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| Page Views: 1,257 | Aussie wildlife visitors by colin_bramso - last update: Jan 18, 2006 |
One of the really nice things about Australia is the abundant wildlife which is all around us. We co-exist very happily - and very closely. We have all sorts of birds as regular visitors, some of them 'tame' enought to take food from our hand. In particular, the Rainbow Lorikeets and Kookaburras are friendly, but we also have a Magpie and a Butcher bird which will take food from my hand. |
| Rainbow Lorikeets on our balcony. |
|  | The most colourful visitors, and the noisiest, are the Rainbow Lorikeets. Each one has different plumage, so you get to know them individually. Other members of the parrot family that we see in our garden are Rosellas, which are even more colourful but very shy, and sometimes King Parrots. They have the most amazing emerald green & bright orange colour combination. They're also shy and I've never managed to photograph them, but I'll keep trying. |
| Cuckoo with Currawong foster-parent! |
| | One of the more unusual visitors was a very big Cuckoo. I think it's called a Channel Bill Cuckoo. You probably know that Cuckoos lay their egg in another bird's nest, so that the other birds will hatch the egg and raise the young bird. We watched a pair of Currawongs, which are quite big birds, like a Crow, raising a Cuckoo that just got bigger and bigger. The poor Currawongs nearly exhausted themselves trying to find it enough food! This happened two consecutive years. As the Currawongs were regular visitors to our balcony, they brought the Cuckoo along too. |
| | Another unusual visitor only came once, but I managed to quickly take a photo of him, or maybe it was a her. It was a Heron, I don't know the correct name but I will try to look it up. It spent a while on our balcony, then wandered around our neighbour's swimming pool, where it's mate joined it. They eventually flew off back to the nearby lagoon, which is where we usually see them. |
| | Not too unusual in this area are Brush Turkeys. In the heavily-wooded valley at the end of the street there are many of them. This was a bit different, though, because a tiny baby turned up in our front garden. We gave it water and food and it gradually became used to us. When it was just about fully grown it would take food from Geina's hand. Sometimes we see an adult bird walking around the garden and we wonder whether it's 'our' Turkey. |
| | Getting away from birds, we have a family of Blue Tongue Lizards living in the back garden. They're quite big, maybe 40cm long. Although Geina's frightened of lizards, these are very useful because they eat snails. Geina grows various vegetables, herbs and salad, so she puts up with the Blue Tongues so there aren't many snails to do too much damage! |
| | I took this photo on the balcony of a previous house we lived in, a Possum eating bread we'd put out for her. We also have plenty of possums in Terrigal. They live in the trees which are all around us, and they seem to like the fruit in my palm trees. Every evening, the security light comes on and it's a big possum climbing from tree to tree looking for the best fruit. |
| | And finally, to prove how closely we co-exist with the wildlife, we have a pair of Magpies as regular visitors. This one became particularly bold and if I didn't feed him/her, would wander into the house looking for us. Here it is, right inside the lounge room being fed by Geina. |
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 Comments for colin_bramso about World | | | | |
jivanne96 Thu Aug 27, 2009 11:04 UTC
Hi Colin..how are u and Geina..sorry for the late invitation..but would you like to come to Al Ravi Rest..well its not posh rest but still ok... | JessH Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:04 UTC
Hi Colin! How are you doing? John and I are back, now "Mr & Mrs" & that suddenly makes me feel very grown-up, haha! Have posted the 1st picture on my Scotland page. Looks like we had better weather that you guys did down south? | newtooz Sun Jul 26, 2009 08:25 UTC
Please see my reply here. I would really appreciate your help :-) http://forum.virtualtourist.com/discussion-482593-1-1-Travel-0-0-Australia-discussion.html?s=2&p=1&l=3144&pl=3144 | pakistanibrain Thu Apr 23, 2009 12:48 UTC
I don't log into VT that often anymore. So here's a belated "Happy Birthday". |
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