george_vaughan's Favorites

(Notes from eBird comments): "... but it was up at the Property Limits that I stumbled across that perennial favourite of mine, a Bettong standing wonderfully to attention!!! However, something seemed a little off about it; it seemed almost frozen in place as I crept in to bag a shot... and then, laboriously, it turned to half-heartedly hop away. That's when, to my absolute astonishment, I saw that its tail was wound up, like a thick, coiled club, around a prodigious bouquet of grass intended for the delightful little creature's nest!!! There was just one problem... at this point, my camera had run out of photos. What followed was as tense a standoff as can be imagined in the world of wildlife photography; trying to pin down the ever-flighty and alert Bettong with the transfixion of my headlamp, I had to fumble with the camera without even looking... this was a once-in-years-and-years chance to capture one of the most fascinating of all macropod behaviours, for it was only the second time in the property's history that I've seen Bettongs using their prehensile tails to full effect. Luckily, to my immense delight, I was able to sneak in a little closer, bagging some shots I'm very pleased with which clearly show the great clump of grass being gripped tightly in that startlingly muscular tail!!!"

Without a shadow of a doubt, my new favourite Moth species is the Autumn Moth, one I'd read a great amount about and admired pictures of while never really expecting to see them here!! The perfectly subtle silvery back, dappled with black and gold and three black stripes... the extremely smart white shoulders, like the trimmings of a luxuriant furry cape... the fat, fuzzy Bumblebee body with it's vivid blacks and yellows...

(From Notes Taken At The Time): "... I was peering at some very large, forward-facing eyeshine when I thought “that really is the most gigantic Possum I’ve ever seen, and why is it so fat and furry and pale grey…” And then, incredulous, the answer dawned on me. I worked my way around for a clearer look… and there luxuriating on a surprisingly small tree, was an absolutely ENORMOUS bull KOALA, peering haughtily down at me without the slightest concern, its almost bat-like ears held wide!!! I couldn’t take my eyes off this most peculiar, primitive and undeniably handsome creature, with its monkey-like hind-feet and incomparable giant nose!! There apparently were rumours that someone had heard Koalas once on a nearby property, but no one could confirm their occurrence… until now!!!"

(From Notes Taken At The Time): "Well, the very first Mammal I saw after nightfall was the one rumoured to be here that I’d spent the entire lead up of the trip telling myself I’d have no chance of seeing. I was just reaching the main stand of forest, quite literally only two trees in, when I just happened to do a sweep with the headlamp… wait!! Wait!!! There, crouched on one of the sturdy boughs exactly like a Squirrel, its fur glowing the most astounding shade of purply-bluish pearl, was a creature that struck me vividly in the moment as being like an exact cross between a Squirrel and a Bilby, with big, slightly pointy Bat-ears, a very pointed snout and… and… I actually cursed in shock and absolute disbelief when I saw the gigantic, impossibly fuzzy black brush of a tail trailing proudly out behind it!! There, peering down at me without an ounce of fear by a great deal of curiosity, was none other than a PHASCOGALE!!!! The next ten minutes were the best I’ve ever spent with a Mammal on land, hands down; it was like the Phascogale was very poorly playing peek-a-boo, its unquenchable curiosity making it unable to resist scuttling closer and peering out at me with those almost purplish-shining eyes, no matter how much my movements initially startled it… it moved, once again, astonishingly similarly to a Squirrel, racing with quicksilver litheness around the trunks and branches of the trees, totally happy to cling on upside down if it had to!!! It also occasionally looked for food in a most novel way; it sit in its Squirrel-pose, then frantically paw at the bark with its front feet, digging out any bugs that might be hiding!!! I ended up leaving it be long before it lost interest in me… and so the Phascogale passed into the pages of absolute history and truly joyful memories!!!"

This fantastic pod of boldly-patterned and bulbous-headed Shepherds', a gateway for me into a very deep fascinating with cetaceans, was present on a very well attested-to pelagic off of Eaglehawk Neck with many people with great expertise in Cetaceans present...