In the first part of the expedition Juanma explained very well and with great wit, the perplexity with which the first English colonists had to deal with the peculiarities of Australian biota. And indeed, must be for them something surprising: huge Eucalyptus, jumping kangaroos, echidnas prickly; Parrots and sizes unimaginable poisonous snakes, penguins .... However should recover soon and applied all the hard work of transforming this land English to make it familiar. Arduous task given the vastness of this island continent. However, in some places had fully achieved. Phillip Island is certainly one of them. Farms, lawns and hedges are arranged in such an English one needs to see the jumping Melancholic wallabies, hear the cries of the kookaburra or see the yellow-tailed black cockatoo literally breaking a mimosa to extract larvae ... to realize that walking is an idyllic way of, say some, York County. And there recognize that the European species introduced help: pine, cypress, elm, starlings, sparrows ... collaborate confusion and audio visual landscape of these lands to the English countryside. But it is just that; superficial appearance. Australia is Australia's Phillip Island and Phillip Island. Personality and this place still do not know anything more about Australia are strong and attractive and is soon to visitors. Maybe that's why today when we left the island, some way of Tasmania and other interior de la Victoria, I felt a pinch in my stomach like when you move away from something intimate and dear.
The days have flown by. Workshop marathon, discussions, and luck, good luck again. Now we know or understand much better what we came to study: nutrient inputs to terrestrial marine ecosystem and its impact on such systems. Not if our idea of \u200b\u200btoday is false or not, so if you is that we have collected enough data to prove it. Long days ahead of isotope analysis in the laboratory of Antonio Delgado and much data processing before really knowing the extent to which our hypotheses are successful or not. But between sampling and sampling was difficult not to see and enjoy this peculiar nature. So we have also spent the night and by day, hour to observe the flora and fauna of our environment currante.
As a vocation is bichólogo I stay with the animals. Wallabies breaks: while you see one thousand times does not understand how they can be as graceful and be as fast on two legs leaping animals and always seem to be giving sulking on the floor between skip and jump, the meek and trusting possum (big and small) you can find one in any staining of native vegetation or in the garden of the house, it only takes a flashlight and a little time to observe them in their nightly raids by the branches, the kookaburra, a kingfisher that squeaks like the devil himself but something stronger and, to eliminate surprise, only hunting ground where capture swoop in from all branches, insects and small vertebrates distracted, as the poor little bird we saw yesterday captured a loving father who took him to the chicken that swallowed it whole without flinching. In short, to say when the evening, while sampling just begin to get thousands and thousands of shearwaters ... to complete, as calculated by our colleagues, the environment one million couples who form this colony. And the little penguin, anyone who has seen a penguin have had the feeling of being in a bird absurd, funny and charming as well, this, this species is stressed, it's like a miniature penguin little more than half kilo, but the whole earth keeps its nice patosidad major and his beautiful surprising agility in the water. I left almost everything in the pipeline, but I hope you now understand something pinch my stomach, although they have been told nothing of good meat, good wine and good company-native and invasive the exception, in this case, snoring some. Fernando Hiraldo
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