And just like that, it's spring! As in, all the animals from all the land congregating in our tiny backyard and getting down to some serious David Attenborough style shit!!! 😂 Tawny Frogmouths launching off branches and grabbing insects off of tree trunks, a chubby Brushtail Possum noisily dragging itself in and out of a tiny section of our tin roof, Ringtail Possums, three last night and literally loads first thing this morning (I'll get the dodgy video together shortly) leaping from tree to tree and FINALLY my favourites: SUGAR GLIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay the photos are ahem, basic, but you guys have got to understand how much I love these mother fluffies 😍 When we first moved in, it must have taken me a year to work out what the quiet yet very insistent barking I'd occasionally hear at night was. We've had several close encounters over the years including a Sugar Glider doing what it does best, almost taking the top of Matt's head off, flinging itself out from the camellias and into a nearby tree. But these critters are small. And fast. And if they're not yapping at the time, you might only get lucky by noticing the gentle woosh of leaves as they otherwise silently hop and glide and run through the trees.
I was actually hanging out in the yard last night hoping to see a meteor (turns out, there was a HUGE one, but I missed it because I'm a total amateur) so didn't initially have my camera with me. I was shining the torch around hoping, really hoping that I might get lucky when I caught the eye shine of a lovely sugar clinging onto one of the tree trunks just near me. I had time to not only run inside, swearing loudly thinking I'd missed my chance once again but to also go back, get some dodgy photos and some fairly uninteresting video AND to run back inside to change lenses AND to also find the little guy still sitting in the same spot. Turns out he must have been waiting for members of his colony (they will live with up to seven adults and the babies from that season and are total social butterflies) and finally another two came gliding and bouncing through the trees, collecting my little mate before heading off out of sight.
They're nocturnal and would have had food (and maybe love) on their mind and so would have spent the night eating insects, nectar, sap, flowers, honeydew, lerps and possibly bird eggs, lizards and even small birds. But we won't think about that. I mean, butter wouldn't melt in those little mouths, surely? 😳😉
Sugar Glider
Northern Illawarra
