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Wild life

One of the bonuses of travelling is to see another country's indigenous animals in the wild.  When I see deer and hares on my walks with Tilly, I feel privileged to have watched them, at ease, in their own territory.  So to see wild animals, which we can only see in a zoo at home, is a real thrill.  On this trip we have clocked up a few new sightings.  

These two possums were doing a spot of tightrope sitting in our son's front garden!  They had just had a little spat with a local cat, and then they sat there, on the wire, staring through the sitting room window, for quite some time.
Anoplognathus pallidicollis, a member of the scarab family of beetles, better known in Australia as the Christmas beetle - because it is really only seen around Christmas time in country areas.  And we did see a few.  This one was the most colourful.  The green can vary from a dull ochre colour through to this wanna-be Egyptian scarab!
Last week we saw two wild emu (thank you to Mrs E for the pic - I managed to leave my camera behind on this jaunt) to the Briar Homestead, on the Mornington Peninsula.
New Year's Eve and a sighting of four pelicans near where we were staying.  Enormous, fabulous birds, with such genial faces/
And, saving the best till last, because this is one from my bucket list - koalas in the wild!  This one was munching its way through a gum tree at one of our pit stops along The Great Ocean Road (more of that in another post).  What an adorable furry little creature!

Contented sigh - not just from the koala after a good meal, but from me too!  Very happy.

Comments

  1. SandyshoesCornwall5 January 2015 at 15:56

    Wow, such lucky spots! I didn't see a koala in the wild when I visited Australia but we did meet a very tame possum and her baby who let us feed it. I didn't realise Emus still roamed Australia so this is a great picture. I hope you don't get too close to any of the more infamous critters....Antonia x

    ReplyDelete
  2. the running wave7 January 2015 at 16:17

    No, it was all good! Very well behaved locals! Home now, and time to get back into the old routines! x

    ReplyDelete

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