Visits after the rain

Massive rain of late has been a boon for amphibians.

Local swampland has been alive with the calls of many species, though one species is visiting in mass. The Emerald Spotted Tree-frog.

Attracted to insects drawn by the light from windows we have had as many as five at a time on one window, curiously studying me I photographed them.

I thought I would include this shot, as the way the legs are positioned make the creature look more alien than it already does, when I noticed something strange.

The frog has two mosquitoes on it and they seem to be feeding.

The shots are a little rough, though show the little mozzies seemingly feeding on an amphibian. Perhaps someone may say it happens all the time, though it was news to me.

Mozzies are an unwelcome visitor to many, it seems.

Here is another.

Looking cute and alert, this years baby Red Bellied Black Snake was checking if the rains had finished.

Driven from the spot where it lived in our yard by rising water, it found shelter in the shed.

It proceeded to the garden where I watched it catch some small skinks for lunch.

Many animals have had to relocate with the rains.

Meetings, both welcome and unwelcome, with we humans are at a high.

In Australia, as in any other place we are graced by the natural world, its a matter of learning how to coexist and share our space.

No, the Red Belly cant come inside.

The shed will have to do.

Cloud Formation in an Inversion

I was able to capture, in time lapse, this interesting atmospheric condition.
It seems that a layer of cooler air had trapped moist, warm, air beneath it.
This is called an "inversion".
This was all happening at the base of a small mountain range with the cooler breeze racing overhead.
As the warm air gained enough momentum upwards, shown by the clouds boiling beneath, it eventually broke through the layer above to disperse clouds in the breeze.
A most interesting phenomenon, and one I hope you enjoy viewing.

Drought breaking rains for NSW

The storms across NSW last week were spectacular to say the least.
With Bermagui getting around 200mm in 24 hours, it wasn't the heaviest of the falls.
It was enough though to free blocked estuary systems to the ocean and flush them out.

The following video is of the storm on Fri morning 05.02.10 around 5am, with footage of a few kangaroos playing in the rain and the Cuttagee system breaking to the ocean later that day.




The baragoot system broke on its own that night, with Wallaga lake needing a large excavator to help it along the next day as water levels rose nearly 2 meters.
Local council took the initiative to see all lake and river systems in need got a digging out at the entry point to the ocean as massive rainfall fueled the flows in areas stagnant from drought.
This is how things looked across NSW at around 7am Friday 05.02.10 thanks to the BOM sat image.



Following the rain, with a little help, Wallaga Lake was on the run.



This was Baragoot,


..and Cuttagee.



All areas did well from the rain, allowing clearing of the stagnant waters and facilitating movement of marine creatures to and from the ocean and these estuary systems.
Hopefully the prawning will be better next year. :)

Summer break '10

Firstly, a belated Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to all :)
Things have been very busy of late, and its taken some time to get a post up.

The end of last year saw some big seas, with the following shot taken at the Blue Pool, Bermagui.


This was accompanied by some very high tides that reshaped beaches and brought much weed from offshore reefs to shore.
The tides were, in part, due to the double full moon experienced during December, with a "Blue Moon" on December 31st bringing in the New Year.

Many birds have completed their nesting.
Some have had a second breeding period over the early summer months.
I have always had a fascination with unusual nest shapes, and the work in their creation.
This shot below is a good example of a "conic" nest construction.


Rain was forecast by the Black Cockies, and it eventually came last week.



With massive thunderstorms and good rain, the sky was left prismatic in a saturated atmosphere.




With many shots still to process, and some interesting vids as well, this years summer break has been rich in interesting wildlife that I will post soon.

Cicada are back

One of the rights of passage through childhood for many boys ( and quite a few girls) in Australia is the catching of Cicada during the summertime.
These amazing creatures, after spending seven years or more underground, emerge to rejoice in the heatwave and produce a sound I have always associated with this time of year.

These coastal grasslands are home to one of the smallest of these insects I have seen to date.


Some cicada are easy to catch, some are harder.
These guys have eyes in the back of their heads ( it seems), as they are very small and very quick.
I was, after stalking on hands and knees like someone possessed, able to catch this insect pictured below - though only on film.
It took younger eyes, and quicker reflexes than mine, to help achieve this task.
Good to see that the youth of today still find excitement in the hunt of these elusive creatures.




The lads, who were down from Bateman's Bay for a cricket match in Bermagui, even managed to score a chrysalis from the creatures nymph stage.


I have a previous post, with a couple of pictures of cicada that show the difference in size.
One of my first posts was of a similar cicada, though those pictured above are marginally smaller.

Old man Goanna

Last weekend I took a drive to see the upper reaches of the Bermagui river.

Not a bad stretch of river at all.

On my return I climbed up into higher ground and a forest of spotted gum.
Crossing the road was this guy.

I approached him quickly enough to get him to climb.
At just under 2 meters, this gargantuan lizard is a fearsome piece of work indeed.

As scavenger hunter it will raid nests for eggs and make short work
of your rubbish bin given half a chance to do so.

These claws are great at climbing the smooth trunks of the Spotted Gum.
They are also make for great defense.
The Goanna is a fairly timid animal and will climb to escape predators.
If one comes running at you, you are best to lay down.
It wont think you are a tree then.
A friend of mine was thought of as a tree, by an animal half the size
of the one pictured here, and sports some great scars on his legs.
Luckily the animal didn't make it to perch on the top of his head.

One wonders how these, and many other creatures, are going during the
spotted gum selective felling going on down Bermagui way at the moment.
The areas where this is happening are entry prohibited, though that does not restrict a careful eye seeing ( from outside the zones) the apparent rip and tear
"selective" harvesting going on in one of the east coasts last great stands of these trees.

Whales playing in Bermagui

With many of the whales having made their journey down the NSW coastline on their way to Antarctic waters, I thought a little vid of some this years action was worth a post.

This whale, with her calf, are playing in Horseshoe bay, Bermagui.
Two weeks ago we saw a peak in numbers here and the occasional whale can still be seen, though it seems the bulk are south us now.

South Coast Echidna

With warming weather, many animals have been making an appearance.

One of these is the Echidna.

This egg laying marsupial mammal is classed as a monotreme, the other is the Platypus.

Both are only found in Australia.

The offspring, usually one, is called a "Puggle" and it is carried in its mothers pouch until too spikey. When this happens the mother will dig a shallow hole, place the youngster in it, and return every few days to supply milk.

They can live up to 45 years eating termites and ants.

I saw many of these creatures while in Victoria recently, ranging all the way to Bermagui where I live.

Take care if you are driving through wild habitats at the moment, as Echidna seem to be out in great numbers, along with a variety of reptiles and kangaroos.

Your local area will have wildlife protection organisations that rescue injured animals and it makes sense to program this number into your mobile.

A few baby Pics

Spring is always a good time to show a few baby pics.

Young Sea Eagles have been cruising the skies, testing their aerobatic skills in dogfights with each other for prey.


This very active Koala posed for the camera in a rare period of daytime wakefulness .



Even the humble Seagull had a shot or two to offer.



This chick allowing a most comical shot.



And, last though by no means least, whales are well into their southern migration down the east coast of Australia.
This calf having playtime with its mum in Horseshoe Bay, Bermagui.



Yes, spring is a time of wonder and interesting photographic possibilities.
I am currently searching for sparring Red Bellied Black Snakes and hope to have some shots soon.

A change in the air

When I found that this years Blog Action Day was to be on climate change I was a little daunted.
Where do you start?
My life has been, from the time I was a small child, meshed with a conscious realisation that a peel thin atmospheric covering regulates our life on this planet.
From the early days of asthma each time the westerlies blew pollen to me, the trips with my father fishing in a small boat out wide in deep water, to my eventual study in Environmental Science in Wollongong University, it has been an envelope I have been aware of.
For over three decades I have seen the seasons unfold, and have studied ancient patterns in fields as diverse as magnetic field change and carbon dioxide levels recorded in ice.
It is with this long standing interest that I find this subject so daunting.
Ancient records will have us believe that we have been living in an almost unprecedented calm and regular period of climate for over the last 5000 years and, despite the fluctuations such as the "little Iceage" experienced over 500 years ago in Europe, things have been fairly reliable for activities such as growing crops and developing civilization, for it has been over this time that we have developed our modern age. Things haven't always been so regular.
11,000 years ago carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere spiked. Whether they did due to the release of gases from thawing bogs at the end of the last iceage, or whether they caused the end of the last iceage is debatable. Either way, there were no factories and cars that we know of to have caused this at the time.
The sun is known to work cyclically, ranging from sunspot activity to expulsions of gas and the sun is the ultimate climate control device.
In view of the magnitude of the system we live with, is it wise to be so human centric in believing we have such great impact on this world and its climate?
The climate, in my view, is a series of waves. Conditions move back and forth, within the bounds to sustain life, like a sine wave oscillation. Our activities just change the amplitude and wavelength.
The danger is that our changes to that wave may push it too far for human life to be sustained in the way we live now.
If we vary the conditions too much we will not grow our food or get our water.
Civilization would collapse, though humanity will survive having been regulated by this vast interconnected system and made live within its rhythms.
When looking at climate change, don't worry too much about the planet- it can look after itself.
The goal is to see we live within a large system that can, and will, survive quite well without us.
Adaptability and interconnectedness , not control, should be the goals.
We are not the centre of the universe.
I am proud to be part of Blog Action Day again this year. Lets live with our planet, not try to dominate it.

Three Years of Blogging

I was lucky enough to spend the anniversary for my third year of blogging down in Victoria, viewing the remaining Apostles along the Great Ocean Road.
Quite recently one fell into the sea, due to the fierce elemental action on Australia's southern coast, leaving now only seven of the original twelve.




These shots are testament to wind and wave action on this sandstone plateau which is constantly in a changing state.
I hope you have all enjoyed the last three years, with more yet to come.
Thank you all :)