There is a healthy community of birds around the house, mostly made up of what I thought were piebald crows, but as it turns out are Australian magpies. They are very bold, and I'm afraid to get too close to them. They don't seem to like the cold weather too much though.
The nearby lake supports a few kingfishers and in particular a family of ducks. They have duckings, and we sometimes see them walking around, the ducklings in one line behind their parents. I went out for a walk today (alright, I was actually taking out the trash) and I spotted the adult ducks, sleeping by the lake with their heads tucked under their wings. The male lifted his head and eyed me as I passed.
So far these have been the extent of the birdlife around the area, in addition to two night herons which scavenge at the barbecue pit, but perhaps I haven't been looking hard enough because today I spotted a lorikeet in the trees behind the housing block. They tend to travel in flocks so there were probably more around the area.
I haven't seen any lizards, cockatoos or birds of prey, or any rabbits either. I hope to before I leave. Well, maybe not the rabbits.
Of course, the one type of organism I have been seeing a lot of is bacteria. The other day I was handling Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and one of my group-mates had to identify a sample of bacteria which turned out to be Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It's nice to have a change from coliforms or yeasts once in a while.
We don't seem to see a lot of fungus though. At home I'd get blackish spots creeping up the base of my toothbrush and highlighter pink patches on my towels which my classmate informed me was fungus. Here they don't seem to grow at all.
Maybe it's the dry weather. I can't wait for winter.
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