Humpbacks ahoy! Whale watching off Sydney

We’ve been meaning to go whale watching since we moved to Sydney and today we finally got round to it. The weather was not the best - and the sea was a bit choppier than ideal - but it was a fantastic morning, well spent. Best of all, we got to see humpback whales!

It was only a small pod - a mother and calf, plus “escort” - but we got some reasonably close up views when one of them was having a play.

As well as a couple of breaches, this included a couple of good tail slaps.

Amazing animals. We saw some birds too - and, of course, some great views of the cliffs around Sydney harbour. All in all, a recommended half day trip.

Please sponsor me for City2Surf (one week to go!)

This time next week, I’ll be running the 14km City2Surf fun run.

I’m not going to pretend that I signed up for this “for charity” - it’s a fitness motivator - but, at the same time, I’d love to raise some money for a cause that I care about and will be "running for the panda" to support wildlife conservation.

Before signing up, I’d never run 14km before, and the City2Surf route also includes the notorious 2km “heartbreak hill” in the middle.

Donating to my supporter page will really help me get up that hill!

My first wild wallaby

Over the weekend, I was at Lorne for the 20th APS Lorne Proteomics Symposium. It’s a lovely spot for a conference, and the schedule always includes some free time in the afternoon. On the friday, I took advantage of this and went for a walk on the nearby Tramway track.

I was attracted by the (somewhat optimistic) hope of seeing an Echidna, possibly my favourite animal of all, but instead got my first wild wallaby on the trail:

And some kangaroos:

Indeed, it was a good day for nature, with a seal having fun by the pier and some cockatoos strutting their stuff. (Galahs too, for all those Alf Stewart fans.)

No echidna, sadly. Maybe next time. (More pics here.)

Awesome Octopi

Via the Youtube channel of a friend from (but no longer in!) Dublin, Jonathan Gordon, here are some awesome videos of octopus camouflage. (Yes, I know that “octopuses” or “octopodes” is more correct for the plural but “octopi” is more fun!) I’ve seen this kind of thing on documentaries before but never realised this kind of thing could happen when just “[diving] down to look at a shell”.

The screenshots give the game away, sadly, but even when you know it’s there, the camouflage is still so amazing that the octopus is hard to spot.

And if that’s too scary for you, here is another video from Jon featuring an über-cute baby octopus “walking on the beach”:

Here be (water) dragons!

One of the great things about living in Sydney is that you do not need to venture far from the city to find little pockets of National Park and bush tracks, where you can take a stroll away from the hustle and bustle. One such pocket is the headland at Shelly Beach, in Manly.

Last Friday, I took advantage of a day off to pay Shelly Beach a visit, and stumbled across this guy (or gal) on the headland:

To be honest, I almost stumbled on him! He was good enough to hang around and pose for some close-ups. (A much larger one scared the bejaysus out of me when it bolted into the bush a little later!)

Judging from the signs up in the area, (s)he is an Eastern water dragon. I've never really noticed such prominent ear openings on lizards before.

The UK has only 6 native reptile species, so it’s always a treat to see them. (Until, I suspect, I stumble across a venomous snake!) Fantastic creatures!

A couple more photos here.

What do you get if you cross a dead cockroach with a bunch of ants?

After 24 hours, not a lot…

Whales should not be hunted for scientific research

Hunting whales for commercial exploitation was banned in the mid eighties and for good reason: stocks were dwindling and many of the uses for whale parts (oil etc.) are now redundant. Of course, people still eat whales and, not being a vegetarian, it would be pretty hypocritical of me to take issue with that aspect. (At least whales are free range, although I have no idea how humane their actual deaths are.) The problem is that many species of whale are now endangered or vulnerable. With their long generations and slow reproduction, it is clearly not that easy for populations to rebound.

Japan has got round whaling bans by exercising its right to “scientific” whaling. Not everyone is convinced, though, including the Australian government who have recently reported that they will send out a surveillance plane to the Southern Ocean to monitor Japanese whaling ships having previously challenged Japanese whaling at the UN as “commercial whaling in another guise”. The Japanese, of course, deny this.

The thing is, whilst it’s not my field, I cannot think of any good scientific reasons to hunt (and kill) whales at all. An article in the Japan Times last year, “In science terms, Japan has no need at all to kill whales”, agrees:

“Now, it is true that by catching and killing whales, and analyzing their stomach contents, a lot can be learned about cetacean biology. In the past, it was the only real method available to investigate these animals. But for many years now, it has been entirely unnecessary to kill whales in order to get the information that Japan’s Institute for Cetacean Research says it needs. …

Killing whales provides negligible data to science. Less than 1 percent of the papers published on cetacean biology come from studies that required the killing of a whale.”

Ironically, one of the reasons given to the scientific whaling is to get a better handle on their current populations - perhaps not so ironic if the hope is to use that information to remove the whaling ban.

There are some nations, such as Norway, who object to - and have declared themselves exempt from - the International Whaling Commission moratorium. This is bad (although I think they generally target large whale populations) but at least it is honest. I think it is time to ban scientific whaling just as commercial whaling is banned. That way, if a nation wants flout international consensus then at least the genuine motives will be clear.

Singing (but not stridulating) cicadas

When we arrived in Sydney it was the awesome purple Jacaranda trees and screechy fruit bats that gave us daily reminders that we were in a new a foreign land. At this time of year, it’s the cicadas. As reported in a Daily Telegraph article, Cicadas having a blast this year, it is a particularly noisy year for these insect tree huggers.

According to Wikipedia:

“The male cicada has loud noisemakers called “tymbals” on the sides of the abdominal base. Its “singing” is not the stridulation (where one structure is rubbed against another) that characterizes many other familiar sound-producing insects, such as crickets. Rather, the tymbals are regions of the exoskeleton that form a complex membrane with thin, membranous portions and thickened ribs; contracting the internal tymbal muscles produces a clicking sound as the tymbals buckle inwards, and the relaxing of the muscles causes the tymbals to return to their original position, producing another click. The interior of the male abdomen is mostly hollow, which amplifies the sound. A cicada rapidly vibrates these membranes, and enlarged chambers derived from the tracheae make its body serve as a resonance chamber, further amplifying the sound. The cicada modulates the sound by positioning its abdomen toward or away from the substrate.”

These things are crazily loud! On recent drives down the coast and to the Hunter Valley we would be driving along and hear this noise building, as if we were approaching a hissing downpour of rain through the trees. It was, in fact, pockets of cicadas, “singing” so loudly that even at 100 km/h it sounded loud as we passed. (Louder than “an industrial jackhammer, a chainsaw or even a dreaded vuvuzela horn” according to the Telegraph.)

Although we have cicadas outside our apartment that start up around dusk each night, they fortunately shut up before bed time. (And even if they did not, they’d still be more welcome than a Huntsman spider!)

[Picture from Wikipedia article on Cyclochila australasiae a.k.a. the Green Grocer - “one of the loudest insects in the world”.]

Southampton/Sydney differences - local wildlife

When I went to unlock the shed last weekend, I found this guy had set up residence in and around the padlock. Being in the south of England, I just admired the beautiful little critter. If the same thing happens to me once we've moved to Sydney, I think I might respond a little differently!

Science, democracy and badgers all lose as the coalition cull begins tonight

In defiance of massive scientific and public oppostion, a massive no-vote from MPs (rejecting the policy by 147 votes to 28) and even the wise words of Chris Packham, the coalition cull begins today as official shooting breaks out in the night. The new Badger Trust logo says it all, really.

A Monster in the garden

There are many beetles in this world but this particular monster was in our back garden when we got back from our holiday last week.

It’s some kind of stag beetle although I’m not sure which species - there are a lot of them. I’m sure in some countries it would be considered a tiddler but for a British bug it was pretty big. Look at the mandibles on that bad boy!

Gull chicks for company at Dublin Marks & Spencer Rooftop Restaurant

Anyone who watched BBC Springwatch this year will know that gulls are increasingly nesting on the roofs of city buildings, which are safe from predators and provide lots of nice, flat nesting spots. Last week, we met a friend for brunch in the Marks & Spencer Rooftop Restaurant on Grafton Street in Dublin. The restaurant features an outside section overlooking Grafton Street and good for enjoying the rare bit of Dublin summer sun. At present, it also features a pair of cute little gull chicks, being reared on the flat roof section just beyond the barrier. The pictures below are a bit rubbish and out of focus but you get the idea.