Is it a bird? Is it a… possum?
A few nights ago we were sitting in our lounge room reading. The sliding door leading out to the back veranda and back yard was open because it was a pleasant evening. Our attention was suddenly attracted by a loud hissing from nearby outside.
I immediately thought it might be a nocturnal bird, something like an owl for example. I grabbed the torch and within a minute had located the source of the noise. Two Brush-tailed Possums were in a tree near the house having a territory demarcation dispute, hence the loud hissing.
I raced inside for my camera and clicked off half a dozen shots before they disappeared out of range up separate trees. I was very disappointed that the photos were very blurry. I need more practice taking photos at night, I think. This is the best of them:
Out of focus photo of a Brush-tailed Possum in our garden
You can see a much better photo of a Brush-tailed Possum here.
Malleefowl mound at Tintinara
Simulated Malleefowl nest in main street of Tintinara, Sth Aust
Yesterday I wrote about the mural painted on the side of a classroom at Pinnaroo Primary School showing a Malleefowl and its nest. A few days later I visited Tintinara in the south east of South Australia. Right in the main street of the town there is a Malleefowl’s nest with two birds tending the nest.
Before local birders race off to visit this “nest”, let me assure you that it isn’t a real nest; it’s been put there to simulate a real nest. And the two birds are metal cut outs in the shape of the birds. It’s located on the lawn in front of the Art Gallery and Information Centre which happens to be the old railway station building.
The nest looks realistic and so do the birds – if you just look at the outline shape. I think it would have been improved if an artist had painted the birds in their correct colours. I guess for consistency they’ve left them just as a shape, in keeping with the metal cutouts of a shepherd, a sheepdog and some sheep across the lawn and little.
It was only a short distance to the west of here that I once saw 6 Malleefowl in ten minutes, doubling my lifetime count of this species. You can read about that incident by clicking here.
Below I’ve posted some photos of the shepherd and his sheep.
A shepherd and his sheep, Tintinara, Sth Australia
A shepherd and his sheep, Tintinara, Sth Australia
There’s a kangaroo loose in the garden
Female Western Grey Kangaroo, Monarto Zoo, South Australia
Yesterday morning we had the delight of having a Western Grey Kangaroo in our garden for a few minutes.
I need to explain that our garden is rather larger than most; we live on a 5 acre (2 hectare) block of land on the outskirts of Murray Bridge in South Australia. This is not the first time we’ve had a kangaroo on our land, but it is unusual. It’s only happened on one other occasion over the last 25 years. Might have had others but my memory is fading. We’ve seen individuals along the road on other occasions, and sometimes we see one or two in the paddock opposite our driveway. They are far more common in the large tract of mallee scrub about a kilometre up the road from our driveway. Whenever I go birding up there I usually disturb several of them.
The species found around here is usually the Western Grey Kangaroo. It is theoretically possible to get Red Kangaroos here but I haven’t seen any; they tend to be found much further north in dryer parts of the state. I was not quick enough to get the camera to take a photo of the roo which paid us a visit. Instead, I’ve posted two photos I took recently on a visit to the local open range Monarto Zoo which is about a ten minute drive from our home. The zoo has many Western Grey Kangaroos within its boundaries. They naturally occur there and have remained within the confines of the outer perimeter fence of the zoo.
The two photos on this page are of the same female. In the photo below you can just see the joey’s face poking out of the pouch. Click on the photo to enlarge the image.
Female Western Grey Kangaroo with joey, Monarto Zoo, South Australia
The kangaroo we had visit us only stayed for a few minutes. When I tried to get a little closer it bounded off through our orchard, across our open paddock and then down the road along side our property. It jumped three 1.2 metre (four foot) fences so effortlessly they might as well not have been there. The route it was taking was an easy way back to the scrub area where it had come from – and away from the busy road in front of our place.
Related articles:
- Kangaroos and honeyeaters – a happy arrangement
- Australia Day
- Road kill
A new species at the bird bath
European Rabbit in our garden
Our bird baths give us a great deal of pleasure, especially during the warmer months of the year. I am sure that the birds appreciate it too.
I have written often about the birds visiting the bird baths, and many photos featured here on this blog are taken while they are enjoying a drink or a splash.
One of the bird baths sits on the ground. We don’t have much of a problem with cats here so the birds are generally happy to use it. Some of the local lizards also enjoy drinking the water provided, as did a fox one evening.
The new species to avail itself of this water source was the introduced European Rabbit. For more than twenty years we have rarely seen a rabbit on our property. The rabbit calicivirus almost wiped them out in the district, but not quite. Over the last two years numbers have increased to the point where we have about 5 or 6 resident rabbits, including very young animals, and we see them on a daily basis. Not good news. I’ll have to rabbit proof the vegetable garden this coming winter.
Further reading:
- Time for a bath – contains a complete list of birds and animals recorded coming to our bird baths. The post also includes a selection of the best photos.
Helping koalas burnt in the bushfires
No Comments »12th February, 2009; Category: Animals
Many of my readers would be aware of the human tragedy surrounding the current bush fires in Victoria. In times like these it is easy to forget that the birds and animals suffer terribly too.
I’ve just received an email from National Parks and Wildlife asking people to donate money to help with the recovery programme of koalas burnt in the current bush fires.
If you are able to help out click here to donate money.
Here is a part of the relevant article on their website.
Impact of bushfires on koalas
When nature itself strikes koalas with bushfires, the survival of entire populations becomes a matter of minutes and hours. Bushfires kill some koalas directly because they are such exposed animals. On fire perimeters they can be injured, often by being burnt on their paws and noses as they try to climb smouldering trees.
The impact of a bushfire on a koala population depends on how much unburnt habitat with surviving koalas remains with recolonisation as the key to survival.
Fires restrict the movements of koalas in the burnt bush, and populations only remain genetically healthy if there is a small but constant exchange between populations. Results from earlier studies suggest that due to habitat fragmentation bushfires may well lead to the local extinction of many koala populations.