Linda and Roger's Bunhybee Grasslands - Animals


This is a page within Roger and Linda's Bunhybee Grasslands Web-Site.
Bunhybee Grasslands is a 49 hectare / 120 acre conservation property 35km south of Braidwood, in southern N.S.W.
You can follow through the internal links, or you may find it easier to use the Site-Map.


Information about Animals

This page contains information about animals that are known to be on the property, under the following headings:

Mammals
Monotreme
Reptiles
Birds
Insects
Arachnids
Ferals
Pig-Damage

Mammals

Species Lists: Wikipedia: Australia generally and NSW

We've seen Eastern Grey Kangaroos, often in 2008-10, but less so since then, never in large numbers, usually up close to the forest. They would seem to graze mainly the upper slopes – at least during the reasonable conditions that held in 2008 and into early 2009. In autumn 2009, they had been grazing the microlaena in the two patches in the NW corner and below the forest fence-line 100m south of the NW corner. Now that we realise how bushy and even high Microlaena grows, we also realise how much they nibble it down.

We've once seen what we'd loosely describe as a red-backed small kangaroo or wallaby in the forest beside the road, 2km north of Bunhybee (1 Mar 2010).

There are Wombats on the property. There's plenty of evidence in the form of paths, gaps under the bottom strands of fences, and holes in and adjacent to the property. Several new burrows have appeared in various parts of the property, including near Peppermint corner in late 2008, on the central block in 2010, in the dam wall in 2012, and above Gate Gully in 2013 and 2014.

You generally don't see them during the daytime. Two exceptions have been one in summer 2010, and another in very early spring on 2014:

20 Feb 2010
Wombat ...
... Sick? Injured?
Visibly breathing
... He'd started to dig in,
but had stopped
It was a 29 degree day,
and he was exposed.
He was clearly playing possum,
as the space was vacant 8 days later!

20 Aug 2014 ...
... flooded out of
his main holes ...
... and not yet
finished his new one ...
... but also
sunning himself

Monotreme

Reference info: Wikipedia

We've seen a very healthy echida 7 or 8 times in c.70 visits in 2008-18, usually on the main ridge (which we now commonly refer to as Echidna Ridge), but also on the South Block and below the dam.

Lark and Echidna, Sep 2008
Echidna, Sep 2008
Echidna, 11 Nov 2009
(Martin Butterfield)
Echidna – 13 Nov 2010
Echidna – 22 Oct 2012
In the East of South Block
Yet again (no photo),
ridge-e-didge,
on 9 Nov 2016
10 Dec 2017, Brünig wary
NW of North Block

Reptiles

Recognition Sites: Australian Museum (Sydney)

Snakes

Recognition Sites: What Snake is That?

Lizards

Shinglebacks are sometimes seen in the area, but unfortunately usually when they haven't made it across the road in time.

Blue-Tongue Lizard, Nov 2008
Lizard, Nov 2009
Dragon, Nov 2009

Turtles

Recognition Sites: ANGFA (Qld)

Frogs

Recognition Sites: Amphibian Research Centre

25 Sep 2013
Frog froth ...
... in the dam ...
... after wet conditions

Birds

Species Lists: Wikipedia

~ Resident / Sedentary:

~ Migratory:

~ Occasional, in the open, and in the snow-gums along the road:

~ Additional sounds heard in the top corner, coming out of the Bunhybee Peak forest:

See also the following Lists, below:

Wedge-tailed eagle, Sep 2009
... closer-up ...
... and again

On 7 September 2013, Yellow-Faced Honeyeaters were migrating back to the mountains, with many flocks of about a hundred coming southwards along the road, and fewer groups SW across the ridge. The following were more easily photographed:

Yellow-Tailed ...
... Black Cockatoos ...
... Very Early Spring ...
... from the Deuas
westwards towards
the Tallaganda
25 Sep 2013
The resident Lark
His favourite rocks
are bare on top
9 Nov 2016
Kooka!
1 Oct 2017
The resident Lark
9 Dec 2017
Olive-Backed Oriole

Insects

Recognition Sites: CSIRO Entomology

Authoritative Reference: Farrow R. (2016) 'Insects of South-Eastern Australia' CSIRO Publishing, 2016

When you look closely, there are a lot of them.

Dragonflies, commonly over the main dam and the small dam

Recognition Sites: CSIRO Entomology

Dragonfly, Nov 2008

Moths and Butterflies

Recognition Sites: CSIRO's Australian Moths Online and Don Herbison-Evans' Butterflies and Moths

Emperor Gum moth, Nov 2009 ...
... Opodiphthera eucalypti
5 Apr 2010
Pasture Day Moth, Apina callisto ...
Brown, Heteronympha sp.
13 Nov 2010 –
Don Herbison-Evans says prob.
Pollanisus viridipulverulenta (Jan 2013)
30 Jan 2016, Shouldered brown male,
Heteronympha penelope TBC ...
... nope, not
a Painted Lady
19 Sep 2020 ...
Yellow Admiral on Epacris

Grasshoppers (& katydids, we're told!)

Recognition Sites: DAFF, CSIRO Entomology

We've been told that there could be 20 species of grasshoppers on a property like this, but all our untrained eyes have seen so far is:

Green Grasshopper
Feb 2009
Acrida conica
Brown Grasshopper
Nov 2009
Phaulacridium vittatum
Green Grasshopper
Jan 2014
Polichne parvicauda
Yellow-winged Locust
Gastrimargus musicus
Jan 2016
Both brown and green,
caught in the grill
Feb 2016

Beetles and Bugs

Recognition Sites: CSIRO Entomology: 'True Bugs' and Beetles

Apr 2009 – A Bug (we thought)
Eucalypt Weevil, Gonipterus sp.
Sep 2009 –
a water-running bug,
pond, southern waterline
Shore fly, Ephydridae
Nov 2009 –
Luminous Golden and Green Beetles ...
... Diphucephala sp
 
30 Dec 2009 – Christmas beetle
Anoplognathus montanus
on Banksia marginata
20 Feb 2010 – A Bug
 
28 Dec 2010 –
Spotted flower beetle, Neorrhina punctata
on the Leptosperm ...
... Ecnolagria grandis during
the seed-harvest ...
... Plant Bug Miridae with spider
20 Mar 2011 –
Monophlebulus sp on A. melanoxyon
2 January 2013 –
Iridescent Beetle Chalcopteroides
8 Jan 2014 ...
... Green Christmas Beetle ...
... Xylonichus eucalypti

Whose Handiwork?

20 Feb 2010
Snow Gum ...
... eaten by what? ...
...

Don Herbison-Evans suggests Christmas Beetles (Jan 2013).
And Roger Farrow confirmed Christmas Beetles Anoplognathus sp (Sep 2021).

Caterpillars

Recognition Sites: Don Herbison-Evans

28 Dec 2010 ...
... Caterpillars,
Noctuidae ...
... from the harvest
of the Kangaroo Grass
... and another

Mantis

Mar 2013 – Archimantis latistyla ...
... found in the southern swamp, relocated to a dry area where the camera was ...
... and showing the green eye

Wasp (but looks like an ant)

Wingless female wasp ...
... Diamma bicolor ...
... with a nasty sting,
says Roger Farrow

Arachnids

Recognition Sites: Ed Nieuw, Wikipedia, Qld

From time to time:

Holes consistent with:

9 May 09 –
Trap-door spider's hole,
near fence, near NE corner
3 Mar 2010 –
Spider
28 Dec 2010 –
during the Kangaroo
Grass harvest ...
... and another
12 December 2012
St Andrews in a Vanilla Lily
2 January 2013
Poss. Brown Trap-Door ...
... disturbed while
digging out a thistle
14 January 2015
Green Spider ...
... ?Neosparassus ZZ572
Green huntsman spider
30 Jan 2016
Tan and Black
2cm long
in Leptosperm
The seeds, very
similar of course

Ferals

Species Lists: Wikipedia


Examples of Pig-Damage

Nov 2008
(late spring) ...
... perhaps 1 year old ...
... in recovery mode ...
... fairly healthy, unassisted
Apr 2009 –
1-2 years old?
E of the house-site

Here is a variety of pig-damage, shot in Nov 2012, in the process of repairing itself pretty effectively. After 2-1/2 wet years following a 9-year drought. the Schoenus apogon was particularly vigorous:


Martin Butterfield's Bird List on 11 November 2009


Rainer Rehwinkel's Bird List on 22 October 2012

These were based mostly on calls from the forest adjacent to Picnic Corner

This is a page within the Bunhybee Grasslands Web-Site, home-page here, and site-map here
Contact: Linda or Roger
Created: 2 October 2008; Last Amended: 19 September 2021