On Thursday I went along with Imogen to Moulting Lagoon (she had to go there for work), where, amongst other critters, we spotted an echidna.
This is the back of an Short-beaked echidna. If they see you (or more likely sense you, as they have very poor eyesight), they quickly dig into the ground with their head tucked under and only their very pokey back exposed.
You’d have to be very desperate, or a dog, to try and get them out of this position.
Today, January 26th is Australia day, which was the day that England granted Australia independent status back in 1901.
Our local paper is printing Australian jokes on it’s website. This is my favorite thus far.
Is her tongue always hanging out, or does she just display it for the camera?
She flicks her tongue about every five to ten seconds. I presume she uses it to gather smells. I’ve gotten good at seeing the first little flex of her jaw that comes before the tongue – otherwise I’d miss it.
[Insert rude, crude, and lewd comment here.]
What’s not to like about tongue?
Depends on whose, what she’s been eating, and how nice she is about keeping her teeth to herself.
The hotter it gets, the more Albert stretches his legs out. On very hot days he sticks his legs out both fore and aft – earning him the nickname “Flat Albert”.
If only I could have convinced her to open her wings for the photo. Oh well.
That’s an amazing shot. Did you put nectar on your finger? 🙂
The female Heteronympha meriope go through a quiescent stage for about two weeks after breeding, while they develop eggs. I found this female sitting in the yard and was able to pick her up.
I do have an unusual history of butterflies landing on me. I also get bit by every mosquito around. So maybe I smell good to insects.
I get bit a lot by mosquitoes but don’t get any butterfly payoffs so I’m still jealous.
We have a lot of deer around here but they rarely come as close as this one did so I could sit at the computer and fritter away 30 minutes or so watching it (and it watching me).
Wow. Awesome shot.
We had an invasion of pademelons this evening. At least four were within 30ft of the house, and a few more were further out. Unfortunately there is no way to photograph them as they start showing up just after twilight.
Wow, that sound really incredible. So you need a tripod, your camera set up in just the right place, and an cableless remote so you can do a long exposure from a distance and then we can have a picture.
I have several tripods and considered using one last night. Unfortunately the pademelons don’t hold still long enough for a long exposure to be anything but sharp background and blurry critters.
that old buck is still hanging around here…lurking under the big juniper in the side yard:
click image to enlarge
haven’t seen his little buddy tho.
lTMF’sA
That’s one crafty fellow to have kept that rack on his head and off someone’s wall.
We had a bit of a downpour yesterday. Only 4ml, but every little bit helps. Unfortunately, that means today will be sticky hot. So much for using the three-day-weekend to get some work done in the yard.
Btw, Betty is healing nicely, but we still have some concerns about one of her hind legs, which doesn’t seem to be tracking properly. It’s on the same side where she had the most obvious damage so obviously the wound went deep. She’s an easy house guest, so we’ll keep her a bit longer, but we still believe she’ll be happiest returned to the out-of-doors.
there’s very little hunting close by, so his biggest danger is automobiles and the normal predators.
he’s an old guy, and l suspect that it’s unlikely he’ll be around much longer.
l live 2 blocks from a big park that adjoins open space, so we get a wide variety of the local fauna, esp in winter.
about the only thing l haven’t seen is a bear, but there have been many in the neighborhood, esp in the fall.
l haven’t seen this cat [puma/cougar/mtn lion] yet, [and l have seen them here before] but his/her tracks have been around…so much so that they’ve put up notices in the park to make people aware that it’s stalking the area: from my front yard last week,
click to enlarge
hope betty continues to improve, at least she’s in good hands.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2319/2185407083_0bc2848934.jpg
hmmm…how’d that extra link get in there…/ to me.
lTMF’sA
Here kitty, kitty, kitty.
Mountain Lions are damn scary. And one getting that close to people is not terribly afraid of humans and/or desperate. If you’re not already, please keep all your loved ones inside after dark.
we’re, obviously, very aware. been up here going on 38 yrs…sorta have it figured out…:{)
lTMF’sA
Yes, well I lived in cougar country for most of my life and was convinced, on the existing evidence, that they rarely got close to humans and only attacked the occasional unfortunate and ill-supervised small child running loose in their territory. Then I read about a six-foot-four-inch bike rider on a city limits bike trail who only managed to keep from being killed by a mountain lion by using his bike as a weapon.
Just like bears, you may only get one chance to be wrong. 😉
I grew up in suburbia in upstate NY. There are some wooded areas and it wasn’t too far from rural country, but it was still pretty populated. We got our share of squirrels and deer, but that was about it. A couple of years ago, I went home in Winter with my daughter. We were looking out into the backyard, admiring the snow (something we don’t get in CA), when we spotted a young bear. It was a bit scary, but so very cool to see a real bear in “the wild”. It was so darn cute that I wanted to pet it. :>)
I’ve seen a fair few black bears in the wild, and they’ve always struck me as more sinister than “cute”.
Grizzlies (which I’ve seen in Alaska and Canada) on the other hand, are cute, especially the one we saw swaying his saggy, baggy bear bottom back and forth as he doggedly dug up an ant mound. He was on an island in a river and we were fairly sure we could get back to the car before he could get across to us. Other grizzlies I’ve seen were well in the distance, which is just where I like them. The golden Toklat grizzlies are stunning.
That’s a fantastic picture — great lighting.