Report

So nothing in life gives me more pleasure than to do as I did yesterday morning and go on a nature ramble with a handful of similarly-minded friends. We didn’t go to some exotic foreign part; in fact we didn’t go very far afield at all because if you live in a place like this there’s plenty of natural wonders at your back door. We just went a little way down the road to a track that runs along the eastern escarpment of Tamborine Mountain. Here, there is a line of remnant eucalyptus woodland on one side with open country beyond that and, on the other side, a view to the sea over some of the most magnificent unspoiled rainforest you’ll find anywhere.

We spent a very happy three hours or so pottering about this area, looking to see what birds and bugs and butterflies could be found and also how plants that thrive on rain are coping with three months drought. As always, there were plenty of bugs and the birds included Southern Fig Birds, Brown Thornbills, Whipbirds, Grey Shrike Thrush, both Spotted and Striated Pardalotes and – joy o joys – a single Albert’s Lyrebird.

Here are a few pics of what we saw:

  < Varied Swordgrass Brown butterfly        

second butterfly is a Wonder Brown >  

 < HUGE (6.5 cm/2 1/2 inches) dead Greengrocer cicada, on the road. Probably killed and then dropped by a predatory bird. No wonder these big chaps are so noisy when they are singing all together in the garden, or forest!

Looking down into some of the magnificent rainforest on the eastern scarp – too steep to walk down there. >  

 < The bower (NOT the nest) of the Satin Bowerbird, one of the commonest birds on the mountain. This time of year the males are very active decorating their bowers with blue stuff to attract the girls.

David and John look for birds while Tony (Judith's partner) shows Mike something in the garden. We stopped here for a welcome rest and Judith refreshed us with coffee and a chance to sit and admire the view >  

  < A Longicorn beetle on Mike's hand

Buds of the leguminous tree Daviesia arborea about to burst into splendid golden flower. Plants like this make a glory out of SE Queensland's usually dry spring >  

 <  thought I knew a quick way home but it meant ploughing our way over rought ground through waist-high grass and braving the snakes which are very active at this time of year - here David goes boldly where nobody (with any sense) has gone before!

 FOR ALL PHOTOS SEE THE GALLERY TAB

Location Information (by David): A short 3 km walk.  Allow at least 2 hours as what happens when you constantly stop to check out the nature like us is a cracking pace of only 0.8km/hr. We commenced at the end of Hartley/Cliff Rd along the Cliff Way walking track and returned along the eastern fence of the sports ground. The track parallels about a kilometre along the top of a cliff at the Eastern edge of Tamborine Mountain. It is amongst the trees between the cliff and the sports ground nearby. Views are found to the Coast through the trees with looking down on or into the tops of very large and old rainforest trees. This walk is relatively easy stroll along a dirt track with some small inclines.but walkers should take great care of their surroundings as a few steps in the wrong direction may result in a very long fall. The southern end emerges from the forest through an easement past private homes onto Caryota Ct. Whilst some weeds are found this is much reduced after some work by local Landcare people. Our list of plants of special notice and birds seen is at the end of this report

Nature Fans on this walk: Julie, Mike, Judith, John and David

Previous Location Walk Report - 2012-05-02