The little black ants in my back yard have gone nuts.
They appear to be predicting the end of the world, or at least a bit of bad
weather. However, they obviously not consulted the ACT Weather Forecast.
On another front, today at Majura Firing Range, we came upon
one little gum sapling with a lot of ants (looking a bit like meat ants)
tending to some insects about a centimetre long, that looked a bit like
miniature cicadas, but where black with red eyes (or near the eyes) and with
white splotches on them. Seemed a bit like a dairy scene. Any
clues?
Looked pretty much like these, but I recall more white, and
they were quite small, about 12 mm or so. We could not find any more on any
other saplings in the immediate vicinity.
The Woodland Survey went well in fine, cool weather, with
little breeze until late mid morning. Most sites the usual suspects, but
with lots of Maned Geese in between, a Peregrine Falcon near Range Control, and
a Fantailed Cuckoo calling plaintively at one of the sites.
Other points to mention include the (again) large number of
Kangaroos, apparently with each mum followed by 2 offspring, all looking sleek
as satin, fat as butter, and with very plump tails. The country has
benefited well from the rain, with lots of flowers and green shoot, not looking
anything like as bare at the height of the macropod plague. However, near
the biggish dam at the northern end of the range the CSIRO has set up a “grass
growing” test site which is fenced off from the surrounding country, and
is I believe being photographed every couple of hours to see how fast the grass
and herbs are growing. What is relevant is that the herbage in the site,
which has been going since Christmas (I believe) is between two and three times
as long and lush as the kangaroo grazed area surrounding it. The surrounding
stuff looks much lusher than it has looked over the past three years or so, and
it would seem kangaroo numbers will again be a subject for heated
discussion. They looked so cute, cuddly, and edible.
Cheers
Paul
Paul Fennell
25 Pickles St
Scullin ACT 2614
026254 1804
0407105460
