Trip to Australia – June and July 2016

boof said:
wow. great job with the birds. I've never been to WA or FNQ so it's killing me to see your 2016 birding updates. Keep up the good work.
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Thanks, I'm pretty pleased with how many and which species I have seen!
 
Is anyone able to tell me what subspecies of Common Brushtail Possum is found in South Western Australia and what subspecies is found in the Atherton Tablelands near Cairns?
Thanks! :)
 
LaughingDove said:
Is anyone able to tell me what subspecies of Common Brushtail Possum is found in South Western Australia and what subspecies is found in the Atherton Tablelands near Cairns?
Thanks! :)
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I've just been investigating brushtail possums! The nominate should be everywhere, except the Top End & Kimberley (arnhemensis), and central eastern Queensland upland rainforests (johnstonii). The latter is uniformly bright copper coloured, with a black tail and occupies the Atherton Tablelands (see Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppery_brushtail_possum).
 
LaughingDove said:
Is anyone able to tell me what subspecies of Common Brushtail Possum is found in South Western Australia and what subspecies is found in the Atherton Tablelands near Cairns?
Thanks! :)
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T. v. hypoleucus in southwest Australia.

I'm not sure what the ones on the Atherton Tablelands are - the Coppery Brushtail is there obviously (I treat these as a full species) but there are also "regular" brushtails there, which I have listed as T. v. eburacensis with a question mark (distribution lists of the subspecies say this is found further north on Cape York and only johnstonii [the Coppery Brushtail] is on the Atherton Tablelands).
 
zooboy28 said:
I've just been investigating brushtail possums! The nominate should be everywhere, except the Top End & Kimberley (arnhemensis), and central eastern Queensland upland rainforests (johnstonii). The latter is uniformly bright copper coloured, with a black tail and occupies the Atherton Tablelands (see Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppery_brushtail_possum).
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But I saw both the Coppery Brushtail Possum (T. johnstonii) and the Common Brushtail Possum (T. vulpecula) in the same place in the Atherton Tablelands. :confused:

Edit: crossed with Chli
 
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I was posting while zooboy28 had already answered. In Tasmania there is the subspecies fuliginosus. In total there are six subspecies if including johnstonii, or five if that one is split.
 
LaughingDove said:
But I saw both the Coppery Brushtail Possum (T. johnstonii) and the Common Brushtail Possum (T. vulpecula) in the same place in the Atherton Tablelands. :confused:

Edit: crossed with Chli
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when I was up there (by Yungaburra) I was told the "regular" brushtails there might be introduced from outside the area.
 
Chlidonias said:
I was posting while zooboy28 had already answered. In Tasmania there is the subspecies fuliginosus. In total there are six subspecies if including johnstonii, or five if that one is split.
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My mammals field guide only mentions three subspecies, but the Finding Mammals of Australia mentions the six, and notes that T. v. eburacensis is found north of Townsville (i.e. including Atherton Tablelands).
 
My parents arrived in Perth last night so I will now be able to visit some zoos :).
The plan is for me to visit Caversham Wildlife Park tomorrow, and probably Perth Zoo on Thursday.
 
When you're at Perth Zoo, in the Reptile House is a small monitor- the Dampier Peninsula Monitor. The only one ever displayed in captivity, and only four specimens to date have ever been found (the other three are in a jar in a museum).

:p

Hix
 
Hix said:
When you're at Perth Zoo, in the Reptile House is a small monitor- the Dampier Peninsula Monitor. The only one ever displayed in captivity, and only four specimens to date have ever been found (the other three are in a jar in a museum).

:p

Hix
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I knew about the monitor but thanks for that. It is one of the main things I am hoping to see. 'Devilfish' mentioned in a PM however that it's quite difficult to see at this time of year.
 
I had a fantastic day in Caversham Wildlife Park today. I had visited before but that was quite a few years ago before I was into zoos and before I had a camera so it was my first visit where I could properly appreciate what I was seeing. I will be posting pictures, a species list, and eventually a review of the zoo once I've done all the Queensland stuff but here are a few highlights from the visit:

Avian highlights included a Satin Bowerbird building a bower, a wild Buff-banded Rail with a downy chick, a good view of a Green Catbird (after a not so good view in Lamington NP), three species of fairy wren, Australian Bustards, Flock Bronzewings, awesome looking Spinifex Pigeons, and two really cool owls - Lesser Sooty and Masked. I was particularly pleased to see a Lesser Sooty Owl after hearing them lots and they are an absolutely gorgeous species. It was also nice to see a Masked owl clearly after a fleeting glimpse in the wild.

Mammalian highlights included Northern Nailtail Wallabies, loads of really active Spotted-tailed Quolls and very close views of Brushtail and Rufous Bettong, Spotted-tailed Quoll, Golden Brushtail Possum and lots more in the 'Meet the Wombats and Friends' show. The zoo itself was pretty good too, though I'm not sure I like the huge numbers of albino kangaroos and wallabies that they've got and are breeding. There were a few pretty cool reptiles too.


As said above I will be doing Perth Zoo on Thursday. I think this will need the whole day so I've got to try and get my parents out of bed as early as possible. I am trying to persuade my parents to drive me up to AQWA on Friday but I suspect it's not going to happen so that will probably have to wait until Monday (tomorrow, Sat and Sun are already planned with other non-animal stuff). Cohunu Koala Park and Armadale Reptile Sactuary are quite near where I'm staying so I should fit those in at some point and my parents have expressed an interest in visiting Mandurah so I think I will be able to get to Peel Zoo then.
That's all the zoos within day trip distance of Perth isn't it? We're going to Fremantle tomorrow and I would be able to fit in a zoo if there was one around there but it seems like there isn't. Someone should open an Aquarium around there...
 
I've just transferred my pictures from Caversham onto my computer and it turns out I took over 2000 pictures! I may have overdone it slightly :D
 
I had a great day at Perth Zoo today and I think I was extremely lucky with spotting things. I saw almost everything in the nocturnal house on the first pass including very showey Western and Northern Quoll, Dibbler, Short-eared Rock Wallaby and everything else. The only things I missed on the first pass were Red-tailed Phascogale and Western Ringtail Possum which I saw easily on the second visit. The Dampier Peninsular Monitor also caused no problem and it was sitting out in an exposed position and moving around a bit in the open the whole time so it was a really awesome thing to see. The numbats were not visible on my first half hour visit to the enclosure but one was showing very well on a second visit to the enclosure. Other highlights were Western Brush Wallaby, Green Pygmy Goose, Western Swamp Tortoise as well as various other reptiles, and other stuff and the zoo layout, exhibits and theming was very good too.

Unfortunately it seems like I won't be able to persuade my parents to take me to AQWA tomorrow so that will have to wait until after the weekend.
 
I have now completed uploading pictures from my Queensland trip and I thought I would link all of the galleries that I have uploaded pictures to.

Various Wildlife: Australia - Wildlife Gallery
Queensland Museum and Assorted Other Stuff: Australia - Other Gallery
David Fleay Wildlife Park: David Fleay Wildlife Park Gallery
Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary: Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Gallery
Sea World Gold Coast: Sea World Gold Coast Gallery
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary: Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary Gallery
Australian Venom Zoo: Australian Venom Zoo Gallery
Birdworld Kuranda: BirdWorld Kuranda Gallery
Kuranda Koala Gardens: Kuranda Koala Gardens Gallery
Australian Butterfly Sanctuary: Australian Butterfly Sanctuary Gallery

I have also posted species lists for several zoos which have been linked in the descriptions of the pictures.

I have got pictures from Caversham Wildlife Park and Perth Zoo to upload and I will hopefully soon have pictures from some other zoos in the Perth area as well as some more wildlife but I think I will start with a few trip posts.
 
Flight to Perth and First Day – 5th, 6th, and 7th of June

I left Warsaw on the afternoon of the 5th of June on an Emirates flight to Dubai. Emirates was very good as usual and I was quite lucky on my flight to have an empty seat next to me. It was my first time flying completely by myself, but I had no problems at all with anything. I had transferred through Dubai many times before and that day's transfer was uneventful. No one had any problems with a 16 year old travelling unaccompanied, though one person at the gate before boarding my second flight from Dubai to Perth asked in a questioning voice if I was by myself. I said I was and he just checked me onto the plane without wanting any evidence that I had permission from my parents or that I was being met by someone in Australia and not going to end up on the street. No one on the Australian end bothered me at all either and at immigration I was able to just use the smart gates to enter and I arrived in Australia on the evening of the 6th. My flight landed slightly early at around 5 PM though it took a while to get off the plane because a person sitting in the row in front of me was unwell and had been on oxygen for the last few hours of the flight and had to be taken off the plane by ambulance.

The next day I lay in bed until late, tired and jet-lagged after a long flight and didn’t get up and have breakfast until gone ten. I was staying in the Perth Hills with my aunt and grandmother so I didn’t do much that afternoon apart from some very local birding, and they had saved all of their problems with electronics for me to sort out. Around four-ish though we went for an evening bird walk in the nearby Kalamunda National Park. Most of the stuff seen was fairly common but I gained two lifers which were Weebill and Square-tailed Kite, however I suspect those being lifers would be due to how much more into birding since I last visited Perth two years ago when I didn’t have binoculars and couldn’t be bothered struggling to identify a bird if it wasn’t obvious. At least that's what I thought when I saw them then, actually now that I think about it more, I haven't seen either of those two bird species again so maybe they were quite unusual after all...

Anyway, I enjoyed my first bit of Australian birding in the stunning surroundings of Kalamunda National Park which is quite hilly with lots of big impressive boulders and little streams and very pretty Eucalyptus forest.

Birds seen:
Australian Magpie
Australian Ringneck Parrot
Australian Raven
New Holland Honeyeater
(post #24)
 
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