On Thursday it rained and at the top of the mountain little pools filled with water. This is my favourite, obviously!
Below is a more treasured local than the reptile in my previous post (eek!). We call these little dinosaurs bobtails or blue tongues. In the eastern states they are called shinglebacks. All appropriate descriptors, really. There are a few babies hanging around as well. Too cute.
Below is of a bushfire sixty five kilometres away. This was a particularly nasty one, only a few kilometres away from a town that suffered a terrible wildfire a decade ago. It was started by a machinery fire in a paddock and roared straight into the forest.
Gunsight, reflection, binocs, map and my very cool little weather station - the red gadget is called a Kestrel and takes recordings of wind speed, humidity, temperature etc. Around me the real kestrels whirl and shriek. They have the most acrobatic aerial courtship ever, tumbling over each other in the sky, using the updrafts to race around and around the tower.
Do you have rituals that you go through? Your own inventions and those of the job.
ReplyDeleteNothing too satanic. I have to carry a stick on the walk up the mountain. It helps on the taller steps and makes me feel better about encountering snakes. If I don't have it, I feel vulnerable. Following the white breasted robin on the trail as she leads me away from her nest. Only stopping for breath at the beginning of the stairs and nowhere else on the climb. Hourly weather and visibility (how many kilometres I can see) reporting. That's a job one.
DeleteThere are actually heaps more when I think about it. Good question Rachel - another blog post!
Best wishes for Christmas Sarah. xx
ReplyDeleteYou too Rachel x
DeleteOoh, nasty fire.
ReplyDeleteYes, not good that one
DeleteSitting in the dentists waiting room some years ago, I glanced through a copy of Australian Geographic magazine which had a feature on 'rugosa' lizards of which our local species is called 'rugosa tiliqua'. Growing up in suburban Melbourne, I had only ever heard them referred to as blue tongues. I personally like 'bobtail'. An interesting thing about them is the wrong but common belief that where you see bobtails you don't see snakes. This is a possibly dangerous notion. They are snake food, as are the eggs of snakes that they in turn eat when they find them. In the season, we always knock on the lid of the compost before opening so as not surprise any dugites in early summer or tigers in late summer.
ReplyDeleteOh fuck that Rick. So the tiger outside my house is after the bobtail that is after the tiger snake babies hatching outside my house? Aghhh!
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