Heavy rain during night but only 8 mls in the gauge this morning. Sunny with a few scattered clouds. Humid. No breeze. Track damp.

Hot walking along the road to Allumbah Pocket where there was nothing on view. Looking for more potential possum roosting sites we checked the trees which shelter the Volunteers Hut and picnic table at The Other Side and who should be there but the chocolate brown Common Brushtail Possum. His colour is most unusual, and having seen and photographed him on a number of occasions this is not a trick of the light or an aberration of my camera or software. It is recorded that on the Tablelands Brushtails can be orange to charcoal in colour rather than the grey with gingery shoulders of animals on the coast. Behaviour is also different in that it is common in my experience to see Brushtails roosting on branches like the Green Ringtail during the day while they are reported elsewhere as spending the day in a den or at least a sheltered place.
As usual there was an Eastern Water Dragon in the vicinity but today on an isolated rock out in the open where the contrast made photography difficult. Next checked out the Green Ringtail Possum who was in the same tree as yesterday. Took several images and it was not until reviewing them on the computer that I discovered a small face peeping out of her pouch. Probably having his first view of a human! I was able to show her to a local Mum with her two children who happened to be passing and while chatting a medium sized and rather disheveled brown striped bird landed on a nearby branch where it continued to be harassed by a pair of Willie Wagtails! After changing perches several times it was still long enough to get a photo which showed it to be a rare hepatic morph of the uncommon passage migrant, the Oriental Cuckoo.
Stopping on the way to photograph a Black-faced Monarch and a pair of Pacific Black Ducks, went on to the Log Jam where there were two Saw-shelled and one Krefft’s Short necked Turtles. Along the upstream side of the Peninsula a rustle in the branches revealed a Green Tree Snake, or in this case the blue variant which seems to be more common in this vicinity. He continued to climb the tree giving me more photo opportunities. Met a couple visiting from the Netherlands and gave them directions to find the Possums. Hope they were lucky!
Regrettably no Platypuses were seen. The Eastern Water Skink was again under the Bridge. A number of Bush Stone-curlews were sharing the paddock with Australasian Swamphens. The Figbird commune was jumping as usual and the chick in the bamboo clump was still hungry!

Common Brushtail Possum. Trichosurus vulpecula

Eastern Water Dragon. Physignathus lesueurii

Green Ringtail Possum. Pseudochirops archeri

Oriental Cuckoo. Cuculus optatus

Black-faced Monarch. Monarcha melanopsis

Saw-shelled Turtle. Elseya latisternum

Krefft’s Short-necked Turtle. Emydura krefftii

Green Tree Snake. Dendrelaphis punctulata

Eastern Water Skink. Eulamprus quoyii

Bush Stone-curlew. Burhinus grallarius

Australasian Figbird. Sphecotheres flaviventris