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.
This page contains information about animals that are known to be on the property, under the following headings:
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 |
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 |
Recognition Sites: Geoff Robertson's 'Reptiles of Southern Tablelands', and 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 |
Species Lists: Wikipedia
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 |
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 |
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. |
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 |
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 |
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 ... |
|
30 Jan 2016 Tan and Black |
2cm long |
in Leptosperm |
The seeds, very similar of course |
Species Lists: Wikipedia
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:
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