Ellen and I came home yesterday, have been trapping near Portland for the last 5 days. Trapping was good, lots of animals but a bit wet. A horrible thing happened on Wednesday, we ran over two Eastern grey kangaroos which came out of nowhere and one of them died :'( Kangaroos are not the wisest animals in the world, a bit like sheep, they wait until the car is coming and then decide they want to hop across the road. One of the kangaroo seemed to be okay because it jumped away after the crash, but the other one had a broken leg. It crawled around and we were so upset to see it looking at us in pain. We had no idea what to do so we drove to the nearest farmer to ask if they had a riffle to kill it. The woman in the farm had a riffle but was not confident in using it and her husband was not at home so we drove back to the kangaroo and then it was already dead. It probably had severe internal injuries and it also may have died from the shock. Just horrible and we felt so bad, but at least it did not suffer for long. We had to drive past it every day for four days. We also had to drive past a dead Echidna every day and in the house we stayed in there was a dead bat. It was still fresh so we put it in the freezer and took it back with us, very cute little thing, too bad it was dead though. So a lot of dead things around us these days, but luckily no trap deaths, just one bush rat that somehow got out of the trap but got its tail stuck in the door and was stuck until I came... poor thing but it was alive. We caught Swamp Antechinus (A. minimus) and it was the first time it was found in that area so that is really good news, three big males. One did not like being photograph and gave me some nasty bites and scratches, but hey that's okay, just few bites between friends :) . And the best thing is that no ticks managed to get stuck on me, I saw one crawling on my bag though... yakk. We also had to do a lot of vedge work (describe vegetation and find main species) and then I heard a familiar sound, drums drums... and two big EMU'S came running. I looove emus, they are my favourite bird, it is so funny to see them run. And the sound they make is like someone is playing drums. Lovely emus :)
The house was quite good, lots of creepy crawlers though, a big huntsman waiting for me near my bed...
Happy summer in Iceland, Gledilegt sumar :)

Hey all, I have been really busy putting up invertebrate (hryggleysingjar: kongulaer, maurar, sniglar...) pit fall traps for today with Kylie and have had no time to reply the e-mails that are piling up, sorry about that... Tomorrow Im going on a 5 day work-trapping trip to Portland with Ellen, we will trap HEATH MICE, cutiecutie and MINNIES (Antechinus minimus)... great fun and I will bring all my rain gear and make sure I wont get wet. Hopefully I wont get any ticks on me... argggg :o)

I am always talking about Antechinus minimus, which by the way is the little marsupial that I am doing my project on. Antechinus minimus (now you all remember the name) means "The smallest hedgehog equivalent" The first people who described the species actually put it in a wrong category and said it was the smallest of the quolls, but it is actually one of the biggest antechinus species. And it reminded them of a small hedgehog so thats why it is called a hedgehog equivalent :)
Well, enough of that, I am going home to pack, wish me a tickfree journey and I will give all details when I come back :) Turilu...

A very very wet last day of trapping... I was soaking from top to toe, left my gum boots and wet pants at home because it had been so dry the days before... will not make that mistake again. There were mosquitoes everywhere, horrible thick prickly bush that I had to cut through, rain and then I fell in the mud... the thought " WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING HERE" crossed my mind few times but everything changed when we found the gorgeous little fluffy animals in the traps :) It makes it all worth it, and the showers after this are the best showers ever.
Have a great weekend everyone :)

I hope everybody had great Easter holidays, lots of chocolate and good company. I spent the weekend at Queenscliff with Fred, Judy (my Australian parent substitutes), Anna (their daughter) and her husband Greg and kids Kate and William, and Peter (F&J son) and his girlfriend Jodie. Sunday was busy busy, first golfing for 4 hours and THEN ... biggest highlight of all ... I went with Peter and Jodie to Bells beach to see the Rip Curl Pro, which is World Championship surf competition. I saw the BEST surfers in the world that day. Amaaaaazing, definitely among the coolest things I have ever seen. I got soaking wet because the tide was coming in but video camera and phone survived though. Monday me, Judy and Fred took the ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento and we had lunch there and strolled along the main shopping street, really cute town.

Since Tuesday me and Kylie have been trapping at her site in the Alcoa lease, near the horrrrrible coal mine they have there. Until now we have only caught Bush Rats and one Agile Antechinus (so cute) but we have one more day to go. It has been really hot in the past few days, 32 °C yesterday and that makes it very sweaty to work. But it is (unfortunately) cooling down now and will go back being normal April temperature (20 °C) ... hmmm I know I know, it is quite warm on European standard, but it feels cold brrr...

Me and Kylie were going to start a trapping session for her yesterday, had the traps, bait and everything ready and then the University car would not start... seems like someone forgot to turn off the lights so the battery was completely empty and when it was finally fixed it was too late to go bush. So we will go next week instead... We are hoping to trap Pygmy Possums which are very rare. I have never seen them and Kylie has only trapped them once so it is not very likely but perhaps...
Ahh, Easter holidays coming soon. I will spend the weekend at Queenscliff with Fred and Judy and family and hopefully the weather will be nice so we can go to the beach... :) Hope you will all have a great time during the holidays and eat alot of chocholate eggs, specially you guys in Iceland... NOI SIRIIIUUUUUUS, namminamm :)

The leftovers after the housewarming lasted almost all week, and we still have meat, crisps and cakes... But why hold a party if there are no leftovers? Last weekend I was in Melbourne with Kylie, she had to work on saturday thought so I spent the day by myself in the city, shopping, reading and enjoying life. I love walking in the city, there is always something interesting going on, a bit different from sleepy but lovely Geelong. In the evening we met up with Kylies friends for dinner and then went to the movies to see 50 first dates, very nice :) Yesterday we walked through the Victoria market and went to the big flower show. Great to spend some time in Melbourne and now its Monday again... Its almost lunch time and I am still trying to wake up, the coffee is not working...