Distinctively "squarish" Wombat scats and scratchings |
Distinctively "squarish" Wombat scats and scratchings |
It was about 8:30pm last night, about half an hour after proper-dark. I was enjoying my evening walk with one of the dogs last night, when something overhead caught her attention. Looking up, a Brush-tailed possum eyed us sceptically from the branches, some 15 metres or so above.
"Yawn, just another Brushie", I thought to myself.
Then I chuckled and caught myself. I took a few moments to appreciate a lovely native animal, perfectly adapted to life in the suburbs amongst people. Common species of native urban wildlife gets very much taken for granted, unless it's injured or annoying. I just paused and watched this one for almost a minute, suddenly noticing another large adult Brush-tail watching us from much higher in the canopy of a nearby tree. A few moments later, I smiled, patted Mabel and resumed our evening exercise.
Its funny how I tend to take such common animals for granted. It's interesting that we are two days out from the new moon, and usually I see possums in abundance at this stage of the lunar cycle. We have Ring-tailed possums in profusion locally as well. But last night, despite looking carefully for them, these were the only two possums we observed in the entire 6.5km course of our walk.
Once upon a time, in a previous life I've left far, far behind, (last millennium), I was a zoo keeper. Dingoes were one of my favourite charges, and I still have a very soft spot for them to this day. They are charismatic, shamelessly aloof and highly intelligent. There is something "knowing" in their expression.
This beautiful young male crossed the road in front of me and watched from the road verge, near Mungo Brush, Myall Lakes National Park, Monday 4th March 2024. Dingoes are still a common sight here to this day.
Juvenile Asian house gecko - Belmont, Lake Macquarie NSW |
Records of Crimson rosella observations, Eastern Lake Macquarie NSW. |
It was hot & sticky day yesterday, (Friday 2nd Feb 2024) and the temperature reached a typical summer time mid-30's. It was still in the high twenties and very humid that night. My wife & I decided to take the girls for a walk as it had cooled enough to be tolerable, and we all needed to stretch our legs.
We walked past the same building I observed the Asian house gecko in the previous post. Naturally I checked to see if it was out, and instead there was small, likely 12 month old juvenile in the same place. This gecko was extremely shy, and rapidly scurried into a crevice as soon as my torch beam touched him, despite being ten feet off the ground. Unfortunately, neither of us had our phones, so couldn't get a voucher photo - but it was unmistakeably an Asian house gecko and this record indicates they are definitely breeding here in Belmont.
I'll drop past again later in the week while the warm weather keeps up, and see if I can get a decent photo.
Addendum - I was working in the backyard this afternoon (Saturday 3rd Feb 24) and heard the unmistakeable daytime chirp of another Asian house gecko. Further evidence that they are well established here now !