More Leadbeater’s Possum action

I had some spare time Saturday night so I headed out to the Powelltown area to meet up with a mate Stephen and two of his sons – Adam (10) and Liam (8) to try and show them a Leadbeater’s Possum or two. On the way there I tracked through Tarago State Forest and was fortunate enough to spot a Platypus in the Tarago River minutes after talking to a fisherman who told me he had never seen a platypus there as the water is too dirty. Well the water looks pretty clean to me and Tarago Reservoir is in service as part of Melbourne’s water supply so I was not surprised to see a trail of muddy water and then a beak sticking up briefly in the increasing gloom. Now I just need to find a platypus in Bunyip sometime! A Bassian Thrush on the side of the road and a few lyrebirds were nice as I zipped around to Powelltown for the 6pm meetup.

With the boys both desperately wanting to see Leadbeater’s Possum and Stephen only having seen one previously, we headed out to check out colonies found previously over the past year or so. It was a full moon night so I was a little skeptical how we would go but we pretty quickly got onto a very nice possum which sat nicely for all to see. After a couple of happy snaps it jumped even closer beside the car showing us all its diagnostic movement which best resembles a squirrel. With the main target out of the way we continued on to try and get some better views as well as try and rustle up an owl or two.

After a couple more stops we arrived at an area of perhaps ten year old regrowth that has been very productive on previous visits. It seems that this is a great place for possums and gliders of all shapes and sizes to travel and feed in the abundant wattle from denning sites nearby. Over a number of visits here I have found Greater, Yellow-bellied and Sugar Gliders, Ringtails and Bobucks and of course Leadbeater’s Possum – it seems as long as there are stags nearby, possums will travel to feed into areas like this. We were fortunate enough to find a number of Leadbeater’s Possums sitting low for some great views and a couple of snaps. Towards the end of this wander we watched several Leadbeater’s chase each other round, calling continuously in what appeared to be a territorial dispute. This was fascinating as it was probably the first time I have seen demonstrable interaction between individual Leadbeater’s Possums. The call was a continual staccato tsi-tsi-tsi-tsi which was very different to the drumming call I had heard in the past. Perhaps this was a territorial call, while the drumming is threat related? We had not heard a night bird of any description which is not unusual on full moon nights in my experience. I was very impressed by Adam and Liam’s knowledge, questions and discipline throughout our jaunt and I think they are both excellent young naturalists.

With Liam getting a bit tired we headed back to Powelltown managing a nice Southern Boobook on the way down the mountain – still we did pretty well overall – just over two hours for nine Leadbeater’s Possum! After dropping them back at their car I had a bit of decision to make about what to do next. I decided to go again to Bunyip to chase owls despite the full moon – in hindsight a bad choice. Three and half hours wandering around Bunyip produced plenty of Yellow-bellied, Greater and Sugar Gliders but I could not even get a peep out of an owl of any description. Still they will be waiting for next time….