Visitors from PNG

The day after we got back from NZ, our friends Eddie and Lisa were scheduled to arrive from Papua New Guinea. They were stopping in for a few days on their way to California. Unfortunately, their flight was delayed and they didn't arrive until Tuesday afternoon.

I only took two pictures while they were here:

Roxy took pretty quickly to Eddie and Lisa. Eddie tickled her during car rides, gave her an endless supply of grapes and loaded up her toast with more hummus than she's ever had in her whole life! And Rox scooted right onto Lisa's lap about 10 minutes after we got home from the airport...which was adorable.

Our friends let us borrow their big house for the visit so we wouldn't have to tiptoe all around after the baby's 7 pm bedtime. Nate and Eddie went golfing while Lisa, Roxy and I took a trip down to the Daisy Hill Koala Center.

Their visit was too short, but it means so much to us that they would use some of their precious vacation time to stay with us. We miss you guys!! Next time we see you, it will be in PNG!

Eddie and Lisa aren't the only visitors we've had from Papua New Guinea. The day that Eddie and Lisa flew out, I noticed that we had a new bird or two in the neighborhood. Listen, I'm no John Audobon, I only noticed because the bird call was so loud and obnoxious. It wasn't until that evening that I was able to nab a photo of our noisy friend.

Yes, I'm the snooping neighbor with a telephoto lens.

It's a Channel-billed Cuckoo, the world's largest cuckoo. They spend their winters in PNG and breed in Australia. The guidebook describes the call as "Harsh, unmusical ork or frantic ork-ork-ork-ork."

These birds are brood parasites, meaning they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds and let those other birds raise the baby cuckoos in addition to their own babies. Some brood parasites actually throw out the eggs of the host bird. These cuckoos just add theirs to the pile.

The trees in our backyard are filled with crows nests, and crows happen to be a common target of the cuckoo. This is how wikipedia describes their behavior:

Pairs also work together in order to aid the laying of eggs in host nests; the male will fly over the nest in order to provoke the nest occupants into a mobbing response, whereupon the female will slip into the nest and lay an egg. Alternatively the pair may work together by attacking an incubating bird, driving it off the nest and allowing the female to lay.

For the past two weeks, I've seen and heard cuckoos orking all over the neighborhood and it's REALLY pissing off the crows. Can't wait to see the cuckoo babies in a few months!

Mussels from Brussels

Mussels and beer - Nate's perfect meal

With Eddie and Lisa in town, we finally had a reason to go back to the Belgian Beer Cafe in downtown Brisbane. We had a jaunt through South Bank and watched the dragon races before getting on the ferry to cross the river to the restaurant.

Eddie using their fancy new camera to capture the dragon boat race on the Brisbane River

Taking Roxy on her first boat ride (she slept through it!)

Roxy's milk-drunk face.

Nate's mussels-drunk face (father-daughter resemblance, no?)

(latter two pictures taken from Eddie and Lisa's camera)

The next day we took a short trip to the Mt. Coot-tha Botanical Gardens just outside of town. After a windy bus ride there, we had a great lunch (and not so great milkshake) at the cafe and wandered around for a bit.

Har har - prickly Americans

Lovebirds on their way to live with real Birds of Paradise in Papua New Guinea

Nate showing the Little Macho Chili plant who's boss

Breastfeeding at Mt. Coot-tha? Check!

Watching the cockatoos causing a ruckus around the Japanese Garden

Yesterday (Thursday), we saw Eddie and Lisa off as they begin their new life in Papua New Guinea. They will be fighting the good fight for a couple of years (at least) at a malaria research laboratory in Madang (on the northern coast of the island). It's pretty exciting to have them in the same time zone again, even if they're two plane trips away! We're hoping to visit them at some point in the future - waiting to hear if the snorkeling is worth the price of admission (i.e. getting malaria).

Eddie and Lisa with everything they packed for the next two years

Next up for a visit from my mom! She gets here on Sunday to meet her youngest grandchild in person and to celebrate said grandchild's 2-month birthday! Needless to say, Roxy's pretty excited to meet her Nana.

We've got a short break after my mom leaves before we get to see our graduate advisors Peter and Penny. They're in Canberra on sabbatical and will be here for a short visit with colleagues and to take in a rugby game.

Not too long after that, newlyweds Andy and Darshana come a'calling! They're coping with the recession by taking a month-long vacation to Australia and Thailand. I like the way they think. They get here mid-March, just as we're getting into autumn.

We're loving all of these visitors, so plan your trip! The Australian dollar has tanked against the American dollar - bad for us, good for you! Now that we're on the other side of summer and jellyfish season is ending, it's the ideal time to visit Queensland!