Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The distractions...

There are a number of waterfalls throwing icy spray hundreds of feet across paths. Not recommended after winter rains but not too bad in the middle of summer after a warmish hike to get there. Ditz was our photographer & filming wildlife isn't the easiest thing to do so the best way to see these images is to click on the image for an enlargement. She did well as she captured things Sian missed though the hopping mice evaded all of us. Ditz got some peculiar ones all burry & a tangle of wood & grass that had had a mouse in view until the critical moment. By gosh, they're fast little critters!
The skinks just kept getting bigger & bigger.
Quail. These are small brown ground birds; very shy & we were lucky to get this shot.
The rail was not & happily posed for shot after shot but the light isn't the best. There is an echidna in there somewhere...This was the highlight for Sian. She had never seen one before.
But for me the yellow tailed Black Cockatoos were the best. These are getting quite rare though not on the endangered species list just yet. They are a huge bird ~ between 55 & 65 cms with a harsh, piercing cry that Ditz & Sian, musos that they are, promptly tried to emulate! Ugh! They had trouble hitting the right pitch but the cockatoos were intrigued enough to follow us along the path & then pose for some lovely shots. we could have reached out & touched them! There was a flock of about a dozen birds coming & going, screeching out to each other, & spreading wings that would have done a small hawk proud. They are a spectacular bitd.

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