FINALLY! I am updating my blog. Nothing has really happened too much. Just the normal everyday life living on the beach here in Australia. We did go on a field trip for the wildlife biology class which was way more fun than I expected. I guess I will end up talking a little bit about that and what is in store for the next few weeks.
On Tuesday the 2nd Harland and I went up to Byron Bay to get his didgeridoo and just look around and spend the day there. No where really opened until 10am and we got there about 8:30am so we headed down to the beach and relaxed down there, I decided to jump in the water and it felt great. Eventually we went up to Planet Corroboree to check out the didgeridoos. He wanted one with an A key. There were a couple to choose from, the one he originally saw that he really liked, and another that was much larger. He played them and eventually he decided on the new one he saw today. It had a much cleaner sound. We left the shop to come back and we went and got some lunch, looking in some stores, and then we headed over to a bar and sat down for some beers. First beer was a good ole pint of some Toohey's Old and it hit the spot. We watched a bit of the UK KU game and I got another beer, the Stone & Wood Pacific Ale. Holy shit. I love beer now. Real beer, not that shit we have in the states. Flavorful beer with something actually in it. This beer had a fruity smell and when drank was had a piney flavor, but a little something more that we just couldn't figure out. Here is Stone & Wood's website.
So, from Wednesday until Friday afternoon we went down to Woody Head (everyone laugh...ha ha) near Iluka, NSW. It is situated on the Bunjalong National Park and is a camping ground area. It was in a beautiful location. We were set up with nice cabin style things. The goal of this field trip was to catch microbats and take a look at them and ID them, catch some small mamals in traps that we learned how to set and make the bait. We also had to find 20 forest birds and 20 seabirds, give the presentation over our selected topic
We got there and the first order of business was to make the bait for the traps we were going to be setting. It was a mixture of oats, peanut butter, and honey. Was pretty funny to watch Tom, Jami, and Lora mix it, as always with us, it was all jokes. We the proceeded to go and place traps. 25 traps 10 meters back from the road and ~10 meters apart. Setting the traps was actually pretty fun. It was easy, but let me be the first to tell you that I never thought I would be walking through a forest in Australia with no path (it gets worse later). We get all 25 traps set then we are told about our bird assignment and then are given free time until dinner. Harlan and I go and try to knock out some of our bird list, got a good amount and we ended up finding an awesome open area just behind the cabin thing and stayed there for a good chunk of time and found some awesome birds (and a few leeches). We ate a very good dinner prepared by one of the guys that works at the camp and had some of the presentations that night. After that was all said and done we all got ready to go spotlighting. We headed out at around 9 I would say?...maybe a little bit later. Regardless, we went out with these BRIGHT ASS lights, you had carry a batterypack in a backpack that was heavy as shit. There weren't enough for everyone, so I didn't take one (just had a regular flashlight). Surprisingly enough everyone was silent while looking for animals. I was shocked. That doesn't usually happen with us. Unfortunately the night was uneventful. The only thing we saw was a ring tailed possum, glow in the dark fungi (totally awesome), and another possum I believe. We decided that we were going to walk down a path to the beach and walk that home. Talk about the best choice ever. The moon was very bright that night (was getting close to a full moon) and The beach was well lit and because of the rocky shore's geography, the waves were HUGE. The rocky shore essentially just abruptly ended and the waves would crash so hard into the rocks. There was one spot that was especially tumultuous, we sat down, got a good view, and watched the show. And a show it was. The waves would crash probably 30 feet high, and as it crashed it sounded like thunder. It was amazing. An experience I won't soon forget. Brandon and I decided to get a closer look. I took a battery pack and would light up the waves. It was awesome. OH I almost forgot. Woody Head provided one of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen. So, that was the first day.
Oh we also met this German immigrant that was working at the camp as a release sorta program from jail. He was actually a pretty nice guy, a little redneck, but he meant well. He was in jail for 6 years but Harlan and I weren't going to ask him for what. He also gave us a free beer! So that was awesome.
Thursday began by waking up at about 6:15am to go and check the animal traps. Unfortunately we only caught one animal, a bush rat. Wasn't very exciting. We then headed back to the cabin for breakfast. After that we had....free time! It was awesome. We decided to go and do some more birds and just look around the campground a bit. Ryan joined us and we weren't spotting very many so we walked up into the forest from a large sand dune covered in foliage. From there we walked quite a distance and higher than the trees. We walked through the brush, you know where snakes live (mind you deadly snakes) and made our own path to the beach. Needless to say....we didn't see too many birds but it was a lot of fun. We were back where the waves crashed very hard into the rocks. We stripped to our underwear and went up near where the waves crashed and being that close....was incredible. The ocean is a monster, one beautiful fucking monster. We actually got a little too close and Harlan braced himself and got swept back a bit and cut his foot pretty good and a couple other scrapes. We headed back to our clothes and about 10 seconds after and even larger wave crashed over the spot all three of us were at, all of us would have definitely gotten hurt. Oh, all of this was before noon as well. We headed to the kiosk and got bandaids for Harlan and met up with everyone else. We then just chilled the rest of the afternoon then met back for dinner, did more presentations (mine was this night) and then most people went and got beer. I started to feel a little ill so I was in bed by 10pm, I was tired anyway.
Friday was about the same, woke up to check the traps and collect them and we also looked at the bats that were caught the last two nights. There were some really cool ones in there. One had HUGE ears. They all had mites that were running all over them, was very weird. After that we had to clean up our rooms and then just waited for the bus to get here. We also finished up our birdlist. Woody Head was one of the best field trips I had been on, and not because of the free time. We learned a lot of birds in the area, like the Eastern Whipbird with its distinctive call.
This field trip was so awesome. The sights were amazing and it was one of the best we have been on. The last field trip we are gonna take is the, and I quote, "magical mystery tour." We are going to the Border Ranges National Park and, work on the street is, Nimbin as well. So it'll be a lot of fun. That is all for now! OH this weekend I am diving again and will be climbing (hopefully for real this time) Mt. Warning! So should have a good blog about that and I wanna blog about my everyday life here.
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