Coffs Harbour, Dorrigo and Cascade National Parks

I started out the second stage of my Australian adventure in the coastal town of Coffs Harbour, after a 8.5 hour train journey from Sydney. My seat-mate on the train kept me amused by telling me all about the Coffs Harbour area. I also know what his three brothers, sister, and various aunties and uncles do, his life story, and the bar fight that he witnessed last week! Sometimes people tell you a bit more than you really need to know!  Coffs Harbour is a very nice coastal town with many beautiful white sandy beaches. I visited Muttonbird Island Nature Reserve, which is a small island connected to the mainland with a breakwater. Thousands of wedge-tailed shearwaters call this hilly island home, where they nest in burrows all over the ground. I was unable to see any chicks, but I heard a "peeeeep" as I was attempting to peer into one burrow, and I saw one adult flying away. Another highlight of Coffs Harbour was the walk along Coffs River through the mangroves and through the botanic gardens. I almost stepped on a blue-tongued lizard who was drowsing in the sun along a footpath and was not impressed when I was too distracted by some birds in the shrubbery to notice him. I also saw a HUGE lacy monitor lizard on the vegetated sand dunes - at first glance I thought it was a crocodile!

Coffs Harbour from Muttonbird Island Nature Reserve

Coffs River

I spent the next eight days in Dorrigo National Park, and Cascade National Park, located about an hour east of Coffs Harbour.  It was pouring with rain the evening I arrived, so I had the true experience of a tropical rainforest.  We stayed in a field research station in the park, close to the head of the Wonga walking track.  The field house had everything we needed, and a few things we didn't, including a very large hairy spider that lived in the couch, ants and some small rodent-like animal.  Those negative aspects were more than compensated by being able to wake up to a chorus of rainforest birds outside our door.  I was unfortunately suffering from a cold and throat infection the entire field trip (courtesy of 15.5 hours worth of recycled air on Air Canada), but was still functional for the most part.

Field house in Dorrigo National Park

Dorrigo National Park

The field program was conducted by Ph.D. student Rachael (Ray) Peak, who is studying various aspects of frog behaviour.  One aspect of her study involved locating hip-pocket frogs (Assa darlingtonii) and recording their habitat and calling behaviour.  These frogs were not very active when I was there, as it was the end of their breeding season - I did, however, get to see a couple.  This species is unique because the males get pregnant (the way it should be, I think!), and carry eggs/tadpoles in slits in their hips.  I saw a male which was pregnant - I could see the tadpoles wriggling in the "hip pockets", which was really cool!

  

Another aspect of Ray's study involved Littoria barringtonensis, a small green treefrog that does not have a common name.  These little frogs use a variety of calls according to how aggrevated they are by other competing frogs, and also wave their arms and legs when particularly threatened.  Ray wanted to know what each call was used for, when they were used and what purpose the arm waving served (and why it didn't seem to scare away the females).  We used a series of call playbacks and recorded the response of the frogs using a camcorder and a digital audio recorder.  After a few days, we were discussing whether the frogs also needed a visual stimulus as well the auditory one, as they would in a natural situation.  Accordingly, we purchased a green rubber frog from the Dorrigo NP gift shop, and tied thread to each hind leg, so that the legs could be "waved" by pulling the threads.  The frog was stabbed with a skewer and the skewer mounted on a tripod that was positioned close to the real frog.  We also had a control object, and ran through all the call playbacks with the visual stimuli.  One night, our fake frog was viciously attacked the the real frog, who leaped on the fake one and tried to subdue it.  The fake frog was a fighter, however, and kept kicking his legs regardless (primarily because I had no idea that the real frog was on top of the fake one!).  Good fun.

Littoria barringtonensis (flash was a bit bright...sorry)

To jump or not to jump, that is the question....

The rainforest is an interesting place at night - there are a lot of things that go bump in the dark!  One night in particular was a bit creepy, as we could hear all sorts of critters walking around us, and bits of trees kept falling off at close proximity.  We also encountered a lot of insects, most of which seemed excessively large.  Of special note were the Goliath beetle, a humungous beetle that few up someone's shirt and wasn't discovered until about three hours later, numerous large huntsman spiders, various beetles, and eels in the streams.  We often just spent time wandering around the streams looking at cool stuff, when the frogs were not cooperating.  One of my favourite moments was standing on the Bucca Bucca River watching hundreds of flying-foxes passing overhead at dusk.  I also saw several tawny frogmouths, one of the more bizarre-looking birds so far.  Another special experience was seeing an echidna along the road and trying to get him to uncurl (we had a park ranger with us that day, and he was trying some tricks with moderate success).

Huge hairy spider (that's not my finger, by the way!)

Short-beaked echidna

I have just spent the past three days in the Melbourne area, with my mom's cousin and his family.  I have been thinking longingly of snow and cold - the temperatures are over 40 C here, making any sort of exploring a bit painful.  I am moving on to Phillip Island tomorrow, where I will be working on little blue penguins and shorebirds.  I expect to be there until early to mid-March, after which I am hoping to be involved in a project on yellow-footed wallaby in the Grampians for a few weeks.  I will be going to the Grampians regardless, but this project sounds really fun and a good way of seeing the park.

Please check out my new photo album  and feel free to drop me an e-mail.  I would love to hear from you all!

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