Soggy Melon

Unless something more interesting happens, e.g. Joey' first toddling steps, I'll make this my last 'Pademelon in the yard' report. so far I've covered Bridie and Joey, with just a mention of Dad-e-melon, so I'll give him some bytes now.

These photos were taken this morning. I thought I should make that clear, because if I say that it was a grey, wet morning... well, this is Tasmania... it could be almost any morning.

Kinda looks like a drowned rat, but I think he's two or three feet tall. Much cuter than most rats.

Wet Melon.

And this is how close I got. This is not a magnified image, I'm right there. Tried to think of a name for him, for my convenience, not his. Considered Dad-E-Melon and Manny the Moody Marsupial. Mrs Me chose 'Patrick' (aka Paddy). So... drum roll... we baptise thee Patrick, in the name of Lugh, Dagda and Danu.

The Nut

We're becoming quite the fans of Ranger Jess' events. This time (last night) was a tour of The 'Nut' at Stanley (or is Stanley at the Nut?), to learn about Mutton Birds/ Short-tailed Shearwaters (Puffinus tenuirostris). It was a great time, and I don't remember the last time the boys stayed up so late.

The Nut towers over Stanley.

Yep, we're going up there on foot, though there is a chair lift for those more interested in the view than the walk.

The first critter we saw was this butterfly.

Pigface (Carpobrotus rossii) is an edible plant that Jess pointed out. Tasted ok.

Pademelon scat. At one point when we were approaching the first lookout, one of the young lads looked back down to the cafe at the base of the Nut and saw a pademelon near the building. Good eyesight, it looked like an ant. We saw another one as it was turning dark. 

Well and truly dark now. The last opportunity to use the camera, because the flash would disturb the Mutton Birds. Ranger Jess gave a talk about the birds, their numbers, migration, etc. She passed around a couple of wings. They have quite a smell, attributed to the oil that they secrete. After this, at about 9.30pm, further up the Nut, we walked along a path through their nesting area. We saw many of them coming flying in above us to land and nest for the night.

The walk down was a lot more direct, thus quicker, but pitch black except for our torches. Then the drive home which took just over an hour and a half.

A great night.

Joey

For all the time I've been observing Bridie, I've only seen <her?> alone. But this morning I looked out the window and at first saw two adult pademelons. Was it too much to hope for... I looked closer... yep, a joey sticking its head out of the pouch. Brilliant!

Devil Tracking

Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Services had a number of Discovery Ranger programmes over this holiday season, and yesterday we took the boys the Devil Detectives event at Sisters Beach. An excellent event where the attendees were taught the basic principles of tracking Tasmanian Devils (Sarcophilus harrisii). Everyone of our mob loved it, and I'll go out on a limb and say all the other kids that were there (and their parents too), loved it. A great time.

Before they got to the Devils, they checked out some other animals. That spotted little fellow is a quoll.

Pictures of various Tasmanian animals introduced the first aspect of tracking...

 That tracking is not just about looking for footprints. 'Sign' (for both tracking animals and human animals) is any indicator that your quarry was present. First up, skulls. The kids got to guess which skulls went with which animals.

 

Then it was 'guess which footprint goes with which animals'.

And a look at, what I'm guessing was everybody's favorite sign... scat (aka POO!!!). 

The kids were given plaster casts of Devil footprints to imprint in the beach sand, which were filled with plaster, and dried to make their own souvenir of a Tassie Devil footprint. 

There was also exploration of the methods used to collect data of the Devils. Good from a general ecological perspective, and vital in the fight against the Devil's facial tumor disease that is fatal and almost ubiquitous in Tasmania. Healthy Devils have been moved to an island and various zoos in order to isolate them from this disease. In the worst case scenario, if all the Devils are wiped out on the Tasmanian mainland, the saved Devils could be reintroduced at a later time after the disease dies out.

A Devil trap. Safe for the critter, and another useful device for gathering info.

And a last look at exhibits. In this case, predator and prey. Penguin and Seal. A foot apart. Yep, you know the Penguin is stuffed.

Speaking of stuffed... Bubs didn't take an active part, but the excitement wore him out.

Our thanks to Ranger Jess for hosting this event. 

If you'd like more info about our wildlife, check out the Park and Wildlife Service - Tasmania site. For more info re. Devils, and how you can help them, check out Save the Tasmanian Devil Program.

Two Eves

It is a busy time of the year. Early on in the day, the boys participated in an encore of the programme that they had recently put on for the elderly folk at Karingal, but this time at the Oldaker St Church in Devonport. The Santa they'd previously used was unavailable, and I fit the suit, so...

Don't my boys look cute in their kangaroo (or could they be Pademelons?) costumes?

 

And a couple of hours later they performed at the Latrobe Carols event. Unfortunately I ran out of battery power, so only the one pic.

 And new years eve. We went to see the fireworks in Burnie. We all loved it. I call the bottom picture 'The Dandelion'. All in all, a good time out. The boys had a little picnic first, sitting on the car boot, then a short stroll to the boardwalk. Looking forward to the next one in about 362 days.

Hey la, hey la, my Bridie's back

It's been weeks since Bridie paid us a visit, or more accurately, weeks since I've seen her. I started by taking photos of her out the kitchen window, but decided to get outside and try to get close. How close did I manage to get? Well, if I suddenly went insane, dropped the camera and chased her... I'd probably have caught her.

 Hey... there's a dude with a camera. Think it's time to hop.

It's a bit dry at the moment. Hard to get good, clean, sharp prints. But at least there was some good H. R. Scuff N Stuff.