There are no Kangaroos Down Under!?

[Mel]

indeed, nice to have a window in between
Raven with blue eyes
Tirannica
Gannet

and a lot more

Raven with blue eyes is kind of cool, I think.

Tirannica... Ja, not without a reason. They are basically everywhere down south.

[Lisbeth]

Red eyes

[melou]

Thanks nan and Lisbeth for your welcome

And g'day again to you Mel

You got some great bird sightings on Griffith Island
I especially liked your immature BSK and singing honeyeater - never seen them before

But what I most enjoyed seeing was the blue sky in your photos

It has not stopped raining here for more than a day since you left!

Look forward to your next installment

[Mel]

melou!

Can't believe your bad late winter weather... And can't believe that we got stuck in the middle of it on top of it.

But you're headed towards summer and hopefully will have many glorious days out at La Perouse.
We're must do that next time. Even if it means that we need to drive down to there from the Blue Mountains.

[Mel]

While I was chasing an LBJ, this one caught my eye:

Sacred Kingfisher
(23)

Little Pied Cormorant and Little Black Cormorant
(24 & 25)

Non-breeding Pelicans
(26)

[Mel]

After having finished the island loop we went back for some late breakfast. Then we had planned to go to Tower Hill Game Reserve, about 15 km east of Port Fairy.
The weather had deteriorated by then and it actually started to rain at some point which would never stop again until we got back to Melbourne the next day.

Tower Hill is a volcano and offers wetlands with various theme walks: several geology and wetlands hikes respectively, Aboriginal food

We opted for a wetland walk that took us about 1.5 hours. Due to the weather conditions I didn't spot that many birds though.

First glimpse when you enter the park:


A very active koala, which is something special as koalas are the Australian answer to the African lion: They sleep about 18 hours a day.
Hence, finding one that is actually doing something, namely eating, in the middle of the day on top of it, is something extraordinary.



Black Swans
(27)

Red Browed Finch
(28)

melou, remember how I desperately tried to get a photo of that on the last day at Jervis Bay?
Well, I didn't know that I had capture one already.

Non-breeding Great Egret - thanks for the ID, melou!
(29)

Laughing Kookaburra
(30)

[Mel]

And I'm actually betraying the title of my TT, we did get a glimpse of two wild grey kangaroos.



But that was it for almost all of the trip! When we arrived at our next stop - Alice Springs - the cab driver who took us from the airport to Avis where we picked up our campervan for 2 nights in the Uluru & Kata Tjuta National Park had promised me tons of them along the Stuart Highway. I saw one! In number: 1... and every other kangaroo we might have come across there, were road kills.

[nan]

everywhere there is road kills
it seems they are not so tiny... and we can avoid them... or

nice serie of birds, the Kingfisher (No 30) is a very big one, if I remember correctly
love Koala

[Mel]

The Kookaburra can be the size of a peregrine falcon, nan.

As for the road kills... The SO was told by a car rental company that there is no insurance if we flip the car while trying to avoid a collision with a kangaroo.
So, what is left other than hitting the poor critter in order not to have to pay thousands and thousands of dollar for a car damage...

Plus, this is what is travelling all over Australia.



And there are even some road trains with 5 trailers. In any case, they are unable to break to avoid the collision.

[nan]

but, we can drive more slowy

I remember, my travel in Australia, going along the East coast... only few km
and after... we take a plane
it was so dangerous

you are brave to drive with those trucks in front of you