Atherton Tablelands Farmstay Bed and Breakfast Accommodation
Barking Owl Retreat Farm Stay Animals

'Chilli' the Tenterfield Terrier is our youngest and smallest dog. She is sooooo cute! She is now 1 year old and all grown up as pictured above. Our largest dog is 'Bear' the Australian Red Cattle Dog who we purchased from 'Cooroorah Australian Cattle Dog Breeders' in Childers, Queensland. 'Bear' is continually swimming in the pond at the house with the Chinese Geese. 'Cash' the Tenterfield Terrier is our newest addition. He is two years old came from a breeder down South. We hope to breed some cute puppies with 'Cash' and 'Chilli' some day.

The gander is 'Tully' and his lady is 'Lilly'. 'Lilly' has lived up to her name and has nested in the lillies by the duck pond twice now. Firstly on a broken rain gage, secondly on a tangerine, then later on a mini tennis ball. She would not leave her nest even though she didn't have any eggs. The dogs unfortunately dined on her eggs daily before she sat. I wondered why they suddenly had such beautiful coats! Eventually 'Lilly' gave up. I thought to myself she will be a good mother some day. Well that day would hopefully come sooner rather than later as she sat on 4 eggs in August 2010 which I carefully hid in the cupboard away from the dogs, and when she was ready, I placed them next to her on her nest. She was thrilled and almost smiling as she rolled them ever so gently under her warm belly with her beak. Unfortunately due to global warming, or just strange weather, I believe 2010 was the warmest winter on the Tablelands since we have lived here. Because of this and the lateness of 'Lilly' eventually sitting, her eggs did not hatch. The eggs were all fertilised and the poor babies died in the shell due to the heat we presume. 'Lilly' was forever wetting the eggs although we had unusally hot weather that August. I felt so sorry for her that I even tried to find her some baby goslings but chinese geese are hard to come by. We hoped for better luck next time as geese generally only lay and sit once a year!

Well that time has come and finally (third time lucky) the Geese have hatched their little family and now have four (yes four!) baby goslings. (That is what you call baby geese) 'Lilly' sat on 5 eggs, so 4 out of 5 ain't bad. The goslings are either eating sleeping or swimming and they are growing so fast. See when they were less than a week old on the water and then at two weeks old below. The goslings as pictured below are all fully grown now and with the honk honk
being a little too loud they have gone off to a breeding farm in Malanda.

Here they are now all grown up!

It is like a little menagerie here at Barking Owl Retreat as the Guinea Fowls have also had babies. Believe it or not they often share nests and two females hatched 18 babies together. They are terrible parents though and that 18 is now down to 0. We could have taken the babies off them but we felt that is what nature intended. Hopefully they won't lose anymore!

Here at Barking Owl Retreat you wake to the sound of bird song and hopefully will also be lucky enough to hear the Barking Owl's soft wook-wook call as the sun sets. The photo below is a pair of Barking Owl's that have been heard most nights in winter 2011 and sometimes seen hunting around the duck pond near the house. At certain times of the year you can also see kangaroos grazing in the early mornings and late afternoons in the paddocks
and on the roadsides in to our property.