Jenny also had a close encounter with a European hornet Vespa crabro, which are a huge, scary looking insect by British standards, up to 3cm in length. Apparently a secretive and docile wasp species, but the UK's largest.

One of the major differences I was very much aware of this trip was with the birds. In Europe most are small and delicate looking and tweet and chirp and flit about. Back home in Perth they are often the opposite, large, noisy, aggressive and raucous. Why is that I wondered?

In Australia it is remarkably different, and many of our best-known plants are bird-pollinated. Our banksias, grevilleas, bottlebrushes, grasstrees, paperbarks and many eucalypts rely on birds for pollination to pass on their genetic material. In order to achieve this and for their pollinators to remain faithful and return regularly they offer sugar in the form of nectar dripping from large colourful flowers.

These sugars are the reason, according to many naturalists, that Australian birds are so loud, and so aggressive, screeching and crashing about the bush. They are fighting for and defending this rich and abundant food source and in return for the sweet food by visiting many flowers they pollinate the plants. It's so different down under.

For a lot more on Australia's amazing birds read Tim Low's book Where Song Began, ISBN 978 0670 077960

However some recent science tells us that many animals not only sense these electric fields but also 'see' the earth's magnetic field. Klaus Shulten made the discovery that a molecule called Superoxide reacts with the protein cryptochrome, a blue light photoreceptor found in the eyes of many animals and birds.

So ducks for example will come into land on water by following the earth's electromagnetic field and also avoid colliding with other ducks by seeing their fields too. Amazing stuff.

Many mammals, birds, sharks, and other creatures see your 'force' if you are close. So the clever people at Hecsgear have developed stealth technology clothing made from conductive carbon fibres that reduce your own electromagnetic field so you can get closer to animals.

Of course what's good for avoiding being seen and eaten means it is also easier to sneak up on other animals. As well as producing wetsuits so a shark may not sense you they also make suits so hunters and wildlife cameramen can apparently get much closer to their quarry.

More at http://hecsgear.com/

Honeydew is another more familiar sugar rich anal ooze. Aphids, scale insects and even some caterpillars secrete it. Birds, ants and wasps amongst others may collect and feed upon it. Some ant species both protect and 'farm' the honeydew-producing aphids. There is even a type of day gecko in Madagascar that approaches a plant hopper, bobs its head and is rewarded with a drop of honeydew almost right on its nose. Better give the lizard a snack than become the main meal.

Manna is a different kind of ooze altogether. Famous as a religious foodstuff, 'manna from heaven', it is in fact the secretions of various plant types. In many cases edible and also used as laxative and expectorant. With some plants it oozes mainly when attacked by insects.

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This is a great site, also an app. Just click away and you can watch live as animals go about their daily business. I enjoyed watching the bears fishing in Canada and some Bison grazing. You can see inside a Puffin burrow and much more. Fortunately they don't have any Pokemon to look at!

Their diet may be considered quite unusual, like an oceanic vulture. Males have a preferred diet of offal from carcasses of marine mammals such as seals, whales, penguins and other deceased creatures. Females it would appear are more refined and feed largely on live prey like squid, krill and fish caught at sea.

Recently Kelli the vet nurse at Native Animal Rescue had a petrel to look after. A juvenile, presumably battered by storms, was found blown in onto Wedge Island and came down to Perth to be assessed for rehabilitation. After a few anxious days in a very warm room under Kelli's gaze it began to feed, put back on some weight and recover. It just loved raw squid and octopus and had a great time slopping its food around messily. It was the first time I have ever seen one up close and I felt very privileged to meet such an unusual visitor to these shores. Once it had regained its vigour the petrel was driven back up to Wedge Island and successfully released.

The southern giant-petrel breeds largely on the Antarctic continent and also on at least 6 Australian Antarctic Territory islands. The largest populations however are in the Falkland Islands where some 19,000 pairs may be found. They nest on bare ground, sometimes in small, scattered colonies and in other places in far greater congregations. A pair produces a single egg that hatches around October; some 4 months later the fledging petrel leaves its home and is unlikely to return for 6 or 7 years. They start to breed at about 10 years of age. Their habit of following fishing fleets for scraps has resulted in many deaths due to long line and trawler fishing methods. Globally their conservation status is that of LC (least concerned).