Journey Jottings

Took the tinny over to Stradbroke Island over the weekend

Stradbroke Island

…for a walk along the beach

Walk along beach on Stradbroke Island

And saw this in a tree

Osprey in Tree

Here are some close ups

Osprey

Osprey

Osprey

I’ve seen Osprey flying overhead often enough but not being very good at panning the camera to keep up with them have never actually managed to catch one on film before!

Osprey stretching

Such a thrill

A few days ago I spotted this out of the window…

What? You may ask!

A Masked Lapwing (also known as a Masked Plover or the  Spur Winged Plover ~ Vanellus miles)

So I took a closer look (when the bird had gone for a walk)  and look what she was sitting on

Then on mid-winter’s day…

The parents are very defensive of their young and are known to swoop to scare intruders away, or feign a broken wing to detract attention away from their chicks

But the instinct of the young upon hearing the danger call from their parent is to duck and freeze ~ Can you see anything by the stick on the left above?

Barely visible even this close up

A camouflaged baby chick ducking out of harm’s way!

What am I doing walking along with a stick held aloft?

Water divining?

…  Water divining?

Nope ~ Just out for a leisurely evening stroll in the bush

But it’s spoilt when I walk into one of these!

Spider across the path

A spider draped across my path waiting for dinner to drop in!

I’m not quite sure what type they are  Do you know?

Spider waiting for dinner

They’re about 4 to 6 cm across

Spider's web between the trees

And they like to make their webs in the space across the path from bush to bush ~

Spider

When spotted in time, I’ll duck so as to leave the web unscathed and intact ~

Spider on his web

But there’s just nothing worse than having an unexpected face to face encounter! Hence the safety precaution of the stick

These little chaps are a bit shier

Spider camouflaged as a leaf

Camouflaged in a curled up leaf they lay in wait in bushes along the sides of the track ~

Looking down into the curled up leaf

Obviously after smaller prey!

Journey Jottings:

Where/When/How ~ What did I See, Hear, Smell, Touch, Taste?

• Stradbroke Island, Q. Evening walk

• long brown & yellow scampering spider legs, bulbous bodies
• scrunching of dead leaves & twigs underfoot, snapping of surprisingly strong web strands across the path
• honey myrtle & anticipation of an encounter
• sticky pieces of web stuck in my hair & down my arms
• natural Aussie bushland

There are times I wish I was more of an early bird!

Glorious sunrises…

… and the magnificent dawn chorus, which is so beautiful to hear

Our feathered friends put on such an enthusiastic fanfare as they pour their heart out singing in the day – I wish I got to hear it on a more regular basis! Such a variety of tunes, and it seems to be the only time of day I get to hear the butcher bird with his melodic aria – Not sure where he goes off to for the rest of the day.

Within an hour of the sun rising the ruckus has settled and the more pressing task – foraging for food - gets underway.

It’s then only the odd cackle of a kookaburra who breaks the silence to clarify who’s the owner of this patch ~

This little group (there are three there!) frequently sit in the old gum tree outside my office window keeping an eagle eye out for unwelcome intruders; interspersed, of course, with diving off for the odd tasty morsel!

I frequently go over to Stradbroke Island for an evening walk.

As I climb the hill I often hear rustling and scuttling in the bush on either side of the sandy track, but seeing what made the noise is generally futile as the survival of whatever made the sound is dependent upon it remaining invisible to any potential predators  -

But on this occasion a movement in the bush caught my eye, followed by a scrambling scratching noise up a nearby tree!

A lace monitor!

Many years ago I used to do map work for exploration companies across outback Australia and when working in scrub country where trees were few and far between fellow team members would tell me if I startled a goanna, as they are commonly called, I should lie down as their ‘fight or flee’ reaction is to climb the nearest tall object – which in that country would have been me!! I’m not sure how much they were pulling my pommie leg, but seeing the size of their claws, I’d rather have lain down in the dirt than risk the possibility of a goanna running up my body.  ;-)

Later, when living on a property in northern NSW, we had a resident monitor that must have been not far off their maximum size, which is 2.1m (6’10″). Because of his prehistoric looking lumbering gait as he roamed his domain, we called him ‘Dino’. He’d clamber up the steps onto our verandah to investigate whether there were any tasty morsels that could be scavenged, and sadly for us one day he did strike lucky when he found my son’s pet Cockatiel  :-(

Feb 2010 Post Script:

After writing this post John Shortland and Charley Jones sent me some photos of their sightings of Lace Monitors…

The photos supplied by John Shortland were taken on the Tallowa Dam Road, Kangaroo Valley NSW

Thanks so much John for adding to this post

Love this close up!

Charley Jones of http://www.secretwater.com.au spotted the lace monitor below at Little Shark Rock Point on the Hawkesbury, Sydney when out with her family in their tinny, just last weekend ~

It really is such a thrill to see such magnificent animals in their native habit like this

Thanks Charley for adding your photos!

Before the Christmas season is totally over, I want to share this photo I took on a walk over the festive season of this Christmas beetle -

They get their name due to their ‘sudden’ appearance at this time of year, but they look as though they have come dressed for the occasion wearing a green metallic waistcoat, which is  all of a sparkle and glittery!

Christmas Beetle spotted on a Christmas walk

There are 34 species of the beetle genus Anoplognathus – The one above was about 35mm long.

The larvae is laid in the soil and takes either 12 or 24 months to mature (depending on warmth of winter) before pupating and emerging usually after the onset of the summer rains.

They are voracious eaters, making zigzag cuts into the eucalyptus leaves that they feed on, which shreds the leaves with much getting wasted as it falls to the ground. In numbers they can therefore have dire effects on eucalyptus woodlands. Happily, no such swarm was spotted here

Platypus are such shy creatures it makes seeing one in the wild all the more remarkable and special!

When in northern NSW I’d go down to the creek with the children, in the early morning or late evening, and we’d stand on the wooden bridge scanning the water’s surface for a glimpse of the platypus we knew lived there. But the sightings could only ever be described as ‘fleeting’ as we’d turn our head towards movements caught out the corner of our eye only to catch the sight of bubbles, circled by ripples, as each time they’d elude our gaze as they ducked back down to the creek floor to forage for food.

Platypus by John Gould 1863

It was not until I visited Eungella, 90km west of Mackay, Queensland that I got my first ‘real’ look at one in the wild.

There are viewing platforms set up along Broken Creek, where the platypus have become used enough to their admirer’s glances that whilst still shy, they can be seen more readily.

Only two monotremes exist in the world – The platypus and the echidna. Monotremes are egg laying mammals.

Another unique feature of the platypus is the venomous spur on the male’s hind foot, which when human inflicted causes great pain.

The Platypus is featured on the Australian 20 cent coin

Seeing wild animals in their native habitat is simply magic