Erskine Falls

Well.... not actually the falls. 

There wasn't much water coming over them, so these are a couple of hundred metres downstream.

Anglesea Wetlands

Was back out at Anglesea weltands the last two days, dropping artificial substrates for macroinvertebrates. Its very dry, even though it looks wet due to a little rain. Will be back out there again in six weeks to see how the substraits are looking and see if we can't find some Southern Pygmy Perch.

Borneo Frogs

These a some of the frogs we found while at a jungle camp on the Kinabantangan River in eastern Sabah.

For anyone interested, there is a great reference site for the frogs and toads of Borneo here: Frogs of Borneo.org

Frilled Treefrog (Rhacophorus appendiculatus)

Brown Bullfrog (Kaloula baleata)

Northern Torrent Frog (Meristogenys orphnocnemis)

Unknown

Mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki)

As nice as they look mosquitofish (AKA plague minnow) are one of the worst introduced species we have in south-eastern Australia. Live-bearing and rapid breeder, predatory on native fish, tadpoles and macroinvertebrates, spread disease and generally just nasty.

Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus)

Spotted this little fella on a golf course I was doing fish survey work at.
Very cute.

Tynong - Not the usual aquatic ecologist hangout

This is the deepest quarry pit in Victoria at about 100 metres.

Goulburn River at Eildon

Spent a beautiful day on the 24th of October monitoring water quality and macroinvertebrates just downstream of the Eildon weir and pondage. The weather was sheer perfection.

The panoramas below were taken at each of the monitoring sites with the first panorama picking up on the beautiful 7:00am sunrise on the upstram side.

 

 

Goulburn River at Alexandra

23rd October was another spectacular day spend on the Goulburn River monitoring water quality and macroinvertebrates. This is the second time I have been to these sites and the water was up a meter or so this time around.

The only dissapointment was that i did not get any fish this time around.

Traralgon Rail Reserve Wetlands

I spent three days here between the 8th and 10th of October, assessing water quality, macroinvertebrates, fish and aquatic habitat. As has been my luck this season, the weather turned it on again. For a public reserve and constructed wetland, this system was really nice with good habitat and a number of native fish species.

Juvenile Black-faced Shag/Cormorant (Phalacrocorax fuscescens)

Found this little guy on a rocky basalt shelf near Port Campbell.

Winter colour in the garden

Sure, on the surface, the garden can look rather drab at this time of year. 

But if you can get in close enough and look into the detail....

....there is wonderful colour everywhere.

Violet

Daffodil

Grevillea

Hardenbergia

Rosemary

Common Brown (Heteronympha merope)

Ewing's Tree Frog (Litoria ewingii)