Wednesday, December 24, 2008
A Little More Tassie
Just wanted to put a few more videos online so you can listen to the devilish sounds of a Tasmanian devil, watch a roo hopping and see the real life Kanga and Roo.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Tassie Adventure, part I
[Renee] Eric and I had the pleasure of spending 5 days in beautiful Tasmania. What a beautiful island! We only toured the southeastern section, but are planning future visits to see the rest of the landscape. We rented a two-person caravan and headed out to see the national parks. Even the driving was gorgeous. Our only complaint... we did not see a wombat (ok, truth is I saw one, but from the car while ET was driving).
[Eric] Freycinet Peninsula & Wineglass beach trail: I picked Renee up from the airport in our Britz Voyager and headed northeast through Sorrell up to the Freycinet National Forest. Parked the beast behind the dunes and finished the day with a walk on the beach and a thanksgiving dinner. Early the next morning we took off on an 11km hike to Wineglass Bay and around Hazards circuit to Great Oyster Bay. The walk was beautiful with stunning landscapes and dramatic cliffs and rock formations. Wildlife included a ton of tourists... the highlight was definitely the landscape! After the hike, Renee drove us south to the Tasman Peninsula (Fortesque Beach campground).
[Renee] Tasman National Forest Hike to Tasman Peninsula: The drive to Tasman included some scenic vistas of the country side and, of course, we loved the wildlife street signs. Tasman itself was deep in the forest with mature eucalypt forests and loads of bird life. We saw kookas, parrots, currawongs and fairy wrens.
Our hike out to Cape Huay was quite strenuous with the end a rewarding vista from high up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean The hike included many many rock “stairs” and teased us with good wombat habitat. Needless to say, we were a bit tired by the time we completed this hike.
During the hike we came up close and personal with an echidna – one of only two species of monotremes that still exist (the other being a platypus). He/she looked like a porcupine crossed with a hedgehog and an anteater! He snuffled around in the dirt looking for good eats, pretty much oblivious to us as long as we did not move too quickly.
One of the things that kept us trucking along was the promise of little blue fairy penguins that night!
[Eric] Freycinet Peninsula & Wineglass beach trail: I picked Renee up from the airport in our Britz Voyager and headed northeast through Sorrell up to the Freycinet National Forest. Parked the beast behind the dunes and finished the day with a walk on the beach and a thanksgiving dinner. Early the next morning we took off on an 11km hike to Wineglass Bay and around Hazards circuit to Great Oyster Bay. The walk was beautiful with stunning landscapes and dramatic cliffs and rock formations. Wildlife included a ton of tourists... the highlight was definitely the landscape! After the hike, Renee drove us south to the Tasman Peninsula (Fortesque Beach campground).
[Renee] Tasman National Forest Hike to Tasman Peninsula: The drive to Tasman included some scenic vistas of the country side and, of course, we loved the wildlife street signs. Tasman itself was deep in the forest with mature eucalypt forests and loads of bird life. We saw kookas, parrots, currawongs and fairy wrens.
Our hike out to Cape Huay was quite strenuous with the end a rewarding vista from high up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean The hike included many many rock “stairs” and teased us with good wombat habitat. Needless to say, we were a bit tired by the time we completed this hike.
During the hike we came up close and personal with an echidna – one of only two species of monotremes that still exist (the other being a platypus). He/she looked like a porcupine crossed with a hedgehog and an anteater! He snuffled around in the dirt looking for good eats, pretty much oblivious to us as long as we did not move too quickly.
One of the things that kept us trucking along was the promise of little blue fairy penguins that night!
Tassie Adventure, part II
Fairy Penguins: [Renee] For anyone who has seen the grumpy little blue penguin painting that I did years ago – we came face-to-face with the real thing! This had to be the wildlife highlight of the trip (our lives?!?). We did the appropriate gearing up (red cellophane over our torches and turned to low, flashes turned off, dark warm clothing) and camped ourselves on a log to patiently wait for the little buggers. In our enthusiasm, we arrived about 1.5 hours too early, so we camped out on a log and watched the slowest longest sunset ever.
We could hear groups of little penguins talking to each other offshore while swimming up towards the beach. We patiently waited to see them come up the beach... and waited... and waited... and then realized we heard little pitter-patter behind us and turned our lights to see a little flash of blue penguin go running by...
[Eric] Yes, the penquins are sooo cool, quite a bit smaller then you would think. The adults are only about 30-45cm high and are blue with big white feet. Funny thing, Renee kept thinking we were seeing the babies come out of the borrows because the little buggers were so small ‘where are all the adults?!’. But, in fact we were only seeing the adults run around finding their nest & babies! They run/scamper kind of hunched over with their little flippers flapping to help them keep balance. Because we did not want to use flash, we do not have a ton of photos, but did get a couple, as well as several video clips. Indeed, the highlight of the trip!!
[Eric] Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park: Second to last morning we stopped in to see some Tasmanian Devils and some of the other local wildlife at a conservation park. The little devils reminded me of a cross between my cat, Tigger (snarling, snorting, and kind of feisty) and a small bulldog. They appear to sleep a lot and, when it’s feeding time, scamper around and get vocal and sassy with their enclose-mates. At the park, we also were able to get up close and personal with Roos, cockatoos, frogmouths (beautiful!), and quolls.
[Eric] Final night at Snug Beach followed by a quick walk through historic Hobart: Our last evening we spent relaxing in the caravan park, visiting a bit with our neighbours, taking a short walk on the shorter beach, and enjoying one last big thanksgiving meal in the Britz. It reminded us of life back in the trailer park... only a lot nicer. It was a pleasant way to spend our last evening in Tassie.
We could hear groups of little penguins talking to each other offshore while swimming up towards the beach. We patiently waited to see them come up the beach... and waited... and waited... and then realized we heard little pitter-patter behind us and turned our lights to see a little flash of blue penguin go running by...
[Eric] Yes, the penquins are sooo cool, quite a bit smaller then you would think. The adults are only about 30-45cm high and are blue with big white feet. Funny thing, Renee kept thinking we were seeing the babies come out of the borrows because the little buggers were so small ‘where are all the adults?!’. But, in fact we were only seeing the adults run around finding their nest & babies! They run/scamper kind of hunched over with their little flippers flapping to help them keep balance. Because we did not want to use flash, we do not have a ton of photos, but did get a couple, as well as several video clips. Indeed, the highlight of the trip!!
[Eric] Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park: Second to last morning we stopped in to see some Tasmanian Devils and some of the other local wildlife at a conservation park. The little devils reminded me of a cross between my cat, Tigger (snarling, snorting, and kind of feisty) and a small bulldog. They appear to sleep a lot and, when it’s feeding time, scamper around and get vocal and sassy with their enclose-mates. At the park, we also were able to get up close and personal with Roos, cockatoos, frogmouths (beautiful!), and quolls.
[Eric] Final night at Snug Beach followed by a quick walk through historic Hobart: Our last evening we spent relaxing in the caravan park, visiting a bit with our neighbours, taking a short walk on the shorter beach, and enjoying one last big thanksgiving meal in the Britz. It reminded us of life back in the trailer park... only a lot nicer. It was a pleasant way to spend our last evening in Tassie.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Quick update
Hi everyone, I'm typing this from the airport just before I board my flight to Gladstone where I'll be jumping on a ship to spend two weeks in the Coral Sea. We just got back a couple days ago from our trip to Tasmania - it was fabulous! I had a couple days of meetings in Hobart and then Renee came down to join me. We rented a camper van and traveled around southeast Tasmania for 4 days. Renee will post an update from that trip next week. We have a ton of photos and some fun adventures to report. It has been a crazy month for me - a week in Townsville for a Coral Triangle workshop, a week on Heron Island for research, a week in Tasmania for work/play, now two weeks out in the Coral Sea for research - ugh. It will be good to be back home for a while. I'm back on the 20th, then have a friend in town for a couple days, then off to a folk festival for a couple days to close out 2008. January should be mellow. Renee has had a busy month as well with a show that just came down, an art walk exhibit on Saturday, and an art festival over the entire weekend. She has a lot of great new pieces... some can be seen on her website (and the local newspaper). Hope everyone has a fabulous December. More later-et
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Eric's research trip to Heron Island
I spent a week at a research station on Heron Island in the southern section of the Great Barrier Reef to start the field collection phase of our marine connectivity research. The goal was to collect tissue samples from 15-20 individuals from 8-15 different species that live on/around the coral reefs of the region. This was our first study site in a list of approximately 15 sites around Australia, PNG, the Solomon Island, Palau, and New Caledonia. The plan is to stick close to home for the first couple trips (GBR) so we can work out our sampling procedures. I’ll skip all the science stuff (it was hugely successful) and just highlight some of the cool critters we saw: Nesting Green Sea Turtles, an octopus while out in the evening at low tide, an abalone, White Capped Noddy Terns, and a nice sunset.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Weekend at Moreton Island
Eric and I spent a lovely weekend camping on Moreton Island with thirty-two of his lab-mates. We had a great time -- the island is just a wonderful place and we were with a fun crowd. In order to get around the island you need a big 4-wheel drive SUV or ute... and even then we often found ourselves pushing and digging. Our campsite was on the northwestern end of the island, tucked behind the dunes, and comfortably held all thirty-plus campers. The weather was a bit windy, which just made the surfing and fishing less than successful! I'll let the pictures do most of the talking...
Us trying not to get blown away...
View from the Oscar and Michelle's ute as we were crossing the island.
Soft sandy road across the island and Tak's car with a lot of power behind it!
Humpback whales were migrating past the island on a regular basis. This pair is probably a mom and her calf... we also saw some spectacular breeching by a few show-offs.
View from the eastern shore of the island --
ET and I snorkeled around these wrecks with tons of fish.
Views from the beach...
Beach cricket (a game I still don't understand!) featuring Tak, Oscar and Liana.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Backpacking in Lamington NP, QLD: Day 1 of 3
Introduction to Lamington Trip
We arrived late Thursday afternoon at Lamington National Park Green Mountains campground to begin our third anniversary weekend celebration. As we drove into the campground we were shocked to see twenty-plus knee high pademelons (or wallabies – we aren’t sure if we have identified these little guys correctly). They were tolerant of humans but not the slightest bit tame, which made them a pleasure to be around.
The birds, who were hand fed by tourists at the nearby resort, were overly friendly… bordering on the line of being too friendly. Our campsite was inundated with crimson rosellas (seen here surprisingly on my arm – apparently he thought my toothbrush might be something tasty), very brash and bold brush turkeys, bowerbirds, honeyeaters, wrens and more.
After a chilly rainy night highlighted by a few howling dingos and some obnoxiously loud neighbors, we packed up and headed toward the trail…
Day 1: Toolona Creek Circuit to Bithongabel site
Our first day on the trail was amazing. So many waterfalls we stopped counting. When the sound of the waterfalls was not deafening, we were overwhelmed by the songs and calls of the birds. [Note for our US friends: think of every artificial rainforest garden or greenhouse you’ve been in and those cheesy soundtracks played in the background – that is really what it sounds like!]
Eric’s favorite had to be the whip bird, which actually makes a sound like a cracking whip. I was entranced with the little wrens and all the LBBs (little brown birds) which we do not see often in Brisbane.
This is me looking dirty and probably a little tired at Elabana Falls. The trail was awesome, but I struggled at the many slippery river crossings. Just when we were ready to break, we found ourselves alone at our campsite at Bithongabel (bottom photo) and it was a beautiful quiet night.
We arrived late Thursday afternoon at Lamington National Park Green Mountains campground to begin our third anniversary weekend celebration. As we drove into the campground we were shocked to see twenty-plus knee high pademelons (or wallabies – we aren’t sure if we have identified these little guys correctly). They were tolerant of humans but not the slightest bit tame, which made them a pleasure to be around.
The birds, who were hand fed by tourists at the nearby resort, were overly friendly… bordering on the line of being too friendly. Our campsite was inundated with crimson rosellas (seen here surprisingly on my arm – apparently he thought my toothbrush might be something tasty), very brash and bold brush turkeys, bowerbirds, honeyeaters, wrens and more.
After a chilly rainy night highlighted by a few howling dingos and some obnoxiously loud neighbors, we packed up and headed toward the trail…
Day 1: Toolona Creek Circuit to Bithongabel site
Our first day on the trail was amazing. So many waterfalls we stopped counting. When the sound of the waterfalls was not deafening, we were overwhelmed by the songs and calls of the birds. [Note for our US friends: think of every artificial rainforest garden or greenhouse you’ve been in and those cheesy soundtracks played in the background – that is really what it sounds like!]
Eric’s favorite had to be the whip bird, which actually makes a sound like a cracking whip. I was entranced with the little wrens and all the LBBs (little brown birds) which we do not see often in Brisbane.
This is me looking dirty and probably a little tired at Elabana Falls. The trail was awesome, but I struggled at the many slippery river crossings. Just when we were ready to break, we found ourselves alone at our campsite at Bithongabel (bottom photo) and it was a beautiful quiet night.
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