Saturday, May 30, 2015

The Painted Cliffs of Maria Island are not over-rated.

An amazing aspect is that the cliffs look so different in different light.  A sunset viewing is my next goal.





 

"...wine for the women who make the rain come..."





I had doubts about going back to Maria Island so soon, especially as only a very hardy, seasoned person would brave a tent this time of year.  This means I had to sleep again, in a top bunk in the workshop accommodations.  There has also been a lot of 'nature' excitement at home, with the bioluminescence lighting up a nearby beach.
I am glad I went.  We completed lime washing all the buildings, and had time to really scrub up the stones, steps, and veranda.  This means all will be looking very nice for the heritage board inspection that is coming up.  I suppose 'inspection' is a strong word, but it comes to mind as everything is convict heritage.

The island is what I would call between seasons, summer is over but the subsidized free ferries have not started.  Therefore, we were perhaps fifteen in number, vastly outnumbered by even the Tasmanian Devils.  Added to this, we had time to place some of the penguin homes down near the foreshore and they were so much better (and easier to move) than I could have imagined.
As a bonus to all this satisfying work, I got to go to the painted cliffs at low tide, and the workshop devil came right up to sniff my boots!
He isn't a 'workshop devil', but the shed is on his route, and he often will trot by, although he is looking pretty grizzled, and I am guessing he is getting on in years, they only live to be around eight or so in years.


May 2020 - I love having this record, as since this time the island has had a huge boom in tourist numbers (and now the pandemic could change all that)- but for the last 3 years maybe...there has been a new, much larger ferry going more times each day.  I have only gone by this new ferry three or four times.  I should have been there last month volunteering but parks statewide were one of the first things to close, and they closed before we were even out of our mandatory (enforceable by police fines) 14 days in our home.  
 



Saturday, May 23, 2015

Do you have a possum in your floo? Then I'm your gal.




I finally made it to the one day seminar on how to rescue native animals (well okay, you could use the same techniques to round of feral cats...)

Here:

Most of the information was common sense- but there were also a lot things I wouldn't have guessed.  Such as, the occasional rare animal they have been called for, such as a huge loggerhead sea turtle (!) and very, very far from home penguins. Which animals have more than one pouch young.  Of course there were also the tips and tricks of experience.
 I am not sure how we will go with actually responding to animal rescue texts, but I do want to put a kit in the car and as the Australians like to say 'Have a go'.
Which means, 'Give it your best try'.

Also the best part, is if they do just need to be put out of their misery, that is not the rescuers job, also if it all goes really well, there is a class to learn to be carer, which means, taking care of small critters until they can get to the next step towards being re-introduced back into the wild areas.

Some of the animals stay at Bonorong, and much of the job is about decreasing animal suffering, which is why I wanted to learn, because there is a lot of roadkill, and the seldom but no less upsetting, injured animal in the yard.  I dislike thinking there is a baby animal just starving to death, or freezing to death in the pouch of a hit animal.

The dark comes early now, so I had to drive back in the dark, but luckily, (although nearly) I did not have to rescue any animals, I hit myself, on the drive home.
 If I do get to rescue something, I will write about it.



 



 


 

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Fairy Penguins...snack size



Quick few days back to Maria to help build concrete igloos to guard the fairy penguins from the increasing Tasmanian Devil population.

We had some engineering problems...
I suppose this happens when parks is dependent on volunteers...
I hope they work out in the end.


This is the entry way to the penguin igloo...hopefully big enough for a penguin, but not big enough for a devil.

I climbed up the hill to get this photo of the 'workshop' where we stay sometimes.
Camping is nicer but the nights are getting cold here.
There were only other men here this time- 
A few working on the devils, gathering data and checking cameras.
It reminded of tour.
It reminded me that I don't really like being the only fem in a work group.
I also had the sharp contrast between then (touring say 2001?) and now- being older and how men react to me- now that I am older.
 
It was fun, interesting, and I was happy to get home.