Category: Nature

Wildlife XIV: The Cage

June 10, 2016

I placed the wildlife camera on the back patio over my trip, carefully aimed at one of our bird feeders, which itself is cleverly designed to keep the squirrels out via an impossible-to-penetrate cage.

Here’s one of the first photos it took:

As you can see, the cage works imperfectly!

All told 191 photos were taken in a single day. This was because the seal on the camera had apparently failed and water had gotten inside, which seems to have prevented it from taking photos for most of the time it was placed. I’m not sure if it is permanently ruined or not; I’m drying it out now before trying again.

At any rate, in the several hours of the first day it was out almost every single one of the photos was similar to the above, featuring suspicious squirrels:

Brave squirrels:

Friendly squirrels:

And even in a few shots – thankfully! – a bird:

That little bird is a wren (named ‘Kylo Wren’) who is currently building his nest in our wren house and singing for a mate. We assume he’ll be successfully; many little wrens have been hatched in that house over the years.

Also, you’ll note the chipmunk in the last two shots. This is the first time I have gotten clear, focused shots of chipmunks on this camera. This is no small achievement since they spend most of their lives invisible and moving at light speed. I guess the lure of the 110% delicious cracked cown and sunflower mix I put out was too much for them 🙂

My neighbour recently told me she has seen groudhogs (yes multiple, possibly a parent and child) wandering in our backyard. They will be the next target of the camera assuming it still works.

Introducing Marimo!

March 22, 2016

This is one of the more unusual birthday gifts I received this year:

A glass jar with rocks, a bit of sea fan and something in a bag. First we put the rocks and fan in the jar and filled with tap water:

Here’s the weird thing in the bag:

It’s a ‘marimo’, a type of algae native to certain lakes around the world that grows into ball shapes. He was to live in our jar!

After a quick washing:

We put him in the jar:

Where he floated! The sheet that came with him said this was due to the water ph and oxygen content, and marimo would change his depth depending on such things.

After about a week though, he has settled on the bottom like he would in a lake:

Marimo needs almost no maintenance, prefers low light (no direct sunlight!) and can apparently live (and grow) for decades. The perfect plant for a cat household!

Magic Days

January 17, 2016

That’s the Prince of Randwick himself, preparing his deck at the MTG prerelease tourney we attended yesterday.

It was a fun, low pressure casual event in which everyone won prizes. This was good for me because I badly played a deck I had badly built 🙂

The players themselves here are pretty much the same as in the USA. Except for the funny accents Aussies have 😉

After the tourney we went and checked out the pinballs at the nearby RSL club, which led to a lengthy (and fascinating) discussion with the guy who manages it all and is heavily involved with pinball collecting.

An evening of cricket on the Telly (and more MTG playing!) rounded off a fun day.

Today – my last full day this trip – I walked to Bondi along the cliffs via Coogee Beach. I do this walk (which takes a few hours) every trip and it’s always great.

It wasn’t too hot or too windy, as if the country was apologizing for the weird weather it gave me this trip. Since it was a Sunday, the walk was extremely popular with both locals and tourists alike.