Camping with Critters

We're just home from a few days camping in the very special Crowdy Bay National Park with some of our good friends...

Wildlife abounded so here's a few shots.
The Lace Monitor (aka goanna) is an unusual yellow morph - it's normally black with yellow banding.

The half eaten Long-nosed Bandicoot was dropped by an eagle I accidently disturbed sitting low in a short sapling.

Hybiscus Jewel

I pinched this beautiful hybiscus from out the front of the local police station and got an unexpected surprise...

Wolf Spider Runs from Fire

This pretty Wolf Spider beat a hasty retreat from the area we were hazard reduction burning yesterday at work.

The aim of hazard reduction burning is to reduce fine surface fuel, elevated fuel and bark fuel, which may help to lower the intensity and spread of bushfires in summer. Autumn and winter are the preferred times for these burns as they have less of an impact on birds and animals that mostly breed during spring and summer.

There was a mass exodus of bush cockroaches, beetles and skinks as well from our fire but this beautiful rusty patterned arachnid just caught my eye.

A Whale of a Time

Well, work seems to be looming large in my blog this week...but it has been fun. Today we did a Large Whale Disentanglement Exercise where we practised cutting ropes/nets off prosthetic whales.

It truly was a whale of a time... The first picture is of me posing on the surf rescue boat. The second is of me at work - using the gaff to cut a rope off the tail off the "whale".

In reality this task is very difficult, tiring and dangerous - performed at sea in marginal conditions. Today we were on the river, with slow, compliant pretend whales and beautiful weather...

Being able to practice this type of work often is the key to success in a real life situation. Luckily the populations of both Humpback Whales and Southern Right Whales are on the increase in our hemisphere. Unluckily for them, they are therefore statistically more likely to get tangled up in crab/fish trap lines or nets.

Whirly Weed Whacker

Had a fun day at work yesterday - aerial spraying Bitou Bush with a helicopter!
It's a great way to spray inaccessible areas like the front of cliffs. We're starting to make a real dent in the stranglehold of this insidious pest plant.
(I did take these photos!)

Heel

I cannot tell a lie (even by omission) the Green Catbird in my last post is not my photo, it was

photographed at Thylogaleby David & Diane Armbrust at the Australian Natural Safari site.

...and I'm embarrassed to say I forgot to write that.
Do I feel like a heel, YES!!! argh!

The catbirds at my house are oh so timid and when I blundered out with my Kodak digital camera to get a shot, this is what it turned out like....

Daily Visitors

A pair of Green Catbirds visit us at home everyday. You always hear them before you see them. The call is a cross between a cat yowling/meowing and a baby crying.
They're very shy. If they catch anyone looking at them they quickly hop from branch to branch and get out of sight.

The old mirror we hung near the laundry door provides hours of entertainment for both of them. They sit on the shelf under it and check themselves out thoroughly most days. I don't think they see their own reflections as rivals as they just closely examine the reflection, and occasionally touch bills with the 'other bird'.

I've thought about doing a study on the contents of their scats to see what they eat here locally - I have a pile under the mirror that I have to clean up every week.

The strangler fig in our backyard (providing catbird meals) will hopefully equate to years of beautiful pea-green catbirds ahead of us!