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Last class - our walk on Bruce Ridge

6/30/2012

What a shame my class has come to an end for this semester. For our final class we did some tidying up of assignments and then went for a walk on Bruce Ridge, not far from the CIT. (followed by a yummy BBQ)

It is so hard to photograph small birds in amongst the trees with Automatic focus on my camera. Must get out and practise the manual focus.

Our class list of birds gathered a few new species:
Flame Robin.

A White-throated Treecreeper doing what treecreepers do - gleen insects from the underneath of branches, amongst the bark, and trunks of trees by hopping up the branch.

This Grey Fantail was also flitting around the tree trunk,

Last summer at Perisher I snapped this Grey Fantail.

I'm pretty sure there was a lady around somewhere close.

In the lower centre of the photo is a Buff-rumped Thornbill. These tiny birds are so hard to photograph in amongst the bushes.

Can you find it?

The wattles were starting to flower too.

Echidnas use termite mounds by digging into the mound to find termites to eat, They dig through exterior and expose the termite tunnels then use their long tongues to eat them one by one.

We searched for, and found, some Sugar Glider hollows and scratchings on the bark where they were releasing sap to eat.

We think we saw a hollow where a Brushtail Possum might reside.

Other birds we saw were Kookaburras and Currawongs.

Thanks to the students in my class, I wish you all the best in your endeavours.

This White-winged Chough mud nest has been on this tree for many years and is repaired and used each year. White-winged Choughs are co-operative breeders and last years juveniles help raise the current years nestlings.

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Lizards, snakes and frogs

6/25/2012

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We were expecting to talk about lizards and instead got to see a Diamond Python.
Of course they are not indigenous to the ACT but our guest speaker, Mandy, brought
Eric in to visit us.

What surprised me was that Diamond Pythons have lovely patterning on the top of
their bodies and underneath is quite pale.

We have several different snakes in the ACT and all are venomous. The most commonly seen snakes are the Eastern Brown Snake and the Red-bellied Black snake.

We were so busy listening to Mandy about reptiles we forgot to have a look at the resident CIT Blue tongue lizards and Eastern Long Neck Turtles.

             This shingleback is from western NSW. It has evolved to have                    different colouring so it is more camouflaged in the red soil country.             The shinglebacks in the ACT are black.



            So far you have seen only non-indigenous to the ACT reptiles.
            Check out the photos below for reptiles that have come into care
            in the ACT.

Some terrible things happen to lizards that live in gardens. This little fellow was the victim of a whipper snipper accident.

AMPHIBIANS
The class learnt about amphibians. The only amphibians in Australia (native) are Anura (frogs and toads)

In class we listened to Martin, from the Southern Catchment group. He told us about how to care for captive frogs. Most frogs coming into care are the 'banana box' or 'passenger' frogs that come from Queensland and Northern NSW in fruit and vegetable boxes. Because of the threat from the Chytrid fungus they cannot be sent home and cannot be released in the ACT because of the threat of infecting our native indigenous frogs. They cannot go home because they may have become infected with Chytrid during their travels. Martin, and other wildlife carers, care for these frogs long term. They settle into captivity very well as long as you can keep up the supply of crickets.

Local frogs are very rarely picked up for care as most injuries are overwhelming and they do not survive. They are caught by cats or dogs or hurt by shovels and garden forks.

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Last class - our walk on Bruce Ridge

Lizards, snakes and frogs

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