While I would love to be able to show you photos of last year’s joey out of the pouch and being independent, I can’t.  After living on our place for just over two years, the female Eastern Grey Kangaroo and her joey disappeared in August 2015, and as far as I have been able to make out, has not returned.  There are some larger mobs of kangaroos on properties in the area, so perhaps she joined with one of these, or maybe she was hit by a car, or maybe she was shot.  I guess I will never know.

Over Summer, we had the odd kangaroo pass through, generally just staying in sight for one night and then none for weeks, sometimes months.

Finally, I can show you photographs of an Eastern Grey joey.  This female and her joey have visited three or four times in the last month, sometimes staying for almost a week.  While intermittent, the visits seem to be regular enough.  Her routines seem to be similar to those of the previous female and she is a paler colour than other kangaroos we’ve seen. So it is possible she is the same pale coloured kangaroo photographed in  Colour Variation in Eastern Grey Kangaroos which was posted just over a year ago.   If it is her, she has grown in size and also become a little greyer – although with the changing light, it is hard to tell.   She is still paler in colour than all of the other kangaroos around here.

The joey is just about ready to begin coming out of the pouch for exercise.  It may well be happening already. If so, it’s out of sight of the house.  From observation, I can testify that the joey is the wiggliest one I have seen.  The pouch seems to be constantly wobbling and each time I look, a different body part is protruding – head, tail, back feet, head, this time upside down.  We can’t wait to see what it does when able to run around freely.

Tonight a male and a second female were visiting.  Most likely for the water in the dam. Many dams in this area have gone dry.  Ours still contains water, but it is very diminished and the bottom is clearly visible all the way across.  With predictions of a dry April, we just hope it rains hard before our dam dries up too.  With a bit of luck and reliable water, perhaps we will get to see this joey out and about on its own.

Click on the phonographs to view them at a larger size.

Most photographs I have of this joey show him looking everywhere except toward the camera. It is nice to see its face.

Head, shoulders and front legs out.

Relaxing back to look up at the sky.

Tonight three kangaroos came down to drink in the dam. Three years ago, all of the sand you can see would have been under water.