Flood update.

       The floods here is Queensland are pretty epic. Like most things in Australia, if it's hard core elsewhere, it's epically hard core here. The floods are no exception. While it's not flooding in Northern Queensland where I live we are still effected in that the supermarkets are almost empty. No lettuce, tomatoes, infact most fruit and veg are gone save for apricots and plums. No meat, the milk is gone too. The trucks are now driving inland to deliver food up north. If you go to the local market on Sunday you can get food. There really is plenty here locally save for lettuce and the odd vegetable. North Queensland is an oasis of tropical fruit, so no shortage there.

    The images of these floods are pretty shocking too:

           It's unbelievable the magnitude of these floods. Some footage of the flash floods in Toowoomba: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUpkPTcqPY at about a minute in it all starts to go crazy. I've never seen anything like this in my life. It must be horrifying for the people living there. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

       Many people are coming together to provide aid to the flood victims and acts of heroism are seen everyday:

These guys are saving a family heirloom.

Wait a second.... hey there fella... I think I need to start helping out down there ;)

                          If you can't be here to help, please donate to the flood relief.  

AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!

So I HATE cockroaches.....

I've tried a variety of desensitizing techniques but I vehemently despise, abhor, and loath them.  So suffice it to say that when I returned from an evening bike ride to find Joe's Apartment in my kitchen I freaked. I got the surface spray and went ape wild!

I got to my room, my holy place, my shrine to clean and all that is calm and I see a shadow skitter across the floor.... I shudder. "surely not in MY room" yet I see it... I get closer in the corner next to the bed and the wall and I spray with all my might but what comes flying at me is NOT a cockroach but a HUMONGOUS spider with a roach in it's mouth!!!!

Yes kids, it's true. I had an out of body experience tonight. I simultaneously wanted to end the life of one species and preserve the life of another whilst petrified with an aerosol can in my hand as my only means of continuing forth.

It turns out that this spider is actually a Huntsman Spider (Heteropoda venatoria) and non toxic to me. You must understand that this spider is a good 4" across so it gave me a real start and with a roach in it's jowls.... I was forced to capture it.

Turns out it's quite timid... I might have accidentally captured a friend in my battle against las cucarachas.... the morning will deicide it's fate. I look forward to moving away from this roach hostel in the next two weeks.

So I may have some wheelz...

         The car search has been pretty frustrating for me. It's really hard to find a 4x4 that is an automatic here. I still need to get around so I thought I'd just get a little car to get me to work and run errands in the meantime. I got the North Queensland Trader as soon as it came out and found a '92 Mazda 323 in it that fit the bill.

Big pimpin. 

      I need to get new brake pads and change the battery but it runs fine! I might spray paint the roof where it's faded with something cool like snakes and lizards! Hello art car! Not bad for 2,000$

     The woman selling the car has said it will take a week for her to get a Road Worthy Certificate and if I don't find something in the meantime I will be cruising around in this. I'll keep you posted...

Wildlife encounters.

             I started my day early to go to Billabong Sanctuary and got to experience some pretty cool things. First off, cleaning a Koala enclosure with a Sulfur Crested Cockatoo as my companion. She (Jacko) is quite sweet and loves scratches but makes it kinda hard when she wants to ride around on your hand while you are raking. Koala enclosures are not that hard, much like cleaning a bird enclosure, the droppings are small. They are actually like deer pellets. You rake, remove eucalyptus, dump out water from the canisters (pots) and refill them so fresh eucalyptus can be put in. Pretty sinchy stuff AND you

get to give a scratch to one of these guys.

            The rest of the day included helping with reptile presentations and assisting people with photos with the snakes. It's kinda crazy, the guests are allowed to hold the snakes and get pictures of them with it. At the San Antonio Zoo they could only touch the snake with two fingers while I held it. This was really cool that they could experience the weight of the snake and feel it's muscles as it moves. It's a bit nerve-racking too because you don't want them to accidentally hurt them by squeezing them or rubbing their scales backwards. The other neat thing is that a child of any age could hold a snake. So this little boy, about 5 came up and wanted to hold this Black Headed Python that was about one and a half meters (five feet) long; I wasn't sure he was old enough to hold him so I looked over for approval to put this snake on him and got told to "wrap him up" so I did. It was pretty funny and cool to see his reaction. He was so pleased and his parents snapped photos of him and this snake that was bigger than he was! 

     At the end of the day Robbie took me into the reptile room to show me some of the cool critters.

 That's a baby Freshwater Crocodile (freshie).

In the background you can see a Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps) and a Shingleback Skink (Tiliqua rugosa).

This is a Legless Lizard (Lialis burtonis)

A favourite of mine, the Coastal Taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus) about to eat his lunch!

           As the day ended an afternoon shower came through to cool things off. I love the way the water changes the colour of this tree and creates stripes down it's trunk.

      I have been needing to learn to drive a manual and adding to the difficulty the gear shift is on the left so I needed practice. Robbie was kind enough to lend me his car and we went to the park where dirt roads and speed bumps allowed me to practice going through the gears and a lack of traffic minimized the risk of me careening into something. We practiced until it got dark and prepared to leave, upon leaving we saw this little fellow, heating up on the asphalt (bitchum).

A Coastal Carpet Python (Morelia spilota sub sp. mcdowelli) 

We had to move him off of the road so he wouldn't get squished.

                                                      

                                                     Robbie, working his magic. 

(My videos are having problems playing in some viewers, if you can't see it leave me a comment and I'll work on converting to a new player, any suggestions are welcomed.)

It's been a good day today. The wildlife here offers me endless opportunities to learn and always excites me. :)

Whistle while you work... R.S.P.C.A.

I won't lie, working for the R.S.P.C.A. is hard, not just physically but psychologically. You can't save them all and the amount of animals that come in is truly overwhelming. My little dingo/kelpies have been reduced to three and by the time I return to work there may be only one... I've fought for them, kept them alive for weeks but when I leave there is no one left to speak for them. My little girl (the light one) will be spared, the other two are deemed as aggressive (agro) and won't make it. The sad thing is they are just being puppies and sometimes puppies nip or quibble over food, these pups are NOT agro. With that being said I do understand that when so many animals come in you have to look at what is most adoptable... It's hard on me and I get a bit bummed at times, it takes alot out of me but I choose to focus on the good things about working here like the lives I save and the general enjoyment of working in the bush.

Today I was picking up bowls to feed out and found a friend!

This is a White's Tree Frog (Litoria caerulea).

I cruised around and showed everyone at work my cool find and told them what it was, some of them recognized it and told me that they call those "greenies". How original haha!




I was out by the tool shed and turned around and saw this guy:

This is a Titan Stick Insect (Acrophylla titan)




      Of course I had to pick it up! I also paraded around with this guy however my co-workers weren't as pleased to see this find... Some were warning me of it's vicious bite! I didn't seem to have that problem, he just kinda hung out on me and I even had trouble getting him off! 


     I have found that many people don't notice the stuff in their own backyard. It is the same for anywhere you go really, it takes someone interested in animals or wildlife to notice that kinda stuff. I guess I'm just tuned into it, I always have been. I do love telling the Aussies about the cool things that live around them and the amazing species that brought me across the world to live with.


      As many people know, I LOVE reptiles and a big motivator for my move to Oz are the high population of venomous snakes and the variety of monitor lizards. I have read about them and studied them but to be living amongst them is the best education a herpetologist could ask for!

This is a Keelback Snake (Tropidonophis mairii). It was killed with a weed wacker (whipper snipper) because the court ordered community service lawn kids (flouros) thought it was a taipan. Sadly, this snake is non-venomous and cane toad resistant meaning it was a VERY good snake. I can't get mad at the kids, they didn't know but I did talk to them and their supervisor to educate them and told them to come find me if they ever saw another snake. Education is key, without it conservation has no meaning.

     I also got an ambo call recently to catch a duck and her ducklings in order to save them from two cats left to run amok in the neighborhood. It took quite some time but I managed to gather the ducklings but failed to catch the mother, this left me with four Pacific Black Ducks. When I returned another duck got put into my care, a juvi average white duck. This prompted me to make an impromptu wet brooder:

         All in all working there isn't so bad because it's the animals that make me happy; the people however... leave much to be desired. Below is a document posted by our manager on appropriate communication at work. I thought it was a joke at first, but it's not.... [caution to impressionable children, the picture below is not suitable for you so AVERT YOUR EYES!]

Yep, it's a bowl full of cherries this lot. 

Flooding in Queensland!!!

       So I have had many a concerned call/email/text/wall post about the flooding in Queensland. While it is quite a large area that has flooded (the size of Germany and France) it is still not anywhere near me. Queensland is a big state and I live in the best part, which is the tropical north! The flooding is taking place in Rockhampton and south. The only effect it has on us is that the roads are cut and there is a bit of a food shortage. Things are being brought up the coast by boat and flown in, it just makes things more $$$. I won't starve or drown, so don't worry kids!!!

This was in the paper today, I love Aussies, humour in the midst of disaster!

Happy New Years!!!!

    I spent New Years pretty low key as I was on call for the Ambo early in the morning but I did do some fun things. Robbie marinated some lamb and we had a true Aussie barbecue on the beach! It was delicious!

Robbie BBQing up a storm!

    After our dinner we headed up to Castle Hill to watch the fireworks over the city at midnight! We met up with some local CouchSurfers who had a spot set up with a blanket and poppers and sparklers. I popped the cork on the Veuve Clicquot at midnight and enjoyed the view!

Ringing in the New Year in style!!!