September 3 - back in Brisbane

We spent the week with the students at Moreton Bay Research Station on North Stradbrooke Island, aka "Straddie."  We couldn't have had a better time!  The weather was perfect, and the island was beautiful.  The theme of the week was marine ecology, but we saw all kinds of things, from koalas and kangaroos to kookaburras and breaching humpback whales.  No kidding!  We saw it all!  We went on field trips to the ocean beach, mud flats and mangroves, and saw critters ranging from mollusks to green worms to sting rays. I think maybe the whales breaching off the ocean beach were the best, but don't have any pictures to prove it.  Here are some pictures of what I can show you..

Annie and the mangroves:

 The beach at Lookout Point 

Monitor climbing a tree (like a lizard - look closely) 

Sue at the beach looking cool:

Checking out the mud flats: 

Now we are into our first week with the students in Brisbane, and deep into the courses.   All the UQ professors are really enthusiastic, and Annie and I have been going to all the classes,  learning marine and terrestrial ecology and Australian culture.  We've also been bike riding and exploring, and marveling at all the strange sounding birds (and trying to avoid the attacking magpies!)  Here's an interesting one - it's a kind of turkey that builds big mounds of yard litter, then lays its eggs in the decaying warm compost so it doesn't have to sit on the nest.  They are big and kind of ugly, and a pair of them live next door.  This is the male - he has a bigger yellow necklace: