Take a hike (with Eli)!

We recently decided to do some local exploring.....on foot. We set off from home nice and early and Eli was particularly keen to look for signs of koalas - not so much like this one on the right, but more like the claw marks on tree trunks like those on the left. And we saw lots of them as we plunged deeper into the forest near our house.

For any of you that know him well, you will know that Eli is quite the collector, so he was also very excited to find lots of different types of rocks on the trail - if only I had Christy's geological knowledge to answer his questions! Aside from identifying quartz and sandstone, there wasn't much information I could give him. I love how he asks questions and wants to know so much about the world. I'm less keen on his desire to bring big rocks back home with him, especially since I become the packhorse for these ventures...after some negotiation, I finally got him to agree that we could take some photos of the bigger rocks, but leave them behind...phew!

It was a lovely day in the forest, we saw lots of these yellow Pultanaea flowers and plenty of different types of Eucalypts too, like this scribbly gum.












Eli spotted some ants that looked like they were drinking the sap from a scribbly gum - here's a photo and a short video of them in action.

After lots of walking (I later calculated that we had walked about 5.6 km), we came home along the roadside and Eli discovered (by stepping on it) a snake that had been killed on the road. This was undoubtedly the highlight of his walk, as he kept on talking about how he'd found it and how that was the first snake that he'd ever stepped on...and I kept telling him that I hope that is the only snake he ever steps on...






Not far from home (about 500 m away actually) Eli wanted to record a message, about the snake and about a rock he'd collected...enjoy!

He's a natural!

There's something fishy about Eli and it's honestly not all my doing. He just loves getting into our local creek to do a spot of fishing and he is always super excited whenever he catches something, whether it be a water boatman, a backswimmer, a waterstrider, a damselfly or dragonfly nymph, or even a caddis fly larvae. But what really excites him, more than all of the wonderful types of bugs he can capture, is when he is able to catch a fish in his net. 

Now it must be said that Eli's an experienced hand at catching the non-native guppies that reside in our creek, but on our most recent fishing trip he managed to catch a couple of bigger and much better specimens. First, he went deeper than ever before, so that he was chest deep in the water and away he went sweeping his net through the water near the overhanging fern tree...and lo and behold, he had netted a purple spotted gudgeon. He was over the moon (since we were getting sick of collecting guppies!) as he'd never caught a gudgeon before.

Not content with one gudgeon, he set back on the task of catching something else, something new...and that's when it happened. After a seemingly innocuous sweep of his net, he proudly proclaimed that he thought that he'd caught an eel! I didn't scoff at the suggestion (there are eels in our creek), but I was a bit suspicious, but then there it was swimming around in our bucket. Sure, it was tiny, but there's no mistaking it. Eli was super excited and wanted to keep the eel in one of our aquaria, but I didn't think that plan would gel so well with our gudgeon breeding program (see earlier post) so I convinced him that we shouldn't keep it. The deal was brokered that we would add his newly collected gudgeon to our ever-growing population and Eli named him 'Crazy'. It took a few days, but Crazy has now really gotten comfortable in the tank and is even starting to get brighter colours courtesy of the clear water and good food. Now Eli is looking forward to Crazy breeding (we are pretty sure she is a female) to continue the successes we've been having of late...I wonder where this is going to end...

More and more and more gudgeons!

Yes, I know, another aquatic tale in this blog post...but it turns out that we're very good at making excellent breeding conditions for our purple spotted gudgeons! As you may recall, we caught a few of these fish in our local creek last year and they've been quite happy in our tank since then.



So happy, in fact, that Eli and I woke one morning to find the side of the tank covered in tiny gudgeon eggs and being guarded diligently but one of the males in the tank. I'd never reared fish successfully before and with Eli's urging, we decided to keep a close on these eggs and do all that we could to ensure that some of them made it through to adulthood. A bit of reading later we learnt that the male defends the eggs for between 3-9 days and gently fans them with his fins to make sure that they don't get covered with sediment. No risk of that happening in our tank, but the male kept up his parental duties, day and night.


A few days later we noticed that the eggs were looking even more fishy...with the eyes and shape of the young gudgeons becoming apparent. We decided then to remove all of the fish, Dad included, and our red-claw crayfish, into the other tank, which had only just been made available courtesy of the new turtle pond out in the backyard, to ensure that none of the small fish were going to be gobbled up when they hatched. And then, a couple of days after that, we started seeing the small gudgeons at the bottom of the tank (there is a tiny one, right in the middle of this figure), essentially learning to swim and fend for themselves. Since then we've added food and there are six baby purple spotted gudgeons swimming around in our tank and getting bigger as each day passes by.

After all of that excitement, it then came as a big surprise (but maybe it shouldn't have!) when we spotted a male guarding eggs again in the new fish tank...and we're now into our fourth round of breeding and we are fast running out of space and capacity to rear more gudgeons!

The turtle pond project.

All winter Eli and I had been working on a pond project, with a view to getting the turtles out of the aquarium and into the backyard. Unfortunately it took a lot of waiting for critical parts of the set up - things like the liner, the pump, the filter... - and we sadly lost Zoomy during that time. However, we persisted with the pond project and we eventually, after about 4 months of waiting, had all of the necessary elements to create and fill the pond for Swifty. Here are some photos of the final phases, long after I dug the hole and had the corrugated iron walls and front gate installed. 



Eli was a great little helper too, including selecting the log and rocks that we need to provide some habitat for Swifty and he absolutely wanted to be there as we filled the pond from our raintank for the very first time.



Finally, it was time to release Swifty into his new home. We were all very excited - not only does the pond give him more space for swimming, but there are heaps of opportunities for basking too...


Eli did the honours, placing Swifty down on a rock at the side of the pond, so he could have a look around and become familiar with his new surroundings...

It took him (Swifty) a long time to get comfortable - I actually think that he was just enjoying sitting on the hot rock - but with the crowd watching - including three of Eli's grandparents! - he eventually plunged into the water and began swimming around his new home.

 

Later that afternoon Swifty was out of the pond, exploring the land and sharing his new home with a cute little water dragon (who has also laid claim to this new territory).

It's been great since Swifty moved out - we now have more room for fish in our aquaria - but more importantly Swifty is much happier and healthier as he gets to bask, swim, walk and enjoy his new surroundings. Aside from our plan to get a few aquatic plants for Swifty to hide behind/eat, the turtle pond project has finally been accomplished!