Animals of May
I have decided to start by just having an 'animals' page, in which I will show the various snaps taken of animals, regardless of whether they have a backbone or not.
First up is a small frog found while digging in the Vegie garden. I have no idea why it is short of a back leg, but it seemed to be getting around quite happily on the available equipment. It has been identified through the ACT Frogwatch coordinator as a spotted grass frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis).
Having said this is a post about animals, may I put in a picture of some flowers (Helichrysum bracteatum)? Of course I may: it is my blog!
The rationale for this is that these are the main place where I am finding insects: not surprising given that most other plants have stopped flowering by now. The three examples to follow are all from the Order Hymenoptera (I think). The first is an ant and the other two are bees (I think). Note the amount of pollen on the legs of the first bee!
Staying for a while with insects, I found this small caterpillar hiding on a eucalypt leaf.
A hawk moth visited my study window one evening. It seemed to survive the experience.
On the night of 22 May we got some rain (finally) and hordes of these moths were on our windows. On three occasions a Tawny Frogmouth hit the window hunting, the moths and when I took the small dog outside for a final comfort (for both of us) stop the female frogmouth was posed on a gum tree a few metres from the window.
Moving away to the things with three less legs than the frog, here is a worm and what I believe to be a flatworm found under a piece of timber that got in my way.
The striped item isn't a slug as I cannot see any horns (ie optical organs) on it. It also seems to lack the suckers of a leech (and it didn't seem to be sensitive to my body heat as I would expect from a leech). So I end up with an ID of flatworm.
Birds are animals too! So is the small dog! So was the lamb converted into a chop offcut fed to the small dog this morning. Thus the fact that a group of 5 Australian Magpies were feeding on the bit of the bone the small dog didn't eat (probably needs to be buried for a few weeks to give it that certain 'je ne sais quois") qualifies 3 ways. Here is a snap of 3 of the 5 (and a bit of chop poking out).
Some larger meat eaters were hanging out on Foxlow Station.
On the evening of 17 May the smalldog and I went out to check on the rabbit/carrot interfaces. As we got back a shape flew across in front of us which I was able, with the help of my spotlight to ID as the male Tawny Frogmouth. He also hung out:
Who's a pretty boy?
First up is a small frog found while digging in the Vegie garden. I have no idea why it is short of a back leg, but it seemed to be getting around quite happily on the available equipment. It has been identified through the ACT Frogwatch coordinator as a spotted grass frog (Limnodynastes tasmaniensis).
The rationale for this is that these are the main place where I am finding insects: not surprising given that most other plants have stopped flowering by now. The three examples to follow are all from the Order Hymenoptera (I think). The first is an ant and the other two are bees (I think). Note the amount of pollen on the legs of the first bee!
Moving away to the things with three less legs than the frog, here is a worm and what I believe to be a flatworm found under a piece of timber that got in my way.
Birds are animals too! So is the small dog! So was the lamb converted into a chop offcut fed to the small dog this morning. Thus the fact that a group of 5 Australian Magpies were feeding on the bit of the bone the small dog didn't eat (probably needs to be buried for a few weeks to give it that certain 'je ne sais quois") qualifies 3 ways. Here is a snap of 3 of the 5 (and a bit of chop poking out).
Some larger meat eaters were hanging out on Foxlow Station.
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