Last week, my family went to Apollo Bay. My interests in nature had changed so much: I’m less about birds and very obsessed with moss and lichen. I’ve also been doing a lot better healthwise so wanted to test whether or not I could cope with more solo adventuring.
It was a fab trip and one of my first adventures started in my favourite location: Paradise picnic ground. It was spitting so I primarily took photos using my phone. I was accompanied by Seth so it was a quick half hour loop. Still, we managed to see a lot in that amount of time!
The above is a native slug that belongs to the genus Cystopelta. I thought it looked pretty cool but I’m clueless when in comes to knowing whether a slug is invasive or not. Michael Shea added “They have a very characteristic faecal coil – shaped like a bee hive – no other slugs or snails have this.”
🙂 I was told it was a cool find and have added it to Facebook. Will keep an eye out for it in the future and document whatever I can. I know it’s just a slug but I love nature.
We were also incredibly lucky to see this bassian thrush lurking around the edges of the carpark. I had seen one before at Toolangi but the view had been obscured and the photos turned out crap. It was so great to get good views of the bird. Even better, Seth got a new lifer! Not bad for our first day, and especially when we weren’t expecting it.
I have a new respect for this area now. It’s worth visiting at different times of the year in different conditions. Fortunately, we were able to visit a second time to get a better view of fungi/lichen.
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