Australia — Australian Wildlife
What did I see on my travels?
August 2015
I love the Australian road signs, particularly the wildlife ones.
I’m not too sure what the wading bird is. If you have any ideas, then please leave a comment.
I did get to see a Tiliqua rugosa — Bobtail or Western Shingleback Skink. This was a very odd creature, and I almost ran over it on the dirt road as I thought it was a 25 cm (10 in) stick.
What was striking about the Bobtail was that it didn’t seem too bothered by me. It allowed me to get quite close with my camera. I am used to seeing lizards, and they usually scurry for cover as I approach, but the Bobtail just sat there, looking at me.
A bit further down the road, I saw some Emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae), which surprised me, I guess I wasn’t expecting to see them!
And over at the Pinnacles, I saw two stunning Galahs (Eolophus roseicapilla), also called rose-breasted cockatoos. Lovely looking birds that I believe pair for life.
And surprisingly (well, not to me), I didn’t see any Kangaroos.
On all my visits to Australia (which must be nearly double figures now), I have only seen Kangaroos (not including in zoos or dead by the side of the road — a very common sight once out in the bush) on two occasions.
The first occasion was in SW Australia, where I had been driving around for a week and had not seen one ‘roo (apart from countless smelly bloated corpses that had been hit by trucks). I mentioned (jokingly) to a local that I didn’t think live Kangaroos existed and was then taken to a clearing in the bush where one simple ‘cooee’ caused about ten heads to pop up above the waist-high shrubs.
The second occasion was when I was on the Sidney to Perth train and woke up on the first morning to look out of my window at the Blue Mountains to see about 20 Kangaroos bounding across the fields (clearly spooked by the train).
Just for the record, I have also done the Darwin to Adelaide train and didn’t see a single Kangaroos over the three days.
This blog post forms part of a video about my trip on YouTube:
