Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Snake

Mustard-bellied Snake (aka Blue Mountains Crowned Snake - Drysdalia rhodogaster)

After my previous abject failure in getting a picture of the Tiger Snake, this little chap turned up in my father-in-law's woodshed. A small consolation!
   

Will Reid's All Aussie Adventures

 Jewel Bug (Scutiphora pedicellata)

Happy Australia Day folks! No, I don't know what it's all about either. On the one hand you've got the media treating us like morons and desperately trying to convince the masses that we live in a Utopian multi-cultural society here in Australia. On the other hand you've got the reality of drunken racist louts wrapped in the national flag, you've got indigenous Australians marking "Invasion Day" and every other ethnic group staying well away from each other too. Yes, Australia is multi-cultural but those cultures never meet. It's an absolute shocker! The best thing you can do on Australia Day is get away from it all and that means only one thing - head up to the mountains again.


When we were up there at New Year, my brother-in-law Will took us out in his ute to a part of the Blue Mountains that I'm pretty unfamiliar with. Over on the west side of things is the Newnes Plateau which contains such great attractions as a rock that looks like a tortoise and glow worms in an old railway tunnel.

Rock looking like a tortoise

The day we were out there was warm and so the bird-life was pretty quiet but the heat does bring out the snakes and on this occasion it was a big Tiger Snake that crossed the road in front of the car. Instead of bolting, the snake turned and, flattening it's neck like a cobra, reared up and proceeded to take on the car! Terrifying and potentially deadly if you weren't safe inside. Sadly my camera took an age to switch on and by the time I'd fumbled around and got it working the snake had decided to move on. Absolutely gutted! It would have been an amazing image to share with you.

Glow worm tunnel
 

Thursday, January 07, 2016

Not over yet

Just when I thought that the twitching was finished for the year it turned out that there was ample time to add another two birds to the list! When a rarity like the Hudsonian Godwit turns up in Australia it obviously attracts a good number of twitchers. And when the twitchers are in town they're certain to find any other rarities lurking in the area and so it was that only two days after I was down at Lake Wollumboola a second mega sighting was reported at the same site. 

Lake Wollumboola

What could I do but jump back in the car on New Year's Eve and once again drive the 200 km south to Culburra Beach. Remarkably I was the only birder to show up that afternoon but after hiking a couple of kms to the southern end of the lake it wasn't long before I got onto the Paradise Shelduck #473. The Paradise Shelduck is a New Zealander and, as far as I can tell, this is the first record for mainland Australia. The bird was almost certainly there when I was down previously but, with everyone's focus firmly on the godwit, it had simply been dismissed as just an unusually dark Australian Shelduck.

Paradise Shelduck and friends

It's a good job I had to go back again though as I also picked up a pair of Grey Plovers #474 on the walk back to the car. Bonus!

 Pied Oystercatcher