Where? Where? Wedgie! 2018 Day 26 : 26-05-2018

Six ten minute surveys inside our extremely scrubby square.. no Wedgies or other target species. Brilliant result!

The South West is a tough place to walk if there are no tracks so we only covered a few kilometres all day. With gardening gloves on and binoculars on board we slipped through to the plains behind the beach. Drainage lines of small creeks coming off the steep hills were clogged with cutting grass, Macquarie vine, bauera and Melaleuca bush. Underfoot was soggy and dotted with hundreds of burrowing crayfish chimneys. Small pink robins and honeyeaters darted among the banksias and a pair of Green Rosellas perched in the small gum tree. There was no wind so apart from the bird song and the sound of water running in the gullies all was quiet.

Checking the GPS, it showed we were just inside the northern edge of our square so we stopped on a Button grass clump for the first 10 minute observation. Nothing. 

Having done 4 surveys along the valley we decided to try a couple from the nearest hill. The ground was covered in a pale red slime that made climbing slow. From the top we could see more sky but we were looking down on the valley which makes it hard to spot birds against the bush. Nothing. 

On the downhill run James tweaked his knee on the leg he broke tagging eagles earlier this year. Taking it slowly we reached the scrubby creeks again. We (I) chose a particularly nasty route back through and it took nearly an hour to move a few hundred metres. Back at camp we are deciding how to approach our survey tomorrow. We might change the square to include Moulters Inlet and do it by water! Just as I write this James has spotted a Brown Goshawk. Outside the surveys but we’ll take it.

T-shirt winner: Avatheunicorn