The Art of Camouflage
There are many creatures in nature who are masters of camouflage and one of these is the Tawny Frogmouth. They are nocturnal birds so during the day they are seen perched on tree branches, usually down low, camouflaged as part of the tree.
These photos show our hand-reared, resident Tawny Frogmouths, Baby and Hoot with their two surviving fledglings on the edge of our busy main driveway. This dead tree they picked was quite low, making it easy to take a couple of photos with my iPad.
The tawny at the bottom is Baby with Hoot just above him on the right. The close-up photo actually has three tawnies in the picture; the top-half of Hoot at the centre-bottom.
Tawny Frogmouth’s Second Year
Our two hand-reared Tawny Frogmouths, Baby and Hoot, have become parents again and, as last year, have had a brood of three. This time, perched high in a large gum tree which has made observing them, a little harder as well as trying to take photos of them with my iPad.
The male Tawny Frogmouth, Baby, sits on the nest all day long and cares for the two smaller chicks while mum, Hoot, takes her firstborn out for a little flying lesson.
Many thanks to photographer, Geoff Saunders who took a few shots for us.
Koala Sighting
We are always excited to sight koalas on our property at Maleny Country Cottages.
This one in particular was spotted high up in a gum tree when he decided to go and find himself another tree.
Whether his acrobat antics were from sleepiness or just for fun we 
couldn’t tell but his activity kept us attentive to 
him for quite a while.
He didn’t seem disturbed by our presence, a little bit curious but 
then just carried on as if we were not there.
A Pygmy Acrobat
When your home is surrounded by the Australian bush, you experience many things; challenges and pleasures, and nothing is more rewarding than rescuing one of our natives.
This Feather-tail Glider ventured into one of our cottages and got his tiny claws caught on a mat. We don’t know how long he was there but, when Claude freed him from his bondage, he was too weak to run away. We coaxed him to drink some water from the tip of my finger and it wasn’t long before his almost transparent minuscule tongue lapped up many droplets of water. We then placed him in a safe spot under the cottage to recover and coming back to check on him a few hours later, he was no longer there and we’d like to think that he gratefully returned home to his family.
Feather-tail Gliders are the smallest gliding marsupials in the world, having a unique quill-like tail that is hairless except for a fringe of long stiff hairs down either side that resembles a feather. Their body and tail length can be up to 80mm each and weighing 10-15 grams. They spend up to 87% of their time in trees at heights greater than 15m so they are the rarest seen of all the glider species and, despite its size, the Feather-tail Glider is capable of gliding up to 25m. They have the ability to run up vertical panes of glass and have great skill moving around trunks and branches of smooth bark gum trees.
Tawny Frogmouths’ First Family
It’s always exciting when a young family welcomes it’s first born and that has been the case at Maleny Country Cottages. Two of our fledglings, Baby & Hoot, that we rescued in October, 2013, became an item from the very beginning during their months in care. When old enough to leave our ‘nest’, they decided to stick around on the property near my work sheds and to my pleasure, I was able to keep a watchful eye on them.
This winter of 2015, they went missing. Did a python outsmart them? Did they move on? Then, one morning, Claude was working around Bottlebrush Cottage and, high up in a gum tree was the smallest of nests with a male Tawny Frogmouth and it’s three little ones. It was not just any Tawny Frogmouth, it was Baby who, two years before was almost put to sleep due to a neurological disorder. He was put on a high protein diet and recovered extremely well after many months of diligent care.
Baby & Hoot are now a beautiful family of five and even though they were reared by humans, they have not lost any of their natural instinct to care for their own. They are very loyal and devoted parents and their fledglings are growing up healthy and secure.
Our involvement with WILVOS – Wild Life Volunteers
WILVOS
Maleny Country Cottages is a family owned establishment and is a member of Land For Wildlife and owners, Claude and Teresa Goudsouzian are wildlife volunteers with WILVOS. Most years, during October – February, we care for injured Tawny Frogmouths which give guests the rare opportunity to view them.
