Sounds like a lovely moment.
IRL Wildlife Encounters
- Thread starter Markiz
- Start date
I saved a Mourning Dove today. At least I think so.
I got home today and three Mourning Doves flew away from below my feeder when I walked up the path. I noticed one stayed on the ground.
I went and got a towel and moved it to a sunny spot. I think he flew away now.
Edit: I regret to inform all of you this information.
It has passed.
I hope it lived a good life. It will be remembered by all of us. I did my best to help it, but nature took its course. Fly away, little buddy.
I got home today and three Mourning Doves flew away from below my feeder when I walked up the path. I noticed one stayed on the ground.
I went and got a towel and moved it to a sunny spot. I think he flew away now.
Edit: I regret to inform all of you this information.
It has passed.
I hope it lived a good life. It will be remembered by all of us. I did my best to help it, but nature took its course. Fly away, little buddy.
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I present to you my pet who is not my pet and who has lived in my house for a week and it's named "Solovino" ( In English it means "came alone" )
Jokes aside this week this species of spider is living in my house , today saw the male and the female in my bathroom, the male is so big but in the picture It looks small
Jokes aside this week this species of spider is living in my house , today saw the male and the female in my bathroom, the male is so big but in the picture It looks small
Saw a common pheasant today, not often I see them especially in the winter months.
I had a mulga snake in my garden the other day, she was pretty splendid. No photos because she took off when I ducked inside to get my camera. I also have some shots of some green tree frogs but the forums says they are too big to upload. Here a few recents:
1 - Wedgetail Eagle showing off the wingspan and tail
2 - I think this is an immature whistling kite and I am very embarrassed that I am not 100% on the ID as my local ABC picked this photo up and is featuring it on social media
3 - Brolga
4- Noisey Miner
5 - Adult male Splendid wren
6 - Kangaroo, potentially a Wallaroo although he seems a bit larger than others I've seen out here
7 - emu with chicks, taken out of my car window
Most of my photography lately has been storms and lightning
1 - Wedgetail Eagle showing off the wingspan and tail
2 - I think this is an immature whistling kite and I am very embarrassed that I am not 100% on the ID as my local ABC picked this photo up and is featuring it on social media
3 - Brolga
4- Noisey Miner
5 - Adult male Splendid wren
6 - Kangaroo, potentially a Wallaroo although he seems a bit larger than others I've seen out here
7 - emu with chicks, taken out of my car window
Most of my photography lately has been storms and lightning
Attachments
I want that in PZ!
He is a wallaroo!
Haven't been on the forums much lately (been distracted by life, plus discussion just got a bit repetitive lol), but given the announcement of the new pack has brought me back for a bit I might as well try and draw your eyes away from the cold forests of Eurasia for a moment and show you some cool little desert critters instead.
Last week I participated in a pitfall trapping trip on a conservation reserve in inland South Australia, monitoring the abundance of small vertebrate species. It was an awesome time, and the traps caught a variety of small mammals and reptiles that I'd never seen in the wild before!
One of the pitfall trapping sites
Ooldea dunnart, spinifex hopping-mice, smooth kn*b-tailed gecko, northern spiny-tailed gecko, pale-rumped ctenotus and southern sandslider, just some of the species caught in the pits
While the animals that the pitfalls managed to trap were tiny for the most part, this sand goanna also found itself in an uncomfortable situation when it managed to get itself stuck down one of the small pits. Shouldn't have been snooping around the traps trying to eat our captures. It's also missing a substantial portion of its tail, so clearly it's had a close call with a larger predator in the past too.
The pitfall traps were the main focus, but we also opportunistically put up a harp trap for bats at night and managed to snag two microbat species (lesser long-eared bat and inland broad-nosed bat). First time I've been able to get a good look at wild microbats, they're so precious!
Species list as usual:
Mammals:
= New species for me
- Red kangaroo
- Lesser long-eared bat
- Ooldea dunnart
- Spinifex hopping mouse
- Bolam’s mouse
- House mouse
- Inland broad-nosed bat
- Black-faced woodswallow
- Crested pigeon
- White-plumed honeyeater
- Magpie-lark
- Grey butcherbird
- Budgerigar
- Yellow-throated miner
- Common bronzewing
- Little corella
- Singing honeyeater
- Chiming wedgebill
- Willie wagtail
- Crested bellbird
- White-browed babbler
- Splendid fairywren
- Diamond dove
- Rainbow bee eater
- Crimson chat
- Greater bluebonnet
- Nankeen kestrel
- Wedge-tailed eagle
- Brown falcon
- Mulga parrot
- Bourke’s parrot
- Chestnut-breasted thornbill
- White-winged fairywren
- Australian magpie
- Galah
- Dusky woodswallow
- Zebra finch
- Hooded robin
- Southern whiteface
- Masked woodswallow
- Spiny-cheeked honeyeater
- Australian raven
- Spotted harrier
- Brown songlark
- Grey shrikethrush
- Red-backed kingfisher
- Emu
- Boulenger’s morethia
- Purplish dtella
- Western brown snake
- Pale-rumped ctenotus
- Crested bicycle dragon
- Central bearded dragon
- Eyre Basin beaked gecko
- Beaded gecko
- Sandplain gecko
- Smooth kn*b-tailed gecko
- Southern sandslider
- Central Deserts robust slider
- Northern spiny-tailed gecko
- Sand goanna
- Eastern tree dtella
- Western bluetongue
= New species for me
Beautiful pictures. How many of those mouses species are native?He is a wallaroo!
Haven't been on the forums much lately (been distracted by life, plus discussion just got a bit repetitive lol), but given the announcement of the new pack has brought me back for a bit I might as well try and draw your eyes away from the cold forests of Eurasia for a moment and show you some cool little desert critters instead.
Last week I participated in a pitfall trapping trip on a conservation reserve in inland South Australia, monitoring the abundance of small vertebrate species. It was an awesome time, and the traps caught a variety of small mammals and reptiles that I'd never seen in the wild before!
One of the pitfall trapping sites
Ooldea dunnart, spinifex hopping-mice, smooth kn*b-tailed gecko, northern spiny-tailed gecko, pale-rumped ctenotus and southern sandslider, just some of the species caught in the pits
While the animals that the pitfalls managed to trap were tiny for the most part, this sand goanna also found itself in an uncomfortable situation when it managed to get itself stuck down one of the small pits. Shouldn't have been snooping around the traps trying to eat our captures. It's also missing a substantial portion of its tail, so clearly it's had a close call with a larger predator in the past too.
The pitfall traps were the main focus, but we also opportunistically put up a harp trap for bats at night and managed to snag two microbat species (lesser long-eared bat and inland broad-nosed bat). First time I've been able to get a good look at wild microbats, they're so precious!
Species list as usual:
Mammals:
Birds:
- Red kangaroo
- Lesser long-eared bat
- Ooldea dunnart
- Spinifex hopping mouse
- Bolam’s mouse
- House mouse
- Inland broad-nosed bat
Reptiles:
- Black-faced woodswallow
- Crested pigeon
- White-plumed honeyeater
- Magpie-lark
- Grey butcherbird
- Budgerigar
- Yellow-throated miner
- Common bronzewing
- Little corella
- Singing honeyeater
- Chiming wedgebill
- Willie wagtail
- Crested bellbird
- White-browed babbler
- Splendid fairywren
- Diamond dove
- Rainbow bee eater
- Crimson chat
- Greater bluebonnet
- Nankeen kestrel
- Wedge-tailed eagle
- Brown falcon
- Mulga parrot
- Bourke’s parrot
- Chestnut-breasted thornbill
- White-winged fairywren
- Australian magpie
- Galah
- Dusky woodswallow
- Zebra finch
- Hooded robin
- Southern whiteface
- Masked woodswallow
- Spiny-cheeked honeyeater
- Australian raven
- Spotted harrier
- Brown songlark
- Grey shrikethrush
- Red-backed kingfisher
- Emu
- Boulenger’s morethia
- Purplish dtella
- Western brown snake
- Pale-rumped ctenotus
- Crested bicycle dragon
- Central bearded dragon
- Eyre Basin beaked gecko
- Beaded gecko
- Sandplain gecko
- Smooth kn*b-tailed gecko
- Southern sandslider
- Central Deserts robust slider
- Northern spiny-tailed gecko
- Sand goanna
- Eastern tree dtella
- Western bluetongue
Thanks! House mice are invasive of course, but the other two (Bolam's mouse and spinifex hopping-mouse) are native. Hopping-mice are pretty easy to tell apart given their tuft-tipped tails, big hind legs and larger size, but Bolam's and house mice are so similar that, despite not being closely related, it can be difficult to confidently distinguish them without looking at their incisors and ear length.
I stopped at a rest stop yesterday to use the restroom, and I saw these beautiful sandhill cranes!
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I thought it would be fun to share some of my traveling trips around here, so I'll start where it all started. My first ever trip all on my own(Well, a group travel, but I was going alone) was....Scotland!
In scotland I saw many of the familiar birds, one of which was the European dipper!
A familiar face for any real scotsman, the Famous grouse! The Red Grouse! Seen both female, male and with little chicks!
Another great bird I encountered, the osprey on a nest! I was also lucky enough to see one hunting and catching a fish too!
Aside from birds, and a Planet Zoo animal too! The red deer was also often found in the North of Scotland!
The last pic though, the big climax! The big one! or...small one! One of the highlights of why many birdwatchers like me visit Uk or scotland; The clown of the sea...
THE PUFFIN!
It was a 8 day long birding trip through Scotland, visiting the highlights. These we're the obvious highlights to me. Off course I've seen many more and along with Puffins i've seen razorbills, guillemots, loons(Divers), crested grebes, northern gannet, kittiwake, northern fulmar, skuas and many more birds!
I'll try and share another story tomorrow, of my trip in 2019, just after the release of Planet Zoo(Time flies xD) which was;...Costa Rica!
In scotland I saw many of the familiar birds, one of which was the European dipper!
A familiar face for any real scotsman, the Famous grouse! The Red Grouse! Seen both female, male and with little chicks!
Another great bird I encountered, the osprey on a nest! I was also lucky enough to see one hunting and catching a fish too!
Aside from birds, and a Planet Zoo animal too! The red deer was also often found in the North of Scotland!
The last pic though, the big climax! The big one! or...small one! One of the highlights of why many birdwatchers like me visit Uk or scotland; The clown of the sea...
THE PUFFIN!
It was a 8 day long birding trip through Scotland, visiting the highlights. These we're the obvious highlights to me. Off course I've seen many more and along with Puffins i've seen razorbills, guillemots, loons(Divers), crested grebes, northern gannet, kittiwake, northern fulmar, skuas and many more birds!
I'll try and share another story tomorrow, of my trip in 2019, just after the release of Planet Zoo(Time flies xD) which was;...Costa Rica!
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Amazing pics. Especially that Puffin in contrast with colorfull flowers
Just a little overview of the trips I had done so far;
2018 scotland
2019 Costa Rica
2022 Northern england/scotland and New Zealand!
2023 Shetland islands, Jan Mayen, Greenland and Svalbard!
upcoming 2024;
Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands
2018 scotland
2019 Costa Rica
2022 Northern england/scotland and New Zealand!
2023 Shetland islands, Jan Mayen, Greenland and Svalbard!
upcoming 2024;
Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands
Great pics! It's nice to see so many familiar animals.
One bird I did forget to mention, was the Eider. First time seeing an Eider in the wild But they are not the best pics, I have better eider pics of my trip in Northern England and from Svalbard
But they are not the best pics, I have better eider pics of my trip in Northern England and from Svalbard Australia is on my wishlist to travel too for sure! great list!Ooh what a fun thread, right up my alley! I've been wildlife watching and keeping a list of what I've seen for nearly 8 years now, more seriously over the past 4 years, and as of now I've seen 50 mammals, 281 birds, 58 reptiles (only found species number 58, the Mallee Black-backed Snake, last Sunday) and 8 frogs in the wild. Funnily enough my 50th mammal species, seen in Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park last July, was the Western Quoll or Chuditch, which is quite fitting for that milestone given it's the name I go by online. I made a collage of each wild mammal species I have seen to celebrate the achievement:
The pictures I used in the collage aren't my own (I'm not that good lol), but I'm also a pretty ok-ish wildlife photographer. Here are some of my favourite photos from the past year and a half:
One of several Eastern Brown Snakes seen on the same day (October 2022)
A Thick-tailed Barking Gecko found via some good ol' rock flipping (September 2022)
Tawny Frogmouth more like scorny frogmouth amiright lads (September 2022)
A Western Grey Kangaroo having a quick arm scratch (September 2022)
An Eastern Bearded Dragon displaying angrily at me before I moved it off the road (August 2022)
A pair of Emu roaming wild in Monarto Safari Park (July 2022)
The dastardly European Rabbit, invasive extraordinaire (March 2022)
A Lace Monitor in Mt Remarkable National Park (February 2022)
An Australian Pelican who is a regular visitor to a particular jetty near me (January 2022)
An Australian Sea Lion at Seal Bay on Kangaroo Island (December 2021)
A bull Dromedary displaying to his harem in central Australia (July 2021)
A beautiful black Dingo near Uluru, its fur soaked by morning dew (July 2021)
A Black-flanked Rock-wallaby feeding on the outskirts of Alice Springs (July 2021)
This year has also been the first for which I've been keeping a year list, and it's been a great motivator to go exploring regularly - so far I've recorded 23 mammal species, 160 birds, 33 reptiles and 3 frogs over the past 9 months. I've mainly been focusing on herping this spring, and I plan to continue that trend while the snakes are nice and active (it's breeding season for them, as it is for most things). So far I've seen lots of brown snakes, and now I'm planning on searching for red-belly blacks, tigers and pygmy copperheads just to the south of the city. Now that I've seen a quoll, I've also got two new big targets for species to add to my life list - a carpet python for reptiles, and krefft's glider (recent split of the sugar glider) for mammals. Generally though I'm pretty happy with whatever I see, it's mainly just a nice excuse to get out of the city and explore.
Oh Antarctica! if only it wasn't that expensive
wish I could go there, it would be fantastic.
There are ways to get there a bit cheaper, it's long and unrelated to the post so DM me if you want more details.Oh Antarctica! if only it wasn't that expensive
making my list even longer 
If I didn't have small children....Antarctica is so high on my bucket list, but I feel like they are too young for me to go places without them for longer periods of time