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…
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!
With the coming of the school holidays here in Australia and their associated car trips with children, to help alleviate the ‘Are we there yet?‘s, I’ve created an Eye Spy game with the aid of either of our maps ~ the Map Journal, which is A2 size, or a little Mail-It Map that is A3 size.
1. See how many animals you can spot on a Journey Jottings Map ~
(Clue: There are 27 different creatures illustrated)
Journey Jottings Map of Australia
2. When, after a period of time, only ”some’ have been found and the need for a few pointers are required ~
Click this link: How many animals can you find LIST
and print out ready to provide either a list that can be called out one by one, or if the child can read to mark off the animals as they are found.
Some are fairly easy such as this kangaroo…
Kangaroo
3. When it gets to the point of needing a few visual clues, have the pages in this
Click link: Find the Animals
ready printed out, which offers pictures of what to look for
Such as this koala…
Koala
Some are a little more tricky to spot than others, such as this crocodile
Crocodile
Now, where could he be lurking?
There is one ‘sneaky’ animal, and that is the platypus, who is only visible by the ripples he’s making on the water’s surface, which is accurate in that that is usually all you do see of them!
Platypus
Is he too shy to show himself?
Looking for other car game ideas?
This time last year I posted the Post Office Passport game ~ For this, children have to Eye-Spy the red Australia Post Office ”P” symbol, which then requires a pit stop so as to get your Map Journal or Mail-It Map rubber stamped with the individual postmark for that location ~
And here is a link to ’10 fun family games for travel time’
Happy travels
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?
Nothing can beat spotting local wildlife on their home turf ~
During the first few days of my stay in Scotland I spotted this Cock Pheasant doing an evening patrol around the garden…
Before departing over the garden wall -
Later, with spring in the air I was privy to his courting ritual!
…puffing up his feathers peacock fashion…
but she wasn’t impressed, and departed over the garden wall…
Leaving the cock pheasant rejected
I have also had the fun of watching this brown hare having breakfast…
He had been having a spot of supper in the garden the night before but with the fading light the photos below are all a bit grainy ~
popping in for a spot of supper
and a wash before bed!
Then there’s the more common sights of a Thrush hopping about on the ground looking for grubs and worms…
a Wagtail coming by for a morning bath…
and these lovely Chaffinches I saw up at Clatteringshaws Loch
And this starling…
atop the barn gable
Post Script:
Just seen this cheeky leveret (a baby hare) scamper past my window…
I later went out to discover he’d enjoyed a snack of newly planted Sweet Peas… avoiding the snap peas and runner beans – obviously not so keen on vegetables!
Our immediate neighbours on one side are a young family…
And on the other side we have youngsters….
Otherwise, this is the neighbouring farm as seen over the garden fence…
We went over to say hello during my first few days here in Scotland where we got to meet some of the livestock and their new arrivals ~ the baby ducklings are Easter’ish so thought I’d put up these photos today
A gaggle of geese
Ducks off to the pond for a swim
Ducklings
Feeding the lambs with Margaret Smith, the farmer
And here is our local morning alarm clock, no matter what day
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
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