Mount Coot-tha

We have just passed our two year anniversary of living in Brisbane, my how time flies! Looking back over this blog I realised a couple of things: I've not posted for nearly six months (oops!) and that I've never posted about the wonderful Brisbane Botanic Garden at Mount Coot-tha, what an omission. Given that this blog started life as a blog about the Australian National Botanic Garden in Canberra, I really should have written about the Brisbane equivalent by now.

Strelitzia in the Mount Coot-tha botanic garden, also known as 'Bird of Paradise flower', a beautiful plant often seen in Gardens around Brisbane although it is actually native to South Africa.

One reason it has taken so long to write about the garden at Mount Coot-tha is because it took us a long time to go there again after moving here - on our first visit to Brisbane we had visited the garden and were very disappointed, but it turns out we didn't see hardly any of it as it extends so much further than we realised!  So if you go there and you think its just a small lake with a few flower beds around, you really haven't explored far enough.  For a start, there is also a wonderful Japanese Garden, pictured below, and a meandering rainforest river with plenty of water dragons.

If you are interested in Japanese culture, there is an event on tomorrow Sunday 18th August, in the Japanese Garden at Mount Coot-tha celebrating Japanese Cultural day!  This will include music, a tea ceremony and origami amongst other things, from 11am-3pm, and its free (as is entry to the garden).  

Just be sure to watch out for the many Golden Orb weaver Nephila plumipes spiders webs with huge female spiders as you walk around the gardens...  pictured below is an immature (top) and mature (below) female - the males are really tiny in comparison as this species has extreme sexual dimorphism; the female body length of these spiders is around 20mm, whereas the males are just 5mm.

The Bowerbird's Bower

Yesterday I went to the gardens for lunch without my camera and I'd never been more frustrated at not having it with me... I had found the Satin Bowerbird's Ptilonorhynchus violaceus bower! I first discovered the mature male Satin Bowerbird in the gardens over a month ago now, and managed to get a picture of him for this blog in early October.  So I rushed back to the gardens as soon as I could at lunchtime today and took some pictures of this amazing structure.  It is about a foot (30cm) high and is a little hidden within some bushes.  The range of blue objects he has found to decorate it are amazing, all the same shade of blue too!  You can see a close up of a peg below.  There was also a couple of pretty yellow flowers I think he might have also put there.  Incredible.

I wonder what the Satin Bowerbird would have used before blue plastic was invented?

In my rush to get to the gardens I hadn't really noted what the weather was looking like and as soon as I had taken the pictures of the bower the heavens opened.  Its been so wet in Canberra recently, though now its heating up its starting to feel more like tropical than English rain, but there is plenty of it!  So I made a dash for a shelter nearby and ate my lunch there, amusing myself by taking pictures of raindrops falling on the shelter and on some leaves. 

Once the rain stopped I carried on wandering in the gardens.  The water dragons appeared again after the rain and nearby I noticed the huge Gymea Lily Doryanthes excelsa is starting to flower, it will be spectacular in a few days or so when it is in full bloom.  I also noticed there seems to be a new trail through the gardens that must alter weekly, called the 'In flower this week walk', what a great idea!

There was a little sign about the Aboriginal use of the Gymea flower next to it in the garden: The Gymea flowering stem grows up to 4 metres high, but it was roasted and eaten when it is only about 0.5 metres high and as thick as a man's arm.  The roots were also roasted and made into a sort of cake.  The name 'Gymea' comes from the Wodi Wodi tribe of the Illawarrra district near Sydney.  

The Dragons are back - but no sign of the Gang-gangs

On Wednesday the garden was full of Gang-gang cockatoos Callocephalon fimbriatum - I could hear them everywhere and saw about 10 of them.  I even saw a pair doing a sort of mating dance, where they gave each other little pecks.  Of course, when I went back on Friday with my camera there wasn't one to be seen, so I still haven't got a picture of one for my blog!  They seemed to have been replaced by Crimson Rosellas - and love was in the air for these too.  The Pryor tree has a pair nesting in a hole, I got a very cute picture of one peeking out, I thought I saw a little one beside her too at one point, but I might have imagined it!

To make up for the lack of Gang-gangs I was pleased to find plenty of Water Dragons back in the gardens, the last time I saw one to take a picture of for this blog was for my second blog post, back in March! I saw a small one too - it looks like its a baby dragon. 

 After seeing so many Waratahs last weekend at Mount Tomah I remembered the picture I took earlier in the year (April) of a Braidwood Waratah seedpod (Telopea mongaensis).  I found the plant again and it was bursting into bloom, some seedpods are still clinging on though you can just see in the first picture. 

 I found a couple more pretty flowers I'd not seen before too, a beautiful Orchid Telychiton tarberi at the entrance to the Rainforest, which is an epiphyte (attaches itself to the trunk of trees).  This appears to be referred to commonly as 'king orchid' which I can see why, its quite spectacular. 

I also found this beautiful purple flower in the Grevillea/Hakea section, it looks more like a Hakea to me but I couldn't find a label on it. 

A Mighty Dragon

At the weekend I spent a very peaceful Sunday afternoon in a quiet corner of the garden with my knitting, while Edd (my partner) was at work at Tidbinbilla.  I found a lovely bench surrounded by wattle bushes and saw plenty of birds, including a Gang-gang Cockatoo Callocephalon fimbriatum.  A family of cheeky Kangaroos were nearby, nibbling on the flora - lucky for them no gardeners were near!  But, unfortunately I ignored the golden rule on Sunday - no camera! So, I returned to this great spot in the garden today (high up above the rock garden, looking across the city to mount Ainslie) to see what would visit...

It wasn't long before a small gang of Eastern Spinebill Acanthorhynchus tenuirostris appeared.  As they were flitting from branch to branch it was tricky to get a picture, but this one came out ok:

These birds feed on nectar, of which there seems to be an abundant supply in the gardens at the moment.  A constant buzzing can be heard as bees gorge themselves on Bottlebrush Callistemon and Grevillea beadleana, both pictured below (with bees!).  The Grevillea beadleana is a rare and endangered plant from Northern NSW, thought to be extinct until rediscovered in the 1970s!

My favourite encounter this lunchtime had to be this large Water Dragon.  I love taking pictures of reptiles, they are so beautiful with their amazing patterned skin that nearly always takes a great photo, and best of all, they usually like to stay still and pose for me!