When I arrived in Australia, I hoped to reach 50 species on my overall list, I was then at 19. It was ambitious but doable. When I had to send my detector for repairs, that goal seemed unrealistic. However, by the time I left Darwin, I had reached that magical number! Best of all, I still had a couple of nights left in the country!
I visited Mt Glorious but didn’t get a lot of bat activity, the rain probably didn’t help. The next day, I visited O’Reilly’s. They used to run the Mammal Week there, one week where the goal was to see any many mammals as possible. So the bat fauna in the area is quite well known. Bat activity was okay but the diversity wasn’t great. I still managed to add two more species to my list, Chalinolobus morio and the Golden-tipped bat (Phoniscus papuensis).
Of course, one cannot visit Australia without looking for some of the strangest mammals on Earth. I saw 19 species of Marsupials, Kangaroos, Wallabies and Possums. The highlights were the Striped Possum in Curtain Tree Fig, the Lumholtz’s Tree Kangaroo at Nerada Tea Factory and the trio of gliders (Greater, Yellow-bellied and Feather-tailed) I saw with Alan. That day, up in the Tablelands, I also met John Harris. Both Alan and John are great naturalists. If you happen to be visiting either Queensland or Victoria, make sure to get in touch with them!
Leaving the very best for the very last, I had the chance to accomplish a childhood dream, seeing a Platypus.
As usual, contact me for GPS coordinates or more information on locals contacts.