First up today was the Rotary Rainforest Walk.
The story behind this one is there’s about 12 hectares of rainforest in the middle of the suburbs, with a little trail going on a loop through it. It used to be full of figs and covered in privet seedlings, but when the privet was cleared away in 1986, they discovered a treasure trove of rainforest seedlings underneath. So they let them grow, and now there’s a rainforest walk one street up from the hospital.
I parked the car and hopped out, and this was what greeted me:
Pretty loud, huh? I soon found out why. See those things that look like seedpods hanging from the tree?
Well, they’re not seedpods!
The entire place was filled with flying foxes! It even smelled of them!
You couldn’t escape them. They were everywhere! And being much more active and noisy than I would have expected, given it was daylight. Still, there were some nice photo opportunities.
After much trial and error (and bad pics), I finally got this close-up:
The classic flying fox picture. It actually looks like it’s squeezing its eyes shut and trying very determinedly to sleep in spite of the racket around it.
This little guy was beside the trail, holding very still and hoping I wouldn’t notice him.
And have some of the usual landscape photos, to give you an idea of what I was walking through:
Beyond the initial boardwalk, the path wasn’t exactly well-paved – it was usually covered in leaf litter, flying fox poo, and mud. And I walked through a few spider webs along the way.
It’s another yellow robin! These guys seem to be much more common than I expected.
I found this crazy tree root – check it out! The first photo is what I initially saw of it; that huge bow shape. Then I followed it around, past the ‘V’ shape where the water pushed on it, and back to its tree which you can just see in the side of the photo.
If you look, the root has actually slowed the flow of water in the creek, creating a little dam. It’s also wrapped around the base of that other tree – pretty wild, huh?
There were Ibis nesting in the trees as well. You can just see the bird’s head through the vegetation:
At the end of the walk, I found a flying fox had pooped on my hat, so I washed it off at the water fountain. I was kind of surprised that was all that had poop on it – I was expecting to find it across my shoulders and in my hair, but it was just on the hat, so I guess I was lucky.
I felt the need for a shower after that, but I had the Botanic Gardens yet to go, so I headed off out of town towards the waste treatment facility – the gardens are right next it.
Australia, man.
But seriously, stinging trees are definitely to be avoided. They talk about symptoms persisting for months, but one unfortunate man who was stung across the chest said the pain didn’t stop for two years, and still reoccurs every time his chest comes into contact with cold water. The tree has also been known to kill horses and dogs that brush against the leaves.
In spite of this, some native Australian insects and mammals do eat the leaves (because that’s what you do when you evolve on the continent of poison).
So, with a wary eye out for stinging trees, I ventured into the hoop pine forest.
I figure the landscapes need no intro at this point:
There were butterflies and moths everywhere – every step sent up a cloud of them.
The path was studded with helpful and descriptive signs like this one.
Not much of a rock garden, really, but it looked nice.
I found the limit of the botanic gardens, obviously bordering on someone’s farm. Hello, cows!
I was surprised to come across this halfway up a hill:
Apparently these chimes were made from a recycled trampoline frame. There were little wooden hammers as well, so I had a go!
Random little maze of rocks. Didn’t take long to solve it, but it was a nice discovery.
Then it was out of the hoop pine and into a small stretch of eucalyptus.
I kept an eye out for koalas, but no luck.
A very familiar little bird.
Didn’t see much more in the eucalyptus, so I ate the sandwiches I’d packed and headed off to the rainforest walk. I saw (and heard) plenty of birds in there. Listen to them!
You know what’s coming:
We know this one – it’s a Lewin’s honeyeater!
I don’t know what this one is though. My best guess is it’s a female of some kind of robin species:
I went up a little hill, and got a very nice view of the hinterland:
Then it was back into the forest.
Not a very good picture – it was well-shaded by the canopy – but this is a Green-winged Pigeon, also called the Emerald Dove.
I found the remnants of a car in the middle of the gardens. Look, you can see the steering wheel and the tyre rims.
After the rainforest walk, I went into a little flower garden and saw some gorgeous flowers:
And not only were there flowers, the garden was full of little birds as well!
These are both videos of a Red-browed Finch. They were all over the place, but hard to catch even on film, because they were always hopping around.
A Brown Honeyeater I spotted in a bottle-brush:
Once again, I have no idea what kind of bird this is. They seem to be female wrens of some sort, getting their feathers ruffled in the breeze.
This is the Shining Bronze Cuckoo:
And look what I spotted lurking in the scrub:
A Swamp Wallaby. You can see it has a notch in its ear.
After all the hot, sweaty walking I needed a shower. I did a bit of shopping before I went back to Turtle Shell (needed to pick up some milk) and then hopped into the shower for a nice, long wash.
Jenny's Adventures 