Botany Nerds Ahoy
Re: fox attack.
Heard an unholy murderous mass chicken slaughter taking place.
Ran out, fox in coop, feathers and blood everywhere.
Fox fled, chickens scattered.
One dead hen in coop.
Managed to round up the others and put then in another coop, put the dead one on some straw in there as well, thinking I would I would bury in paddock at daybreak.
Came back at Dawn and the dead chook was alive- must have been in shock.
Nursed it back to life and now it is a healthy chook.
fwoaar, lucky timing @freeride, whatta jag, glad they survived..
I had a fox here chasing a guinea fowl a few years ago, total sprint race, and i ran at the fox as they passed, and it dug in and snarled hatefully at me for a full 2 seconds for getting in the way..
I could tell it was thinking about pouncing at me, but decided to run off. intense critters.
Not really a botany nerd, but I thought this might be of interest. Some people lined up for four hours to catch a whiff.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-12/corpse-flower-rare-bloom-pungent-...
tip-top1 wrote:really enjoying the insights in this thread,
keep it going fellas,
wish i had more time , my father has a landscape architect degree and loves native plants.
also my grandfather on my mothers side was an avid gardener. i remember being dragged to the redcliffe horse stables as a kid to shovel horse shit for his veggie patch.
good times
tip-top 1. Hi fella.
Your dad has a landscape architect degree and he loves native plants, well, get him on, let’s talk native plants, local native flora etc.
The more the merrier I say. We all love learning, it’s free and contagious and you become wealthy, of the mind that is. All the best. AW
icandig wrote:Not really a botany nerd, but I thought this might be of interest. Some people lined up for four hours to catch a whiff.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-12/corpse-flower-rare-bloom-pungent-...
Icandig. Hi , you are, you just don’t know it.
We had our (Geelong Field Naturalist Club) general meeting in our clubrooms in the Geelong Botanic Gardens this evening, a great speaker from Museum of Victoria, a palaeontologist talking about Jan Juc, and Possos fossils as well as the Puebla Formation at Bird Rock, he was outstanding.
At its conclusion a few of us ventured over to see the Amorphophallus , the scent was absent by this time of the night. It’s was packed with people.
The size of the flower is humongous, but it’s not the largest flower in the world.
Rafflesia arnoldii from Sumatra is. A human can stand in the middle of it.
By SofianRafflesia - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59608279
I’ve just slid into bed. AW
AlfredWallace][quote=icandig wrote:Icandig. Hi , you are, you just don’t know it.
I’ve just slid into bed. AW
I identify as Botany curious. Don't really swing one way or the other......That last line though " )
ICD
freeride76 wrote:Re: fox attack.
Heard an unholy murderous mass chicken slaughter taking place.
Ran out, fox in coop, feathers and blood everywhere.
Fox fled, chickens scattered.
One dead hen in coop.
Managed to round up the others and put then in another coop, put the dead one on some straw in there as well, thinking I would I would bury in paddock at daybreak.
Came back at Dawn and the dead chook was alive- must have been in shock.
Nursed it back to life and now it is a healthy chook.
FR76. Hi mate.
That’s full on.
I’ve got a sensor camera on our chook house, the bloody foxes they prance around the perimeter, clocking up miles turning all the time, obviously salivating as to the contents.
My set up is bullet proof wire on all sides and top and buried below the ground at right angles. ‘ Gallus Palace’ for chooks. AW
Aren’t these strange? I gladly plant a couple in my yard if they could handle the conditions here.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/the-extremely-rare-tree-aussies-should-plant-i...
seeds wrote:Aren’t these strange? I gladly plant a couple in my yard if they could handle the conditions here.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/the-extremely-rare-tree-aussies-should-plant-i...
Seeds . Hi mate.
Beautiful small mallee Eucalyptus.
Attempting to grow a plant like that out of WA is fraught with danger.
Fitzgerald River National Park is a must visit for anyone interested in the Kwongan Flora complex, , the level of endemism is approximately 75% compared to QLD Wet Tropics 25%
My opinion would be it’s way too humid where you live. AW
Here’s one for you AW. Despite the name it’s surprisingly hardy, even survives my gardening attempts! This one had a day moth visitor grabbing some refreshments.
Distracted wrote:Here’s one for you AW. Despite the name it’s surprisingly hardy, even survives my gardening attempts! This one had a day moth visitor grabbing some refreshments.
Distracted . Hi mate. Hope you’re well.
My guess is Darling Lily. Crinum flaccidum. AW
Nice guess AW, you must have come across the Darling Lily on your trips inland? However, this is actually a Swamp Lily, crinium pendunculatum.
Looks very similar, interesting where evolution has taken this genus across Oz!
Lots of swamp lilies in flower around here.
Seen them in brackish environments on river banks- they must have some salt tolerance.
Distracted wrote:Nice guess AW, you must have come across the Darling Lily on your trips inland? However, this is actually a Swamp Lily, crinium pendunculatum.
Looks very similar, interesting where evolution has taken this genus across Oz!
Distracted. Hi thanks for the confirmation.
The floristics says Crinum sp. straight up.
It was either one or the other. Their foliage looks very similar and your photo had little vegetative parts.
As you’ve stated, very tough plants and we have more species than most would think.
I’m always updating and refreshing my library of reference books.
By sheer coincidence, received this in the mail yesterday mid morning, later yesterday evening you post a lily. Unbelievable. AW
3rd tiger I’ve seen in 3 weeks.
Something got to this one unfortunately.
They’re out and about
This was last week
yep, here too @goofy, big 'un in bird netting, and caught a baby 12" tiger by the back door while tidying last weekend, let it go on the way to Portland, but yep, 1 baby means many more... ours are astonishingly orange bellied.. pretty magnificent in the split second you see them before you leap up the nearest tree..
I love seeing them b6, when they’re not around the house that is..
The shimmering greeny, yellow colours are amazing.
freeride76 wrote:Lots of swamp lilies in flower around here.
Seen them in brackish environments on river banks- they must have some salt tolerance.
Freeride76. Hi mate . Hope you’re well.
Are they Crinum sp or other lilies ? I’m interested .
The salt tolerance. Hmm. Would you be able to take a couple of photos. Thanks heaps.
My mental picture of Lennox, it appears your biota is in pretty much shape. AW
goofyfoot wrote:I love seeing them b6, when they’re not around the house that is..
The shimmering greeny, yellow colours are amazing.
yeh, they're cool as. Now I don't have young kids running about, I like them more. And I adhere to the idea that it is better to have a snake that is aware of your movements, than to kill it an have a newby move in. Certainly no shortage of snakes in this neck of the woods, around the drains between Port Macdonnell and Robe.
I still have the snake (1 year ago... 2?) that I met (a tiger) when running to the top of a sand dune at Canunda. couple of feet from my eyeballs, with the slope of the dune, it flattened, I froze, and we stayed like that for about an hour or so.. (or maybe a couple of seconds).. magnificent blacks and oranges, flattened neck against the ground, assuming I'd be cool.. took my teen kids up the dune after I found them, the beast was still there, fucking chilling on top of Canunda's highest dune.. magnificent.
basesix wrote:goofyfoot wrote:I love seeing them b6, when they’re not around the house that is..
The shimmering greeny, yellow colours are amazing.yeh, they're cool as. Now I don't have young kids running about, I like them more. And I adhere to the idea that it is better to have a snake that is aware of your movements, than to kill it an have a newby move in. Certainly no shortage of snakes in this neck of the woods, around the drains between Port Macdonnell and Robe.
I still have the snake (1 year ago... 2?) that I met (a tiger) when running to the top of a sand dune at Canunda. couple of feet from my eyeballs, with the slope of the dune, it flattened, I froze, and we stayed like that for about an hour or so.. (or maybe a couple of seconds).. magnificent blacks and oranges, flattened neck against the ground, assuming I'd be cool.. took my teen kids up the dune after I found them, the beast was still there, fucking chilling on top of Canunda's highest dune.. magnificent.
Goofyfoot, hi mate, long time no speak. Hope you and yours are all well.
Basesix. Hi fella.
Really enjoying both your snake discussions.
We need snakes, lots of them, they clean up stuff, they are good ecological indicators.
Don’t you stand and stare at their majesty, that body , totally evolved to fill a niche.
Survival skills we could only dream of.
The ability to be seen and not seen for various survival applications.
The ability to drop into low torpor, the skill and genetics that calibrates toxin levels in venom for particular environmental conditions spanning a single yearly life cycle.
Sensory skills of orienteering by tasting air borne particulates.
The ability to flatten their bodies to swim across a body of water.
And, we think we are the epitome of animal design, pfff.
What goes through a humans mind when they swing an object to kill one, ?
Not much really. AW
AW question for ya
Mrs Magpie has been working hard with 2 babies, who are growing strong. She's off the nest for a while now, and has developed a flat patch on her lower tummy, which bulges out a bit. We looked up a brood patch, which it could be. She's also getting smaller, thinner, which could be the hard work she's doing. Mr Magpie is noticeably bigger than her now, and they were about the same size before. Could it be anything else?
velocityjohnno wrote:AW question for ya
Mrs Magpie has been working hard with 2 babies, who are growing strong. She's off the nest for a while now, and has developed a flat patch on her lower tummy, which bulges out a bit. We looked up a brood patch, which it could be. She's also getting smaller, thinner, which could be the hard work she's doing. Mr Magpie is noticeably bigger than her now, and they were about the same size before. Could it be anything else?
VelocityJohnno. Hi mate.
You and your family are great animal observers.
You are totally correct, they have a brood patch. Almost bare skin.
Feathers in that area can create too many variables with regards to the correct amount of heat for incubation.
In a way those feathers would be like a puff jacket blocking heat getting to the eggs.
Magpies are fascinating to observe as you already know.
I’m still chasing up the other stuff you’ve requested, I’m no tech guru, so, Tuesday at our meeting I asked our librarian woman who is a self taught scientist to look through our database and catalogues of presenters and find what I’m looking for.
Did your magpies only have two juveniles?
Our permanents here always have three but tend to lose one every now and then, on the whole three generally survive. We don’t have the dangers and impediments that exist around a city like Geelong, Ocean Grove, Torquay etc..
A first for where I live, a few days ago had an adult male and a juvenile Rufous Whistler both singing back and forth, a joy to watch.
Also, Horsfields Bronze and Shining Bronze Cuckoos, they drop their eggs in our Superb Fairy Wrens nest.
We get Zebra Finches and Diamond Firetail Finches here also. It’s very dry all year, grasses persist in all manner, pastoral or native. AW
Love that rufous whistler call.
freeride76 wrote:Love that rufous whistler call.
FR76. Hi pal.
Me too, I love the calls relentless nature and how they change it up , differing tonal sounds. Quintessentially another Australian bush sound.
Not very shy either, you can get close with binoculars, easy to discern, males, females, juveniles and immature birds. AW
Hi AW, hope you are going well. Some fun little waves in the heat today.
I think they may have had more, but two have survived. Hard to tell, we might see the two with a parent, and the other parent took off somewhere else to feed something? A bit hard to say as their nest, and where they first took the chicks, wasn't in view.
Currawongs had two but have lost one. Other is flying between trees now.
Mr Magpie spotted an Eagle today, and young one's first bath in our birdbath. Hot day. I reckon the Eagles go soaring on the thermals ahead of a front, have seen them do it heaps. The weather change seems to bring them out.
Thank you for following up, too!
velocityjohnno wrote:Hi AW, hope you are going well. Some fun little waves in the heat today.
I think they may have had more, but two have survived. Hard to tell, we might see the two with a parent, and the other parent took off somewhere else to feed something? A bit hard to say as their nest, and where they first took the chicks, wasn't in view.
Currawongs had two but have lost one. Other is flying between trees now.
Mr Magpie spotted an Eagle today, and young one's first bath in our birdbath. Hot day. I reckon the Eagles go soaring on the thermals ahead of a front, have seen them do it heaps. The weather change seems to bring them out.
Thank you for following up, too!
VJ. Yes , Little Eagles and Wedge-tailed Eagles love to soar on thermals.
The former do it on flat wings with tight circles, the latter go extremely high as we all know and soar on big circles.
Another bird I always gets the binos out for when I know there’s a change coming is Fork-tailed Swifts (aka Pacific Swift) Apus pacificus.
They have just arrived here, Summer migrant to Australia, quite a big bird.
Look skyward when a front is approaching, hold focus for quite awhile, look straight up you often see a handful or heaps of them.
They spend their whole life on the wing. Only stopping to roost on cliffs, mate, produce eggs, nurture young and then return to the air. AW
Took the dog and boy down the calm beach this morning and saw the coolest thing.
A big Pacific gull was about 30 metres out and it looked like it had a plastic bag tangled in its feet, it was trying to fly off but couldn't, but it was also making its way towards shore, so i waited down the beach and watched it.
Then it got to the waters edge and it wasnt a plastic bag, it had a decent sized calamari, so i had to go check it out, it flew off and the calamari while missing some tentacles was still half alive, i was so tempted to take it home for a feed, but it didnt feel right and i felt bad for the gull and also worried the Calamari wasn't healthy before being caught.
So i went back up the beach and the gull flew back and continued its breakfast
indo-dreaming wrote:Took the dog and boy down the calm beach this morning and saw the coolest thing.
A big Pacific gull was about 30 metres out and it looked like it had a plastic bag tangled in its feet, it was trying to fly off but couldn't, but it was also making its way towards shore, so i waited down the beach and watched it.
Then it got to the waters edge and it wasnt a plastic bag, it had a decent sized calamari, so i had to go check it out, it flew off and the calamari while missing some tentacles was still half alive, i was so tempted to take it home for a feed, but it didnt feel right and i felt bad for the gull and also worried the Calamari wasn't healthy before being caught.
So i went back up the beach and the gull flew back and continued its breakfast
If you had picked it up and taken it home , you would get labeled a seagull !
I was thinking id rip the head and tentacles off for him and id take the body, but i still felt bad, and i dont think i could have enjoyed it anyway, thinking mmm maybe it was sick or something.
Amazing though that he caught something so big.
indo-dreaming wrote:Took the dog and boy down the calm beach this morning and saw the coolest thing.
A big Pacific gull was about 30 metres out and it looked like it had a plastic bag tangled in its feet, it was trying to fly off but couldn't, but it was also making its way towards shore, so i waited down the beach and watched it.
Then it got to the waters edge and it wasnt a plastic bag, it had a decent sized calamari, so i had to go check it out, it flew off and the calamari while missing some tentacles was still half alive, i was so tempted to take it home for a feed, but it didnt feel right and i felt bad for the gull and also worried the Calamari wasn't healthy before being caught.
So i went back up the beach and the gull flew back and continued its breakfast
ha, epic! good decision to not eat it, it could have made some local bait strips.
(you have a boy @indo? And why is @Sups calling @jef a WRodgers Anchor? ; )
Yeah boy is only four but obsessed with bugs and nature, so he was stoked to see the calamari he wanted to poke and play with it, but after looking at it quickly i wanted to allow the bird back as i could see he was hanging not far away.
indo-dreaming wrote:Yeah boy is only four but obsessed with bugs and nature
..keep encouraging and challenging that. My daughter was exactly the same, and I could have sworn she'd go natural sciences, but her interest waned, and high school biology all but killed it off for her, other than a vague love of animals and nature. Which is good, but the fire's gone. And she was always at her most beautiful and engaged when beachcombing, bushwalking, playing around rockpools, so I hope she re-finds that down the track, just for the healthy headspace.
indo-dreaming wrote:Took the dog and boy down the calm beach this morning and saw the coolest thing.
A big Pacific gull was about 30 metres out and it looked like it had a plastic bag tangled in its feet, it was trying to fly off but couldn't, but it was also making its way towards shore, so i waited down the beach and watched it.
Then it got to the waters edge and it wasnt a plastic bag, it had a decent sized calamari, so i had to go check it out, it flew off and the calamari while missing some tentacles was still half alive, i was so tempted to take it home for a feed, but it didnt feel right and i felt bad for the gull and also worried the Calamari wasn't healthy before being caught.
So i went back up the beach and the gull flew back and continued its breakfast
Indo. Hi . Nice experience for your boy and yourself.
How did you ascertain it was a Pacific Gull ?
Kelp Gulls are almost identical bar a couple of minor differences. All the best . AW
Was on the south coast Friday and witnessed nature at its rawest.
Right in the middle of the boardwalk to the beach was about a 2 metre brown snake coiled around a large dead rat. It was dragging the rat around really quickly and then uncoiled and even though it's head was tiny compared to the rat it dislocated its jaw and started to slowly swallow the rat. After some time I felt comfortable stepping over it to go for a surf as it had the rat half way in its gob.
Normally I only have to deal with the snakes in the water.
old-dog wrote:Was on the south coast Friday and witnessed nature at its rawest.
Right in the middle of the boardwalk to the beach was about a 2 metre brown snake coiled around a large dead rat. It was dragging the rat around really quickly and then uncoiled and even though it's head was tiny compared to the rat it dislocated its jaw and started to slowly swallow the rat. After some time I felt comfortable stepping over it to go for a surf as it had the rat half way in its gob.
Normally I only have to deal with the snakes in the water.
Thats even crazier.
basesix wrote:indo-dreaming wrote:Yeah boy is only four but obsessed with bugs and nature
..keep encouraging and challenging that. My daughter was exactly the same, and I could have sworn she'd go natural sciences, but her interest waned, and high school biology all but killed it off for her, other than a vague love of animals and nature. Which is good, but the fire's gone. And she was always at her most beautiful and engaged when beachcombing, bushwalking, playing around rockpools, so I hope she re-finds that down the track, just for the healthy headspace.
Yeah my daughter 10 is already harder to get down the beach, but she wasn't as into it as much as my son at his age.
AlfredWallace wrote:indo-dreaming wrote:Took the dog and boy down the calm beach this morning and saw the coolest thing.
A big Pacific gull was about 30 metres out and it looked like it had a plastic bag tangled in its feet, it was trying to fly off but couldn't, but it was also making its way towards shore, so i waited down the beach and watched it.
Then it got to the waters edge and it wasnt a plastic bag, it had a decent sized calamari, so i had to go check it out, it flew off and the calamari while missing some tentacles was still half alive, i was so tempted to take it home for a feed, but it didnt feel right and i felt bad for the gull and also worried the Calamari wasn't healthy before being caught.
So i went back up the beach and the gull flew back and continued its breakfast
Indo. Hi . Nice experience for your boy and yourself.
How did you ascertain it was a Pacific Gull ?
Kelp Gulls are almost identical bar a couple of minor differences. All the best . AW
It was just a guess maybe it's not?
I only got one pic and its not very good but here it is anyway.
Hard to see but it had a big orange beak.
Those giant seagulls are bastards, I was fishing the other day and one picked up my plastic bag with a few cockles left in it and took off down the beach. Not wanting to litter I gave chase, and every time I got close it took off and went a bit further, I ended up about 400m down the beach by the time I got it.
Over on KI last week I was cleaning squid by the waters edge using sand to remove the slime and about 8 pelicans and 2 of those pacific gulls were creeping closer and closer until they were on top of me. I had to keep yelling at them to scare them and stop them from stealing the squid and fish from out of my bucket.
indo-dreaming wrote:AlfredWallace wrote:indo-dreaming wrote:Took the dog and boy down the calm beach this morning and saw the coolest thing.
A big Pacific gull was about 30 metres out and it looked like it had a plastic bag tangled in its feet, it was trying to fly off but couldn't, but it was also making its way towards shore, so i waited down the beach and watched it.
Then it got to the waters edge and it wasnt a plastic bag, it had a decent sized calamari, so i had to go check it out, it flew off and the calamari while missing some tentacles was still half alive, i was so tempted to take it home for a feed, but it didnt feel right and i felt bad for the gull and also worried the Calamari wasn't healthy before being caught.
So i went back up the beach and the gull flew back and continued its breakfast
Indo. Hi . Nice experience for your boy and yourself.
How did you ascertain it was a Pacific Gull ?
Kelp Gulls are almost identical bar a couple of minor differences. All the best . AW
It was just a guess maybe it's not?
I only got one pic and its not very good but here it is anyway.
Hard to see but it had a big orange beak.
IndoDreaming. Ah, good field naturalist. Camera in hand.
Both Kelp and Pacific Gulls have large yellow bills.
It’s quite easy to discern which is which.
Pacific Gulls are larger in overall body size and on the tip of their bill have a ‘ red lipstick ‘ colour on both the upper and lower mandible.
Kelp Gulls are smaller in body size and on the tip of their bill have ‘red lipstick’ only on the lower mandible.
Your photo is a Kelp Gull I can tell by its size, the Silver Gull size comparison is a help.
Great birdwatching by your family, cuttlefish, squid incident was very interesting. AW
old-dog wrote:Was on the south coast Friday and witnessed nature at its rawest.
Right in the middle of the boardwalk to the beach was about a 2 metre brown snake coiled around a large dead rat. It was dragging the rat around really quickly and then uncoiled and even though it's head was tiny compared to the rat it dislocated its jaw and started to slowly swallow the rat. After some time I felt comfortable stepping over it to go for a surf as it had the rat half way in its gob.
Normally I only have to deal with the snakes in the water.
Old-Dog. Hi mate.
You get around, very peregrinus.
You seem to have plenty of wildlife encounters, but that’s SA for you, always a surprise.
Well, hate to inform you, soon a lot of snakes to the east of you will be translocating their slippery surf bodies to your charms. All the best. AW
Seems a keen interest for some, so why not.