100.) Fauna and sights in our 'backyard'

Rainbow Lorikeet in the bath on our deck.

With the potential to be running around to exotic places in OZ, it is easy to forget that even our back yard is an exotic place! We are prepping for the start of another semester at the Uni so we are staying closer to home. But there are still some good sights to be had...


Only the second koala we have seen in the wild. He (note the ears) was at Binna Burra in Springbrook Nat'l Park. Ironically, he was in a grove of trees slated for cutting to build 'investment properties' on a private inholding.













This is a typical view of a Riflebird. As stated in Morcombe's bird guide, "the three Australian Riflebirds have similar plumages, differing in detail that might not be evident when, from far below, one is seen as a silhouette against the sky. But once recognized as 'a riflebird,' its location, checked against the Riflebird maps, may be the best guide to species."

Since it is a riflebird and it is here, ipso facto - this is a Paradise Riflebird who (take our word for it) has a "triangular gorget of iridescent metallic colours that change with every movement of the bird."






A more cooperative female Riflebird showing her long white brow.


















A Wompoo Fruit Dove tests the extent of Dirk's lens. They stay pretty high (like really far away!) in the canopy and are generally pretty hard to spot, but as Morcombe notes, their call is "powerful, deep, reverberating, as in the name 'wom-poo,' but the first part is like the 'plonk' of a rock dropped in deep water: 'g'lonk-ooo,' or 'wollocka-roo.' A difficult to miss noise in the rainforest!










We are thinking of developing a definitive guide to identification of birds when one can only see the birds buttt! Here's shy Mr. Wompoo's butt, (or bum, as they are know here) finally turns to look at me.
















Even though it is autumn some gardens are blooming. So we hung out at unoccupied vacation place in the Springbrook Nat'l Park spying on the birds. Lots of little very flitty birds and this one boldly colored Eastern Spinebill.









A Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo peering through the Springbrook forest at us, in between bark shredding. We could also hear these guys from far away, with their "carrying, wailing calls, 'why-eela, weela.'"(which go on, and on, nad on....). The red eye-ring and dark bill distinguishes the guys from the girls. They were simply shredding the bark off this tree.












A female Australian Wood Duck in a small park near Currumbin, displaying her stylish black and white chequered front. She cooperated with Morcombe's advice that she "must be seen at close range for the delicately patterned beauty of its [her] plumage to be appreciated."













We know this is a non-breeding Great Egret because of his lack of plumes and a long, kinked neck. Also, the "length of head and neck together, outstretched, is great than the body length." In the pond near Currumbin.

















An Eastern Water Dragon hanging out in the same park near Currumbin.
















A Lace Monitor checking out our picnic at Binna Burra distracting us from the wily Bush Turkeys who stole our apple... this guy was a little over a meter long...











Twin Falls in Springbrook
















Rainbow Falls in Lamington National park
















Lovely light through the canopy at lower Ballanjui Fall in Lamington kept Dirk busy trying to find the perfect rainbow and water combination.

Finally, the NYT had a 'picturing the world event (see http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/03/blogs/a-moment-in-time.html?ref=global-home). It is a collection of photos taken around the world at 15:00 UDC. I trundled over to the coast at 1 am to get this shot (and nearly lost the camera to a large wave that hit the jetty-like structure I was standing on!

99). West - Isle of the Rats

We'd gone north, and then south, a little bit east, but we had to go west of Perth, which meant heading offshore to another island--Rottnest, or the "Isle of the Rats." Those European explorers had little imagination--who could have mistaken a quokka for a rat? These gentle creatures were quite abundant, and were not entirely shy.

Colors don't get much more vivid this! A tiny Red-capped robin shows his brilliant scarlet cap and breast to his admirers.

Perth skyline from the Barracks Street jetty











Cruising in the ferry out on the Swan River













Much was made on board about this house now being the "most expensive house in AU' (at $58 M or so). Or maybe the tour speaker meant the next house over....

But what was astounding was the number -(in the thousands) of houses with river views. I was told by a local that they *start* at $5M. The concentration of wealth in this area (again locals said it was oil/gas/mining money) was astonishing


Dolphins surfing the boat wake as we headed down river

















Rottnest is small - only 11 km from end to end and they have banned cars. So there are a few buses but most people hire bikes to get around - great fun!











Superb pocket beaches all around the island - probably crowded at some times but fairly deserted during the off season.










Time to hit the ocean!










A sacred kingfisher eating a great big bug! It is said that Pacific islanders revered kingfishers as gods who controlled the waves and the seas. This belief is honored in both their common name (sacred) and their species name (sanctus).














An elegant Red-necked Avocet.




















A female red-capped Robin sitting pretty.



















A ruddy turnstone in breeding plumage (foreground) and a red-necked stint (background) in non-breeding (non red-necked) plumage. Although tiny (weighing less than 30 grams), these birds make an annual migratory flight to breeding grounds in Siberia and Alaska, and return then return for the southern hemisphere summer.











A distinctive White-fronted chat we found pecking about the grounds in front of our lodging. We also saw small flocks of these birds flitting about the heath on the far side of the island.














Flocks of Ruddy Turnstones out at the west end of the island.

















A Banded Lapwing appearing calm and collected. These birds have an "excitable" personality and will vigorously protect their young.











Interesting hexagonal plates of an Ostraciidae ( a boxfish, cowfish) with hexagonal plates sutured into a carapace (ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/y4162e/y4162e69.pdf)











The best shot I could get of a skittish Peregrine Falcon






































We didn't want to be mean, but the quokkas were a bit excessively curious about our dinner at the picnic table (obviously others aren't as careful as we are about not feeding the animals). One went so far as to knock over my mug of wine. He probably ended up having an "interesting" night after he licked the spilled wine off his fur!




This would *not* be a good time for a rouge wave!

Funny yes, but the camera would get wet!










Now we have friends who ride volcanoes, who ride in AK in winter or spend 10s of hours in the saddle, or ride around continents.....you know who you are

But they probably don't have bike baskets.....








Not quite so sure about this brand name....
















Bus art



























Great sunsets at the interior lakes














Sunset over The Barracks - this is a hostel type accommodation in the original army barracks during WWII! The island has significant military history and many WWII era buildings, gun emplacements, bunkers etc. Rather odd rooms but they do have character!






An (unsuccessful) early morning search for rock parrots. But the sunrise was excellent!











Sunrise over Perth (click on the photo to enlarge it)





























WA does "do sunsets"!















At a famous fish and chips shop in Freemantle -















Goodbye to Perth - time to head for the airport and our red eye flight back to Queens Land.

98) South to the Tingle/Karri forests

Nancy jumping for joy after spotting a Rock Parrot at Elephant Rocks (near Green Pool - of course)

After Nancy forced departure from the Pinnacles by (temporarily) taking Dirk's camera away, we cruised south and around Perth heading for the southern ocean. It is a fascinating area and we had to bypass a number of interesting places to stay within our allotted time. So first stop was the Dryandra Woodland south of Perth. The Dryandra forest is a rare remnant of the open Eucalypt woodland that was present before European clearing of the land in the Wheatbelt region for agriculture.








We didn't expect to see these two Bush Stone-curlews (do you see both of them?), and it appears they weren't particularly happy to see us! They are said to be "skulkers" but hey, that's just what it looks like when you're trying to hide and blend into your surroundings.







Party birds, they're not!














A juvenile red-capped robin? The best I could come up with for this cooperative but fairly nondescript birdie.
















A rufous whistler. These birds are said to have an "impetuous, spirited spring song; the most 'Australian' of spring sounds." (Pizzey). Since it's now autumn, we didn't hear this song. Wonder if it's anything like our north American Western Meadowlark (my favorite springtime sound!).










We were lucky to happen upon "Barna Mia," an animal sanctuary nestled in the heart of the Dryandra. The people at this precious facility (government funded) are making a heroic effort in a breeding program for threatened/endangered marsupials. They are trying to reintroduce the native animals to their former habitats (including the Francois Peron National Park in Shark Bay) where their populations have been decimated due to feral predators, overgrazing, and land clearing including development.

A bilby! A recent search (this year) for a wild bilbies in WA revealed none whatsoever...(outside controlled nature reserves).

During our "spotlight" tour, we waited to see these little animals come for their food supplement of mushrooms, fruit, and pellets. Dirk took all these photos with no flash--illumination was by red spotlight to avoid spoiling the night vision of these nocturnal marsupials. Post -processing was only somewhat effective due to the original lighting.

A rufous hare-wallaby (or wurrup). The last two wild mainland populations of these guys were decimated in the early 1990s by fox predation and wildfire. Now they only survive on specially set-aside islands and enclosed sanctuaries like Barna Mia.


A Boodie or burrowing bettong. Said to be social, vocal marsupials that live in communal burrows, these little animals boisterously tried to steal the trays of food by pulling them towards their bodies and scooching backwards into the protective lean-to shelters where they could have all the food to themselves.

We also saw Woylies (or brush-tailed bettong) who primarily feed on underground fungi. They are not one of the better successes in the program--fungi are hard to come by in the prolonged drought of the area and wild populations are plummeting.




We looked high and low for Numbats - the locals all had the same story "we used to see [fill in the blank] every day, but now we almost never see them". Even in reserves many species are not doing well.

Project Numbat:
www.numbat.org.au












We traveled on the the Karri tree forests where we walked in the treetops and toured through some impressive old growth

This tree is still alive!

You used to be able to drive cars through the base of this (now dead) tree. "Loved to death," this cut-out car exhibit serves as an illustration about how the trees cannot survive root compaction. Now there are special boardwalks for walking, to protect the trees from overtrampling.

OZ likes things BIG! Here is what I assume to be a life size diorama of the local ants. You DO NOT want these things joining your picnic!

Near Northcliffe, we found "Understory" a walk through the woods to connect to the spirit of the place through artist-inspired works.










In Albany we followed the birding notes Nancy found online and headed out about Oyster Harbour on the Coraki Cottage trail. We soon ran into some knowledgeable local twitchers (who looked at my sandals and commented "Nice shoes - for the Tiger snakes!" Appropriately chastened, I went back to the car to change.... They were very friendly and kindly shared their favorite birding haunts.





An regal-looking Australian Hobby, quite similar in appearance to his relative, the Peregrine Falcon.

Yellow-billed spoonbills chowing down for Breakfast near the King River Bridge.

An unlikely bird combo in a dead tree--an Australian Hobby (top), a Galah (pink, middle), and a ring-necked parrot (bottom).

Emerald Pool/Elephant rocks. We stopped at this beautiful bay, a protected area perfect for swimming with no people around since it was early morning. Though it was a cool morning, when I saw a dolphin swimming around in the shallow water, I couldn't resist joining her for a quick dip. A magical place, this is where we were fortunate enough to see a lovely Rock Parrot!

Although the rock parrots are not one of the more glamorous parrots, we found her to be quite endearing as she went about her business of eating breakfast.

A Red-winged Fairy-wren heading into "eclipse" (non-breeding) brown plumage.

A common bronzewing taking a stroll on the beach (!)

A rather odd-looking musk duck at Lake Sepping

Beautiful woods at Dryandra

Karri trees - thee things are immense. Like many living things in OZ, they are restricted to just a small corner of the continent. These have been saved from logging but the increasing drought is threatening their range....








Beautiful bark patterns.

At the Natural Arch I scoffed at the numerous signs warning of the "25 m cliff!" Wow - 25 whole meters! But as I walked up to the edge and I was struck by the potential danger of the place. If you pitched into the ocean there was no place - at all- you were going to get out of the water.

It wasn't until I walked away that I realized how silly that was - if you pitched 75' off a cliff anywhere, chances are slim you would walk away..

Dramatic storm lighting on a nice wave break way offshore...

A Sacred Kingfisher

White sands, green water over the reef transitioning to blue. Lovely spot....

The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, marking the most southwesterly point of Australia.

With the rainbows comes the rain (or is it the other way round...?)

Dipping a toe in the southern ocean - not a great day fora swim.

Dirk jonesing to catch a wave at Margaret River - a world class surf destination. But howling winds and sloppy surf were keeping everyone out of the water - just standing on the rail was an effort! Saw two dirt-bag surfers (you know the type - beater car, full of bits and pieces of camping gear, food containers, sleeping bags - and 4 sticks on the roof!) pull up, take a squizz and just leave.