Tasmanian Wildlife

[FLICK]

Here's some photos I've taken of the wildlife on my property...

I'll start off with a nice big healthy Echidna (spiny ant eater):


When threatened they tuck their head and feet under their body:(front view)


Rear view:


Eating ants:


Tas. Gov. info about Echidnas
www.parks.tas.gov.au/wildlife/mammals/echidna.html
Echidnas are monotremes (mammals that lay eggs rather than giving birth to live young like marsupials)

[FLICK]

Bennetts Wallaby:
www.parks.tas.gov.au/wildlife/mammals/bwallaby.html

I have a huge population of Wallabies, Through the day they hide up in the bush, but on sunset hundreds of them venture out into my paddocks to feed...

[FLICK]

Eastern Barred Bandicoot
www.parks.tas.gov.au/wildlife/mammals/ebband.html

This guy was hanging around for a week or so, but vanished, I suspect he was taken by a cat.... He wasn't scared of me, he was more interest in digging up grubs.... It's funny watching them search for food, they put their nose on the ground to feel the vibrations the grubs make, then they dig frantically to get them.






It's a Gremlin!!!

[FLICK]

Some bird photos

Superb fairy-wren (Malurus cyaneus)


Spotted pardalote (Pardalotus punctatus) (I think)


Flame robin (Petroica phoenicea)
or
Scarlet robin (Petroica multicolor)


Green rosella (Platycercus caledonicus) (endemic to Tas)





bronzewing [pigeon] (Phaps chalcoptera)

These native pigeons breed for life, I've read that if one dies the other tends to die also...

Laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) (Native to mainland Aus, but Introduced to TAS)


Tasmanian native hen (Gallinula mortierii) (Endemic to TAS)
www.parks.tas.gov.au/wildlife/birds/nathen.html

They can run really fast so they have no fear of my dog... Most years I have a pair nest near my shed so I get to watch their 6 youngsters grow up... They they haven't nested around here the last couple of years because it's so dry, I think they may have move up the gully to one of my dams (pond)

[FLICK]

Wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax fleayi)

(That's a 4' fence in the forground)

Info about them:
www.parks.tas.gov.au/wildlife/birds/wteagle.html
www.parks.tas.gov.au/threatened/wteagle.html

"The Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle is an endemic subspecies and is listed as endangered under the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act 1995." It is included in the Federal list as a critically endangered subspecies.

They can weigh upto 5kg (11lbs), with a wing span of up to 2.2 m or just over 7 feet.

The experts estimate there's only around 100 breading pair left, so I'm lucky to have a pair of these living up the back of my property... They occasionally venture down to my pasture to feast on rabbits...

A few months back my hound was outside sunning herself in the morning sun, I heard her growling like I've never heard before, I went out there to find her cowering against the shed with a Wedge-tail on the ground 4 feet away from her, he stood around 3' tall, I think he was planning on having her for breakfast , as soon as I went out it flew up over my head and scared the hell out of me, that thing was HUGE... They say they can have upto a 7' windspan, this thing looked bigger than 7' to me as it just about took my head off..

...Here's another raptor, I'm not sure what type, it was trying to take a fully grown hare (I think you guys call them Jack Rabbits?)... was funny watching this hare bouncing 3'+ in the air trying to evade the bird.. This was the only 1/2 decent pic I managed to get.

[FLICK]

Brush-Tail Possums:

Last year I cut down a big dead tree and sliced most of it up when fur started flying off the chainsaw, I started breaking the wood apart and found a family of possums living in there, amazingly I only nicked 1 of them with the chainsaw, the rest of them managed to dodge it:




I came across this young one in the middle of the day, the hole in the dead tree he was in was only about 5' off the ground:


Info about possums:
www.parks.tas.gov.au/wildlife/mammals/btposs.html

[FLICK]

Blue-tongue lizards:




info:
www.parks.tas.gov.au/wildlife/reptile/Tilnig.html

[FLICK]

A pair of "dusky wood-swallows" mating:



Good to see he got lucky in the end (holding her against a tree branch)

[FLICK]

I "think" this is a Peregrine falcon, but not sure...


I think this is a Peregrine falcon (Falco perigrinus) also, (but I'm not sure), he swooped down and snatched a feed off my doorstep the other morning:

(I like the markings around his head)

Breakfast looks like it might be a "Long-tailed mouse" (Pseudomys higginsi) , Tasmanias only endemic rodent:

[FLICK]

A couple of our smaller creatures:

Aussie Native Bee


Some sort of Gum Beatle


An ant


Sun Orchid

[FLICK]

3 big hares, I think they're much the same as the jack-rabbits in the U.S.


And a couple of rabbits (just because they're cute)


A time lapse video of a stack of rabbits running late afternoon:

(best to click the "full size" link up the top left)

Matthew.

[FLICK]

The raptor that snatched the mouse the other day returned for another photo session

(Peregrine falcon?)




Matthew.

[GuglioLS]

Matthew,

Your photography is spectacularly stunning and captures the very essence of those exotic Tasmanian wildlife critters running and flying around.

No one but you could take a shot like this and have it come out smelling like a Rose HaHaHa

Larry

[bracabric]

Hey Mathew, got your own fertilizer production unit I see!
Wonderful pictures as always, missed your vocation maybe ?

Dick

[3RRL]

I've said it before Matthew, those are great shots of all that interesting wildlife you have over there.
Rob-