Goanna in the Roof!

Sometimes there are animals sharing the spaces we occupy most frequently and they are so cryptic, we may never see them.

This great photo was taken by mum fabulous mum who is becoming quite the wildlife photographer! I'd tried a few stints sitting patiently and waiting for this elusive lizard to emerge while visiting my parents' place, but with no luck. Yesterday mum went outside, saw the lizard, rushed in and managed to not only return with her (small point-and-shoot) camera but sneak incredibly close for this shot. So... what IS IT!!??

Well, this is a Black-headed Monitor, (Varanus tristis), a common but rarely seen arboreal (tree-dwelling) monitor. It is one of the most widespread of our goannas, occurring over most of Australia and varying quite a bit in colour across its range. The animals here in the Perth Hills appear almost entirely black, but if you look closely you can see the fine pattern of paler circles (called 'ocelli') over the back.

'Tristis' is a brilliant climber and spends much of its time ascending trees (what a life!), hiding in hollows and crevices in bark. It can also sqeeeeeeze into small spaces: I have watched one climbing upwards inside a hollow branch turn completely back on itself and start heading down, in a narrow space only 4cm wide! Since European settlement, tristis has also taken to living in rooves, hence this photo. The lizards are probably attracted here because of the complex structural environment of beams, cracks, nooks and crannies in which they can hide, which offer a safe refuge from predators. Gutters also provide a nice sunny place in which to bask!

Furthermore, many rooves contain rats and mice, a valuable food source, and the monitors probably find it quite easy to smell their way into a rat's nest and devour the babies. They also feed on frogs, birds' eggs and a variety of insects, including many which are garden pests. For this reason and the fact they help keep our rat and mice numbers down, they are a huge asset to your garden!

A problem arises when we want to get rid of rats and mice in our roof, and use poison to do so. Poisons are always something we should treat with caution but so often people don't waste any time in using them without thinking of the consequences. Animals like the Black-headed Monitor, and other vertebrates including owls, hawks, bandicoots and your very own dog or cat, will be killed via secondary poisoning if they find a dead or dying rat and take a bite. Strychnine, the most common chemical in rat poisons, kills the animal by causing muscular convulsions and eventually asphyxia, so its not the nicest way to die! But there is one poison, called Racumin by Bayer, which kills rats and mice without causing secondary poisoning. If you must use a poison, make sure you seek out some of this stuff (it's available in local hardware shops, just ask around), and do your bit to keep our local wildlife safe.

Blossum for the Possum

 What trees do you have in your backyard, or in your street? Are they fabulous Red-gums!?

The Marri tree or Red-gum (Corymbia calophylla) is a local native plant found only in the south-west of Western Australia. Growing over 30 metres tall, Marri is one of my most favourite climbing trees. Sometimes old individuals have limbs drooping right to the floor, like magic arms gracefully bending down to offer you a lift up. The one pictured above is about 20 metres high, has an ENORMOUSLY thick trunk at the base and is at least 200 years old!

The word ‘Marri’ is a Noongar word which means ‘blood,’ so called because of the thick red sap which leaks from the tree, forming glistening globs that light up in the afternoon sun like magic jewels. Local Aboriginal people used the sap for its medicinal properties and it was mixed with water and swallowed to help a sore tummy. I’ve also gargled a Marri mixture when I’ve had a sore throat, and although it tastes disgusting, it really helps ease the pain. Try painting Marri sap on your arm – it easily washes off with water so makes really good fake blood!

You might not think these big trees are related to the tiny flowers in your garden, but that’s exactly what they are: giant flowering plants. The flowering period for Marri is from about December to May, so right now we’re in the thick of things. You don’t need to look too hard to see the hundreds of fine yellow-white flowers covering the tree like a blanket of snow. Have you noticed the sweet, honey-like smell? In order to smell it we humans need to be quite close, but there are other noses which are able to detect it from far away.

Brushtail Possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) are nocturnal marsupials which emerge at night to forage on a variety of plant material, including Marri blossom. We are lucky to share our space with these native mammals, especially in the Perth Hills where our surrounding forest provides plenty of habitat. Listen out your window at night – can you hear the stems, leaves and fine parts of the eucalypt flowers dropping on your roof? Possums discard these as they carefully pull apart the flowers to reach the sweet nectar in the centre, often hanging from their thick, prehensile tails to reach drooping foliage.

Possums usually survive well in areas where tree canopies are connected, so they can climb through the branches without having to come to the ground. Otherwise they can get eaten by foxes, and, while you might not consider it, pet dogs too. Dogs smell out possums, chase them, and even if they do not physically attack, they cause severe shock which can lead to death. On the Swan Coastal Plain, many trees have been cut down so possums are not as common as in the hills. They can in some areas adapt to foraging on a variety of exotic trees, especially fruits like apricots, apples and nectarines, and they will also eat roses. But it's not just the food plants they need. Shelter is just as important, and possums need adequate den sites in which to sleep during the day. In natural situations these take the form of hollows in trees (which to be the right size for a possum take at least 150 years to form), and occasionally dead hollow logs on the ground. A common adaptation in modified environments is to live in the rooves of houses, which most often leads to a fate of eviction.

Do you lack possums in your area, and wonder why this is the case? It's probably because your neighbourhood has at least one of the following three features, which contrast directly with a possum's basic requirements:

1. Fenced in backyards containing dogs.
2. Few trees, or none with continuous canopies.
3. Little or no tree hollows or suitable den sites.

  However, possums can still find homes in urban backyards if you manage your yard to meet these needs. Planting local native trees, keeping your dogs fenced in a separate part of your backyard (like my neighbour does), and learning to adapt your lifestyle so you can live WITH possums will all contribute. Now, you might well be reading this and thinking 'I live in a flat, how can I help?' Well, you can join a local Friends Group or take ownership of some bushland in your area. And if you have a few trees in your backyard, you can install nest boxes which possums will eventually learn to live in. Look who was seen emerging from the nest box in my backyard recently:

I'll finish this with a good reason to have possums around. Tonight I was getting dinner when a head poked out of the nest box shown above, just on dusk. I went outside and watched this amazing mammal emerge silently, then clinging to the tree trunk in expert fashion, literally run upwards into the canopy. After dinner I shone the torch outside and watched not one, but FOUR possums feeding on the blossoming Marri in our backyard. They effortlessly moved through the canopy, balancing their way along each limb before leaping with sheer skill to shift to the next tree. I was totally captivated and a feeling of awe and inspiration came over me. What an absolute privilege to share space with such amazingly skilled animals! Witnessing such things stimulates the human imagination and calms us from the busy lives we lead, helping our minds keep active and healthy. And possums are just one animal among the huge variety of other creatures that live in and depend on Marri trees for food and shelter. How lucky are we!?

  

Birth of the Musk Duckling!

Isn't this one of the most ADORABLE creatures you can lay eyes on!? Today I was blessed with good luck when I went to check on our Musk Duck nest and found the eggs hatching. I recorded some footage of the first chick pipping out of it's egg, then left a miniature video camera recording to monitor what happened. When I returned 2 hours later, I was thrilled to find I'd captured the whole event on film!

You can see in the above picture that this ducking, only hours out if its egg, still has a clearly visible egg tooth at the end of its bill. This is a unique feature of all birds and is needed to crack through the shell, then is shed a few days after the young emerge.

The short film 'A Hatching Success' can be viewed below:
 
A Hatching Success from Simon Cherriman on Vimeo.

Photos in Mundaring

The Wild Australia photography exhibition closed today with Judy and I removing our prints from the display at Little Creatures. On my way home I called into Murphy's Cafe in Mundaring for an iced coffee, began chatting to the owner Sarah, and was totally stoked when she offered the wall space in her cafe for us to display our prints!

Gill and I now have about 14 of our various sized canvas, block-mounted enlargements on display at Murphy's. Why not go and have a fabulous coffee, snack, or more substantial meal and enjoy some wildlife art? Here's some images of the fabulous food on the menu to help you make that decision :-)

Musk Ducks

No, that's not a leach stuck to its throat! The piece of skin hanging from under this bird's bill is actually perfectly natural.

The Musk Duck (Biziura lobata) or 'Kodara' (pronounced 'Caw-dar-ah') in the Nyoongar language is a very unusual waterbird, and today I was privileged get a few photographs of the species at a local hills wetland. Kodara are diving ducks, lying very low in the water as they swim (almost like a cormorant) and frequently dipping below the surface to catch freshwater crayfish and other water-dwelling invertebrates. They have very stiff tail feathers which act like a motor to propel them along underwater, and when frightened they will always dive rather than fly away.

Pictured above is a male, which is easy to identify from the conspicuous lobe of skin under its chin. This bizarre feature is an important part of the male's courtship display, which is one of the most unique spectacles in the Australian bird world. In an effort to attract a female, the male bends his neck right back, inflates his chin lobe with air, sticks his tail feathers upward, and while floating in open water, gives a series of loud 'plonk' calls and splashes water over himself with his feet. The call travels great distances and can be heard from several kilometres away across the surface of the water. Males display usually on freshwater wetlands from about June right through to about February, with some unsuccessful individuals persistently carrying on with courtship well into the summer nights.

The female Musk Duck is attracted by this bizarre display, and after mating she retreats to find some cover to build her nest. It is one of the most well-concealed bird nests I have experienced finding, and is usually hidden deep in the reed beds (although I have found one very obvious one in a sparse paperbark sapling in deep water). The female duck builds her nest by first finding a suitable spot, then reaching up and bending the stalks of reeds and other water plants underneath her, while flattening a platform with her body. In this way the nest achieves a domed structure with a sparse 'roof' covering it. She lays the 2-3 eggs in the nest, then like all other ducks, pulls soft down feathers from her body and covers the eggs to keep them warm. Musk Ducks lay HUGE eggs in proportion to their body size (they are about twice the size of a chook's!) so this probably explains why they lay so few compared to most other ducks.

After photographing this male I decided to go exploring in the reeds nearby, and as luck would have it I managed to find a Musk Duck nest! It was well concealed in the reeds and contained 2 eggs - here's what it looks like:

When the eggs hatch the ducklings stay with their mother for many months, learning how to feed by watching her closely. Most often only one duckling will survive - there are many foes in the wetland environment from Australian Ravens and birds of prey above to Long-necked Turtles waiting to pull them under from below. It is common to see a female swimming around with her half-grown offspring (see below) toward the end of Birak, the Nyoongar word for early summer (December and January).

Next time you visit a freshwater wetland, see if you can spot a duck swimming very low in the water. This is our very own and unique Kodara!

Goanna Diggings

I've just got back from a few wonderful days exploring some wilderness in Western Australia's south-west, namely the Stirling Ranges, Porongurups and coastline near Albany. There were so many wonderful wildlife events that I experienced but one truly stood out above the rest.

The Rosenberg's Goanna (Varanus rosenbergi) is a formidable predator which is common among open woodlands and heathlands of the south-west. I always find it incredibly exciting to see a monitor lizard but never has one allowed me into it's personal space like this one did.

Check out the video and see if it puts a tingle down your spine too!



Closely Monitored from Simon Cherriman on Vimeo.

A Hen in the Swamp!

Have you ever been RIGHT up close to a nesting Purple Swamphen? Well, this is an experience I was privileged to have had today among the reed-beds of a freshwater swamp.

It had been a hot day but the golden afternoon sunlight cast a mystic glow over the lake, and seeing as the temperature had dropped I was drawn out of the shady hammock and into my canoe to go exploring. I hadn't paddled very far when I saw a shape hidden in the reeds, about 10 metres in from the open water, and caught a glimpse of red. As I got closer I could make out the form of a Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) sitting on a nest, its red frontal shield the only part of its body that stood out. I decided to leave my boat at the edge of the reed bed and, sinking in the water up to my belly-button, I waded slowly closer, bending the tall stalks of twig-rush (Baumea articulata) out of my way with each step forward.

This bird, known as Kwilom (pronounced 'quill-awm') in the Nyoongar language, is one of Australia's most beautiful waterbirds. There are actually about 13 varieties of this swamphen found throughout the world, so it is clearly a very successful species! Our subspecies here in the south-west of WA (race bellus) is extra special, having paler blue markings on its breast, neck and face, making the colour display in the afternoon sunlight even more vivid.

I expected this female would flush from her nest and retreat into the nearby reeds (as I've experienced before), but she was clearly habituated to people when she carried on bending Baumea stalks down and shredding them up, adding to her nest and displaying totally natural behaviour as I watched from only a metre away! Two other members of the family group watched closely, guarding the immediate surrounds of their nest and keeping a close eye on me...

I started filming, seeing as it was such a good opportunity to capture the bird's behaviour at close range. Then something amazing happened. The swamphen was clearly very comfortable with me as she re-adjusted herself on the nest and gave me a sneak look at its contents: 5 beautifully marked eggs! As you can see below, they were grouped tightly together and tucked under the female's belly to keep warm.

I am looking forward to keeping tabs on this nest over the coming weeks, and hopefully seeing the swamphen chicks when they first emerge. If you are too, keep an eye on this space!

Back from the Bush

I've just returned from outback Australia after a week continuing my Wedge-tailed Eagle research in the Murchison region of WA. (Click here for more info about this project). My good friend Mick came along to help out as we revisited active nests located in August and conducted further searches for new nests in areas we hadn't yet visited.

The weather was overall cooler than expected which made our ventures much more bearable, although on one afternoon I did get a touch of heat stroke and we had to return to the homestead. We got on really well with the research, finding 14 new nests and taking our eagle nest total up to 52, and our total eagle territory count to 22. This means there are at least 22 pairs of Wedgies resident at Lorna Glen - quite a nice handful really!

The interesting find was that no eagle nests had been successful in rearing chicks. Of 11 which were active in August, one had contained a week-old chick when we last visited its nest, but sadly we found the chick had died on the nest at approximately 7 weeks of age. We located the body under a nearby perch tree suggesting one of the adult eagles (i.e. its mum or dad) had removed the carcass from the nest cavity, quite a sad thought really. But this is nature and it's perfectly normal for birds to fail at a breeding attempt at any time during the 3-month nestling period. This is most often caused by a lack of consistent food, but I suspect the death of this eaglet may have been caused by heat. There was a very hot period in October where the mercury soared above 45˚C for more than 10 days, not a very easy thing to endure when your nest is barely shaded.

This Wedge-tailed Eagle chick died at about 7-8 weeks of age, possibly from heat stress.

Although not good for eagle chicks, the warmer weather had created the perfect conditions for many of the local reptiles to emerge and begin their reproductive behaviour. One of the first sightings we had was a beautiful Mulga Dragon (Caimanops amphiboluroides), a particularly exciting discovery as I had never seen this species before. I spotted him basking on an old fence post while we whizzed down a dirt track one afternoon, and he obligingly sat for a photograph!

Another afternoon we surprised the largest Australian land lizard - a Perentie (Varanus giganteus)! Despite being a formidable predator, these lizards are very shy of humans because they have been a prized meal for Aboriginal people for thousands of years. As we approached from our car, the Perentie raced away and hid among some nearby bushes, and stayed put as we approached for some photos. Here you can see his incredibly long head, which contains sharp teeth and powerful jaws equipped for killing live prey (especially mammals like rabbits) and tearing meat from kangaroo carcasses.

And while we're on the topic of monitor lizards, another really interesting find was the mating behaviour of some Yellow-spotted Monitors (Varanus panoptes), which I managed to capture on a motion-sensing camera placed outside a burrow. Much of the footage obtained was of a large male excavating a burrow, and seemingly guarding the entrance and chasing off other monitors (according to my herpetologist friend Dr. Sean Doody, they are known to do this). But at one point a female monitor emerged from inside the burrow and was instantly embraced by the male, who mated with her for several minutes, before 'escorting' her back into the burrow.

There were many more creatures active in this desert wonderland, but I'll save their stories for next time. You can see more photos from this recent outback expedition here.