Night time on the Tablelands

Yesterday evening Darren the husband of a colleague of Tish came and picked me up for a night lamping on the Tablelands.
Our first stop was in the village of Yungaburra  at one of the Platypus viewing areas...

not the greatest of pictures but my first Duck-billed Platypus!!

From here we moved on to Cathedral Fig Tree our first patch of rainforest. It started off well with loads of fireflies in the car park area (no idea even how to attempt to photograph them) but as we walked through the main forest area we saw very little. The soundscape was completely different from my visits there during the day - the cicadas had been replaced by frogs. There were clearly several species calling but we only found one

This is one of the Microhylidae group of frogs - very small probably not much more than10-15mm in length. They are best identified by their call so I am not certain as to which this was but I think it is Common Nursery Frog - Cophixatus ornatus.

From here we then moved on to Curtain Fig Tree. This was much more like it, in addition to the chorus of frogs there were also many bat type sounds and a few bats seen buzzing around but they were far too fast to get any pictures of.
We did much better here for mammals, at least four Common Brushtail Possums seen and photographed

From here we moved on to our final site Mount Hypipamee - one of my favourite sites in the southern Tablelands. Having only visited during daylight hours was not sure what to expect - we did see Green Ringtail Possum but he was decidedly camera shy and on the way out I had brief views of a Lumholtzs Tree Kangaroo but that was it as far as mammals went.
On one of the bridges we found this beauty

a New Guinea or Green-eyed Tree Frog - Litoria genimaculata

Hoping across the main track were several Cane Toads (these invasive pests get everywhere) but we also found this one

Northern Barred Frog - Mixophyes schevilli

The star of the night though was this stunning gecko

Northern Leaf-tail Gecko - Phyllurus cornutus

We got back at just past midnight having had a very successful trip

Green Island - Part II

Found a superb piece of free software that allows me to create panoramic shots so here they are the views from the Big Cat as we sailed out too Green Island

Marina area

View from the back of the boat

Cairns Esplanade

Green Island - Part One

This is the first part of the blog for our trip to Green Island yesterday - I have to do some photoshop to stitch some panoramic shots together and then get some films developed from the underwater cameras so there will be two more postings over the next few weeks.
We booked with Big Cat Adventures to go out to Green Island which is approx an hour off shore from Cairns.
The day started with a superb sunrise over Cairns Esplanade

this offered some great pictures

After checking in it was a short wait on the dock before we could board - time for more piccies

The company took photos of everyone as they boarded

Once on board we got the children kitted up in the latest fashions

which did make certain routine tasks rather tricky

they found different ways of keeping in the shade

The majority of the people on board were Japanese and they were fascinated by our three, particularly Cameron who was possed with for many photos - we should have charged...
I took many pictures as we were leaving Cairns which will need to be stitched together and will be posted in a later blog, this one though shows Yorkeys

Very quickly Green Island itself came into view

and next thing we were docking

It was then just a short walk down the jetty to the beach where we kitted up for our first snorkel of the trip - again they company took group photos

Mum had decided that she did not really want to get in the water so she was our on shore timekeeper. After what seemed like five minutes we could see her frantically waving which meant time to get out and make our way back to the boat for our trip in the semi submersible

its the yellow one on the left.
Being tall was a definite disadvantage as the steps down into the sub were a tad steep and the door lintel was very low

with the aid of some helpful signs we were soon all ready

The trip was simply stunning and far too short. There were heaps of fish including Black-tipped Reef Shark which kept just out of picture range unfortunately.
The coral round the island has in the past suffered from an infestation of Crown of Thorns starfish but it is recovering nicely

There were loads of fish

many of which were just too far away to get pictures of but here are a few of the better ones

Fusilier Fish

Spangled Emperor

Spangled Emperor and Fusiliers

Sea Cucumber

Giant Trevally

Trevally species

Sargent Major Fish

Bat Fish

After the tour it was back into the aircon on the Big Cat for a buffet lunch before Tish and I headed off with the children for a second bout of snorkling and mum headed off for a glass bottom boat tour - where she saw a turtle!!!
The snorkling was great with lots seen including a small ray and a very large barracuda - we had two underwater cameras but the children had snapped away and there were no shots left for the barracuda unfortunately, we have yet to get the films developed but when we do we will post the best ones.
Before we knew it it was time to get back onto the boat for the trip back.
They finish the day by feeding the fish off the back of the catermeran

As you would expect from me there were also a few pictures of some of the very tame birdlife

Pacific Reef Heron

Buff-banded Rails - these were everywhere and exceedingly tame

and the star turn (bad pun intended) the Common Noddy - there were 90+ of these pelagic terns loafing in the trees.

When we got back to Cairns we had  tea before heading home with three very tired children.
There was a final sting in the tail - well toe really - as Tish was unfortunately stung on the only square inch of flesh uncovered namely her big toe

but with applications of vinegar and hot water the swelling started to go down akthough the pain was quite severe.
The final chore for the day was washing the kit...

The pictures that the tour took of us came on this rather natty USB stick (at some exorbitant price I might add..)