This morning was certainly warmer, it was 10 overnight. Still the cold wind is blowing. Tomorrow will see out the theory that you have three days of wind and it’s gone.
Today is drive day, we are off to explore the park. Lobbie pot is back in, we are still trying to catch another one or more. We still have the large one in fresh water.
The old stock yards
Lake Constance a semi permanent water supply. Only fills when the flood level is at 4.5 metres
Fairy Martens resting, they tire themselves out chasing insects and come in and rest on the side of the lake.
This is a Beefwood Tree which has an abandoned eagles nest at the top.Nesting in the eagles nest amongst the large sticks are Zebra Finches,uilding their own grass nests.
There would have been about thirty finches altogether. They are really pretty little birds. Very timid and quick to take flight. A bit of patience paid off and I’m happy with the result.
The Ruins
There is no history as to who built these dwellings. They are stacked stones, it looks like a drover’s camp to us. Certainly too small for any sort of permanent homestead.
There were plenty of flowers starting to come out.
Mistletoe – we got to see all the stages of how Mistletoe works.
We knew that the Mistletoe birds were fond of the berries and when the seed is evacuated they still have a sticky substance to the seed and it will stick to the branch of the tree rather than fall to the ground. The Mistletoe needs a host tree to survive. Here are the photographs of how the seed begins to grow on its host. What we didn’t know was that even the seed will search out a live limb if left on a dead one.
The seed sends out a shoot with like a suction cap at the end of it. See the attachment to the right. It will only attach itself to a live branch. We saw where one had continually wound itself around a dead branch and was advancing to the live stem.
This one is on a dead stem and is looking for a live stem host.
Makes for a good science story - oh, that’s already been done.
The tree that we found the mistletoe on was so infested that it will be unable to sustain itself.
The bower bird is constantly at the mistletoe at the camp, although it only has flowers at this stage.
Know you're heading to Alice Springs . . . you could always turn right at Stuart Highway instead of left and head for Mataranka for a pie . . . take the road just south of town down to Roper River (only 160km) . . . then turn right onto Savannah Way before you cross the Roper . . . Tomato Island on your left abt 40km! Or just go north from Boulia through Mt Isa and Boroloola then Tomato Island will be on your right!
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