Hidden camera bounty

When I put out five cameras on our recently acquired Monjebup Creek Reserve in Gondwana Link I had no idea what I might find. The cameras were out and working hard for 5 months in total and the results have been amazing.

We have a healthy population of Tammar Wallabies and Malleefowl, and they featured on prominently on most cameras.

The cameras were placed in a saline shrubland, moort woodland, claypan and river pool, and beside a Malleefowl nest.

While walking through the reserve in June with a botanist we were curious about the small circular scratchings in the woodland leaf litter so one of the cameras was placed there. In the photos we soon discovered that they were made by Painted Button-quails scratching around.

Echidnas were also captured on their daily wanderings along with Western Grey Kangaroos. Emus were very common and in September lots of males with their chicks appeared on camera.

We have a nice sequence of 10 minutes where the male is teaching his chicks to bath in a clay pan.

Seventeen species of bird were seen including the spectacular Brush Bronzewing.

A few foxes and rabbits were also seen but encouragingly only one cat appeared on the cameras.

I will definitely be putting the cameras our again in Autumn-Winter as what better way to find out what goes on when we're tucked up in bed.