Last Summer on a stinking hot day I photographed a Swamp Wallaby drinking out of the dam in the afternoon. Usually, being nocturnal, we only see them at dusk or dawn. Well, another stinking hot day, and another Swamp Wallaby drinking out of the dam in the daylight. These photographs were taken at around 3:30 … Continue reading Swamp Wallaby Drinking
Tag: animals
Testing Their Strength: Young male kangaroos sparring
Something told me to get up early today, and I’m glad I did. Our kangaroo family were back, with two young male kangaroos tagging along behind. My guess is the female kangaroo was in season, as there seemed to be a lot of jostling. The two young males put on a good show right … Continue reading Testing Their Strength: Young male kangaroos sparring
Is Anyone An Expert on Victorian Bats?
For a while now, we have been noticing squeaks coming from within a boxed in gap in the fascia board surrounding the back deck. We’ve suspected there may be a few bats living in this gap and over the last two weeks we have been trying to monitor their habits. Right on the point of … Continue reading Is Anyone An Expert on Victorian Bats?
Dragons in the Garden
Gardening in the hot Summer weather can spring a few surprises on those who are not paying attention… like the odd reptile sheltering in the weeds. Luckily for me, it wasn’t a snake. Also, fortunately, I had come across two Jacky Dragon’s previously – thanks to the cats – so I had already researched them, … Continue reading Dragons in the Garden
A Privilege to Watch
I couldn’t believe my luck this morning, when our regular Eastern Grey Kangaroo allowed her joey to suckle right in front of the study window. She just stood there for twenty minutes or so while the joey (otherwise independent) put her mouth into the pouch for a feed. Unfortunately, a car noise disturbed them, and … Continue reading A Privilege to Watch
Independence!
The Eastern Grey Kangaroos were back again this week, after an absence of a month or two. On the weekend a male and female made a brief appearance en-route to the back of the property, and this morning we had a group of four: two males, a female, and the joey, which is now independent. … Continue reading Independence!
A wet Swamp Wallaby
The last two days and nights have been wild and woolly with gale force winds and lots of (very welcome) rain. This Swamp Wallaby had obviously not found much shelter, as it was very wet. Even in its bedraggled coat, the rich golden fur of the chest and belly looks soft and glowingly warm. The … Continue reading A wet Swamp Wallaby
Guess who’s been eating the wildflowers!
Often when I’m walking around, I see flowering bushland plants bitten off low to the ground. This is often frustrating when I have been waiting for a flower bud to open. I check daily, and just when the bud is about to burst, I head back the next day full of anticipation of what the … Continue reading Guess who’s been eating the wildflowers!
How Gorgeous! Joey Antics Outside My Window.
About twelve hours after I posted the photos of our kangaroo mob, lamenting that they had not visited for days, they all showed up. This included the mature female with the older joey. For some reason they showed up at noon – almost on the dot. As a habit, the kangaroos are gone before 9am … Continue reading How Gorgeous! Joey Antics Outside My Window.
Kangaroo Update – now there are two joeys
I’ve held off posting these photographs for a couple of weeks, as one of the Eastern Grey Kangaroo joeys seems almost ready to climb out of the pouch. I thought I might be able to include photos of the joey hopping around. However, since I took these photos, the kangaroos have been grazing in a … Continue reading Kangaroo Update – now there are two joeys
I found a Striated Thornbill in the Fernery
If it had not been for the persistent, urgent chirping, I would not have noticed the Striated Thornbill in our fernery today. It seemed to be giving an alarm call, as if I were intruding into its territory. The longer I watched it, the more exaggerated the flitting from one place to another appeared to … Continue reading I found a Striated Thornbill in the Fernery
Kookaburra in Winter Sun
Finally, after many frustrating attempts, I have a good photograph of a kookaburra! This one was sitting in the cool afternoon sun. Last night our temperature approached zero degrees Celsius, and it was already very cool when I took this shot.
Scarlet Robin
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a photo of a bird to be added to the Species List. Yesterday I saw two species I had not noticed here before, but I only managed to capture photographs of the Scarlet Robin. The second sighting was a group of small birds which were probably Red-Browed Finch, … Continue reading Scarlet Robin
Baby Joey Photos: A new addition to our kangaroo family
It has been obvious for some time that the mature female had a joey in her pouch, but this is the first time we have actually glimpsed it. This makes five kangaroos here now. The middle-sized female also now seems to be carrying a joey, so I guess five will soon turn to six.
An Assortment of Cormorants
We have cormorants drop in to fish in the dam every now and again. Mostly, they come on their own, but sometimes they bring a friend or two. In the months leading up to Christmas, I was much more drawn to the herons, ducks, and more exotic species of bird, paying little attention to the … Continue reading An Assortment of Cormorants
White-Eared Honeyeater
Yesterday, you caught a glimpse of the White-Eared Honeyeater in My Morning Walk and I promised you more photos today. Here they are! We’ve been catching glimpses of this species ever since we moved in, but they are fast, and tend to spend their time in denser trees. This makes them hard to photograph. On … Continue reading White-Eared Honeyeater
Family of Four
At the risk of overloading you with photographs of Eastern Grey Kangaroos, here is an update. Three female kangaroos have been coming past the house to graze a couple of times each week. As noted in my previous post Three Morning Visitors, it appears to be a mature female with two female offspring from her … Continue reading Family of Four
Australasian Grebe
One morning, a fast-moving ripple on the dam attracted my attention. Getting out the binoculars, I could see a small water bird madly swimming back and forth, as though its life depended on racing from one spot to another. Every now and again it would dive beneath the surface, then swim madly off in another … Continue reading Australasian Grebe
Three Morning Visitors
Kangaroos make their presence known in various ways, even when you can’t physically see them – often with damage to plants in the garden. This usually happens overnight, in the dark, when you don’t even get the pleasure of watching these beautiful creatures. So it was both surprising and pleasant to see three female Eastern … Continue reading Three Morning Visitors
Eastern Froglet
We’ve had more encounters with frogs this week than we have in the entire time we’ve lived here. They must be beginning to emerge after the hot Summer weather. Each time we have a small rain shower, the number of frogs ‘singing’ seems to increase! We found this little fellow in a patch of long … Continue reading Eastern Froglet
Spotted Grass Frog / Spotted Marsh Frog
We’ve seen these small frogs in our back garden on a number of occasions. The distinctive yellow stripe down their back makes them easily identifiable. This one has a bit of a kink in the stripe, but most have a fairly straight line from nose to tail. As you would expect, we see more of … Continue reading Spotted Grass Frog / Spotted Marsh Frog
Looking for Kangaroos
People who know me well think it is hilarious that I have bought a book called ‘Scats, Tracks and other Traces’ which teaches readers how to identify the various animals which have been active at night, or when they can’t be seen. As indicated by the title of the book, sometimes this involves looking at … Continue reading Looking for Kangaroos
Breakfast
I find it interesting to watch birds drink from the dam, as this is when they seem to be most vulnerable. They appear to stop and look around before they bend their heads to the water. These cockatoos were drinking just after sunrise. There was much milling around and one bird drank at a time, … Continue reading Breakfast
Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos
We’ve known for a while that we should get Yellow-Tailed Black Cockatoos in our area, but until this week, we haven’t seen any. Earlier in the week, on one of my walks I had spotted some black birds which seemed to be making ‘hyena-style’ laughing noises, but I couldn’t get close enough to see what … Continue reading Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos
Fifteen Acres 