Australia is so abundant in wildlife that’s vastly different from North America. From most of the world actually! When we arrived in Sydney the first thing I noticed were these huge white Ibis. They are everywhere! They remind me of our pigeons, as they are all over town, unafraid of people, and always looking for food, hence the nickname “bin chickens”.
The birdsong was the next thing I noticed. I love the sounds of birds and nothing says you are not in Kansas anymore than the call of the Kookaburra!
Up here on the eastern coast, right now Glenn and I are near Cairns, on the Cassowary Coast. We settled in Mission Beach for a few weeks. Next week we are on a dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef.
Our bnb in Wongaling Beach was in the rainforest. The birdsong is incredible in the forest! Day and night! The owner had photos of a male cassowary and his chick right off the porch of our cabin. We saw wild pigs and dozens of wallabies, but nary a cassowary.
The wallabies are just too cute. But they are super skittish. I guess they have reason to be.
I had never seen a cassowary! They are reported to be rather dangerous, so I was unsure how to go about spotting one in the wild. This area is the only place in the world where the southern cassowary exists in freedom in the wild. (Three species of cassowaries are also found in Papua New Guinea.)
They are endangered. It’s estimated that there are 70-100 species of vegetation that depend on the cassowary to spread its seeds! It has a gentle digestive system that doesn’t break down seeds, and it can swallow large fruit whole!
We walked and drove slowly all over this area, following local advice to see one. People kept saying, ‘oh we had a father and chick over there just yesterday’, or ‘yes they are along this road all the time at 4pm’ …but nada.
Finally we drove to Etty Bay which is a small beach and campsite, notorious for cassowary sightings. The local cassowary population is less skittish and pretty much ignores gawkers.
We drove in along the only road to the beach and saw one who promptly disappeared. But it was incredible looking! And super exciting. At least we saw one! We went down to the beach, parked and walked around. Nothing. Finally, just as we were deciding to roll out, a lady driving into the parking lot said “2 cassowaries on the road!” and off we charged. 2 massive cassowaries were walking towards the beach, one on each side of the road. I have posted on my Facebook and Instagram accounts here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1886817165115986
https://www.instagram.com/p/C9Bvz-2PSF6/
We saw 2 more in our neighborhood! Now we have the vibe and know how to bring them in. The first one we saw was really great but he disappeared into the forest. So I said ok, now we want one who is clearly easy to see and stays around for us to admire him. And sure enough a few minutes later, we found another one who was totally chill!!! It’s all about the vibe.
I’m preparing my ‘octopus vibe’ for our dive trip. I’ll report about that in the next article!
