Cocky Apple Trees and Honeyeaters

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Catching up on what’s been happening at my place. Daytime temp. highs have been back to 31 or 32 deg C and no sign of overcast skies. It’s back to big blue sky days once again.

The sunrises have been lovely of late! It’s soul food for me!

This morning while walking very early in the morning I noticed a particular perfume hanging in the air.

I realised its the heady sweet bush honey-like perfume of our native Plachonia careyas in bloom out in the surrounding bushland.

These trees are native to northern Australia and are commonly known as the Cocky Apple trees. They have the most remarkable flowers which open in the early evening, flower continually through the night, and then start dropping their flowers once the sun begins to show its face.

I’m waiting for the Planchonias on our property to catch up with all the bushland ones and bloom, but presently, they’re just full of buds!

I’ve managed to finish clearing out all the dead foliage from the massive stand of Alpinia … thank goodness! There’s another huge mound of debris that has to go to the dump.

While hacking back the dead foliage at the back of the stand, I was attacked by lots of green tree ants (Oecophylla smaragdina) ! They’re vicious things and give you a nasty bite. Unfortunately I always have a bit of a reaction to green tree ant bites! Ice packs help relieve the pain and the itch.

It’s been interesting to note that the back half (where I planted the plant originally) is still showing its variegated foliage. You can clearly see the variegation on the photo above.

The front half of the Alpinia zerumbet stand however seems to have reverted to the plain green foliage!!!

I spotted a Yellow-Spotted Honeyeater (Meliphaga notata) in the pergola garden again today.

There’s been one or two of them making a racket out there for a couple of weeks now. These birds have a lot to say!

The Yellow Honeyeater was back again too, and this time it was having a quite animated discussion with a pair of Sunbirds. The noise tipped me off!!!

If anyone is on Facebook then you might be interested in seeing one of my FB pages which is dedicated only to my garden and the wildlife found at my place here in the dry tropics.

My latest post includes a video of the “chat” between the Yellow Honeyeater and the two Sunbirds. Have a look at: Bernie Herron

• 17 Oct, 2024
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