The headland is one of the few places where bandicoots are found in the Sydney harbour catchment, and the coast from Fairlight to the Quarantine Station is the only site on mainland Australia where Little Penguins nest. (There are more nesting penguins found on assorted islands.)
Before the invasion of 1788, the land was managed by firestick farming, which stopped the bush from becoming senescent, dominated by a few climax species.
Now let's get a bit more systematic.
Epacris longiflora, 'the native fuchsia', a wattle (Acacia sp.) and a bush pea (only experts can tell them apart!).
A flannel flower (Actinotus helianthi) with a weevil on board, Hibbertia scandens (we use it as ground cover) and a Leptospermum.
Kunzea ambigua, one of the dominant plants in the ESBS), a Banksia, the common grey spider flower, Grevillea buxifolia, and a related Hakea, or needlebush.
In the end, I got carried away, and did a whole separate page for the flowers.
We have at least three frog species: Crinia signifera, Limnodynastes peroni and Pseudophryne australis, but there may be others.
There has been one questionable report of a lace monitor, and we have bluetongue lizards and eastern water dragons.
There is at least one unidentified skink which recently took up residence in one of our experimental "bee hotels".
Diamond python (Morelia spilota).
Those of us who work as volunteers get all sorts of useful training on things like snakes. The first picture above was a lecturer's tame 'carpet snake' or diamond python, the second shot was taken half-way along the hanging swamp track. It was lying there in the wan June sunlight, digesting its meal.
Yellow-faced whip snake (Demansia psammophis).
This snake was about 60 cm long, on the road-side, south-east of the parade ground. The writer, knowing a bit about such things, and thinking its bite wouldn't be much, moved it to a safer place, but it returned to the road again. Apparently, their bite won't kill, but it can cause quite a bit of discomfort.
Golden-crowned snake (Cacophis squamulosus)
I uncovered one of these while moving old bricks near the Nursery on North Fort Road, and first thought
it was a legless lizard, until I saw that it had a forked tongue, and didn't seem to have an ear opening.
The one shown here was road-kill, but I think it's the same species.
We also have at least one 'legless lizard' (above, right), the Common scalyfoot (Pygopus lepidopodus),
and the image shows one of these near Soggy Bottom. Completely harmless and fairly fearless.
Take a close look at the inset at the top, and you can see the vestigial leg. The lower inset reveals an ear opening, which snakes don't have.
We have no platypuses, Australia's most famous egg-laying mammal, because there are no bodies of water large enough for them.
On the other hand, most days, a few visitors and/or volunteers will see an echidna.
The echidna in the left was taken near Bandicoot Heaven (node l), while the one on the right was taken on the Ferny track.
Echidnas may all look the same to lay people, but we have a resident expert, and Geoff says there are at leat 19 distinct individuals on North Head, based on careful comparisons of photos taken by enthusiasts.
In March 2019, I had to become an expert in handling echidnas, because we were faced with an emergency.
I had walked down with a new volunteer to see what the rains of the previous night had done to the
drainage system. The army left behind a large set of drains, feeding into a pit near Scenic Drive, and
this can only be accessed through a locked grid.
Barry and I were looking at overflows, and saw that the grid was covered in leaves, suggesting that the pit had overflowed during the previous night. When we looked, an echidna was trapped below the locked grid. Hoping the rangers would have keys, we called them, and two of them came. They and we were unsure of the law on this sort of wildlife handling, but I had heavy gauntlets, and we agreed it had to be taken out, because a heavy downpour was expected that night.
They unlocked the grid and I took a grip. Echidnas are incredibly strong, andn it was hanging on grimly
to a steel ladder in the pit. Luckily, from moving these beasts off busy roads, I knew that they will
curl up into a ball if their belly is touched. I slid two fingers under, the beast became a spiky 6 kg
soccer ball. I lifted it out, put it down, and it dug into the sandy soil.
The next day, there were leaves covering the grid again, showing that the whole area had been under water on Thursday night, confirming that I had made the right call in pulling it out. I suspect that I broke the law, but I would do it again. Knowing that echidnas can swim, but that there was no way for the animal to climb out the rangers did a good job of working out where the animal probably got in, and shifted a slab to stop any repeat entry. After she (?) was out, the drain was locked again.
We have ring-tailed, brush-tailed, and as noted below, reintroduced pygmy possums, which play an important role
in pollination.
Caution: Possums may be mainly vegetarians, but they have sharp teeth and sharp claws for tree-climbing. The writer occasionally has to rescue them from rubbish bins and other unsuitable places, and needs heavy "bricky" gloves to do so.
The possum that you see here had taken up residence inside the back of the refrigerator used to store the
volunteers' morning-tea milk. It was chewing into the wiring when we found, so it was ejected with vigour,
once we had turned the power off.
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The page was first created on 11 January 2019, and updated 29 July 2020.