BlueyBLUEY:  Hi, excuse me poking out my tongue, but it's not an act of rudeness in my world I assure you.

While not showing up on the official livestock records of Green Pastures Farm, I'm a long-time resident, which is a high-level feat when you are equipped with such little feet and the low-level profile of a Blue Tongue Lizard.  In short - which is another of my limitations - I'm a skink!BlueTongue 17

I live, in fact, quite close to house at GPF, and was on my way there from my burrow near the big water tank when Collin snapped me from the veranda as I was climbing over the driveway kerbing. Luckily, Misty was otherwise occupied or I would have had to really make a run for it as dogs tend to like biting off our tails - their idea of fun! But here's a thing: our tails can grow back!

Dung1But to the point of my hijacking this blog ... it's odd what you find Collin and Fran inspecting - and photographing - with such evident pleasure.  Try this ... yes, that's cow manure!

It turns out, though, that they're not actually looking at the dung so much as the beetles that descend upon it almost as soon as it descends to the ground. Look closely enough and you might see the little holes they make.

Dung beetles, according to Farmer Fran, are natural farmers ... rolling up balls of dung, getting up on their hind legs to push them and then burying them, so fertilising the soil - and saving Collin a whole lot of work!  Seems improbable?  It's true. Check it out here.