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.

KARINGAL NURSING HOME CONCERT

The two older boys have been doing singing lessons on Fridays, and Mr 3 years has started the intro to drama classes at TPAC (Tasmanian Performing Arts Center). On the 14th (last Saturday), they took part in a TPAC concert for elderly folk at the Karingal Nursing Home at Devonport.

 Sufficiently blurred to not need my help :)

They enjoyed it, and will get the chance to do carols this coming weekend. Not my cup of tea, but it's about them.

Civic in Repose

Saying goodbye to the car.

Hey... got a $100 for it.

Car Crash

Well, our 2007 Honda Civic won’t see 2014. Earlier today, while driving my eight year old son to karate, going around a curve, the car ran into a little trouble. Crossed lanes, hit a culvert, rolled two and a half times.

No more Honda Civic.

Fortunately son number one came out of it ok. Just some nicks and scratches for me. Went to the hospital. They did their check-ups, told me to go home and have a shower and clean my cuts. Worst part of that is… they’re going to send me a bill for the visit. Maybe in America; but when did an Australian public hospital charge for looking at some scratches… or pretty much anything else? And not even clean and kiss my boo-boos for me!

Got to say, watching the rolling while it happened was pretty awesome. Except for worrying about my boy. Kind of expected a death or two, or at least dismemberments. Nope, the Gods love us.

And I love the smell of Dettol.

Was going to put the car in to get serviced in the next month. Oh well, guess I can use the servicing money now for the towing fee. And the hospital fee. And I guess I don’t need to pay car rego for the civic. So I guess it’s win-win-lose-win-draw-spleen.

Pioneer Park, Pademelon and Raspberry.

Yesterday (Sunday) the family went to Pioneer Park to take part in a tourist advertisement that's meant to draw attention to venues in this region. Pioneer Park is a six powered site (with other non-powered) camping spots, low fees, lovely natural settings. And it's the only camping site in this region (that I know of) which allows pets. I just discovered they have a walking track, so an outing is definitely on the cards.

Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky

(If you don't get the reference... Google).

 

Speaking of Bananas... this tree is peeling like one.

(A tenuous link, I trust you will agree).

Ok, I blurred out their faces. But hey, would you like to 

be identified with my my blog? Nope, didn't think so :)

And back home. Bridie is here almost every morning now.

This morning she was in the raspberry patch. You can

just make her out.

Bridie and Milk Plastic

That pademelon came back this morning. Seems she's taken a shine to the spot in front of the garage. Well, we figure, if she's going to keep turning up, we'll name her. So she is hereby named 'Bridie'. I say 'she'... but it could me male.

 Bridie

 You've heard of pork scratchings... well, here's pademelon scratchings.

Pademelon Shine.

Later in the morning, we took the boys to a homeschool gathering. It had a hands-on science theme. Boys got to explore things that involved Bicarb-soda (baking soda) and vinegar. The section I liked most was where they made plastic from milk. It's a subject that's covered in the book Makeshift Workshop Skills by James Ballou. Good to see it done in real life.

Wobbly and Haunted Glove

 Boys decided today that they were going to try to create the Haunted Glove effect that they discovered in one of their kids science books. A little bicarb, a little vinegar... way cool!

 High five for Casper!

I was washing some dishes this afternoon and just happened to look out the window. I've lived in this cottage for a decade. This is the first Tasmanian Pademelon (Thylogale billardierii) that I've noticed come visiting.