GUESSING GAMES updated with the answer

/ dinahmow

A little something to amuse you while I get on with some serious work.

Actually, he’s more in the range of “big” as frogs go. This is a pot saucer I keep filled with fresh water for our nocturnal visitors, like possums. I wish we saw more frogs, but I suspect all my house-proud neighbours and their over-use of cleaning products have been, in part, responsible for froggies’ low numbers. Well, we can’t blame the drought!

Possibly one of the Justicias, but I didn’t get that from a botanist. Feel free to correct me!

And this little guy is the latest in the growing line of  “free-loaders” Chez Dinahmow. We don’t feed all the wildlife (that’s a bad move; ask any Ranger), but sometimes some critters need help.

This one was still “learning the ropes” from his mother when she was injured (probably hit by a car) and although The Man managed to get her to the vet her injuries were too severe  and she was euthanased. Oh, put your hankies away! Possums are pretty much at the top of the table when it comes to hand-outs! They have cuteness in spades.

He continued to take the nightly shortcut over the deck and we left some fruit out for him. No, we’ve never tried to make a pet of him; we just help him along on his journey. Some nights he doesn’t show and we wonder if he’s met his end. In case you’re worrying, the little bugger crash-landed on the roof at 4.21am today so I guess he’ll want his piece of fruit tonight…

And it’s a fuzzy photo because I took it from inside and I stopped the flash!

One of the nice things about the lap top is that I can follow the sunshine. And, believe me, today I need some sunshine! Drove past one of those light bulb thermometers  this morning and it read 12 deg.C. I swear that thing is faulty!

So now I’m going to take my lap top out of this shadow and find some new sunshine. First- find a cat. That should give me the best sunny patch!

But I’ll leave you with this.

What is it? Answers on a postcard, please. What, you want a prize if you guess correctly?  I’ll think about. Let’s say the prize is part of the mystery!

Move over, Geiger, I need me some sun!

update

Since no one guessed correctly the “prize” will be held over. Actually, I’m thinking of having one of these silly little contests on a regular basis.Tell me if you think it’s a good idea. And now…the answer.

Gecko footprints on the outside of the glass door. 

And, yes, more than one gecko. Given the huge numbers of geckos, it’s pretty obvious that they must  like each other. But man! can they fight!

True story .…It was a dark and stormy night… and I reached into a jacket pocket in the closet where I kept a slim chain belt. My fingers closed around something that was NOT chain…I withdrew my hand slowly, gently, a small part of my brain calculating the odds of the “thing” being a highly venomous creature and the chances of my getting medical help in time.

It was a gecko. And I should think it was doing some rapid permutations of its own!

Here’s a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko#Gecko_toes:_setae_and_van_der_Waals_forces

43 thoughts on “GUESSING GAMES updated with the answer”

  4. It does look like you’ve photographed it through water but that may be because I was taking photos of critter trails in sea pools on the weekend and I’m fooled by the similarity. I can see why Celia guessed at water snails. Seaweed, maybe?

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  6. I had to laugh at your cute possum comment. Trust me, here in North Carolina they are definitely *not* cute; more rat-like with the nose and bald tail.

    And the picture? I couldn’t even begin to guess because it is probably something very specific to Australia and my Aussie nature knowledge (like that alliteration?) could be put in a thimble. I’ll keep an eye on your blog for the answer.

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    • Yes, I think Australian possums are ahead in the glamour stakes, but you also have raccoons and those adorable black squirrels. Or are the blackies not that far south?

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  8. yeah, I’m going for a platypus, I was being sneaky before because I thought it could be a platypus or a duck but I think a bird has only two feet and this looks like more and probably only one creature.

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  10. I have no clue about the interesting pattern (I love those organic patterns of nature!) but your first photo reminded me of a time when one of the cats brought in a frog and dropped it in their water bowl!

    (-:

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  13. Geckos! Didn’t know you had them in Australia. There’s a character in G. du Maurier’s ‘Trilby’ called Gecko, but his footprints were nothing like your photo. Yes, more quizzes, please.

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    • Trilby! I haven’t read that in at least half a century.
      We have geckos all over the place. I don’t mind them, but some (clean,tidy) people go bonkers. They, and spiders, are welcome to their dietary intake of flies and mozzies! 🙂

      A quiz? Hmmm…I’ll see if I can add it to my worklist. Perhaps a Saturday?

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  14. Geckos – now I’ll need to go looking at my windows to see if I can find footprints. We have leaf-tailed geckos, very cute. I think a quiz would be fun – but you need to have the time to think about it. Maybe it could be now and then rather than pinning you down to a weekly thing. I’m at the beach – where it’s cold and wet – but still beautiful.

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    • Oh! I don’t think there any leaf-tails here. Well, I’ve never seen them, but that doesn’t mean much! I walked this morning, wearing a polar fleece and it was lovely and misty til the sun got into gear.

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  15. Laughing too hard at the comments to type! Ok – I’d never have guessed gecko footprints… I was thinking more along the lines of something burnt on an outside rock. Yes – I am going to sort out getting glasses soon. Sigh – it’s being over 40 that does it, isn’t it?

    ADORE the possum. Miss the little buggers. Cutest thing we get here are red squirrels. OK – they are definitely cute too…

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  16. When my parents had their winter condo in Sarasota, Florida and I would go and visit at Thanksgiving, most nights we would be entertained (well, my father, not so much), by geckos running up the walls of the living room.

    So, now I know that you all there in Australia are also being entertained by geckos. None here in North Carolina as the winters get too cold for them to survive.

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    • I wonder how the poor little blighters survive in the current wint’ry weather!And if your father was less than keen on geckos he probably would not have liked the Hunstman spiders that some people like to bring indoors when the bugs are too pesky! 😉

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  17. I was going to say ‘gecko’, I wasn’t going to say patterns on wet concrete 🙂

    We used to have these cute little pale-grey, almost translucent frogs that would come into the house. Not so long ago, I mentioned to my mother that they seem to have disappeared over the years. Isn’t that sad?

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  18. Your frog is a very handsome fellow! I love frogs and geckos … we’ve had a few frog visitors, but they visit at their own risk. (Ikaika.) I do miss geckos. We don’t have them here.

    Your little possum is very cute indeed! Ours, not so much. (Lots of sharp teeth and a big rat tail.)

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