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Larena Woodmore

@tasforest.com
196 followers 78 following 98 posts

Citizen scientist documenting the biodiversity of a 70 acre bush property in the north of #Tasmania, Australia www.tasforest.com www.youtube.com/@tasforest 📍 lutruwita/Tasmania

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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 22/11/2025
I'll never get used to crossing paths with a platypus in my own garden. #platypus #tasmania #TasmanianAnimals #australianwildlife
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 23/06/2025
It's always exciting when a camera trap captures a platypus. When one's in the water a layer of air and water on its fur makes it too cold to trigger the sensors, but this one climbed right out of the water. #platypus #australiananimals #Tasmania #monotremes #nature #cameratrap #trailcam #wildlife
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 16/06/2025
Potoroos & bandicoots are overjoyed that it's mushroom season and are digging little (and some not-so-little) holes absolutely everywhere. The holes help water penetration, provide a place for seeds to land and germinate, and digging helps spread fungal spores. #Tasmania #AusAnimals #Potoroo #Nature
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 13/05/2025
Is eastern spinebill season! I love the markings on these little guys. #EasternSpinebill #honeater #AustralianBird #Tasmania #Autumn
Photo of a tiny bird with long slender beak perched on a piece of fence wire and looking straight upwards. The top of its head is black and chin is white with a large brown smudge. It looks like it's wearing a chestnut-coloured jacks with black lapels over a white shirt.Photo of the same bird, this time looking to the left with its tongue out. This photo shows black wins and tail, and the rest of it is chestnut-coloured.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 21/03/2025
And the Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish Astacopsis gouldi
Photo of a large brown and turquoise crayfish sitting on grass, facing the camera with its claws held out to the sides
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 16/03/2025
A couple of nights ago we had the first rain in a long time, causing lots of frogs to climb out of the ferns and up the loungeroom window. #Nature #Frogs #Amphibians #Herps #Tasmania #Rain #auswildlife
Photo of a frog's underside, as seen through a window at night. Its body is semi-transparent and internal organs are visible through its white-spotted skin.Photo of another frog's underside, as seen through a window at night. This one is climbing to the right, showing off bright yellow thighs.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 11/03/2025
The turbo chooks found the paddling pool (or "paddy pool") that we put out for the pademelons, wallabies and possums to drink from, and they're pretty happy with it. #Tasmania #NativeHen #TurboChook #Wildlife
Photo of four Tasmanian native hens, also known as "turbo chooks", standing in a bright blue round plastic paddling pool.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 07/03/2025
Our creek's water level is quite low at the moment, but this hasn't stopped a giant freshwater crayfish (Astacopsis gouldi) from hanging out in one of the deeper pools. It's the biggest one I've seen for quite a while. #Tasmania #ausinverts #AstacopsisGouldi #Crayfish #Freshwater #Nature #Endangered
Photo of a large crayfish sitting in clear water at the endge of a creek. The top of its head is sticking out of the water, showing a small ridge in the centre of its brow. This (as well as size) is the identifying feature of the Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Crayfish.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 25/02/2025
Arkys are one of my favourite spiders. Some Arkys walckenaeri from my place.
Two photos of triangular spiders, on leaves & with two pairs of legs each held in front of them. The one on the left is a yellowish orange and the other is pinkish orange. Both have a white-dotted pink line in a triangle around the abdomen.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 22/02/2025
This morning I saw the most amazing spider webs hanging in the rushes. Up close, they look man-made. I couldn't find the spiders, so I don't know who these belong to. #Nature #Spiders #Spiderweb #Arachnids #Tasmania #Australia
Closeup photo of a spiderweb arranged in sqares that look almost exactly like a net made from fine fishing line. There are dewdrops on many of the intersections.Photo of a tightly spun spider web hanging from the stems of rushes. It is shaped like a round cloth that has been pulled up in the middle to create a central cone. The top of the cone contains sticks, twigs and insects that have been caught.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 18/02/2025
We put a trap out to catch a mouse that's been running around on the verandah. No luck, but if the possum had been able to get in it would have. With no moving parts, pokes from a possum don't disable this type of trap. #BrushtailPossum #MouseTrap #Wildlife #Australia #Tasmania #australiananimals
Photo of a possum peering into a metal box mouse trap from behind.Photo of a pobubm sniffing the top of a metal box mouse trap.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 18/02/2025
The robins are back! There weren't many last year but now there are are lots of scarlet and flame robins about. This photo of a male scarlet is the reason there's an old piece of plumbing pipe propped outside the dining room window. #robins #australianbirds #Tasmania #redbirds #nature
Photo of a small bird perching on an old piece of plumbing pipe. The bird's chest is bright red, there is white around the red, over the beak and bits on the wings and tail and its head, back, beak and eyes are black.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 16/01/2025
Sometimes the Bennett's wallabies make a head start on the pademelons, coming out to eat before dusk. This one was snacking outside the lounge room window until he was distracted by a female. #Macropods #australiananimals #Wallaby #Marsupials #Tasmania #Wildlife #Nature
Photo of a Bennett's wallaby with its front paws on the ground and looking directly at the camera. It looks like a mini kangaroo and has dark markings like makeup on its face, dark edges to his ears and tan marks above his dark eyes with black eyelashes. A blade of grass is sticking out of his mouth as he chews, and his pink tongue is sticking out.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 10/01/2025
It's so wrong. 😂 Looks more like an oversized hedgehog than one of these sweeties.
Photo of an echidna walking at the edge of a pond, nose to the ground. The belly is held well away from the ground and long claws can be seen on its backwards-facing back right foot.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 08/01/2025
When you look closely at insects, they really are like something from scifi/horror. This gusteruption wasp has unsheathed her ovipositor and is laying eggs in the nest of a solitary bee. Guess what happens to the bee babies next? #Insects #auswildlife #Horror #Wasps #Bees #Aliens
Photo of a dark grey insect perched on the side of a timber house post. She looks like an alien with huge eyes in a tear-drop shaped head and long backwards-bending back legs. Her abdomen that's narrow at the waist is held high with what looks like a long bent white-tipped needle sticking out the end.

This is the sheath that usually covers her ovipositor. Instead the ovipositor, which looks like a long red even thinner needle is sticking into a hole in the wood, through a patch of resin that was placed there by a bee to protect the place where she'd laid her eggs.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 03/01/2025
Although not native, our massive salvia bush is appreciated by the birds. Fairy wrens live and breed in it and the Eastern spinebills love the flowers. Shame they won't turn and face the camera though! #australianbirds #Tasmania #Spinebill #Birds #Nature
Photo of a small, slender, bird with a long pointed beak the flowering stem of a bright green salvia plant. The stem is purple with white flowers.

The bird looks as if it's about to fall up-side down, with everything below the shoulders being lower than its feet. Its back is chestnut-coloured and head and tail are black. You can just see the edge of its white and chestnut chest markings.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 31/12/2024
When lots of birds shout at once there's usually a raptor about. Today it was one of our two resident grey goshawks, high in the trees. Tasmanian ones are the white form of the species. #Goshawk #Raptor #AustralianBirds #Tasmania #White #WhiteBird #Nature
Photo of a pure white goshawk sitting high in a Eucalypt tree. Its beak is yellow with a black tip, and eyes are orange. Long talons can be seen gripping the branch it's sitting on.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 23/12/2024
Processing photos today, I realised I've found the 500th species at my home - this nice little cuckoo wasp. Not bad for just three years. #Biodiversity #Tasmania #Insect #Wasp #Metallic #australianinvertebrates
Photo of a small wasp, from behind, with wings folded on its back. The body is textured with small dots like tiny balls and is metallic, mainly blue but with aqua, purplish and black areas. The photo was taken after it landed in cobwebs at sunset, so the blurred background is in golden brown tones.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 22/12/2024
There's a very pretty orange & blue giant freshwater crayfish - Astacopsis gouldi - in our creek today. A bit hard to photograph, though, since it was in an undercut beneath my feet. #Tasmania #Crayfish #AstacopsisGouldi #Nature #ausinverts #Endangered
Photo of a large crayfish in the clear water of a shallow running creek. It is mainly in shades of brownish orange, with bright turquise on its sides. Not shown are red patches towards the end of its tail.

This one is probably about twenty years old, and it's been illegal to catch them since about the time it was born.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 17/12/2024
I made Platypus & Tasmanian devil gingerbread for a Christmas party. 😁 #AustralianAnimals #Platypus #Tasmania #TasmanianDevil #ChristmasBaking #Gingerbread
Photo of two gingerbread biscuits. One is the shape of a platypus, with its beak & tail dipped in chocolate. The other is a Tasmanian devil with white lines of frosting on the chest and rump.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 15/12/2024
That's wombats. These are quolls.
Photo of two young spotted-tailed quolls playing outside their burrow. These are sleek brown animals covered in white spots, including on their very long thin rails.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 14/12/2024
First Christmas Beetle - Lamprima aurata - of the season. This one is reddish gold in the sunlight but when moved to the shade it looks green. Last year I mainly saw pink ones. #Nature #Beetles #Tasmania #Insects #Metallic #australianinvertebrates #ChristmasBeetle
Photo of a large beetle perched on the flowering stem of a grass. Its entire body is metallic in a deep golden tone that appears reddish at some angles. It has large straight mandibles and slightly feathery antennae.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 06/12/2024
You could make it less niche if you include more snoots. Echidnas!
Four closeup photos of echidnas noses.
Top left: Nose held up to in the air, showing damp nostrils on top and a tiny little mouth underneath
Top right: Echidna looking straight at the camera, through a gap between horizontal branches. The nose is centre front and is mostly dry but damp at the end, showing the nostrils and mouth.
Bottom left: Looking to the left, this echidna's nose is clean and slightly wet and is very shiny at the end.
Bottom right: Looking to the right, the wet end of the snout is covered in crumbs of dirt.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 03/12/2024
The pardalotes are back to feed their babies. Today's meal options are insect larva or spider. #Pardalotes #StriatedPardalotes #TasmanianBirds #Tasmania #AustralianBirds #Wildlife #Nature #Birds #ausbirds
Photo of a small yellow, black and grey bird perching on a small branch. In its tiny black beak is an immature insect that's light orange with dark red spots down the sides and green eyes.Photo of another small yellow, black and grey bird perching on a small branch. In this one's beak is a reddish-brown spider with its legs sticking out in all directions.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 03/12/2024
On this drizzly day, the pardalote babies are warm and comfy (and a bit noisy) in the walls of my study but the parents still need to go out to collect food. #Pardalotes #StriatedPardalotes #TasmanianBirds #Tasmania #AustralianBirds #Wildlife #Nature #Birds #ausbirds
Photo of two small birds perched on a lichen-covered branch with bright green leaves. They are pale grey with black on the top of the head and wing feathers, and bright yellow under the chin, above the beak and on a dot halfway down the side of the wings. One is facing to the right and the other to the left. Drizzling raindrops are falling and both have wet face feathers.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 02/12/2024
For #MacropodMonday, did you know that pademelons move about the forest on invisible hoverbikes? No? Well here's the evidence. #Pademelon #Marsupial #Tasmania #Macropod #Mammal #Wildlife #Nature #auswildlife #Funny
Two photos of pademelons, which are small kangaroo-type marsupials, in a forest. 

The top photo is a joey (baby) from the front, and the bottom is an adult from the side. Both animals are mid-jump, making it look like their little paws are holding handlebars and back feet are on the footrests of an invisible hoverbike.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 27/11/2024
There's a platypus in our dam so it must be #WebFootWednesday !! It's raining so I only had a little camera with me. #Platypus #Monotreme #Tasmania #TasmanianMammal #AquaticMammal #Nature #Wildlife #ausmammals
Photo of a platypus floating on top of a muddy dam with its beaver-like tail towards the camera. Its grey beak is moving as it grinds up food - probably insect larvae or baby crayfish - that it found at the bottom of the water.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 26/11/2024
Yup, and he's the middle son
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 25/11/2024
Until I saw this Bennetts Wallaby do this, I had no idea that macropods sometimes like to just sit on their tails and relax. #MacropodMonday #Wallaby #Macropod #BennetsWallaby #TasmanianAnimals #Marsupial #Australia #Tasmania #Wildlife #Nature #ausmammals
Photo of a wallaby, which is like a small kangaroo, sitting in leaf litter. It's sitting on its tail, which is lying on the ground in front of it with one large foot on either side. Its paws are resting on its belly and eyes are partially shut and looking very chilled.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 24/11/2024
Surprise species are fun. Like when this Little Pied Cormorant unexpectedly turned up in the mist next to my dam.
Photo of a black and white water bird sitting on the banks of a dam on a misty morning. In the background are long grasses and the trunks of small paperbark trees.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 24/11/2024
I just checked the camera at the quoll spot we have a new young one. By comparing unique spot patterns I've identified at least 21 individual spotted-tailed quolls in the three years we've lived here. #TasmanianAnimals #Tasmania #Quoll #SpottedTailedQuoll #Marsupial #AustralianAnimals #ausmammals
Night-vision (black and white) photo, taken from the side, of a sleek mammal on a fallen log in a forest.

Its head is down, sniffing the log. Its tail, which is as long as its body, is held out behind it with a bend 2/3 of the way down. The body, legs and tail are covered with white spots of various size.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 21/11/2024
For anyone that hasn't seen enough echidna snoots today. #Echidna #Nature #Tasmania #TasmanianAnimals #Monotreme #AustralianAnimals #Wildlife #australianmammals
Four closeup photos of echidnas noses.
Top left: Nose held up to in the air, showing damp nostrils on top and a tiny little mouth underneath
Top right: Echidna looking straight at the camera, through a gap between horizontal branches. The nose is centre front and is mostly dry but damp at the end, showing the nostrils and mouth.
Bottom left: Looking to the left, this echidna's nose is clean and slightly wet and is very shiny at the end.
Bottom right: Looking to the right, the wet end of the snout is covered in crumbs of dirt.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 21/11/2024
Echidnas are everywhere are the moment. This one's visited a few times to clean up the ants around an old retaining wall. #Tasmania #Echidna #Monotreme #Nature #AustralianMammals #australianwildlife
Photo of an echidna standing with hind legs on some weedy brick paving and front legs on a second row of old wooden sleepers. Another wooden board is at the top, and the echidna has poked its nose underneath it looking for ants.

Normally, their legs look very short but in this pose you can see that its arm is quite long, and covered in coarse brown hairs.
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 18/11/2024
For half of each year (the warmer months) pardalotes nest in my roof. From about ten nests, they sing like this constantly from dawn until dusk. This nest is right outside an upstairs window, making that room an ideal hide. #AustralianBirds #Pardalote #Tasmania #SoundsOfSummer
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Larena Woodmore @tasforest.com · 15/11/2024
Here you go. A pair of juvenile spotted tailed #quolls playing near my driveway
A quoll standing at the base of a small grassy mound with its tail held out behind it, looking up at its sibling. Both animals are a rich reddish brown covered with sharp white spots. Their bodies are sleek and look a bit like weasels.
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