This morning walking down to the creek to check on the pump I spied a young pair of these Spotted Pardalotes which have obviously taken up residence in our roadside plantation. It is so encouraging to see such birds taking advantage of all our work:
East Gippsland has SO many beautiful places. In winter it is @18C and you have it completely to yourself. Due to an ongoing fox control programme you have to be very careful where you camp with dogs. Picnic areas are probably safest.
The world’s oldest (authenticated) eel has died in Sweden at age 155, (clearly not enough folks EAT eel). I guess not all hail from ‘Ely’ in Cambridgeshire (as my ancestors did), a famed seat of ‘eel-lore’. We encountered some very friendly eels at Paronella Park in Qld recently. After the disastrous Alpine fires (in 2006)
The platypus sure is cute; I often delight to see one in the wild on one of my many backcountry hiking trips, but they rarely let me tickle them like this:
On a more cheerful note, I am always delighted at the way ‘nature’ exploits any change as a positive: we have a puddle outside our bedroom window created by the device which flushes the bird poo off the roof every time it rains instead of putting it in the tank. It is a treasure, an
A friend thinks that reports of ‘black pumas’ etc may well be ‘thylaceo leo,’ the marsupial lion (there being no large black cats anywhere in the world only spotted ones) but this is a VERY long bow, though it would be nice. In 50+ years in the bush I have never even seen a large
Crepuscular birdsong why? Interesting to see this question answered in the latest New Scientist: it is because there is a temperature inversion then and sounds transmit better. Hope to live long enough to hear it again in our silent bushfire-ravaged forests. Bee-eater Wonnangatta River just above Waterford Bridge (Jan 2018). Update: Further to my post
