Cape Tribulation Accommodation / Daintree Accommodation - B&B / Bed and Breakfast in the Daintree Rainforest National Park

What's new at Rainforest Hideaway?

21 September: Artist Alun Hartley just finished his sculpture and is now travelling on to New Zealand.

6 September 2010: Sculptor Garry Greenwood stayed at Rainforest Hideaway for a week and created these two dancing brolgas that now grace the fishpond of cabin 1092;

See more of Garry's sculptures on his website Ministryofsculpture.com

1 September 2010: the nights are filled with the sound of frog calls, they like the unseasonal rain we are getting.
Around the pond nearly every rock has a frog on it.

Your host Rob does sculpture as a hobby and is getting better with the cement, these are two new additions done in August 2010;

In 2009 we had a family of two cassowaries with two chicks paying regular visits, now in 2010 they have split up and we usually only see the male with two chicks coming around. A funny even the other day where one of the chicks fell in the big fishpond, paddled across, but when he got to the plastic crocodile he made a sharp U-turn and swam back to the bank and climbed out!

August 2010 visit by the cassowary family

2008: Although normally cassowaries split up as soon as mating is out of the way a family cruises around the valley that stays together with their three chicks;

September 2007: This year we have not seen the cassowary as often as previous years but lately she has been paying us a visit in the afternoon about 3 times a week.

December 2007: Our "regular" cassowary had disappeared for a while but turned up again late November with a family in tow! She had an adult partner with her and two chicks! Although we are used to seeing cassowaries around here this was a very exciting encounter for us too. Normally the female is not involved in rearing the chicks and the male does this but sometimes both parents will work together, I got a feeling this may be to increase survival chances of the chicks as this is a hazardous area because we have some irresponsible neighbours that let their dogs run free.

The sunbirds are building a nest under the front verandah roof. They like being close to people as it makes them feel safe from predators like butcher birds. It took the bird only a few days to build this nest. The sunbirds and spiderhunters are very small passerine birds which feed largely on nectar, although they will also take insects, especially when feeding young. Flight is fast and direct on their short wings. The sunbirds find counterparts in two very distantly related groups: the hummingbirds of the Americas and the honeyeaters of Australia. The resemblances are due to convergent evolution due to the similar nectar-feeding lifestyle. Most sunbird species can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird, but usually perch to feed. The sunbirds are tropical species, with representatives from Africa to Australasia; the greatest variety of species is in Africa, where the group probably arose. Most species are sedentary or short-distance seasonal migrants. Like the hummingbirds, they are strongly sexually dimorphic, with the males usually brilliantly plumaged in metallic colours. Sunbirds have long thin down-curved bills and brush-tipped tubular tongues, both adaptations to their nectar feeding. Up to three eggs are laid in a purse-shaped suspended nest.