For those of you who missed him in the lounge, here’s the baby pademelon we had over-night a few days ago.
We had an even younger baby possum a few days later (more downy than furred), but unfortunately he was camera shy.
Both have gone to live with Animal Rescue carers who will keep them until they are big enough to be released back into the wild.
Female
Male
These are flocking in the thousands here. Unfortunately, despite their numbers they rarely sit still with their wings open, or let me get closer than ten feet away before they fly off.
Betty’s still hanging out with us while she heals.
Betty looks like a dinosaur.
Welcome to the last bits of Gondwanaland. Not that Betty’s kind goes back that far, but Tasmania has many species (mostly plants) that do. It’s why we have cold-adapted tree ferns and other such anomalies.
the butterflies are gorgeous but Betty is just too cool for school.
Betty’s basking in the window sill right now, which makes her faster and crankier – and more likely to bite.
So far, only Imogen’s been really bitten, while feeding her. Betty looked like she was going to take a chunk out of my leg the other day while we were both on the floor. I think she was just going to see if I tasted good. I suspect that Blue-tongues eat a fair bit of carrion and any flesh just “hanging around” gets a chomp.
Ouch. I’m surprised, though, that she’s crankier in the sun — though I can’t say that I’ve noticed that the reptiles around here are ever very chipper, warmth or not.
I think she’s just naturally cranky, and when she’s cold there’s not much she can do to show it.
She was looking like she wanted out of the window sill a few minutes ago, so I’ve put her back in the bathroom.
I was at the doctor’s the other day and I told him about our having Betty, and how Blue-tongues were surprisingly tame for a wild animal. He said he learned that himself when trying to shoo one out of the road – so that it wouldn’t get run over. A neighbor woman saw him and walked straight over and picked up the skink and then deposited it in the bushes.
watch out Albert!
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Yep, I think that too when both are in the same room, although we’ve yet to have a confrontation.
Of course I also thought that when the beetle was in the house – on a plate on floor (so that I could photograph it). Albert approached the plate probably hoping that there was food on it (yes, Albert loves people food) and I had visions of a bunny with a beetle clamped on his snout. Thankfully he pulled his nose back shy of the actual beetle.
Gnawing deer bones in the snow: malamutt vs. beagle
Undisputed winner: malamutt.
Mmmmm. Free bits of dead things – a dog’s favorite.
Sure, flaunt your snow like that. It’s warm today, with possible showers tomorrow. Unfortunately, the “possible showers” over the last month or so have never really materialized and we’re inching back into drought conditions. Our pasture has gotten so sparse that we’ve agisted our alpacas at a place just down the road from us. Their alpacas are from the same stud as ours so Nina is sharing a pasture with her sister and Inti is in the pasture next to his father.
Sorry to hear the drought has returned. To make you a little less jealous, the forecast low Saturday is -4F/-20C. I like winter but not when we get a blast of arctic air.
You can definitely keep the minuses.
I think this is a Golden Stag Beetle.
(Man, I really need a macro lens.)
Both the color and iridescence are amazing. Great shots (even without the macro).
Thanks. We see them every year. The pupate here, and you can hear their cicada-like thrums when they first emerge. They are exceptionally cool to watch in flight (although poor flyers, like most big beetles) with their simmering colors. I especially like the blue on their legs.
Oops, shimmering not simmering, we do not boil our beetles (despite my visiting eatbug.com yesterday – check out the recipe page!).
This comment from keres tells all about finding the pademelon and has a link to info about it.
In addition to the links, I just wanted to add that pademelon is considered a corruption of an Aboriginal Australian word. If there is an English transliteration I have yet to find it.
Pademelon (also sometimes spelled “paddymelon”) are the smallest members of the macropod family, whose largest members are kangaroos.
We have both pademelon and wallaby grazing in our yard at night.
this is a test
did my puppy pic come through?
yay i did it
this is bubba’s 6 month birthday pic
he is such a good doggie
Happy half-birthday Bubba.