Rolling.....

It is one of the joys of life that when you present three small children with a grassy slope you know what is going to happen next and today was no exception...
Tish was on an early today so I decided that we would drop her off and then take a picnic breakfast - nutella sandwiches [other hazelnut and chocolate spread brands are available] - and head off to Lake Barrine for some birding and a short walk.
The gardens here are small but provide all the features required for a messy morning. During breakfast the children were making plans as to what they were going to do next...

The end result was inevitable...
Xanthe first..

then Hamish

and Cameron

given the time of day (early morning) and the humidity you can probably imagine how wet they got!
Whilst they were dodging the "roo poo" I was watching these rather impressive Eastern Spinebills

We then headed off into the rainforest which was very productive although none of the photos came out as I struggled to get the camera to focus properly.
The vines / strangler figs make some great shapes

From there we went via a Platypus viewing platform [nothing showing though] to the Curtain Fig Tree. Xanthe was a tad skeptical as in her own words "why do we have to go and see a big tree, boring..."
On seeing the tree she was quiet for a whole five minutes need I say more...

It is a massive strangler fig that has killed the host tree and then carried on growing.
Bird wise it was quite quiet today which as we were the only people was a bit of a surprise. This Spectacled Monarch was quite obliging

It is a site we will return too one evening as it is a great place to go lamping for Tree Kangaroos so we will combine it with a dusk visit for the Platypus.