Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby Baeng72 » Mon 24 May, 2021 9:20 pm

This beauty appeared to jump onto the track in front of me on the way down from the Bogong High Plains to Weston's hut last Saturday.
Any idea what species it is? I'm impressed with the fortitude of the arthropods of the High-Country. Grasshoppers, wasps, spiders all along the areas that had a lot of snow.
IMG_3362.jpg
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby north-north-west » Tue 25 May, 2021 7:46 am

Looks like a wolf spider. They are a bit on the jumpy side.
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby Baeng72 » Wed 26 May, 2021 8:12 am

north-north-west wrote:Looks like a wolf spider. They are a bit on the jumpy side.

Yep, thanks!
https://australian.museum/learn/animals ... f-spiders/
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby michael_p » Thu 09 Sep, 2021 5:53 pm

Check out the distance from the front legs to the back legs. This one is a monster.
IMG_20210909_160134.resized.jpg
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby rcaffin » Thu 09 Sep, 2021 7:30 pm

OK, can't resist.
I bought an inexpensive Infra-red trail camera recently. This is our garden.
Now we know (only partly) why the ground cover looks a bit stompled sometimes.
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04:27 am

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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby michael_p » Fri 10 Sep, 2021 6:24 pm

Spotted some Cicada shells today.
IMG_0679.resized.JPG
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby Neo » Fri 10 Sep, 2021 7:02 pm

Frog on a leaf.
Also black swans with three large offspring, ducks, one sleepy kangaroo, a nervous lace monitor and some nice birds.
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby ribuck » Fri 10 Sep, 2021 7:59 pm

This lizard bit me at the top of Taros Ladders. I was having lunch and it approached me. I thought it was interested in my water bottle, but when I was distracted it bit hard on my little toe (I was wearing sandals). I instinctively kicked it away and it sailed through the air about five metres. It came back and hung around for a while, but it didn't get as close as before.
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This very cute lizardish thing was near Diagonal Gorge in the Chewings Range. That's not my hand in the photo - when I'm walking in this area my hands are always full of spinifex splinters.
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The remaining photos are near Mt Giles. This lizard is very well camouflaged. If I hadn't stopped to check my map, I wouldn't have seen it.
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Camel footprints are BIG. There's a human shoeprint in this photo for comparison.
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As I was walking, a bird flew away noisily from just in front of my feet. I looked down and saw its ground nest with two eggs. It's amazing that the perenties and dingoes don't eat these eggs.
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby Moondog55 » Sun 12 Sep, 2021 5:49 am

Does a walk from the kitchen to the carport count?
Sitting around the chiminea last night and a brushtail possum walked serenely along the top of the fence from the front yard to the back yard taking absolutely no notice of the six of us sitting there and eating home cooked pizza, now I know this pest has been living here for a while but it's the first time I've seen it. Nice and fat and with a lovely dense coat on it.
Ve are too soon old und too late schmart
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby grunter » Sun 12 Sep, 2021 6:11 pm

3 (micro?) bats in two old gold mines at Camp Mountain Samford. I've got it on video but impossible to photo. Didn't want to hang around too long in there. I didn't find any gold unfortunately. Either did the miners back in 1940/50's.
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby Eremophila » Sun 19 Sep, 2021 2:11 pm

Castle Cove, GOW. Haven’t ID’ed it yet.
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby rcaffin » Sun 19 Sep, 2021 2:35 pm

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Not sure what it is - antechinus or bandicoot I think, sitting on a stump at the back fence on our farm in the middle of the night.
Trail camera with deep infra-red flash and motion sensor. The eyes shine or reflect very brightly in the IR.
What we don't know about night time activities here! Yes, we have more.

Cheers
Roger
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby michael_p » Wed 22 Sep, 2021 7:01 pm

Managed to sneak up on this female Gang Gang. Took me about five minutes to get this close.
gang gang female.jpg
One foot in front of the other.
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby rcaffin » Wed 22 Sep, 2021 7:20 pm

I have mentioned that we live on a farm. It has a large dam. On the S edge of the dam there is a smooth rock sticking up. So I set up my trail cam (with movement detection) to monitor it.
IMAG0850.JPG

This is early in the morning, looking at the nice rock. Later in the morning:
IMAG0737.JPG

A small skink has turned up to sit in the sun. Of course, if it suits a small skink, maybe it might suit something bigger:
IMAG0806.JPG

A water dragon. Actually, I think I know this guy. I was clearing weeds out of the dam, and the weeds had insects. This water dragon sat there collecting the insects. I had to nudge him aside with a spade so I could clear the heap! Absolutely zero fear.
However, he seemed to sense the camera, and came to look at it.
IMAG0811.JPG


More tomorrow - and there IS more to come.
Cheers
Roger
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby rcaffin » Thu 23 Sep, 2021 5:11 pm

So, the dam. If the rock suits skinks and water dragons, who else?
IMAG0872.JPG

Well, a long-necked tortoise. But you can't have just one tortoise.
IMAG0844.JPG

Obviously, there has to be at least two of them. Only two?
IMAG0751.JPG

The skink on the bank seems to unaffected.

Is there more to come? Of course: stay tuned!
Cheers
Roger
Last edited by rcaffin on Thu 30 Sep, 2021 2:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby GregG » Thu 23 Sep, 2021 5:31 pm

rcaffin wrote:
Is there more to come? Of course: stay tuned!
Cheers
Roger

.... Hell no, not wood ducks?
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby rcaffin » Thu 23 Sep, 2021 5:42 pm

What do you have against wood ducks?
We do have a lot of them, that is true, and they have cute fluffy babies, but they are not on this path.

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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby GregG » Fri 24 Sep, 2021 3:53 pm

I encountered this Eastern Bearded Dragon in my front yard this morning, trying to look intimidating and telling me to kindly remove myself, which I did after grabbing a few friendly snaps :)
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby rcaffin » Fri 24 Sep, 2021 7:29 pm

Two is company, but three is a crowd - they say.
IMAG0750.JPG

But this is becoming ridiculous! Four of them!
Then you get inter-species territorial disputes:
IMAG0817.JPG

"Go away: there's two of us and only one of you.
Big ignore..."

But soft - something lurks.
Tomorrow.
Cheers
Roger
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby rcaffin » Thu 30 Sep, 2021 2:38 pm

Yeah, something lurks.
IMAG0752.JPG

However ... I can't see a red-bellied black snake being a threat to a tortoise. The tortoise does not seem concerned.

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Roger
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby north-north-west » Fri 01 Oct, 2021 7:14 am

Shiny blue beetles!
OK, there were also wombats, wobblies, wedgies, pademelons, flame robins, fantails, scrub-wrens, currawongs and snow skinks ... but ... shiny little blue beetles!
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby ribuck » Fri 01 Oct, 2021 7:17 am

That is a lot of beetles!

As a child, I wondered why there are special words for shiny yellow ("gold"), shiny brown ("bronze") and for shiny grey ("silver"), but not for other shiny colours. Now I know it's because shiny metals are considered more name-worthy than shiny beetles.
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby north-north-west » Fri 01 Oct, 2021 7:40 am

It was weird. There were maybe twenty of these clumps in a small spot - within a five metre radius - and nowhere else in all the area I covered. Given the time of year, I'm guessing it's mating behaviour. There was nothing else particular there to attract them.
But such a lovely iridescent colour, they stood out even in the grey conditions.
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby peregrinator » Fri 01 Oct, 2021 10:43 am

ribuck wrote:That is a lot of beetles!

As a child, I wondered why there are special words for shiny yellow ("gold"), shiny brown ("bronze") and for shiny grey ("silver"), but not for other shiny colours. Now I know it's because shiny metals are considered more name-worthy than shiny beetles.


Shiny blue: "Electric ultramarine".
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby rcaffin » Fri 01 Oct, 2021 7:59 pm

I moved the camera.
Some time ago a big wattle tree on the bank of our dam died and fell over, into the dam. I removed most of it with a chain saw while standing in the water - in mid-summer of course. I could not get the stump out without possibly damaging the wall around the dam, so we left it there as a tourist attraction.
The tortoises apparently like it. The (coppertail?) skink was amused at how they climbed up onto the stump. (lower left)
IMAG0027.JPG

In fact, the whole peanut gallery turned up. (The apparent change in colour between photos is due to the presence or absence of the IR filter. I have no control over that.)
IMAG0010 (2).JPG

The water dragon decided to also play tourist.
IMAG0156.JPG

A very fine fellow.
IMAG0158.JPG

He may be catching something here (open mouth).

Cheers
Roger
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby michael_p » Mon 04 Oct, 2021 10:50 am

Glad I was looking where I was walking.
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby rcaffin » Mon 04 Oct, 2021 11:09 am

Enough of tortoises. And water dragons.
IMAG0073.JPG

A willy wagtial sunning itself.
IMAG0065.JPG

Then a baby Wood Duck (yes, we had to have some Wood Ducks, there's a lot of them).
IMAG0075.JPG

Then a Moorhen swimming around.

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Roger
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby puredingo » Fri 15 Oct, 2021 10:04 am

This could also be in the Flora category i suppose?

But I've never seen a hanging bee's nest before, not that I'm any kind of expert. Are these usual?
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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby rcaffin » Fri 15 Oct, 2021 10:08 am

I think that is a swarm, not a nest. The nest is usually under a ledge or similar. This lot may be looking to find a new nest place.

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Re: Wildlife Seen on Your Last Walk?

Postby michael_p » Fri 15 Oct, 2021 10:08 am

Those bees are swarming. Normal thing for them to do. In the middle of the swarm will be a queen. Basically what they are doing is moving to a new home. Also, not normally aggressive whilst swarming but when they find a new home that all changes.
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