We have discovered a pair of Sugar Gliders on our foreshore! They have never been observed here before so this is great news!

Lorikeets, parrots, galahs and rosellas start to look for suitable nesting sites in late Winter so each year Rangers install nesting boxes on poles designed to keep Ringtail Possums and Brushtail Possums out.

Crumbly mulch from decomposed local banksias is placed into the bottom to make them more enticing.

It was while checking the mulch in one of these boxes that we discovered the Sugar Gliders!

We are beyond thrilled. Hopefully we’ll see a clan form and expand!

Image source: Australian Museum

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The beautiful Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos are back!

Have you heard their echoing, prehistoric-sounding call and seen pine cones ripped to shreds and littering the ground lately?

They've been more prevalent along Capel Sound Foreshore in the past couple of years, and we love seeing them around.

The female has a larger yellow cheek patch, dark eye-ring, white upper bill and black marks in her yellow tail panels, while the male has a smaller yellow cheek patch, pink eye-ring and grey/black upper bill.

See if you can spot the difference next time!

Species name: Calyptorhynchus funereus

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Juvenile Pacific Gulls are mottled dark brown with pale face and have a glossy black bill with a pinkish tip.

The immatures have dark brown wings, whitish mottled body and a white/brown bill that will slowly turn into a black-tipped yellow bill.

The adult Pacific Gull is a very large black-backed gull with a massive yellow broad tipped bill. The upper wings tips are black with a narrow white inner edge. Their tail is white with a broad black band near the end with orange/yellow coloured legs.

Go out and see if you can spot the difference!

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This is an Eleven Armed Seastar (Coscinasterias muricata), an important keystone species native to Port Phillip Bay. In our area they tend to be mottled brown and usually have 11 arms (though it can vary from 7-14 arms).

Sadly, many people (particularly fishermen) mistake them for the Crown-of-thorns starfish and will leave them to die on the pier. If you see one out of the water, please carefully pick it up and return it to the sea.

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Now is the time for the annual Giant Spider Crab moulting migration.

As part of the life cycle of the native Giant Spider Crab, an aggregation of crabs have become particularly fond of the shallow waters of Port Philip Bay during Winter. They gather in numbers to shed their old protective shell to expose a new, soft shell that will eventually harden as its new, bigger sized shell.

Scientists currently believe that the mass aggregations in the shallow waters are a way for the crabs to find ‘safety in numbers’ during moulting when the crabs soft shells make them more vulnerable to marine predators.

Keep your eyes out when walking along our foreshores for the array of decorative shells left behind by this amazing mass migratory event. You may be astounded by the amount fo shells and leg casing that you find.

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