Nature Study in Australia: Winter

These are some of our recent nature gleanings. On a visit to a local park this very tame rabbit was having breakfast and remained totally oblivious to us and we were able to have an unplanned nature study observing him/her feeding.

 

We've used Nature Studies in Australia by William Gillies this year for studying Natural History in Australia and finished it the other week so now I'm reading The Wilderness by Amy Mack (1922) aloud. It's only 26 pages in length but it fits in nicely with the course from U of N. A free online version is available here.

 

Last week we had a walk down near the creek after quite a bit of rain. We have a waterfall that gives a spectacular display after a good amount of rain and this was the first time that these two had seen it like this. My granddaughter (who's nearly 3 yrs old) pointed to it and called it a shower. 

Here they are having a good splash in a puddle. My grandson (nearly 2 yrs of age) calls any body of water a puddle including the river we visited a couple of months ago.

Miss 15 yrs and I signed up to do the free University of Newcastle's Natural History Illustration course. Hails had already done it about 2 years ago and wanted to do it again so I joined her this time.

This is my rendition of an echidna. We usually see about one a year around our area and I sketched this from a photo as they don't hang around for very long and start to burrow if they sense people are near.

This was this week's lesson was about 'developing good observational skills and accurately recording every detail you see in front of you; looking at both positive & negative spaces, breaking down complex subjects into simplified shapes & depicting a three dimensional object on a two dimensional surface.'

This is my drawing from that:

 

And this is Hails' drawing of a fox and the stages she went through in doing it - yes, she leaves me for dead, but she is very encouraging and likes me drawing (well, trying to) with her. 

A wattle in bloom... a little earlier than usual

Some fungi after all the rain

We've seen some new birds on our birdfeeder or on the camellia trees nearby but haven't been able to identify them yet. Our lyrebird makes an appearance from time to time and today we saw a black cockatoo in a tree just up the road. and we've had our yearly sighting of an echidna.

A Walk on the Wild Side - Nature Study

We had an impromptu walk this afternoon, only three of us today. Our mission - to find a cicada or its shell. We know there are many around at this time because we can hear their incessant noise.

 So off we went, Bengy showing Moozle the mountain bike trail he'd been on earlier in the week which is marked out on a plaque at the beginning of our local fire trail.

 I hadn't planned to go off the beaten track but we followed a couple of bush trails...

 

We sang (or I should say dirged) this song as we tramped through the ferns and the shaded parts of the bush. Not quite the misty mountains cold but parts of the bush do have a mysterious feel to them and at this spot it was very quiet. We couldn't hear any cicadas and only the occasional twittering of little wrens.






And in keeping with The Hobbit theme...a real live dragon

Another dragon, a much smaller one, having a sunbake

 


A quick look at our local waterfall, which is rather dry at present, and the rock pool at the bottom. One very wet day earlier in the year two of the boys ran down here in their shorts and went for a dip in the rain. The waterfall was quite impressive that day.





Still no cicadas but there's a rustling in the bush and Bengy spots an echidna. We always hear these before we see them. At the base of the rock below you will notice some yellowish tipped spikes - that's him burrowing into the dirt.

We head home, mission unaccomplished but hey, we're happy. The cicadas will wait for another day.

I get out my copy of Nature Studies in Australia by William Gillies and over some afternoon tea (leftover chocolates after stocking up the Advent calendar the other day) we learn a bit more about this unique egg-laying mammal.