February 2008

26th February

Red-necked wallaby and joey.

Macropods

Four species of macropod occur on the northern flanks of the Otway Ranges - The Long-nosed Potoroo, the Black Swamp Wallaby, the Eastern Gray Kangaroo and the Red-necked Wallaby. which is shown here.

The Rufus-bellied Pademelon and Southern Bettong were present in the Otways last century. But sadly are both locally extinct. They are still found in Tasmania.

Red-necked Wallabies stand about a metre tall. They are grazers (rather than browsers) preferring to forage on grass rather than leaves. They prefer open woodland and areas where grassland abuts woodland or forest. I took the mother and joey photo on the 8th of this month. The photo of joey as an independent youngster is from the 22nd.

Snake

I found a White-lipped Snake today, the first time in 5 years living here that I've seen a snake that wasn't a Tiger Snake.

joey photo

The Joey has left Mum (or, more likely, got booted out).

7th February

ring-tailed possum

Ring-tailed Possum

Ring-tailed Possums

We have a little population of Ring-tailed Possums here. One has a nest in my roof and I hear it scampering across the corrugated iron most nights. They eat well in my orchard, but also spend a lot of time in the surrounding bush, where I guess they hunt for insects and spiders.

tiger snake

Tiger snake

I usually know when a snake is about because the songbirds gather round it and make a fuss. However, when I investigated such a commotion this time I saw a blue tongue lizard slip into a pile of wood. Wanting to relocate it away from my strawberry patch, I carefully pulled the pile apart. Good thing I was careful, because this beautiful creature was there also. Tiger snakes rank as ninth in the World for deadliness of the poison and are known to be quite feisty. Unlike most snakes, which tend to be shy, they are known to pursue when disturbed - especially during the breeding season. I have two friends who have been chased and had narrow escapes. The tigers around here though have always retreated when disturbed. This one watched me for about ten minutes before disappearing into a shrub - it's neck flattened to show its discontent and fear.

1st February

Blue-winged Kookaburra

I work from home in a bungalow nestled in the bush of the Otway Ranges. I hear the kookaburras calling most days, but they are generally camera shy. I managed to sneak up on this one by carrying a shovel, not looking at him and turning a few blocks of turf as I edged closer. I figured that he might be interested to see if I turned up a worm or some such. It worked! (Perhaps it's time to get a telephoto lense.)

There are young ones around at the moment, which are being taught to call by the elders. Instead of going
'koo-koo-koo-ka-ka-ka-ka-kaaa', they mostly only manage to sound like they have a bad smoker's cough instead.

Kookas live in family groups with youngsters helping the breeding pair to look after chicks. They'll even entice young birds away from other families to bolster their own.