August in Bloom
What is in bloom in August
August sees a lot of native flowers in the Habitat in full bloom. A walk around the trails is very rewarding. The golden wattle is extensive in certain areas and particularly vibrant in colour.
Interesting time seeing the koala survey crew from the Office of Environment and Heritage working over the Tilligerry Habitat area.
The process is this - a drone with an infra-red camera sweeps the area and reports back with the location of possible koalas. This needs to be done early in the morning and is best before the temperature rises above 10 degrees. The koala gives a heat signature of only 15 degrees due to the thick fur, so the higher the temperature the more difficult it is to pick them out. The operator can tell (mostly) the difference between a possum or other animals and a koala.
Then a crew sets out and spotlights the area and tries to locate any more koalas from below while the drone continues searching. Once daylight comes the crew tries to find the koalas pinpointed by the drone. The team managed to successfully find two koalas in their search today and found three on their preliminary search yesterday which was great for us.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!