Sunday 17 January 2010

On spiders, fox holes, and mulla mulla

Whilst John and I went on a veldgrass hunt I came across this spot where someone has been getting stuck into a whole lot of beer - filled the bag up with bottles instead of veldgrass.

There were lots of spider webs about (which I tried to avoid). Mostly they were Jewel Spiders, but there were a few golden orb web spiders - including this big one - its legs were as long as my fingers. The spider is female - there is a tiny male spider on the back of the web - near the female's abdomen.

Also came across this bunch of Mulla Mulla (Ptilotus drummondii)which seemed to be flowering unusually late in the year ...

This fox hole seems to be currently used - there was a dead bird nearby, and fresh paw-prints.

Later in the day we had our committee meeting down by the river at Matilda bay. It was very hot. John went for a swim. We discussed strategies to raise our profile in the community and attract more volunteers - thanks to everyone for their suggestions!

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Tuesday 12 January 2010

On the way home

John and I continued with our veldgrass removal this morning. On the way home I stopped at Lake Jualbup and observed a number of visitors to the drying lake: Pacific Heron, Sacred Ibis, Yellow-billed spoonbill, and Black-winged stilt. My apologies for the poor quality of the photos - they were a bit too far away for hand-held photography.
Pacific heron, Sacred Ibis, and Yellow-billed spoonbill.

Pacific heron.

Black-winged stilt.

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Click here to download the GPX data for this map. Note, this data is an XML file - change the name to .GPX to upload to your GPS.