Saturday 24th April 2021. 1000 – 1105

Weather

2 mm of rain in gauge but around 100 mm over past few days. Overcast but brightening. Radar suggests no rain imminent. No breeze. Track wet in parts with ephemeral streams across track. Stepping stones well covered and water level up approx 7cms since last Patrol.

Wildlife Report

Thomas gave me a withering look so I started out alone at 1000 hrs.
Fruit Bats were very noisy as I approached Allumbah Pocket and as I could see no signs of Possums or Tree Kangaroos I turned right and continued along the track for about 100 mtrs.
There is a substantial camp of Spectacled Flying Foxes extending back from from the creek bank and although they are not densely crowded they are occupying a dozen or so trees. All were high in the canopy of tall trees which is not conducive to good photography I managed to get a few reasonable shots.
Returning to Lloyd’s Suspension Bridge, from which the Flying foxes were still visible, I crossed over and in the course of looking for Possums noted that a thick vine is winding itself around the NBN fibreoptic cable where it goes vertically up before crossing the creek in what I can only describe as a fairly casual manner!
As the vine is around 25 mm in diameter and already deforming the cable I took it upon myself to report it to NBN so blame me if there are a few unscheduled outages in the near future!
No wildlife around until Snodgrass’s Pool where a couple of Saw-shelled Turtles were on the fallen tree and “Scarface” the Eastern Water Dragon was on the other side of the track. He was not in the mood today and would not allow me to get close enough for a photo.
At Platypus bend a very small Turtle was on top of a curved log and two more much larger specimens were atop the concrete slab at the Log Jam.
As soon as I turned around to continue I observed a Platypus coming down stream and she fortunately decided to have a comprehensive scratch right in front of me before entering the Log Jam Pool.
She remained obstinately on the far side of the creek putting a stop to any better photos although I did snap an Orchard Swallowtail Butterfly having a rest on the far Bank.
At Stringers Stretch another small Turtle was displaying on a log.
Arriving at the Highway Bridge I spotted a Platypus very close to the bank and having some difficulty overcoming the water flowing out of the Viewing Pool. She then moved diagonally across the stream which did the trick and I caught up with her later.
In the bushes alongside the walkway I photographed the Chocolate Brushtail Possum who favors this spot
I managed to get a couple of long range shots of the Platypus on arrival at the Viewing Platform.
Sadly I found a very dead Common Brushtail Possum at the other side of the Bridge. Rigor mortis was well established and she was cold but I checked her pouch and found a minute pink joey on one of her teats. It seemed non viable to me but I checked with my Wildlife Rescue mentor before disposing of the corpse.