Expect changes with the lay out, the template etc. I am not quite happy with the way things are right now.
People (like A. and J.L -you know who you are) who receive emails when I post, I hope you don't get an email each time I change something!
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Tasmanian devils first
After all I was in Tasmania, so I should really start with Tasmanian devils.
I never saw any in the wild. I heard them once at night (and they do make a fairly scary weird growl). I saw their scat but I had to go to the Tasmanian devil center on the Tasman Peninsula to see them.
Of course at first I saw road signs. I think they do not do the Tasmanian devils justice. They look so much better in "real life".
They have a terribly cute face.
The first photo below shows a Tasmanian devil yawning. I was worried that I would not see one growling, so I took the photo when he was yawning. But in the second photo he is growling.
Tasmanian devils are in bad shape. Not only just like any other creatures on the planet they find their space badly over taken by humans but also they are now victims of a sort of cancer (which gives them facial tumors and is unimaginatively called Devil Facial Tumor Disease or DFTD), just like cervical cancer it is associated with a virus and as a result is contagious. No tasmanian devil on the Tasman peninsula which is only attached to the rest of Tasmania by a very narrow isthmus (called Eaglehawk Neck) has been affected yet.
I will try not to rant and rave about the Tasman Peninsula. I fell in Love with Tasmania but particularly with the Tasman Peninsula and the coastal area just North of it.
I never saw any in the wild. I heard them once at night (and they do make a fairly scary weird growl). I saw their scat but I had to go to the Tasmanian devil center on the Tasman Peninsula to see them.
Of course at first I saw road signs. I think they do not do the Tasmanian devils justice. They look so much better in "real life".
They have a terribly cute face.
The first photo below shows a Tasmanian devil yawning. I was worried that I would not see one growling, so I took the photo when he was yawning. But in the second photo he is growling.
Tasmanian devils are in bad shape. Not only just like any other creatures on the planet they find their space badly over taken by humans but also they are now victims of a sort of cancer (which gives them facial tumors and is unimaginatively called Devil Facial Tumor Disease or DFTD), just like cervical cancer it is associated with a virus and as a result is contagious. No tasmanian devil on the Tasman peninsula which is only attached to the rest of Tasmania by a very narrow isthmus (called Eaglehawk Neck) has been affected yet.
I will try not to rant and rave about the Tasman Peninsula. I fell in Love with Tasmania but particularly with the Tasman Peninsula and the coastal area just North of it.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Lunar eclipse
If you read this the day I post it ... and I do realize that the odds are low .. there will be a lunar eclipse tomorrow morning wee hours of the morning.
Thanks to A. who posted about it and provided this link.
Thanks to A. who posted about it and provided this link.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Kangoroos? No, not really
"Kangaroo" is another thing people think of as soon as you say "Australia". However there is only one type of Kangaroo in Tasmania.
What you see in Tasmania are wallabies and pademelons ...yes, "pademelons"! Apparently they are so little known that even Microsoft Word does not recognize them and think that I am misspelling "watermelons"..... I bet you Word recognizes "unicorns" ... yep it does, Word knows about unicorns, completely mythical creatures, but not about pademelons, typical!!!
Anyway, as far as I can tell wallabies are are small kangaroos, and pademelons are very small kangaroos. I am sure there must be more to it, but as a rule of thumb, if you can be sure that you are looking at an adult and it is very small you are looking at a pademelon.
SORRY NO PHOTOS, FOR SOME REASON I CANNOT LOAD PHOTOS RIGHT NOW.
Let me figure it out.
Later : actually it is a Blogger problem and it seems that this problem has been going on since late March as far as I can tell!!
What you see in Tasmania are wallabies and pademelons ...yes, "pademelons"! Apparently they are so little known that even Microsoft Word does not recognize them and think that I am misspelling "watermelons"..... I bet you Word recognizes "unicorns" ... yep it does, Word knows about unicorns, completely mythical creatures, but not about pademelons, typical!!!
Anyway, as far as I can tell wallabies are are small kangaroos, and pademelons are very small kangaroos. I am sure there must be more to it, but as a rule of thumb, if you can be sure that you are looking at an adult and it is very small you are looking at a pademelon.
SORRY NO PHOTOS, FOR SOME REASON I CANNOT LOAD PHOTOS RIGHT NOW.
Let me figure it out.
Later : actually it is a Blogger problem and it seems that this problem has been going on since late March as far as I can tell!!
It has been a long time
Wow! It really has been a long time.
Since that first post I have left work, bought a round-the-world-ticket and spent 3 months in Australia. I am now back in Calgary for a while.
When people think about Australia I think they mostly imagine a large, red, dry, flat continent (or at least I did...and I mostly still do). But I spent practically all my time in Tasmania and Tasmania is nothing like that.
I have to go and choose some pictures, edit them (to make them smaller) and then I'll start posting them here.
Since that first post I have left work, bought a round-the-world-ticket and spent 3 months in Australia. I am now back in Calgary for a while.
When people think about Australia I think they mostly imagine a large, red, dry, flat continent (or at least I did...and I mostly still do). But I spent practically all my time in Tasmania and Tasmania is nothing like that.
I have to go and choose some pictures, edit them (to make them smaller) and then I'll start posting them here.
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