Backyard Zoology · 18 November 2019
2019-11-18T19:28:31+11:00
https://www.facebook.com/backyardzoology/posts/pfbid02XKPGGQEUQ68G6sabAymL6H2ubMoJZ3F5tjKSF4jTVVsbCuQqD8vVHwowvqVUf9XPl

Not going to lie, today didn't start out great. I've been working really hard on trying to get my pain and fatigue levels under control and have been eating super well, drinking a lot less (RIP fun me 😂) and trying to walk more, stretch and basically be a better owner of my body. But you know what, this body of mine is a total bastard and instead of thanking me for the kindness that I have been bestowing upon it, it has taken everything up a notch. I had planned to go down the coast looking for some shore birds today but soon realised that I wouldn't make it. Not in a writing my last will and testament with a stick in the sand kind of not make it, but in a not be able to do the almost two hour drive and back way. Bugger.

But I've also been going slowly stir crazy taking it easy. This girl needs adventures - even little, bitty mini ones - or she breaks. (I'm talking in third person. Has it happened? Have I broken already? 😂😳) Anyway, I digress. I figured a mid way point might work, not staying at home but not going too far either. So I grabbed my camera bag, shoved a piece of (healthy and home made thank you very much) banana bread in my mouth and before I had the chance to change my mind, jumped in the car. 

Now honestly I had two animals in mind, my total favourite, the Short-Beaked Echidna that I don't see often enough and the big ol' egg eater (and birds and reptiles and insects and small mammals eater) the Lace Monitor. I have never seen one in the wild and I was KEEN! I mean, I've headed up to Mt Annan plenty of times, scoping areas where people have sighted them before specifically to spot them but until today haven't had any luck (oh no, I've spoilt the ending! 😂😉) I wandered in, who am I kidding, I noisily crunched my way along the pebble path and across the many super dry leaves, snapping twigs along my way. I sounded like what I had been told the monitors do as they make their way through the bush! 

It was a weird kind of atmosphere, the air thick with smoke from the bushfires further north, the Bell Miners out in force with their beautiful but strangely depressing (to me anyway) musical call ringing out and bouncing around the bush. And then I remembered that the Monitors spend most of their time in trees and so I looked up. I looked up and turned directly to a gorgeous, massive gum, a scar in its side, its bark peeling off in large sheets. And there it was. Just over half way up the trunk, a big, beautiful Lace Monitor!!! I was pretty damn excited and went off path to try and get a closer look but not close enough to disturb it. I ended up leaving and walking away for about 15 minutes and then back, giving it a chance to hopefully change position and as luck would have it, it had started to climb further up. 

I stayed on, watching for almost 45 minutes until it finally started to make its way down to the ground. Fast. I think I was kind of shocked with how fast it was able to move face first down the tree and have to admit I also moved fast, to an open area, as I had been blocked in by shrubs and massive fallen logs and I didn't want the reptile to feel closed in (they can grow up to 2m in length. I really struggled to estimate this one's size but I'm total crap at that at the best of time). Unfortunately for me, by showing an abundance of caution, look I'm a very risk adverse kind of girl all right, and I just kept looking at those massive claws and thinking of all the possums that have tried to climb me 😂 I missed it walking away!!! The one thing I really wanted to see and I totally and utterly screwed it up, the Monitor swallowed up by the bush. 

As I walked back to my car I let myself turn and look back, scanning the landscape one last time. I was being kind of wistful and thankful that my bad morning had turned out so, so well. Except I was standing on a Meat Ant nest. Trust me when I say those ants are ANGRY f*ckers 😂😂😂 If you happened to drive past a girl in the botanic garden today, throwing one of her boots far away while slapping at her jeans wildly, yeah, that was me! Um, hi!

Lace Monitor
Mt Annan Botanic Garden