Snoozing in the sun

It's been sunny now for two days. Almost a record. The pademelons certainly seem to be enjoying the warm weather.

This is Red, one of the adult males. I haven't seen any of the others snooze like this. I'm thinking about giving him a pillow for Christmas.

(Sorry about the quality in the first photo. It was taken through the screen door.)

New leaves

A taste of herbivory

I've been looking at herbivory in the rainforest. Not in any great detail, I must admit, but when I see leaves like these, I try to see what's been nibbling them.




Many of the leaf nibblers are well camouflaged, nocturnal or both, so my success rate isn't high. But sometimes I hit paydirt. This otherwise immaculate vine ...



... hosted a cluster of these critters. I think they're chrysomelid (leaf beetle) larvae, but I'm not betting my superannuation on that identification.




Herbivory goes on much closer to the forest floor. The caterpillars of the leafwing butterfly (Doleschallia bisaltide: Nymphalidae) live among the leaf litter. The main host plant is the small, forest edge species Pseuderanthemum variabile.



The bright colours of the caterpillar contrast with the cryptic pattern of the wings of the adults.



And then there's this type of leaf damage: wild ginger (Alpinia caerulea) with big v-shaped cuts.




The culprit is not a caterpillar or beetle larva, but a tooth-billed bowerbird.



This species doesn't build a bower for display, but clears a space on the rainforest floor and decorates it with fresh leaves. This male decorates his stage with ginger. Not from any old ginger plant, of course. He has two favourites, both of which he also used last year. They are creatures of habit.

At least they're not ducks

Monotremes? Marsupials? Nature has problems with platypus.



But apart from that dodgy reclassification, it's an interesting article on convergent evolution in platypus, snake and spider venoms.

A trio of tree roos

As is always the way, the interesting stuff appears while I am without good lenses. Last night a red triangle slug (more of that in a later post) and today a couple of Lumholtz's tree kangaroos (mum and joey) close to the house.

How close?

Of course, spotting them would be easier if they came with yellow frames

Not particularly impressed with the cheap lens

In search of more food

Time to try a different spot

They can move quite quickly

Mum and joey share the limelight

Joey gets camera shy, while mum has a scratch

Male tree roo photographed with the telephoto lens before it went in for cleaning.
(The lens, that is, not the roo.)

You can see why I'm looking forward to getting the lenses back. Also, why I like living here.

Six weeks!

Sorry. Just realised it's been six weeks since I last updated you on the happenings at the Snail Shell.

And, after checking my diary, I see that those happenings add up to not very much. I could invent something, but ... well ... this isn't exactly a wild and crazy place.

The only thing of note is that I'm sending my camera gear off for spring cleaning. The good lenses are away at the moment. When they come back, I'll get the SLR camera sorted. Probably the point and shoot camera and binoculars too. This means that I'll be dipping into my reserve of pics for blog posts. Fortunately, I've got one or two photos up my sleeve. (Yes, it's still cool enough in the evenings to wear sleeved shirts and jumpers. And they're a perfect place to store digital images.)

So, here's one I prepared earlier. The 'carport' python taking an evening slither around the house. Ain't it a handsome creature?