Cape York paradise at Portland Roads
You can Fly into Cape York and spend some time exploring. There is heaps to see in just one area. Explore the Iron Range National Park, Chili Beach and Lockhart River area from Portland Roads.
To encourage people to visit Portland Roads Beach Shack during the wet season, we have negotiated deals with Skytrans and Lockhart River Car Hire so that our customers can get discounts when booking through us.
We often have interesting guests at Portland Roads. I was just talking to some Lizard people and told them about this little fellow. So just found out that this is a Major Skink. He was in our kitchen and ran under the bench, behind some boxes. This photo was in July 2011, but I also saw one the other day (December 2011). I surprised him throwing a bucket of water on the garden.
I’m not sure that we actually have spring here, but the plants and trees are bursting with new life. And we are seeing more and more different animals and insects each day. Of course the humidity keeps rising too. But the winds are lessening and the sea is calming and becoming glass-like in the mornings. There is burning off happening and this gives us some incredible sunrises where the air is smoky and the morning sun is a red as a sunset.
Here is a better photo of our sea creature, taken on North Sulawesi, Indonesia
Dark-shouldered snake eel
When we first got here and walked at low tide we spotted one of these strange creatures, when I asked around no one had seen anything like it, a sea snake with a frilled neck sounded pretty unlikely. Nothing came up on google and I had no picture to post on the forums.
We just spotted another and got a photo, I put it up on a snake and python forum and some brilliant mind has identified it for us! Apparently it is known in these northern waters and many countries across the tropics see fishbase.
Dark-shouldered snake eel
We often hear birds but don’t always see them, so we are left wondering what they are. I was thrilled to find this site to help identify our local species, especially the night birds.
Bird sounds from Australasia and the Pacific is a site where people have submitted their bird recordings, it is also a resource if you have a recording of a call that you can’t identify.
Check out the sound of the Papuan Frogmouth found at Portland Roads – on our clothes line we still hear this regularly.
Check out the sound of the Blue-Winged Kookaburra found between Portland Roads and Lockhart River – Iron Range National Park
The birds spotted by Jun Matsui when he stayed here in December, we haven’t seen them yet but would love to. The Palm Cockatoo, White-faced Robin, Large-tailed Nightjar and the Eclectus Parrot.
White Lipped Tree Frog in our yard
We spotted this huge green treefrog yesterday, here at the Portland Roads Beach Shack. He was perched in a tree just near the path to our house. He sat perfectly still while we photographed him. Notice that he has ear patches rather than holes. That is Seamus’ arm behind him holding down the tree branch so that we could get a better angle. It gives you an idea of how big the frog is.
According to wettropics.gov.au
The White Lipped Tree Frog is the worlds largest tree frog growing in length to 14cm. With a green body with white stripe on lower jaw, and a long flattened body and it has PROTECTED status.
Wikipedia adds that:
Much of the wildlife of the Cape is not found anywhere else in Australia but is found in New Guinea.
White Lipped Tree Frog – Back view shows the texture of its skin
We had 2 guests stay for a week in December this year – a birdwatcher and a guide (Jun Matsui) from Sicklebill Safaris. They had flown in to Lockhart, hired a 4wd and stayed with us.
Jun (the guide) found a cuscus in one of our mango trees just up the road; came running back to tell us – of course we were all terribly excited and very thankful that he’d made the effort to let us know.
We watched it eat a couple of mangos for about 30 minutes. Thanks Jun!
He also sent us the following photos.
