We had spent the day sailing on Lake Macquarie, and it had been a particularly perfect day - the weather was lovely, blue skies and a breeze that sighed. The boat romped in the conditions and we just didn't want to go home. Of course we did, but we arrived home quite late. It was well after dark as I started to wash the boat.
Job done, I was rolling up the hose and rounded the side of the house, when the beam of my headtorch revealed an adult Common ringtail possum. It froze, and would have been difficult to see - but she was looking directly at me and her tapeta lucida glowed like lasers. After a few moments of mutual contemplation, the possum leisurely continued on her way, climbing one of the pine trees in the backyard.
This brings the number of species of mammal observed at Casa da Ayre to 4. Adding observations from the other Orders, the all-species list is now 33 as at Sunday 11th December 2016.
Birds
Rainbow lorikeets
Eastern rosellas
Scaley-breasted lorikeets
King parrots
Crested pigeons (Nesting)
Noisy miners
Welcome swallows (Nesting)
Spotted turtle doves (Nesting, introduced)
Masked lapwings
Black-backed magpies
Laughing kookaburras
Magpie-larks
Pied currawongs
Grey butcherbirds
Pied butcherbirds
Galahs
Little corellas
Dollarbirds
Silver gulls
Blue-faced honey eaters
Australasian Figbird
Eastern koel
Channel-billed cuckoo (seen flying overhead summer/autumn 2013/14, heard Spring 2014)
Tawny frogmouth owls (heard calling)
Indian mynas
Sulphur crested cockatoos.
Fork-tailed kite (27th December 2015)
Amphibians
Striped marsh frogs
Reptiles
Grass skink (Lampropholis delicata)
Mammals
Common Ringtail Possum
Rattus rattus
Neighbourhood cat (aka feral cat)
Mus musculus
No comments:
Post a Comment