Ferals

A few weeks ago our  Border Collie " Tully" came screaming up the gully toward us 
pursuing some sort of furry creature about his own size, we only saw it for a fraction of a second before
it darted up one of the wombat holes and Tully right on it's heels just managed to pull up at the entrance.

We set up a video camera a few metres away, set it on record and retrieved it after dark,
50 minutes into the recording  the film showed a large feral cat
cautiously emerging from what must be one of his lairs, his body almost filled 
the diameter of the wombat hole and the video also clearly showed his camouflage stripes and mottling. 
We hired a trap from The Rural Lands Protection Board but this feral cat has so far evaded capture.

Later the same week while waiting at Windellama Hall for the school bus I noticed what
looked like a wombat grazing close to the bus stop there, cars were
whizzing past just a few metres away and this animal just kept on at his task with his
head down, I wandered over to see if he was sick or mangy and he lifted his head up
for a moment, this was no wombat but a young feral pig, I was now only 6 metres away
and I called out to him, he let out a few courteous grunts and kept on rooting at the ground.

The feral animal trilogy ended a few days later when we found a feral fish in our washing machine,
it was a Gambusia or Mosquito fish, these fish are very damaging to our ecosystems as they feed on 
native frog's eggs and nibble the fins off larger fish., the water had come from one of our dams. 
Unfortunately Gambusia are now very common in our waterways. 

Spring Wattles

The first Wattle fowers for the season are out already, Acacia terminalis is the bright yellow
flowered shrubby wattle that is common as an understory near stringybarks, Acacia genistifolia is the pale
lemon flowered, spiky wattle that is very common in most parts of Windellama and by late August the
bright yellow flowers of Acacia decurrens trees should be the in full bloom.