and fascination.

So, what wonders are we missing by walking around with our eyes closed?

We obviously need to maintain the visitor’s vigilant eye of observation so details that fall on either side of our rushed daily paths don’t go unnoticed ~ I had to do some ‘travelling’ this week, having a business appointment in Brisbane on Monday, and then on Wednesday a meeting down the coast in Surfers Paradise ~

Ferry from the Moreton Bay Islands to Redland Bay

I took the ferry to the mainland, and a train into Central where I walked down Creek Street passing Koala House, which had a huge sculpture of a Koala atop it that to be honest, I’d never noticed before!

Koala House, Brisbane

At the bottom is Eagle Street where, on one of the top floors of this skyscraper, I had my first appointment for the week.

Eagle Street, Brisbane

The view from the top was of course great, looking down onto the Brisbane River…

Eagle Street Pier, Brisbane

…across to Kangaroo Point

Brisbane River

…and the Story Bridge

Story Bridge

A few days later I cruised by car down the coast on a short trip to Surfers Paradise calling in at the Coast Map Shop (to replenish our map stocks) and then onto meet up with Kirsty Wilson who produces the TravelTipsPlus website.

We met at the Marina Mirage, one of the few places on the east coast you can watch the sunset over water!

Marina Mirage, Surfers Paradise

Many people travel to new places to experience change, so I find artist Andy Goldsworthy’s comment an interesting thought ~

“I believe that change is best understood by staying in one place.”

I love ‘travelling’ on my home ground ~ It only becomes mundane and dull when you stop looking!

Having just got back from the Trade Fair in Sydney I thought I’d post photos illustrating our booth when I got there – a bare black box – to when fully decked out with our red display stands, maps and the Journey Jottings banner flying over head…

However, in the process of taking a short-cut by importing and deleting off the camera all in one go, I managed to loose the lot

After commiserating over a delicious hot buttery crumpet with blackberry jam I set off on the rebound for a evening walk with camera in hand and was treated to the most beautiful bevy of toadstools all popping up as we head into autumn ~

Now lets be honest ~ What would you rather look at? A trade fair, or these wonderful creations of nature?

Sand still perched on the top of this one having freshly popped its head up!

Is this a puffball pushing its way up?

This one looked like an anemone

Another puffball?

This one looks like a natural sponge!

What an amazing variety and in such sandy soil

There are times I wish I was more of an early bird!

Glorious sunrises…

… and the magnificent dawn chorus, which is so beautiful to hear

Our feathered friends put on such an enthusiastic fanfare as they pour their heart out singing in the day – I wish I got to hear it on a more regular basis! Such a variety of tunes, and it seems to be the only time of day I get to hear the butcher bird with his melodic aria – Not sure where he goes off to for the rest of the day.

Within an hour of the sun rising the ruckus has settled and the more pressing task – foraging for food - gets underway.

It’s then only the odd cackle of a kookaburra who breaks the silence to clarify who’s the owner of this patch ~

This little group (there are three there!) frequently sit in the old gum tree outside my office window keeping an eagle eye out for unwelcome intruders; interspersed, of course, with diving off for the odd tasty morsel!

After months of the local banksia trees showing only their old scruffy looking seed pods ~

Scruffy Banksia Seed Pods

Today, after a lot of rain, I noticed a couple of  beautiful fresh lemon yellow flowers blooming  :)

Banksia Flowers

The genus Banksia is named after the botanist, Sir Joseph Banks who accompanied James Cook on the 1768-1771 voyage to Australia.

Joseph Banks

He collected samples from Botany Bay which were sketched and painted by Sydney Parkinson a botanical artist who was also on the expedition.

I’ve always held a soft spot for banksia seed pods; they remind me of both muppets faces, and the beaks of baby birds gapping open wide begging for more worms!

Banksias were ‘brought to life’ by May Gibbs in 1918 in her children’s books Tales of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.

Sadly for me they are portrayed as the baddies of the tale ~ Banksia Men

Banksia Man by May Gibbs

I frequently go over to Stradbroke Island for an evening walk.

As I climb the hill I often hear rustling and scuttling in the bush on either side of the sandy track, but seeing what made the noise is generally futile as the survival of whatever made the sound is dependent upon it remaining invisible to any potential predators  -

But on this occasion a movement in the bush caught my eye, followed by a scrambling scratching noise up a nearby tree!

A lace monitor!

Many years ago I used to do map work for exploration companies across outback Australia and when working in scrub country where trees were few and far between fellow team members would tell me if I startled a goanna, as they are commonly called, I should lie down as their ‘fight or flee’ reaction is to climb the nearest tall object – which in that country would have been me!! I’m not sure how much they were pulling my pommie leg, but seeing the size of their claws, I’d rather have lain down in the dirt than risk the possibility of a goanna running up my body.  ;-)

Later, when living on a property in northern NSW, we had a resident monitor that must have been not far off their maximum size, which is 2.1m (6’10″). Because of his prehistoric looking lumbering gait as he roamed his domain, we called him ‘Dino’. He’d clamber up the steps onto our verandah to investigate whether there were any tasty morsels that could be scavenged, and sadly for us one day he did strike lucky when he found my son’s pet Cockatiel  :-(

Feb 2010 Post Script:

After writing this post John Shortland and Charley Jones sent me some photos of their sightings of Lace Monitors…

The photos supplied by John Shortland were taken on the Tallowa Dam Road, Kangaroo Valley NSW

Thanks so much John for adding to this post

Love this close up!

Charley Jones of http://www.secretwater.com.au spotted the lace monitor below at Little Shark Rock Point on the Hawkesbury, Sydney when out with her family in their tinny, just last weekend ~

It really is such a thrill to see such magnificent animals in their native habit like this

Thanks Charley for adding your photos!

Grass trees are found in a range of climates across Australia,  from WA to the NT and down to Tasmania.

I photographed the group of grass trees above on Stradbroke Island, east of Brisbane, Queensland, but I have equally enjoyed their presence near Perth in WA and in the hinterland to Byron Bay in northern NSW.

The 28 species of  Xanthorrhoea found in Australia grow painfully slow. At only a couple of centimeters a year, it can take 20 years for the trunk to start to appear under the grassy mop, so a a grass tree standing two metres could be 100 years old. Some live for as long as 600 years.

Grass Tree, previously known as a Blackboy

They have in the past been known as Blackboys, which was originally based on the aboriginal name for the tree ‘Balga’ that means black boy, but was then colloquially applied due to the tree’s silhouetted resemblance, when in flower, of an Aboriginal holding a spear. The spear like flower that protrudes out of the top of the grassy sprouting foliage can grow up to four metres tall and can just be seen in my photo above.

Aren’t they wonderful

Before the Christmas season is totally over, I want to share this photo I took on a walk over the festive season of this Christmas beetle -

They get their name due to their ‘sudden’ appearance at this time of year, but they look as though they have come dressed for the occasion wearing a green metallic waistcoat, which is  all of a sparkle and glittery!

Christmas Beetle spotted on a Christmas walk

There are 34 species of the beetle genus Anoplognathus – The one above was about 35mm long.

The larvae is laid in the soil and takes either 12 or 24 months to mature (depending on warmth of winter) before pupating and emerging usually after the onset of the summer rains.

They are voracious eaters, making zigzag cuts into the eucalyptus leaves that they feed on, which shreds the leaves with much getting wasted as it falls to the ground. In numbers they can therefore have dire effects on eucalyptus woodlands. Happily, no such swarm was spotted here