Megan's Adventures Down Under

Central Australia

2009-06-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! I have spent the past two months in Central Australia, a harsh yet beautiful land of red sand dunes, ancient ranges and a wide diversity of wildlife. Through a series of field trips with Parks and Wildlife, and some independent trips of my own, I have grown to love this part of Australia. I was co-hosted by Parks and Wildlife, and the Department of Primary Industries. I assisted in the field with the former, and helped to develop a research program for the latter, involving some work related to my M.Sc. research. I stayed at a visitor house at the Arid Zone Research Institute, located about 7 km south of Alice Springs. The best features of this house were the geckos that hung out on my kitchen window on warm evenings, catching bugs.

Storm over the sand dune affectionately known as "Big Red"

I went on four field trips with Parks and Wildlife: three trips to the Simpson Desert area and one trip to Palm Valley. The Simpson Desert work primarily involved small mammal/marsupial trapping, with some general biodiversity monitoring. The Simpson desert is at first glance a desolate, lifeless environment, but I came to realize that although it is a harsh place, it is far from lifeless. Our focal species were plains rat and mulgara, two rare species in the Northern Territory. In addition to these species, we also caught fat-tailed and striped-faced dunnarts, kultarr, inland sandy mice and the ubiquitous house mouse. We camped in the bush on these trips to the desert, so my little tent was finally put to good use (and abuse).

Crest-tailed mulgara

Kultarr (slightly ruffled-looking from handling)

Fat-tailed dunnart

The final field trip took me to Palm Valley in Finke Gorge National Park, located about two hours from Alice Springs. The task was to measure the height of the red cabbage palms that are endemic tto this small area of the Northern Territory. It was a spectacular area and the palms were pretty amazing too, appearing to grow out of solid rock. It was a good trip, on which recorded my 280th bird species!

An oasis in Little Palm Valley, Finke Gorge National Park

I took a trip to Coober Pedy, a small outback town renowned for its' opal fields. It is an interesting town, albeit very rough, and I had an enjoyable few days in the area. The majority of the town's inhabitants escape the searing summer heat and freezing winter temperatures by residing in "dugouts", underground homes dug into hills. The churches are all underground, with remarkable carvings in the walls. I went fossicking (looking for opals in the mine tailings) without success, and also took a 12-hour tour with the mail truck in the area. I stopped in the outback posts of Oodnadatta, where visiting the pink roadhouse is a must, and Williams Creek, where the pub is apparently quite the attraction (I didn't have anything more potent than a ginger beer!).

The Breakaways, near Coober Pedy

On another independent trip, I went to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and Watarrka National Park. I enjoyed doing lots of hiking, especially along the Giles Track in Watarrka. I did the obligatory sunrise viewing of Uluru, which has great cultural significance for the Aboriginal peoples of the area. I particularly liked Watarrka, it's incredibly scenic with all the canyons and rock formations (despite the huge numbers of tourists, most of whom seemed to be older Germans with hiking poles!). I managed to completely exhaust myself out that week, as well as wearing out my feet, but it was well worth it - if you make it to Central Australia, you must visit Watarrka!

Uluru and Kata-Tjuta at sunrise

Watarrka National Park

I did a number of other really cool things in Central Australia, including hiking in Ormiston Gorge and birding at the sewage lagoon in Alice Springs. As always, I refer you to my online photo album for a complete record of my time here: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/elk2378/CentralAustralia?feat=directlink

I will be spending four days in Sydney, visiting some local national parks and hopefully getting a few last bird species for my list, before flying back to Canada on July 17. I'll be spending a week with my folks in Nanaimo and then driving to Edmonton to start work on July 27. I plan on posting one last blog with my impressions of Australia and things I've learned while here. It's been a life-changing experience, and I think I've grown as a person. Anyhow, I'm looking foward to seeing you all soon.

Things I've learned in Australia

2009-06-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

I will soon be getting back into "real life", which will be a bit of an adjustment. I know many of you are probably wondering why I am coming home earlier than I had initially planned. Essentially, I feel that I have accomplished what I set out to do, and would prefer to save my dwindling funds for other endeavours, such as buying a house or even future travel. More importantly, I think I have finally learned that there is life outside of work, and that I am going back for the right reasons. That's not to say that I won't give 120% at my job (I am still a workaholic and probably always will be), but there are also other things that I would like to do in my life.

The past six months have been amazing: I have seen and done so much I can hardly believe it. In this final blog posting, I wanted to try and summarize my trip by recording all the things I have learned, as well as the favourite and/or most memorable aspects of my trip. I will start with the latter...

Favourite part of Australia: Central Australia

Three favourite birds (how could I just pick one?): rainbow bee-eater, rufous-crowned emu-wren, and Major Mitchell's (pink) cockatoo

Favourite marsupial: Fat-tailed dunnart

Most memorable hike: Kinglake NP (thanks Moss!)
Most memorable day: Black Saturday (the day over 200 people lost their lives in the bushfires in Victoria)

Favourite Australian beverage: Bundaberg ginger beer

Favourite Australian food: apricot and coconut delight (a type of fruit bar, very yummy)

Things I've learned:

Life is analagous to bushwalking, where the journey is more important than the destination. Don't be afraid to go places that you've never been before, just be prepared for anything. When you find a nice place, stay there a while and enjoy it. Take time to stop and watch the birds or smell the flowers. Sometimes it's nice to have company, and other times you just want to be alone.

There is life outside of work!

I'm capable of more than I think. For example, driving on the wrong side of the road, and spending six months meeting new people (always difficult for me).

I have no desire to do a Ph.D., although I am determined to write up a couple of chapters of my thesis for submission to journals.

I am a "twitcher" (birder). I want to become involved in birding at home now, learn to band birds and improve my knowledge of bird calls. For those interested, my final bird tally is 286 species.
An older birdwatcher belonging to the Cairns wader group asked me, when I told him that I had seen a certain species of bird, "ah but, did you enjoy it?". That sort of stopped me in my tracks for a minute, but I quickly realized that he was bang on. It's easy to focus on "collecting" as many species as possible, and forget to just enjoy watching them. Another step in learning to slow down and enjoy things.

To take my previous point further, I have learned that I need to enjoy what I have at the moment, without constantly wishing I was somewhere else doing something else. I'm pretty lucky in my life, as I have a good job, live in a nice town with easy access to National and Provincial parks, have some good friends and good health. I am still working on this particular lesson, but at least I now recognize that it's something I need to work on.

As I mentioned, this will be my final blog posting. I would like to thank all of you for following my adventures across Australia, and hope to see many of you soon. Australia is an incredible place, and I highly recommend that you all visit at some point in your lives. It's painful to get there, but once you're there (and recovered from jet lag), it's an amazing experience. I'll certainly be back very soon. G'day to you all, mates!

Tasmania

2009-05-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

Greetings friends and family! I hope you are all enjoying warmer weather (for those of you in the northern hemisphere) and the return of songbirds and flowers. I have spent the past month in Tasmania, where the weather has been relatively cool - I had to break out my toque (beanie in Australian-speak) a few times. Despite that, I was really quite lucky with the weather, as there were very few days which were miserable (today, however, is one of those!). I even got to experience some snow, a reminder of home that I could have done without! Including Tasmania in my travel itenerary was an uncharacteristically spontaneous decision that I haven't regretted in the slightest. Let me walk you through my adventures...

I spent a couple of days in Hobart, which is today a far-cry from the sordid town described by Bryce Courtenay in some of his books. I hiked to the summit of Mount Wellington, which afforded incredible views of the city below and surrounding area. I also took a day tour of Port Arthur, a historic penal institution in southeastern Tasmania. I should add that this facility has been not functioned as a prison since the early 1900's. Port Arthur is reputed to be haunted by a number of ghosts, and although I'm not quite a believer in the paranormal, if ghosts did exist, Port Arthur would definitely be a prime location!

View from summit of Mount Wellington

Port Arthur

I next visited Freycinet National Park, based out of a pretty little town called Bicheno. I really liked Bicheno - there isn't much going on there, but there is a lovely walk along the foreshore and amazing coastal scenery. The scenery at Freycinet NP is amazing - I hiked the Wineglass Bay/Hazard Beach curcuit, and passed through eucalypt forest, rocky outcrops and incredible beaches. Not to mention a few new birds and some very bold wallabies! I also visited Douglas Apsley NP, located nearby Bicheno.

Wineglass Bay, Freycinet NP

Hazards Beach, Freycinet NP

After spending a day in Launceston, I caught a bus to Cradle Mountain National Park. I did some amazing hikes and managed to avoid the worst of the weather, which included SNOW! I did a three hour hike along a disused trail, in the pouring rain, and had a fantastic time (despite the leeches). My favourite spot was at Wombat Pool, located near Dove Lake. I did see a common wombat, although not at Wombat Pool - I love wombats, they are so comical!

Dove Lake, Cradle Mountain NP

Boardwalk through the tussock grass, Cradle Mountain NP

I spent the next three weeks volunteering for Shannon Troy, a graduate student from the University of Tasmania, working on a study of the ecology of spotted-tailed quolls in northwestern Tasmania. Although Shannon was focussing on quolls, she also included Tasmanian devils in her study because they are much more common in that area. We set traps along nine transects throughout a 5 x 5 km study area, and monitored them daily for about a week. My main job was cleaning the traps, as they had to be disinfected to prevent the spread of the facial tumour disease (we were working on a healthy population). We also had to wear coveralls and gloves, and try to remember not to touch anything after working on a trap before disinfecting ourselves. Our first site was the most productive, with six quolls and many devils. The devils are nothing like their reputation - they usually sit trembling in your lap like sacks of nervous potatoes and let you process them easily. Quolls, however, are incredibly feisty and never stay still! All good fun! Over the course of this project, I learned what a huge issue forestry is in Tasmania, equal to that of the oilsands in Alberta. There is practically no old-growth forest remaining in the state, and mature forest is also quite rare. We were constantly coming across smoking clearfells and eucalypt plantations - Tassie's forests are indeed "working forests".

Tasmanian devil

Spotted-tailed quoll

Next on my schedule is a short trip to Kangaroo Island and a few days in Adelaide, before I head up to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. I will be spending almost two months working around Alice Springs on a variety of Parks' projects, ranging from Slater's skink to red cabbage tree surveys. I will be in the field for 5 to 10 days at a time, with a week in between each trip that I will likely use to tour around the area. I'm not sure what I will be doing after I complete my work in Alice on July 10 - I may have opportunity to help with some biodiversity surveys on Pellew and/or Groote Islands. I'm definitely getting very ready to come home, but would hate to have regrets about missing out on opportunities here. By the next time I write, I will know when I'll be home, if I'm not already there!

I can only include a few of my photos in this blog, so please check out my photos at the following link: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/elk2378/Tasmania?feat=directlink

I hope to hear from you all!

Armidale

2009-04-09T18:59:00.000-07:00

Hello again everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and had the opportunity to take some time off to be with family and friends. I have spent the last three weeks in Armidale, New South Wales, working in Fritz Geisers' lab at the University of New England. Unfortunately, there was no field work for me to help with, and very little other work, so it's been a bit of a disapointment. However, there are always good points to everything, and this experience is no different. I have had another personal revelation (I guess travel is a time for self-discovery!)...I do not want to go back to grad school and do a Ph.D.! I have come to realize that I no longer particularly enjoy the academic environment, although I suppose that could change with the right project. For the foreseeable future, however, I am content to work and actually make money so that I can take trips like this one! The past month has also confirmed my workaholic tendencies, and that I am most happy when busy and feeling that I am contributing in a significant way.

Fall colours in Armidale

Armidale is a small university town that is one of the few places in Australia with four seasons and spectacular autumnal foliage reminiscent of home. The town is small enough that I regularly bumped into three or four people I knew when I went "downtown". I stayed with Fritz for the first week and then moved into a house, located a 15 minute walk from the Zoology building, with a grad student named Claire and her other housemate Michelle. Claire has a wonderfully good-natured dog named Rose, who tended to follow me around the house in the hopes that I would take her for another walk. It was nice to have a walking companion, especially one who loves walking as much as I do and doesn't talk too much!

Rose - she looks a bit evil with the eyeshine, but she's really the friendliest dog in the world

Because there was very little work for me to do, Fritz suggested that I conduct my own little lab experiment, using some striped-face dunnarts he had left over from previous work. I divided the animals into two classes: heavy and light, and then monitored their responses to varying degrees of food deprivation. The idea was to determine whether the smaller individuals went into torpor more readily and for longer than the more well-endowed (i.e., fat!) animals. To do this, I had to take their temperatures and measure their tail widths (they store fat in their tails) every two days, and weigh them daily. I had some ethical qualms about subjecting animals to stress (not to mention the stress I experienced trying to handle them!) and depriving them of food, just so that I could have one to two hours of work to do every day. Unfortunately, the data produced from the experiment could not be turned into stand-alone paper, although can perhaps be combined with other data collected on other species.

One of my terrified victims, er subjects, a striped-face dunnart I called Piggy

For two nights, I was able to accompany some visiting researchers from Western Australia on their search for greater gliders at Newholme, the University field station near town. Greater gliders are extremely difficult to catch due to their tendency to hang out at the top of trees, and merely glide into a neighbouring tree when feeling threatened. We tried various methods of getting them down, including banging their tree and/or branch with a fallen branch, shaking the tree, throwing things at them, etc. We were nearly successful the first night, and got to see a greater glider gliding a few feet above our heads before scurrying up another tree out of our reach. We managed to catch a glider on the second night. These critters are really quite small and light, but have a huge excess of skin and fur for gliding. They really are very cute!

Greater glider in a bag

Someone from the zoology department, Gerhard Kortner, kindly offered to take me out to a few national parks on Easter Sunday, since I had not seen anything of the area yet. We first did a really nice hike in New England National Park. Although this park is only about 50 km from Dorrigo, the forest is completely different, dominated by Antarctic beeches. It was very foggy the day we visited, which minimized the views, but also made for some really nice photos. We also visited Cathedral Rocks National Park. For those of you who have been here, I chickened out at the point where you have to pull yourself up the rocks with chains anchored to them - I couldn't quite overcome my fear of falling! Nevertheless, it was a nice hike with great views that were somewhat obscured by fog and then pouring rain.

New England National Park

Cathedral Rocks National Park

I am excited to say that my next destination is Tasmania. After ten days of touring around and visiting some parks independently, I will be volunteering for a grad student from the U Tas on her project in northwestern Tasmania. We will be trapping Tasmanian spotted quolls and Tassie devils, and I should get to see some pretty cool stuff! The weather promises to be cold and wet, and there has already been some snow, but I've got my toque and gloves all ready! Next month's blog should be a bit more exciting, I can't wait to tell you all about it.

Take care everyone, don't work too hard, and keep in touch! It can get lonely over here on the other side of the world!

As always, please check out my photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/elk2378/Armidale?feat=directlink

Queensland

2009-03-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody! Things have been going pretty well over here, although I have had some moments of loneliness and homesickness. I've also realized that I am an incurably pathetic workaholic - I miss work (and working) like crazy and still feel guilty at having indulged myself in this extended holiday. Still, I'm here now and plan to take full advantage of my time in this incredible country. Back to my adventures...I'm afraid this blog post will be a bit of an epic because I seem to have done an awful lot since leaving Phillip Island. In brief, I have covered most of the Queensland coast and made several forays into the outback, while increasing my bird list to almost 200! I also conquered my fear of driving over here. March is the height of the rainy season in Queensland, and was therefore not the opportune time to visit - humidity of over 95% daily just about killed me! I narrowly missed Cyclone Hamish, which ended up being a category 5 cyclone by the time it made land-fall where I had been just a few days before. I seem to be experiencing Australia at it's most extreme!

My rental car (Gutless Getz!)

I spent a few days in Brisbane, where I visited Brisbane Forest Park, before heading up to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is based on a sand-dune, and features rainforest and a number of beautiful perched lakes with incredibly soft water. I stayed at a hostel near Seventy-five Mile Beach, which, oddly enough, was a beach 75 miles in length! This beach also served as the island's only highway, likely to the detriment of the red-capped plovers and other birds brave enough to hang out there. Leaving Fraser Island became a bit of an adventure: the ferry came in at low tide and had a lot of trouble leaving again. At one point, the skipper asked us all, very seriously, to move to the right side of the boat to help get it over a hump! The passengers all became rather alarmed when we saw our tour bus rolling forward on the deck, towards the open gate - turned out they were just redistributing the weight to help the ferry along.

Lake Boomanjin, Fraser Island

I then spent five days in Epping Forest National Park, a small scientific research park located about six hours drive inland from Rockhampton, assisting with a northern hairy-nosed wombat project. The purpose of the fieldtrip was to prepare the wombat traps for a trapping session in a few weeks' time, which I was unfortunately not allowed to come (volunteers were not allowed due to the sensitive nature of the research program - capturing an incredibly endangered species and translocating them). We spent the days preparing the large traps for deployment, and went spotlighting one evening. We were extremely fortunate to see three northern hairy-nosed wombats (out of the 120 individuals left in Australia). Epping is a beautiful place in the outback, and I really enjoyed it out there. While I was there, a photographer was taking photos for an article in Time magazine (you can almost see me in photo 7, on the passenger side on the roof of the truck - to the right of the spotlight - we were getting completely coated in moths so I had shut off my spotlight): http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1884872,00.html

Northern hairy-nosed wombat, from the vantage point of the truck roof

Another h0t day in Epping NP

I decided to explore northern Queensland with my spare two weeks after Epping, with the intention of driving around the area and camping at night. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I am actually capable of driving on the left side of the road, and didn't once end up on the wrong side of the road! The camping, however, didn't work out quite so well. Let's just say that I seriously underestimated the severity of the rainy season, and overestimated the waterproofness of my tent! Leeches also played into my decision to ditch the idea of camping and stay indoors...blech, horrible creatures!

Palms in the tropical rainforest

My first stop was Wooroonooran National Park, which had lots of rainforest and waterfalls, as well as an over-abundance of leeches. I then spent several days in Undara Volcanic National Park, located about four hours drive southwest of Cairns. This park is based around the lava tubes formed from volcanic activity in the area. The tubes are between 12 - 18 m in diameter, and are actually are part of a single "tube", with sections that have caved in. The caved-in sections support pockets of rainforest in the drier outback, and the tubes themselves are home to many interesting critters. I went out on an evening tour to a section of lava tube that is home to half a million microbats (eastern horseshoe and bentwing bats mostly). Night tiger snakes suspended themselves from a tree at the mouth of the lava tube and attempted to capture bats as they emerged in the evening. A snake was successful in catching a bat, but his good luck was short-lived, as a second snake attempted to steal the poor bat away from him. The two snakes were deadlocked when we left.

Bats and snakes in Undara Volcanic NP

I next spent a few days exploring the Atherton Highlands and all the little national parks in the area. Australia seems to have an extraordinary number of tiny national parks, such as Curtain Tree Fig National Park, which is devoted entirely to a single tree, and Hypipamee Crater National Park, based around a small crater originating from volcanic activity. I stayed in Crater Lakes National Park for several days, where I enjoyed watching the numerous birds and mammals, including the dusky rat-kangaroo at Lake Barrine. An early morning visit to Hasties Swamp NP also prooved to be a productive birding adventure, especially after being chatted up by an old fellow who had been birding there for many years. The weather was generally nice in the morning and early afternoon, with the clouds building into the afternoon and rain starting mid-afternoon - inevitably continuing until early morning. I was glad that I decided not to tent, although disappointed that I couldn't hack it.

Green catbird in Crater Lakes National Park

Barron Falls, Barron Gorge National Park

After spending a couple of days in Kuranda and exploring the nearby Barron Gorge National Park, I drove up to Daintree. Wildlife abound in this part of the country, which is incredibly humid and tropical. I went on several wildlife cruises (just about the only thing to do in Daintree), and saw crocodiles and many species of birds. I proceeded to drive up to Cape Tribulation, which is the furthest north I could travel in my little Hyundai Getz. Along the way, I met some birders who informed me of a shorebird workshop in Cairns, which I decided to attend. The workshop was excellent, I learned a lot about shorebird ID, migration etc in Australia, and I am now a proud member of Birds Australia!

Crocodile

I am heading to Armidale in a few days, where I will be spending seven weeks working on nocturnal critters in the area. Someone said to be yesterday that it will be cold in Armidale...I guess after the heat and humidity of northern Queensland, it will seem much chillier! After that, I expect to spend another 10 days exploring the area, and then fly to Alice Springs, where I will be spending a couple of months. I hope to get up to Kakadu in July/August, and will most likely come home in late August or early September. I am starting to think longingly of having a home again, and knowing where I am when I wake up in the middle of the night. I just hope that with this economic downturn, there will be enough work to satisfy my workaholic cravings!

As always, please view a larger selection of my photos on the following link: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/elk2378/Queensland?feat=directlink

Please send me your comments!

Southern Victoria

2009-02-11T14:46:00.000-08:00

Greetings, friends and family! I have spent the past three weeks on Phillip Island, located south of Melbourne and home to little penguins, short-tailed shearwaters (say that three times fast!) and lots of fabulous beaches. As a volunteer for Phillip Island Nature Parks, I worked primarily with the research division, assisting with penguin nest box and burrow checks. Sadly, this was not good year for the little penguins, whose chicks suffered high mortality rates due to food shortages and extreme heat. I did get to handle some penguin chicks however, and discovered they are not as cuddly and docile as Walt Disney would have you believe! They certainly are very cute however, despite the fleas that they kindly shared with their handlers. I also assisted in the wildlife rescue hospital, where I recorded the number of fish consumed by each penguin at feeding time, cleaned out possum cages and coaxed an anorexic silver gull to eat.

Summerlands Beach (aka Penguin Parade beach)

Grumpy-looking little penguin

Little penguin chick in a nest box

I also had the opportunity to assist with a short-tailed shearwater project on my first night on the island. This project focused on the genetic differences between short-tailed and sooty shearwaters, and so the goal was to capture 15 birds and take blood samples from them. Capturing the birds was simple enough, in theory at least - one can essentially walk right up to the shearwaters, pick them up, and stuff them into a box. The tricky part was walking on the burrow-ridden colony without collapsing any burrows, while scrambling to grab a shearwater. I didn't get any photos, but you can use your imagination!

Because work in the Nature Park was very slow, I was given the opportunity to join the Victorian Wader Study Group on several of their fieldtrips, led by cannon-netting expert Clive Minton. The first fieldtrip was based out of Mann's Beach, a tiny holiday community along the Bass Strait. We worked both on the mainland and on sandy spits on the outer edge of the Strait. The fieldtrips were highly successful, with captures of over 600 red-necked stint, a few curlew and sharp-tailed sandpipers, one red knot, and 150 bar-tailed godwit. A cannon net with 600 shorebirds is an incredible (and overwhelming) sight.

Box Bank, with cannon net and keeping cages full of red-necked stint

Red-necked stint

Bar-tailed godwit in a weighing tube

Many of you have likely heard about the devastating bushfires in Victoria this year. Dry conditions and high winds resulted in overwhelming loss of life and property. By luck (or misfortune), I was very close to the bushfires in south Gippsland on the worst day. Temperatures of 46 C and 90 km/hr winds made it feel like we were camping in a furnace - there was just no relief. The winds brought heavy smoke and charred eucalyptus leaves over our camp - we were watching our tents closely for falling embers (termed an ember attack) resulting in spot fires. We were watching the flames from a fire about 10 km away, and saw at least three spot fires start ahead of the main fire, the result of embers blown downwind. Later in the evening, we had a bit of drizzle, which came down as black rain. It was the true Australian experience, albeit a devastating one for many people.

Bushfire north of our camp

Mann's Beach jetty in the smoke

I went out with the Victoria Wader Study Group a second weekend, this time to Westernport. We were unsuccessful the first three attempts, but on the last day we caught 119 sharp-tailed sandpipers, 87 red-necked stint, 9 curlew sandpipers and one red-capped plover. The red-capped plover was particularly cute!

Red-capped plover (not sure why the image is so small!)

Since things are very slow on Phillip Island, I am moving on early. After some deliberation, I have decided to participate in a wombat relocation project in Epping Park, Queensland, during the week of March 2. I will be leaving Phillip Island on February 20, heading for Brisbane and north, stopping at Hervey Bay, Fraser Island, possibly Lady Musgrave Island and then up to Rockhampton for the start of the wombat project. After that, I plan to make my way to to Cairns, exploring along the way - I should have 2.5 weeks so I can take my time. I need to work up enough courage to rent a vehicle now!

I always seem to forget - here is a link to my most recent photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/elk2378/SouthernVictoria?feat=directlink

Coffs Harbour, Dorrigo and Cascade National Parks

2009-01-16T17:05:00.000-08:00

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!

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/elk2378/CoffsHarbourAndDorrigo?feat=directlink

Sydney and the Blue Mountains: cockatoos, water-dragons and eucalyptus...oh my!

2009-01-09T23:11:00.000-08:00

This is my first attempt at a post, so please excuse any goofs or things that don't look right - I'm still figuring this blog out!

Since arriving in Australia about a week ago, I have learned a few things. One application of 50 spf sunscreen is not sufficient; water-dragons and lyrebirds ROCK; all the most intriguing-sounding birds are inevitably at the top of a very tall tree canopy. I'm still adjusting to this whole adventure - it's a bit overwhelming at the moment, but I am enjoying things so far. I just can't believe I am here for a year...I feel like I should be going home in a week or two. Once I get over my guilt of not working, and my loneliness over here all by myself, I'll be okay!

I started my adventure in Sydney, where I spent 2.5 days trying to find a bit of wildlife, while trying to avoid getting run over by the crazy Sydney drivers. I saw the iconic Sydney opera house, which I have to admit is smaller than I had expected from photos. I went to the Taronga Zoo, where I spent most of my time in the Australia section to try to learn some of the critters I might encounter in the bush. The best part of the day was when I went for a walk in the little national park adjacent to the zoo, where I saw eastern water-dragons and a kookaburra. This was the point when I began to think everything would be okay! I also went to Manly where I watched "surfer dudes" (I thought of you, Richard!) for a while and then walked the Manly Scenic Walkway. Lots of amazing beaches, and a few birds too!

Kookaburra

Eastern water-dragon

After Sydney, I went to the Blue Mountains NP, where I stayed in Katoomba. On my first hike in the Jamison Valley, I encountered sulphur-crested cockatoos, yellow-tailed black cockatoos and eastern rosellas - much to my huge excitement! I discovered later that the sulphur-crested cockatoos fly around town in gangs, squawking and hollering at 6am. They definitely looked better perched on top of a huge waterfall, or in the upper canopy of giant rainforest trees though! I was also very impressed with the large number of skinks, which I have yet to identify. There were little skinks almost every two steps in places, but they tended to run away before I got a good look. No snakes so far, nor any poisonous spiders! I took the train into Wentworth Falls and did an amazing hike that was for the most part along a ledge half way up a huge cliff (Mom, you would have gone a bit weak at the knees, I think!). The path went behind and around waterfalls, through rainforest and scrubland, and up a great number of steps. In fact, the Blue Mountains NP has a ridiculous number of steps - no need for a stairmaster any time soon!

I think the highlight of the Blue Mountains trip was seeing a pair of superb lyrebirds (that is their common name, although very aptly named). They are the emblem of the national parks system over here, and extremely cool. The closest bird I can think of to compare them with is a peacock - they have these incredible tails that are used for displaying. I was fortunate enough to see a male displaying very vigorously to a female, who was to busy scratching around in the leaf litter to pay him much attention. He was making the most amazing musical calls, sounded like a rap song! I was also thrilled to finally identify some mysterious birds high up in the canopy that made constant "tink tink tink" noises - bell miners. I also discovered the heavenly scent of eucalyptus and tea trees. All in all, a successful trip!

The Three Sisters, near Katoomba

Sulphur-crested cockatoo

I will be starting my first volunteer position on January 16, working with graduate student Rachael Peak from Newcastle University on her frog project. I believe that the field work will occur in and around Dorrigo National Park, which is meant to have over 130 species of birds. Hopefully I have time to do some birding, although it will also be very cool to learn my amphibians and reptiles. I won't likely have internet access until early February, at which time I will publish my next post.

For a closer look at the slide show, please follow this link: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/elk2378/SydneyToCoffsHarbour?feat=directlink