Gardens – Page 4 – Paluma – our village in the mist

A Tale of Two Bowers

We have previously posted several articles on this website regarding the amazing bowers built by the satin bowerbirds in and around the village of Paluma.

This is a story of two bowers and the concerted efforts of my resident satin bowerbird/s to build and maintain their bower in the face of considerable adversity.

A few weeks ago at the start of the breeding season I noticed that the satin bowerbirds were very active in the garden – in their favourite spot where a bower has been built over two successive years. So, it didn’t surprise me to see work had begun on a new bower (no.3) this breeding season. The construction of the bower was well under way and various blue objects started appearing in the garden as the efforts ramped up to build the bower and tempt the female birds in. There was some frenetic activity going on.

Then…….along came the tree trimmers to prune the vegetation from the transmission lines.

At my place they pruned some sizeable branches and left most of them behind littered throughout the garden. The clean up effort by the crew was pretty poor to say the least. As I cussed (numerous times) and began cleaning up the branches left behind, I noticed that a large branch had been lopped and left right on top of the bower. I promptly removed it to discover that the bower had been flattened to a pulp (along with several of my garden plants). In addition, the large branch left on top of the bower meant that the birds could not get access to the area to retrieve their twigs, sticks, blue trinkets and treasures to rebuild or relocate the bower.

I cussed again (more times than previously) and resolved with some disappointment that the bowerbird courting and breeding in my garden would be over for this year.

But that is not the end of this tale.

Coming back to my garden after two weeks away I was pleasantly surprised to see the bowerbird/s had rebuilt and re-erected the bower. It was bigger and better than before. There were new and many more blue trinkets scattered around the bower, along with pieces of bright green lichen. A new addition was the leaves of the exotic aluminium plant with the silvery upper side of the leaves carefully placed at the bower entrance. In recent times there has again been a hive of courting activity and chortling at the bower and around the garden.

It never ceases to amaze me how adaptable and innovative these birds can be. Not only do they collect and re-use the plastic contaminants we humans leave in the environment (well at least the blue pieces), they also re-adjust quite readily to our invasion of their rainforest home and our constant interference in their breeding and life cycle.

If only we humans were so tolerant and adaptable to the other species sharing the planet!

The array of blue (plastic) treasures at the bower.

Text & Photos by Michele Bird

What’s Blooming (and budding) in Paluma – Native Orchids

Paluma gardens have a pretty wide variety of both native and exotic orchids and at least one or two species can usually be seen flowering during most seasons. Over the last month, two striking but relatively uncommon native orchids have flowered around the village: the spider orchid (Tetrabaculum cacatua) and the orange blossom orchid (Sarcochilus falcatus).

Michele has written about the spider orchid previously, but it’s great to see it again in full splendor and flowering at nearly the same time of year (July 20 in 2019 and July 14 in 2021). The orchid flowers lasted only a few days and are gone now, although there might be other speciments around the village or tracks. These orchids have unusual pseudobulbs (“stems”) that are square in cross section.

Orchid names have been in a state of flux recently. While this specimen was identified as Dendrobium tetragonum in the original post this species has been devided into 4 species in the genus Tetrabaculum, two of which can be found in Paluma. The one posted here (T. cacatua or the yellow tree spider orchid) has light yellow to white flower petals with few or no reddish spots and is restricted to forests above 900m). The other one to look out for (occurs below 900m) is T. capitisyork or the blotched spider orchid, which – you guessed it – has conspicuous red blotches on the petals. But for most of us, it’s just a gorgeous flower no matter what its official name is, and I am sure Shakespeare would agree!

The other beautiful orchid in flower at the moment is the orange blossum orchid (Sarcochilus falcatus). This delightful dainty orchid has a white flower with red stripes and yellow margins on the labellum (lower petal). It also flowered at nearly the same time last year. It is endemic to east and southeast Australia and favours cool moist forests. In north Queensland its temperature preferences restrict it to higher altitude rainforests. Although it is listed as being wide-spread and common in Austraian Tropical Rainforest Orchids, I have not seen this before during my frequents walks along the tracks.

Other fairly common native orchids that are currently sending out flower spikes and should be in full bloom during August in Paluma gardens or along the tracks are the rock orchid (Dendrobium speciosum, the slender cane orchid (Dendrobium adae), the buttercup orchid (Dendrobium agrostophylla), and the green catepillar orchid (Plexaure crassiuscula). The first three are described in the 5 easy species article on orchids. The last is illustrated here.

Text and photos by Jamie Oliver

Mud, mulch and a mixed grill – just another weekend at Paluma

Last Saturday (July 31st) there was a great turnout of locals to the gardening working bee at the Community Hall. Graham Pope brought his mini-tractor along and quickly ensured that the huge pile of mulch near the kiosk was distributed among the Trees of Memory and along the freshly weeded garden beds around the Community Hall. With over a dozen pairs of hands, the mulching was quickly finished and we then got to work digging trenches for a new irrigation system for the garden beds. Using a hose and a piece of conduit to create a channel under one of the concrete paths resulted in a few muddy hands and trousers but we soon got the piping laid and the earth and turf replaced into the trenches. While all this was going on some of the group carried out a bit of vegetation trimming along the road.

As soon as the work was complete it was time for the Paluma Push Thankyou Drinks and BBQ hosted by Paluma RFS. This was a great success, although it’s hard to fail when the drinks and food are free!

Before everyone got down to eating we were very fortunate to have Felicity and Josh from the Mt Zero -Taravale Sanctuary gave a very informative talk on the great work being done by the Wildlife Nature Conservancy just down the road from Paluma. The new $1.5 million project to build a predator-free safe-haven for the endangered northern bettong was a highlight of the talk. Judging by the number of questions flying during and after the talk it was clear that their work generated a lot of interest and possibly some new volunteers to help out.

After the meal, Sam Stedman from Outerlimits gave a brief talk on the outstanding success of this year’s Paluma Push and highlighting near-record number of participants, the quality of the challenging tracks, and the funds raised for our local SES and Rural Fire Services. He presented substantial cheques (both in size and dollars) to the two RFS branches and the SES, and expressed his gratitude to all the volunteers who helped to make this year’s push such a success.

Paluma Working Bee at Community Centre. July 31, 2-4pm

There is a huge pile of garden mulch at the Community Centre which we would like to move onto garden beds and other more useful areas. Also, a bit of weeding and planting in the garden bed wouldn’t go astray. So if you would like to help out, we are planning a working bee the Saturday after next, from 2pm to 4pm.

If you would like to help out in beautifying our Village Green and Community Hall surrounds please come along.

This will be followed by a BBQ hosted by the Paluma Rural Fire Brigade to thank all volunteers who helped out during the Paluma Push.

Night Stalker in the Village!

Just lately a very persistent prowler has been making a nuisance of itself in homes and gardens at the eastern end of Paluma Village. The perpetrator is a rather lengthy Night Tiger Snake, otherwise known as a Brown Tree Snake or Doll’s-Eye Snake (Boiga irregularis).

It all started with the onset of the warm weather and the wet season. Lynda at the Manali House started noticing that the Night Tiger was making regular visits to her front verandah. It wasn’t long before Lynda noticed that her closely guarded nest of Shrike-Thrush chicks had been raided. The chicks disappeared overnight and Lynda found the slithery culprit curled up in a nearby shrub with some distinctive lumps in its belly. Put that down to nature I suppose, but then the Night Tiger started to take some liberties around the place……

Several times Lynda was woken to things that go bump in the night, only to find the Night Tiger in her back room, actively rifling through the contents of boxes and other things in the search for food – geckoes, cockroaches and frogs.

The guilty reptile being relocated to the rainforest.

The next time Lynda encountered the snake it was in her lounge room, having a snooze under her favourite recliner. It was promptly relocated to the garden. Just last week, the Night Tiger was back in the lounge room, this time comfortably resting on the bookshelf. A late night call was made to the neighbours for some assistance in relocating the Night Tiger to the outdoors again. It was relocated to the forest at the eastern end of the village, but we are convinced it will be back, when it wants an easy feed of geckoes and tasty frogs or birds.

A spot of reading? The Night Tiger Snake resting on the bookshelf in Lynda’s lounge room.

My own encounter with the Night Tiger was one evening upon returning from an outing. I walked up my drive-way only to find the ‘stalker’ outside my garage door. With some skilful wrangling via my gumboot, my umbrella and a cake tray, the snake was re-diverted back up the driveway. It took off, heading again for Lynda’s place. No doubt it was missing the cosy lounge-room and its recliner!

Re-diversion of the Night Tiger Snake away from my garage.

The Night Tiger or Brown Tree Snake is a nocturnal snake (as we have obviously discovered!). They are arboreal and can often be found in buildings and in tree hollows. They feed mainly on birds, eggs, frogs, geckoes, small mammals and other reptiles. These snakes have a large head with distinctive and protruding large eyes with vertical pupils (I am not getting close enough to look into its eyes!). The head is distinct from the narrow neck. They are usually brown in colour with darker cross bands on the back and sides (hence the common name of ‘Night Tiger’). Specimens in northern Australia tend to have bold reddish bands with a creamy to orange belly. This snake can grow up to 2m in length. They are not usually considered dangerous, but they are venomous.

Text by Michele Bird with Photos by Paul Venn, Lynda Radbone and Michele Bird. Noting that the quality of our photos is not great, given the night time conditions and in my own case, the shaking hands and rapidly beating heart!

Community Centre Garden Beds now completed

On Sunday, with the enthusiastic help of several volunteers, the project to enhance the appearance of our Community Centre with new garden beds and a selection of native plants provided by the Townsville City Council was finally completed. Last year saw the construction of some the garden beds using black wattle logs sourced from Ann Bruyeres’ property, and the sourcing of a large selection of native plants courtesy of a grant from the Council. Ann played a key role in selecting the plants and getting them up to Paluma, where we kept them in a well-watered location until we could finish preparing the remaining garden beds and find a suitable time after the rains had set in to undertake the planting-out.

Working in the rain turned out to be much more pleasant than toiling in the blazing sun!

Anne provided much needed guidance in assigning a suitable spot for each plant, while the rest of us (Colin, Jill, Don, Michele and Jamie) dug the holes. Even now, the Centre and surrounds look much improved, and with a continued good wet season the plants will all take hold and begin to fourish and further transform the site. It’s good to have some pictures from the start so that we can record the changes as the plants grow over the next 5-10 years.

Thanks again to Megan Taylor (TCC) and Councilor Margie Ryder for their support in getting the plants for this project.

The finished product

A Look at the Boobook……

A couple of weeks ago, we were gifted with the rare treat of boobook owls. Boobooks are Australia’s smallest and most widespread owls, and, as with most owls, are seldom seen. In the Hawk Owl family (genus Ninox), these fledglings appear to be the more commonly distributed subspecies, Ninox boobook ssp boobook, rather than the rainforest subspecies of lurida, which is interesting as it means both subspecies must overlap in range here at Paluma.

We had heard both boobook and lesser sooty owls the previous evening, and saw at least one of the adult parent birds very early, from the bedroom window. The photos were taken from the lounge room window. These fledglings were being guarded by an adult bird, who quickly flew into the forest when spotted, but the fledglings stayed put for most of the morning, giving us a glorious opportunity to watch them watching us!

Owls are apex predators in many environments, and are at risk of consuming or accumulating toxins used to control pest species such as insects and rodents. While in Paluma, commercial spraying of pesticide is not a threat to these birds, the indiscriminate use of rodent poison certainly is. We ask all residents to consider live trapping for control of rodents over use of toxic baits. This provides not only the opportunity to identify the trapped animal, and release in a suitable location if one of our valuable endemic species, but also prevents the inevitable leeching of these toxins into our environment. After all, wouldn’t it be nice to have more owls around so that they can control the rodents instead!

Article & Photos by Sarah Swan

Nesting Time at the Klumpps……

Dorothy and Peter Klumpp have kindly shared some photographs from their back verandah. Just recently the Bower’s Shrikethrush (Colluricincla boweri) has moved in and is nesting, literally on the backdoor step. The chosen nesting place is a hanging basket that once held a pot-plant. Peter says that his ineptitude at gardening has finally paid off. The plant died and the birds took the opportunity to make good use of the macrame plant hanger. Of course, we all know that the Klumpps are great gardeners, but in this case they have graduated from green-thumbs to feathered fingers!

One nesting season I had the Bower’s Shrikethrush build a nest in the plastic peg basket hanging from the (undercover) washing line. Colwyn has had the birds return several seasons to also nest in her peg basket on the back verandah.

The Bower’s Shrikethrush is endemic to upland rainforests in the Wet Tropics region. It has been described as “one of the more common plainer birds in the tropical rainforest”. No one who has heard the call of this bird would describe it as plain. Female and male birds are distinguishable in that the female has an eye ring and eyebrow of pale feathers that is lacking in the male. The Bower’s Shrikethrush feeds on insects and their larvae from the mid-canopy and often on the ground.

We look forward to an update on the nesting at the Klumpps and some photos of the new (feathered) grandchildren??!!

The Bower’s Shrikethrush sitting on eggs. Note the very dead pot plant!

Text by Michele Bird and Photos by Peter & Dorothy Klumpp.

What’s Blooming at Paluma: Wisteria variety

We have previously featured some of the temperate and cool climate plants that can successfully be grown on the mountain top at Paluma village. One such success story is Colwyn Campbell’s Wisteria which has burst into full flower with the advent of Spring.

Colwyn planted her Wisteria about six years ago. It was a small plant produced from a cutting grown by Len Cook. Colwyn says that for several years the plant did very little and struggled to grow. Then about three years ago it started to gain vigour and to produce healthy foliage. Colwyn trained it to grow on a wire trellis along one side of her carport. When it flowered for the first time about three years ago, the blooms were rather small and few in number. Last year it produced a few more blooms.

This Spring the Wisteria is most impressive with a mass of lavender to violet coloured flowers in long pendulous sprays. The flowers have a strong sweet perfume and you can literally smell the Wisteria in the air as you walk along Mt Spec Road towards Colwyn’s house.

Most Wisteria varieties are native to Japan and China. Wisteria’s are a deciduous woody climber and can be vigorous if not kept pruned. They are adaptable to many climates and soil types, but they do not like to be waterlogged. They prefer to grow in full sun and they require protection from strong winds. The flowers appear on the bare wood of the plant and after flowering the new light-green foliage appears. Some parts of the Wisteria plant are considered toxic as they contain saponins. They should not be ingested and if handled, it’s a good idea to wash your hands thoroughly.

Text & Photos by Michele Bird

What’s Blooming at Paluma: Hippeastrum papilio

You know that Spring is just around the corner when the Hippeastrum bulbs are starting to poke through the soil with their long flowering stalks. All round the village the numerous varieties of these flowering bulbs can be seen getting ready to flower. At No. 31 Lennox Crescent (right on the corner of Mt Spec Road) there is a cluster of Hippeastrum papilio already in full bloom. This variety of Hippeastrum is native to Brazil. It is sometimes called the butterfly amaryllis. It has white flowers with a touch of lime colour and striking burgundy markings. Unlike many other Hippeastrums, this species is said to be evergreen in its ideal climate. Clearly, it thrives at Paluma!

Text & Photos by Michele Bird