I met a couple of friends at the UWA flora reserve called Alison Baird Reserve, Wattle Grove – just off Welshpool Rd (cnr of Brook and Bickely Rd).  I had last come here in the mid 90s in my uni days and did some plant surveys.  Its a locked reserve so we had arranged special permission to visit.

Our main objective was to look for any mammals of an evening.  We thought we might see quenda, possums and small chance of maybe some others.

Professer Hans Lambers has this Youtube video on the reserve detailing how rich the flora is for such a small reserve.

We walked for approx 1.5hrs without seeing any mammals – the only animals we heard were calling Moaning frogs (Heleioporus eyrei).  We did see signs of ground spiders, rabbit diggings, rabbit scat and also wedge shaped quenda diggings.

I only took one photo of this Firewood banksia (Banksia menziesii) during the evening. We had looked carefully at a number of the flowering Banksia on the odd chance we might see a Honey possum (its a small striped mouse size marsupial that only eats nectar – on my bucket list of mammals to see!)

We all agreed it was nice to be out looking but this night was not a success if you’re only counting the animals you find.