a random thought I had, do you have binoculars now that you're a birder, or are you making do without them? Echidnas are fantastic beasts. The problem with them though, is that you generally have no success if you go out actually looking for them, you just have to come across them by chance. Which makes them even more special I reckon. Aren't feathertail gliders amazing?!! The first ones I saw (in Taronga's nocturnal house) blew me away with how they could literally run across the glass. I've tried looking for them in the wild but how one goes about finding something that small and arboreal at night I have no idea!
I'm assuming this means in Australia? Or in the wild? Surely you'd seen crimson rosellas in NZ or in European zoos (and ditto for the white ibis)?
Fantastic review of your day. I just might have to copy your itinerary, because I don't think that I have visited any of those places, come to think of it.
Yea, I shouldn't have put either of these species in here, neither of them are new in any sense except new wild birds for this year (I've seen both in both captivity and wild before). The fantail is new though
I do have binoculars, and I even took them with me on this particular day, although at no stage did I actually take them out of the case. They would have been useful, particularly at Coolart. I'll have to have a play with them and figure out how to use them, its been a while. I was so impressed with the echidna, it was just amazing. I was so excited, astonished and awestruck when I saw it. It was just so cool! The feathertails were cool, although we only got to see them for a short while. Watching them scuttle across the glass was magical.
I'm actually planning a re-visit of the Mornington Peninsula for the end of April, although it will be somewhat less animal focused (i.e. not Moonlit, but certainly some of the other places - Cape Schanck, Coolart). This will incorporate Phillip Island, which should be cool. I would really like to go to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Cranbourne too, which sound great, but I don't think that will be an option on the next trip.
Here are some photos of species I saw on the Mornington Peninsula, which I would like to conclusively ID (I've given it a go, but I'm not 100% sure): 1) ?LBJ? - Cape Schanck 2) ?White-browed Scrubwren? - Cape Schanck 3) ?Brown Rat? - Mornington Beach
well I have neither Bird nor Mammal field guides for Australia in Hokitika with me, but the first one is a thornbill I'm sure; without a field guide I can't say which. The second is indeed a white-browed scrubwren. For the third, the tail is way too long for a brown rat so if its not a native species then it is a black rat.
Don't forget to change your clocks tonight. The days will be really short soon, so just keep an eye on changes in closing times for some places. I too want to visit those gardens some time - I have never been.
Pretty sure its a (brown phase) Black rat. 1. 'Mouse-like' face and bigger ears than Brown. 2. Long twig-like tail. As I'm sure you know, a high % of Black rats aren't black.
it looks like a black rat to me too, but I'm not sure which native rats are in the area so I don't want to claim anything definite
Thanks for the help guys, will go with Black Rat, the mammal guide I have says that "no other true rat in Australia has a tail obviously greater than head-body length." @dean, its just a rat, it was certainly more scared of me than I was of it, and it scurried off when we stood up. There was another one in a garden nearby too.
While they may be pests in Australia and New Zealand, the Black Rat is all but extinct here in the UK. Not so the Brown Rat which is the major pest here.
But the Black Rat was introduced anyway, shouldn't you be kind of glad that they are dying out? Presumably there is no chance of the brown rat dying out any time soon though.
Absolutely not! I believe there are more now than there have been in the past. Part of the problem is fast food/rubbish/litter in our towns and cities. Black rat, It was sometimes called the 'old english' as well as the Ship Rat so am not sure if it was introduced here a very, very long time ago? Did it originally come to the UK from the tropics, as it seems to have to the Antipodes? Whichever way, it has gradually died out again, even from the last ports/docksides which were its last strongholds- presumably because the populations were kept viable by recruitment from Boats?
I was just getting my info from wikipedia, which (to summarise) says that black rats originated in South-East Asia, and then spread west, arriving in the UK as early as the 1st Century. Europeans then carried the rats with them to much of the rest of the world (the Americas, Australia, NZ, most other islands in the world). The brown rat appears to have originated in northern China, and probably didn't arrive in the UK until the 18th Century. As it spread west, the brown rat generally displaced the black rat in areas where humans lived. In addition to being larger and more aggressive, the change from wooden structures and thatched roofs to bricked and tiled buildings favored the burrowing brown rats over the arboreal black rats. In addition, brown rats eat a wider variety of foods, and are more resistant to weather extremes. As such, the black rat is now much more restricted in range, and is generally only found in warmer areas, or places where brown rats are absent or rare.
Day Nineteen. It was on this drizzly Thursday that I awoke at 6am for the purpose of being instructed in the art of four-wheel driving (4WD), which is essentially driving vehicles off-road. My particular vehicle for the day was a Toyota Hilux, which belonged to the university, as did most of the other participants on the course. As it turned out, the training ground was on the very far side of Melbourne, near Werribee, which meant an early start. The course itself was run in several parts, and involved hills, side-slopes, sand-driving, mud-driving, river crossings and vehicle recovery. And it was really fun! The location of the course was in a quite rural area, down near a river. The surrounding terraces were open farmland, with very few trees, but on this lower level there were a number of gum trees, as well as some young pines (wilding?) and even a couple of prickly pears (my first wild cacti!!!). As such, there were quite a few birds in the area, including cockatoos, ducks and herons, and even some raptors. I suspect the number of birds in the vicinity diminished once the driving commenced, but we arrived first and were treated to a large flock of Long-billed Corellas feeding in trees above. Later that afternoon, a Whistling Kite flew overhead, identified by its “whistling” call. And on the way home, we saw a Nankeen Kestrel diving into a nearby paddock. Identification of birds is very tricky for me, as I have pretty bad eyesight, and usually only have any chance of success if I’ve seen the bird before, someone tells me what it is, or I’m able to compare a photo to a book. On this day I was told what the birds were, although I managed to show up some of the locals by identifying a white-faced heron before they could. Unfortunately I don’t have any of my field guides with me yet, so I went to the uni library to get a bird one. They didn’t have Morecombe, so I took a Slater, which isn’t very good in my untrained opinion, and I’ve since been informed that it is the worst choice. So I went back to the library and got the Pizzey & Knight guide, which I must say is really quite good, and I must buy a copy at some stage. One useful feature is the comparison of raptor silhouettes. It is a bit big for field use, but now that I can take the Hilux with me that shouldn’t matter too much. New Species: Whistling Kite
