Field Trip

 So, I spent 10 days in the bushland at Edith Creek (North West Tassie) playing with wild devils. We were very busy, working 12-13 hour days, but I had a great time and got to meet 65 beautiful devils and 4 lovely spotted tail quolls. It was good news all around, with a very healthy population of devils and no sign of DFTD in the area yet.

 This was the sunset view from the shack we were staying in at Rocky Cape on our first night.

One of the interesting mosses (or possibly lichens - its been a bit too long since I did botany) that were everywhere throughout our study area.

Our city-girl volunteer, Liz, and her spikey friend. Liz was far more excited about the encounter than Spike. Liz was a great volunteer to work with and along with our biologist, Bill, we formed a really good team, which was lucky considering that the three of us had to spend 24 hours a day together for 10 days.

 Some more of the wildlife from the area.

 A very pretty view from Stanley looking back towards Rocky Cape. We had dinner in the Stanley Pub one night, and I've decided that I want to go back and spend a lazy weekend at Stanley sometime. Liz and I decided that Stanley is the Port Wenn of Australia (Port Wenn is the cute village from Doc Martin).

And here's a quick video of one of the devils being released after its health check.

I've been home for a week now, but I've been very busy. I did get 4 days off to recover, but I spent them all being busy and travelling around the state with my family to go to my cousin's wedding. As busy as it was, I had a really good weekend (with the exception of the coffee incident) and I'm only a little bit exhausted.

Wildlife Cam

I put my wildlife camera out in the bushland around my Grandparent's home on the Tasman peninsula on the weekend, but all I got were a few blurry shots of an antechinus.

I had tried putting it out in the bushland behind my house once just after I moved in, but I (extremly embarrassing considering that I'm supposed to do this every day in my job) forgot to turn it on. I decided that it was about time I gave it another go, so I took a couple of pieces of apple and an egg yolk that was left over from my macaron experimentation about 30m behind my place and very carefully made sure that it was turned on this time.

I got shots of this mamma and bubba pademelon

And this mamma and bubba possum (a bit overexposed, but cute).

And also of a naughty cat, a blackbird, and a rat. Nothing suprising about any of that because I already knew I had pademelons, possums, and cats wandering around out there, but it was a fun excercise anyway.

Even more Darcy cuteness

 

It may seem like I haven't done anything except take photos with Darcy recently, but that's only because I haven't taken any interesting photos of any of the other things I've done recently. i promise I'm not a sad mouse-lady that sits at home every night playing with my mouse. I just do that most nights :) Here is a selection of Darcy's most recent shots.

The next couple of shots are intended for Christmas cards, hence the Christmas theme.

 Teeny tiny Santa hat!