Hi Peter,
Most of the wildlife we get at home is the flying type, the birds and bats but I've recently discovered a dwarf crowned snake who lives in our compost which is cool as long as he stays there
. We've been waking up to the magpies singing their songs every morning lately and the bats are out there squabbling every night over whatever is flowering/fruiting at the moment, there is a colony down the road along the river bank whch is thankfully out of smelling range....
We have a birdbath in the backyard that seems like it is the most popular spa in town sometimes and it seems that the water gets splashed out as quick as I can fill it up... We mainly get magpies, currawongs, rainbow lorikeets, eastern rosellas & noisy minors visit for a drink and a splash but there are many others that fly past or stop in the tall trees such as the black cockatoos or the occasional sighting of a wedge-tailed eagle as they ride the thermals. Its impossible to sit outside and concentrate on a book sometimes as the amount of bird action is too overwhelming so I usually just close the book and watch the shenanigans. Its hard to tell who is chasing who sometimes but I think the currawongs do their fair share with lots of swooping and beak snapping as they tear through the trees.
I work at an office that borders rainforest and National Park and I get to see lots of wildlife on a daily basis. Theres too many birds to count, I've seen platypus in the creek around dusk, I watch the wallabies and pademelons arrive each evening at about that time too (its a careful drive home too as I've hit enough of them in my time), we get the occasional echidna but not for a while and there is always a snake or two around, some big pythons, red-belly blacks and in the fern tree right outside the office door there are a couple of tree snakes who sun themselves on the fronds. On a couple of occasions one of them decided to come inside to investigate with one coming under my desk and thinking that my leg looked like a good 'tree' to climb, scared the crap out of me and I'm not ashamed to admit that I squealed like a girl
much to the amusement of my work mates.
Pteropus wrote:We have a bush-turkey that has a nest mound in my back yard
and no vegie garden I take it? We had one at our last house and between it and the bandicoots they were well fed...
- inquisitve tree snakes
I think maintaing a 'professional distance' with them is good though, and most camp sites warn users not to feed the locals and for good reason, a couple of weeks ago whilst camping with friends out near Tenterfield at Boonoo Boonoo Nat Pk we were getting harassed by brush-tailed possums who wanted some barbecue action. They were overwhelmed by the smell of the food and no amount of kicking at them or throwing stuff could deter them. Small brains, big stomachs... One put his paws up on the table next to me and poked his head over right next to a plate of sausages and when I poked my finger at it and said "Oi! Bugger off!" It must have thought I said "Here have a sausage" and bit a good chunk out of my finger... Its still healing and looks like I will get a nice little scar! The worst part was, about ten seconds after sitting back down and continuing to eat, it snuck under my seat and bit me on the foot. I had sneakers on but it still hurt! little *&%$#!! Oh well, thankfully we dont live in bear country...
Posted: Mon 25 Jun, 2012 3:23 pm
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