Between my house and the two cottages, I’ve been having plenty of wildlife encounters indoors, including the melomy above. If you have never heard of a melomy, you have a lot of company as they are only found in the northern tropical highland rainforest. The adult is half way in size between a mouse and a rat, but not closely related to either and the similar design is a good example of convergent evolution. I caught it this morning in the bin that it is pictured in. There have been melomys living in Maple Cottage for some time and I’ve been trying to get them with a huge range of traps, some I have tailor made to their size. As they are a native species, it is of course illegal to use a fatal trap or poison. I have caught a couple in an ingenious tube-like trap, but they got the hang of them really quickly and they were thereafter useless. They consider the traps feeding stations and nimbly escape with the bait. They do however climb into empty bins they can’t get out of like this one. I think this is the last one to be evicted. I took him/her down to show a guest at the other cottage and as he was leaving, he volunteered to drive it a few kms to release well away. If they are released a few hundred meters away, they just come back again. Unfortunately, two blokes couldn’t manage to outwit a lone melomy, and it escaped drawing blood on its way. Score melomy 1, humans 0.
I have been sharing my shower with a small ragged edged dark green frog. He is quiet and agreeable company and seems to be growing, so must be taking some toll on spiders and such. He is welcome. I have been given a tropical rainforest on the frogs here kindly given to me by the authors, a couple of profs from JCU. Unfortunately, I can’t find it in the book so can’t give you a name except I call him Cedric. Had a month of rain every day except 2 and you can tell how wet it is when a frog takes shelter.
Another recent resident is a small black snake less than a meter long. It turned up in the cupboard where all the electrical/electronic gear is housed. Heaps of devices in continuous use that give out steady warmth is attractive to many animals. At least I kept the small furry ones away. I kept forgetting it was there and nearly poked it a couple of times, but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have bitten me as I’ve stood on them several times (accidentally) without them having a go at me. After a couple of weeks, the snake abandoned the electrics and took up residence in the roof and some time later I saw part of him hanging down over the electric room heater where I dump the excess power from the hydro. Heading for the heat again I thought. A day later it was still there and I discovered it was dead. I removed it with my snake tool just in case it was faking. I’ve had a rather emaciated snake catch me like that before.
The possum raiding the kitchen most nights is almost one of the family and we tolerate each other pretty well. We both know what to expect in the behaviour of the other. Bit like being married. To get rid of her I move closer as she watches, but don’t block the escape routes. When I see her looking from me to the exit I quietly say “bugger off” and she scarpers along the route I have chosen and left open.
A couple of days ago I heard a bird banging off the windows in the lounge and was surprised to see it was a Lewin’s Honeyeater. I was surprised because they usually don’t have any problem with windows and are a daily visitor especially in wet weather. I’m just guessing, but I don’t think they like flying in the rain. Also it was making quiet mewing sounds I have never heard from one before. I am very familiar with its chirping song, and its ear-blasting trill, and much in between, but had never heard this sound before. Then another Lewin’s flew across the room and attacked it showering feathers everywhere. I couldn’t keep up with the pair flying round, banging into the windows and trilling loudly. Finally the poor victim came to rest and flattened itself on the windowsill with its wings out-stretched in an arc mewing in submission. The other leaped upon it ripping out more feathers. I heroically leapt to the rescue and chased off the aggressor. I slid open the window in front of the pathetic victim to release it from its peril and cool wet air came blasting through the window, but it didn’t fly off. I poked with a finger in the bum and still it stubbornly sat there until further coaxing made it fly off. It was only much later that it occurred to me that I had probably prevented the pair having a good shag.
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