Australia Main || Sydney || Cairns | Atherton1 2 | GBR

The next morning dawns early with thoughts of the many wonders that await us.

This particular honey-eater joined us for breakfast. Yummy orange juice! I think he's seen visitors before.

What's this, swimming in the water? This is the best shot I had of any of the beasts, taking an early morning swim in the river--looking for breakfast. We saw several of them surfacing every now and again, presumably with mouths full of grubs and worms. They hunt using special bio-electric sensors at the tip of their bill-like snouts. About 50cm long. Fascinating to watch in the wild, if not as revealing as those we watched in the Sydney aquarium.

Would you believe that these are the same Ulysses butterfly?

Other sights await us on the tour around lake Barine (?). A blue-cheeked rosella and a python coiled around some branches right at the lake shore.

Mr. Chambers gives a fascinating pademelon talk. They have a hierarchy within each family (there are two on the property). Every few evenings, they give one of the families some bland, cut up potatoes. The chunks are tossed about the yard and those pademelons present move around and feed on the pieces they can get ahold of. The higher ranked Ps impose a personal space feeding distance for the session. If a lower-ranked individual imposes on the space of a higher-ranked, the higher ranked will growl at him and he'll back off to a more appropriate distance. Each individual feeds for a little while in one spot and then moves on to forage in a different spot. Each also takes a turn at guard duty. This evening happened to be the leader's turn at guard duty, so we didn't get to see him. The structure that he talked about the groups having is pretty incredible. Passage of leadership. Ambassadors. Return of leaders.

Also at the pademelon talk are our first sugar gliders, the marsupial's answer to the flying squirrel.

And later that evening we make an attempt at some night-spotting (find an isolated spot and freak out the animals by shining a light at them. We saw a small variety of animals including a tree kangaroo and a couple of tiny jumpers. This green ringtail possum was the only one who didn't flee from us. In fact he was so still, I could have taken as many photos of him as I wanted. This is the best one.

Australia Main || Sydney || Cairns | Atherton1 2 | GBR