Azure Kingfisher

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greviousbh
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Azure Kingfisher

I still thin this little fellow is a bird designed by the guys at Disney for a cartoon

He "hunts" in the dam in our front yard.  

We use the Dam to water our veggie garden etc

Araminta
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How wonderful, all of itwink I love Kingfishers, but what a great place to be, just sitting on your veranda overlooking a dam filled with water and watching birds come and go. I would sit there all day long.

M-L

greviousbh
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Araminta wrote:

 watching birds come and go. I would sit there all day long.

I do :)  reading or with the camera, 99% of my bird photo's are taken from the front porch.  We also have breakfast there 9/10 mornings, we get to watch the birds feed.  The Callistemons are flowering, (rhs as you look at the cottage pic) i.e honey eaters all over the place.  Scarlet Honeyeaters (along with White Cheeked) are prolific at the moment

but we get all sorts of visitors dropping by

Plenty of fauna here (50 acres not cleared with a State Forest at teh back), a plethora of macropods, reptiles and amphibiansl. This is us here, links to Fauna pics at the top

It's interesting to watch the birds change with the seasons, I dread the arrival of the Drongo as it means the citrus will be covered in stink bugs :)

dwatsonbb
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Had a look at your link, looks like you have a fantastic lifestyle there. Of interest to me, you mention in 1 blog (the carpet python) a "native Quoll". My question is do you have or have you seen any Quolls? For a while it was believed they were extinct on mainland Australia, but there seems to be some sightings in the New England area. Forgive me, but is that anywhere near you? I would really like there to still be some Quolls, but would fear for their safety, should it become too well known in the general community. We have Eastern Quolls, reasonably common, they are such cute little critters, but boy their bite can hurt (we do wildlife rescue, and have been bitten a couple of times now).

Thanks for sharing your stories, love the place and your photos to date, look forward to some more.

Dale Huonville, Tasmania

greviousbh
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dwatsonbb wrote:

Had a look at your link, looks like you have a fantastic lifestyle there. Of interest to me, you mention in 1 blog (the carpet python) a "native Quoll". My question is do you have or have you seen any Quolls?

Seen any ? Yes, A Spotted Quoll ran across thre road close to home while coming home late at night, about 2 years ago.  No photo's though. Anecdotally yes, neighbour had one in her chook yard once (her words it was a "viscious bloody thing") she shooed it out, eventually ... and we have had one chicken taken by what we suspect was a Quoll, (it roosted outside one night, they free range but go inside a roofed, wire mesh  enclosure at night where we look the door !) The quoll "signature", I am advised by a local WIRES lady is to go after a particular organ rather than consume the entire bird, I assume they must have difficulty sourcing some nutrient they need to do this ?

We catch and release in the state forest behind us (big forest, some 20,000+ hectares) Carpet Pythons, mainly because they go after the chickens, we're not supposed to but ce la vie.  The chickens squarking their heads off at 3am, I know what's down there  !  We have no foxes that I have ever seen, nor cane toads down this far, nor pigs, only feral dogs and cats.

Another anecdotal story. We are just off the range from New England Tablelands, a friends brother manages a station up there and has some sheep, he has a trap to catch wild dogs (a box trap) and he occasionally gets other animals trapped that he releasees, he has had a Quoll and a Wedge Tail eagle caught and released.   I will ask him to resned the pic of the Quoll he caught and post here for you if you want ?.

tl;dr yep, we have 'em !

Araminta
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cryingwhat am I missing here? I don't see a link to your blog? Where do I find it?blush

M-L

greviousbh
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Araminta wrote:

cryingwhat am I missing here? I don't see a link to your blog? Where do I find it?blush

The link was posted just under the pic of the King Parrot but here it is again

http://menuchanechona.blogspot.com 

Found the pic of the Spotted Quoll for Dale (that's my mates brother), pic is near Liston on the New England Tableland, NSW, caught in his wildog box trap, about to be released.

dwatsonbb
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Thanks for the post, you have there a "Spotted Tailed Quoll", the larger of the 2 and the most endagered of the 2 species in Tasmania. You can see the teeth, and yes they are sharp (from experience with the Eastern Quoll). Unfortunatley, I have no photos either, as we usually handle in the dark, and try not to distress too much.

I am not sure who, but someone would be happy to see and confirm this, as I said previously, it was beleived they were extinct on mainland Australia. This has made my day, thanks for sharing!

Dale Huonville, Tasmania

sacrednavel
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My husband who works for the NSW National Parks says to give your local Parks office (not a visitor's center) a call and report it.  They generally have someone doing wildlife studies who record all this info.  :)

Beautiful photos! 

Woko
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Fantastic!!!

richman

It is the Eastern Quoll that is beleived to be extinct on the mainland. Strangely they beleive the last one was killed by a car in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney (Vaucluse) in 1960s. Not where you would expect to see a Quoll I must say. The others Spotted and spotted tailed are only considered threatened, If you believe what you read on the net.

dwatsonbb
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Thanks richman, found this document below. Prior to this, my research was specifically related to Tasmania, and did not look too much further a field. Anyway very pleased to here about confirmed sightings of species, which are not common. Gives me hope, there might still be chance. Sorry if I have hijacked the link, but like most here, our native species are close to my heart!
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/pubs/quolls.pdf

Dale Huonville, Tasmania

greviousbh
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Dale

With you penchante for native wildlife, a friend and I were out riding out moutain bikes on Sunday (at the back of Dorrigo, NSW) and came across this fellow so I thought I would post a pic for you

They look like two ticks on his jaw ? Albeit I am no expert on Koala's

I know some people here are against moutain bikes but while we were riding, we came across so many dead native animals from car strikes (birds, macropods, snakes, bandcoot etc), it seems ironcial that people vent their anger at moutainbikes.  A good way to save the lives of anmals is to drive less, and we get less pollution to boot.

dwatsonbb
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No expert on either Koala or ticks, but I think you are right, they do look like ticks. Thanks for thinking of me and posting an excellent photo. Wildlife is one of my passions, that is one of the reasons I enjoy BiBY so much.There are a lot of people here who are against a lot of things, but don't let them get you down, everyone is entitled to express their opinions, but must also respect the right of others to have opposing opinions, which they also wish to express. Enjoy your mountain biking, stay happy and healthy!

Dale Huonville, Tasmania

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