NUMBAT SURVEY

A section of road running along the boundary fence.

On the 23rd December I did my last rounds looking for numbats before packing the car and headed out of Scotia. Seventeen numbats were released, in the end ten of these had collars. By the end all were tracked and I knew roughly where to find them. It had taken some time for them to find an area to settle in, and some time for me to locate where these areas were. It was a real exercise in problem solving and patience. Using the telemetry was rather like fishing: sometimes you were lucky, sometimes you were not but it was always peaceful and better than mowing the lawn. I was asked several times 'was I having fun yet?' Well I'm not sure that you would call it fun but it was very satisfying. 

Mulga parrots looking for water on top of the water tank.

Conditions here were hot and dusty, however you were here to do a job and this always seemed the focus. Staff here, and the other volunteers, were always very good. They were always friendly and helpful. In the heat my favourite food became 'Super Doopers', if you don't know what they are ....well they are ice-blocks and they were very cool when it was hot.

Splendid wren.

My vehicle stopped on the track.

The experience was amazing. I saw animals I had not seen in the wild before: bilby, mala, numbats, bridled wallabies and the wyolie. I took pictures of some of these, but alas not good ones of the bilby nor the numbat in the wild. I did get a fleeting shot of a bilby running down the road at night; and my shots of numbats were mostly when they were being released. I think the best part was that I now know more about these animals and just how endangered they are.

I did get opportunities now and again to take other photographs. The mulga parrot, southern boobook owl and the splendid wren were just a few special ones, and sand goannas and various honeyeaters were almost a daily photo opportunity. I managed a glimpse of a mallee fowl but a photograph of one of these shy and endangered birds will have to be another project.

It was an experience to live and work in a different part of the country, if only for a very short time.  The mallee and spinifex country I had driven through before but it is a different experience to be in the countryside and move about. AWC have other reserves in other places; I have already visited Bowra in south-west Queensland and I now look forward volunteering at other sanctuaries.

So concludes my fruitless search for the wild ferret In the future I may write more about volunteering experiences. If anyone wants to volunteer with Australian Wildlife Conservancy then they should visit their website:                     
                http://www.australianwildlife.org

If you'd like to read about volunteering in South Africa then go to:
                http://eatenbylions.blogspot.com.au

Or just about travel and unusual things then try:
                 http://arthurstace.blogspot.com.au

STAGE TWO AT SCOTIA

After some time off and a few thousand kilometres its back to Scotia Sanctuary to release and then monitor numbats from Perth Zoo. I was delayed a little while the car got new tyres and new brakes, not sure why as I never use the brakes. The weather was extremely hot and I pulled up the first night beside Benanee Lake, near Euston. I put up a mosquito net and left the van doors open. A cool breeze blew across the lake and through the van, it was the coolest night sleep I had had for a while. In the morning I awoke to birds chirping. It was a very pretty place and I spent a few hours here swimming, having breakfast and photographing birds.

A wood swallow at Benanee 

Then it was on to Manildra for groceries before heading out to the sanctuary. Once there I unpacked and then headed out for the night-time mala monitoring and feeding. It was very hot at Scotia. During the monitoring in my little tent the sweat was rolling down my face and despite the Aeroguard the insects gave me no peace. Monitoring only went until about 2 in the morning. Back at camp it was too hot to sleep and I found that the electricity in my block was blacked out. This wasn't good preparation for a 5am start.

An emu, spotted on the approach to Scotia.

The mala being fed at night.

The next morning we headed out to find two numbats. A young one, Nicolas, was being monitored to see if he was coping by himself. He had a collar so we located where he was sleeping and then put a camera to see if he was by himself or still with his mother. After this we looked for a female called Nana. She had not been sighted for a while. We tried to find her signal but without success. After returning to camp I was loaded up with equipment and then dropped back in the area where Nana was last spotted. I had a back pack with water and food and a snake bandage. I had a hand radio, a satellite phone, a GPS and the telemetry box and aerial. I also took my camera. The next few very hot hours were spent walking transects through the bush scanning for the missing numbat. I didn't have any success.

A sand goanna.

In the afternoon the rest of the volunteers went out to set up logs and water dishes for the new numbats arriving. I was left at camp because I had just come back and was due to do telemetry for the mala that night. Unfortunately an electrical storm came over and the telemetry had to be called off. 

Birds using a favoured watering point

Early next morning we again set out and found Nicholas and put a new camera at the entrance to the burrow he had slept in. Then I joined the team doing numbat surveys as they were one member short. Louise and Megan drive around the dirt roads at 10 to 15 km/hour and try to spot numbats and goannas. They record the position of any they find. This goes on for about 4 hours. This morning we saw a lot of goannas but no numbats. Usually they do see at least one each day, and one day they saw some juveniles playing and were able to take some good pictures. More storms and the monitoring was again cancelled, though we still had to go out and feed the mala. Despite the storms it is still extremely hot here during the day and the night. Sleeping is difficult.