Pardalote Holt: January and Cyclone Oswald

As is normal at this time of year the droughts of winter give way to the wet season and throughout the month we were getting some solid rain. At first the ground sucked it in greedily, but as the month progressed the soil became sated and we began to start seeing surface water and run off. The grass started showing signs of recovery and a couple of shrubs that I thought had died sprang back into life. By mid-month I was very pleased with the way things were going and I was preparing my tools to hold back the huge spurt of green growth that was beginning and then on the 28th we got hit by the remnants of Cyclone Oswald. It has to be said that we were very lucky. The top of Mount Tamborine was smashed by huge winds and lost thousands of trees. We drove through a week later after the clear up had got into progress and there were large bonfire piles of wood almost every 50 metres alongside every road. Our friends, Neil and Bobby had lost a beautiful mature Fig and had been struck by flooding as well.

Over the 36 hours of the deluge we got drenched and for the first time in our history at Pardalote Holt we were completely trapped. Each wet season its quite normal for the old wooden bridge crossing Guanaba Creek to be flooded, but we've always been able to escape up the back route over Mount Tamborine. Not this time, even that route was blocked by normally intermittant creeks flushing up to over a metre deep. I've heard a number of claims to the amount of water that fell ranging from 750 cms to a metre, either way it was a deluge. This isn't normally a problem to us, but this time there was a power outage that lasted 4-days. We were loaned a generator by our neighbours, but it was so weak it couldn't really manage the fridge and so we lost most of our frozen food. The biggest buggeration was water, silly really seeing we had so much of it around. We rely on rainwater from the tanks and without power we can't get water to the house. So, massive rain, high humidity and no toilets, no running water, no lights and no power. Bit of a pain really! As soon as the waters fell a little I got Susanne out to stay with friends and I stayed to look after the animals. It was a great relief when the power finally came on again.

Overall we got off lightly. We lost the contents of the fridge and two of my favourite Grevilleas had been pulled out of the ground by the sheer weight of water building up on their leaves, but otherwise all our menagerie survived. And as a bonus a Nankeen Night Heron appeared on the dam on the morning of the big wet.

Our Salmon Faverolle chicks have gone from strength to strength and we've continued their daily walk in the pen, handling them as much as possible so that they get used to human contact. With more feathers on we've now been able to sex them, two cocks and three hens. Not the ideal grouping, but when you order them as eggs you take your choice. Still, all five are doing well and we're really happy with them.


3 hens and two cock Faverolles enjoying a peck in the pen.

And on to the birds...

When I started this I was planning a 1-year survey and we've now completed that, but I enjoy it so I'll continue. If you're really lucky I might be able to put some graphs together to cover the information from last year.

Regular (seen at least 5 times per week)

Bar-shouldered Dove
Bronzewing
Bush Turkey
Double-barred Finch
Forest Kingfisher
Galah
Magpie Lark

Pacific Black Duck
Pale-headed Rosella
Peaceful Dove
Rainbow Lorikeet
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Wood Duck

Common (seen at least twice a week)

Dollar Bird
Laughing Kookaburra
Little Friarbird
Mallard Duck
Noisy Friarbird
Spangled Drongo
Torresian Crow
Welcome Swallow

Uncommon (seen 2-3 times in the month)

Australian Magpie

Australian Magpie

Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Blue-faced Honeyeater

Immature Blue Faced Honeyeater (as it has a green face!)

Brown Honeyeater
Eastern Whipbird

Figbird
Grey Shrike Thrush
Little Pied Cormorant
Noisy Miner
Olive-backed Oriole
Pied Currawong
Scarlet-backed Fairy Wren
Spotted Turtle Dove
Variated fairy Wren
White-bellied Cuckoo Shrike
White-throated Honeyeater
Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Rare (seen once in the month)

Australian Ibis
King Parrot
Nankeen Night Heron
Rainbow Bee Eater
Rufous Whistler
Sacred Kingfisher