A Yank's View of Wildlife Down Under - volume 1: a sampler

[NorthernFocus]

Well we finally got our legs back under us from out trip to Australia. Our entire trip was confined to New South Wales with a three day foray just across into Victoria at Mallacoota. We found so much to see and do that we elected to spend more time on our feet and less time behind the wheel. So we limited our range and glad that we did so.

I came back with quite a few bird photos. I'll post separate threads for the species that I was able to get multiple images of. But with this thread I figured I'd go ahead and post a representative sample and hopefully they'll be well presented.

We spent our first five days in Sydney recovering from the trip over and seeing the sites thereabout. Just as well because it rained most of that time. But between showers we walked a good bit including Hyde Park and the Royal Botanical Garden. I carried the camera on a couple of outings so before even leaving Sydney I got a start on the birds.

First off, we were astounded to see Ibis everywhere in the city, raiding rubbish bins and begging chips at outside cafes. They were so common place that I only took a casual shot or two of them assuming they must be one of the most prolific birds in the country. Ironically we never saw another after leaving the city.



The locals call these guys "plover" and aren't too fond of them as they seem to just plop their eggs down in the middle of lawns and them aggressively defend their nest. And they seem to hate dogs. It's "officially" a masked lapwing. We saw them virtually everywhere that we went and they clearly preferred feeding in grassy areas rather than the shoreline.



I believe these are dusky moorhen.





Another thing that came as a surprise was how common cockatoo are in Oz. While not quite as numerous as pigeons in Sydney proper, their numbers aren't far behind. There were plenty of them in the parks. Unfortunately they had a tendency to either be in the tops of trees or on the ground and I never did get a shot at them. I did have an opportunity to shoot several on city streets sitting on railings etc. but decided to wait for opportunities with more natural surroundings

We then hired a car and headed out with the original intent to drive around the southeast coastline all the way to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road. So day one on the road we made it as far as Batemans Bay. We stayed in a B/B a couple of km outside town. We went for a walk in the rural neighborhood that evening (without a camera) and saw our first non-captive kangaroos. And of course as luck would have it, there was a group of half a dozen or more SC Cockatoos sitting at eye level in a bush right beside the road. Go figure...

The next day we were still on our quest for Melbourne so headed out bound for Mallacoota. We stopped for gas and my wife made me take this photo to post on FB because no one would believe how many cockatoo et al that there are. It would be a few days yet before I finally got some "wild" shots of SC Cockatoo.



We made it to Mallacoota and the weather was still spotty. That evening we walked down to the boat landing and shot some pelicans. Australian pelicans are definitely larger than the brown pelicans I'm familiar with back on the east coast of the US. I haven't spent enough time around west coast pelicans to make the same judgment.







Our first morning in Mallacoota dawned crystal clear so we walked to the beach. Naturally being in swim trunks and slathered up with sun screen, no camera came along. So of course a block from the hotel we come across a koala on the ground and out in the wide open with a baby riding on her back. The closest tree was between us so she actually ran toward us to get up the tree. She ran up about eight feet or so and stopped to watch us. The following shot was taken with an iPhone. I blurred the BG in photoshop.



Of course that was the only wild koala we saw on the trip and only an iPhone shot to show for it. But I was glad have it. The route we took to the beach took us past the local golf course. And we figured out who really loves the links...



Seeing so much wildlife in the area and really enjoying the beaches as we were, we decided to extend our stay in Mallacoota to three days and to scrub our plans to drive further south. We spent three nights there and then started slowly working our way back north, beach by beach. We finished up with three nights in the Blue Mountains.

I'll post more shots later as I work through images from the trip.

[allenlennon]

great photos and hope you enjoyed visting my country and state!(NSW)

[gregj1763]

Hope you had a good time here Dan. Great photo's and the koala one is great for an iPhone.
Look forward to more images mate

[Mike Buckley]

Terrific series, both the photos and the narrative!

[Manfred M]

Wow! Looks like you had a stunning trip Dan!

[deetheturk]

Great images Dan!

[Tom Barry]

These are super! The one of the pelican in flight is superb. Looks as though you had a wonderful time. Thanks for sharing these and I look forward to seeing more.

[terrib]

So glad you had a good trip. The Plover shot is cool. The kangaroo shot is wonderfully fun. The pelican shots are excellent. Love the positioning of the group in the last pelican shot. The single one in flight is so sharp and I like how you handled the exposure and development on the first pelican. I too, would be happy to have the Koala shot. At least you did have your phone!

[FlyingSquirrel]

What I'm hearing is "every time you didn't have your camera, you wish you had it"

[Wavelength]

Great series and nice narration

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks for the comments everyone and glad you enjoyed the thread. For anyone considering traveling down under for a visit, I highly recommend it. A beautiful landscape occupied by unique flora, fauna, and friendly folk.

[Dave Humphries]

An interesting read and great photos, what more could we ask for Dan?

Cheers,