Once again, for your amusement, it’s “Luna-the-Downunder-dog.” Doing her hilarious best to manage living “upside-down” in the land-downunder.
More photos (as promised), featuring some of the wonderous (and really weird) critters of West Australia, just past the fold.
Meet the fierce looking, but in reality very laid back, Spiny Devil.
This was the first one we found, which wasn’t quite as brightly colored as the one we found further north.
They are acutally soft to the touch!
We have no idea what the “pineapple” like appendage on the back of their heads is for.
when they are on the ground.
We only picked them up because they refused to move off the roads (or move at all, for that matter), and we didn’t want them to get squished.
They are the world’s largest skink, at well over a foot long, and yes, their tongue is bright blue.
We have the Blotched Blue-tongue Skinks in Tasmania. Yesterday, one of the many that live in our bush gave Sam, the guy who came to excavate for our new water tank, a fright. They can easily look like snakes, if you just catch a glimps of them – and all Tasmanian snakes are poisionous. Sam’s comment on realizing that he was not going to die was that he’d, “have to go home and change pants.”
Here’s two photos, you name the critter(s) in them.
Good luck!
An Australian Pelican.
I think this falls into that catagory of questions about animals, that’s answered by, “because they can.”
(Now, I have to go figure out what to make for dinner. Chow.)
This fellow (mom lays the eggs, dad raises the chicks) had the biggest brood we saw. Most had only one or two chicks this big.
A close-up of dad with one chick.
Which, I believe, are in the puffer-fish family.
some of you are wondering if we saw any kangaroos on our trip. Yes, we did.
This mother Euro (a small kangaroo of the desert country) with her half-grown joey, were enjoying a graze at sunset – a mere half kilometre inland from the Indian Ocean.
Hopeful patrols the house
Baby mountain goat (in Glacier National Park) looks precious
Hopeful’s “patrolling” wouldn’t mostly entail chasing marauding squirrels up trees, would it?
Mountain goats always strike me as dressed-to-the-nines, with their crisp white coats and their tiny black patent-leather hooves.
Alas, Hopeful is 12 years old and he pretty much just encourages the other two dogs to do the chasing for him.
I met a six-week old cockatiel last night. Hand-raised, and so affectionate and sweet. He LOVED attention. At one point when he was sitting on my finger there were six of us gathered around him, all cooing at him and telling him what a pretty bird he is, and he would just strreetttch his wings to show off their colors, and stick out a leg and look so happy.
I’ve known a few pet birds that just loved attention – always good to see them so well-loved and -treated.
We actually saw a small flock of cockatiels on our trip. But as they were in flight, and they fly very quickly, there wasn’t time for a photo. We saw several flocks of corellas (a smaller member of the cockatoo family). And lots of Galahs (aka Rose Breasted Cockatoos), like the one bellow, that I caught having lunch.
This fledgeling was waiting for mom and dad to stuff something down her gullet. I guess I looked like a potential food source, because she posed for me with a very hopeful look on her face.
Do you have a VERY long telescopic lens or are you VERY sealthy? Wonderful picture!
This picture was taken with 70-300mm zoom, at the 300mm setting.
And yes, I am very stealthy, but in this case the young Mynah was clearly used to people being around, and I was able to get fairly close (maybe 10 feet/3 metres) for this shot.
Thanks. I’m really happy with it.
One evening, I caught this group playing with someone’s laundry at one of the campgrounds we stayed in over-night.
Several of this same flock were playing on the swing-set and one was lying on its back, tearing with its bill at the rag it had in its claws.
Different angle.
One of their calls does sound like they are saying “twenty-eight,” hence the name.
This one was caging crisps (potato chips) at Kings Park in Perth.
The little spiny devil especially. Thanks for the photos.
My son’s cat Peter stayed in the country for the summer. He is about 7 years old and was rescued by my son because his owner’s new girl-friend was allergic (or maybe jealous too) of him. Crusty old Peter surprized everyone. He staked out a very small circle around the house for his territory and never wandered off. Also, he made friends with a young racoon. They were often seen sitting beside each other on the deck by neighbours who asked, “What’s with your cat, making friends with a racoon?” We think Peter was smart enough to know, if he couldn’t beat them, he would join them. Peter is back in the city, but he has some good memories of camping with the racoons.
Smart cat, Peter.
I too have lived in “racoon country,” and found that the cats were usually happy to “share” kibble with those other “funny looking cats,” just so long as I filled the bowl regularly.
I thought that they were natural enemies.
A wise old man told me he had seen some fights between cats and racoons and most of the time the cats outwit the racoons. In Vancouver the racoons were taking a hit for many of the lost cats. The city has a special wildlife section which studies the diet of urban racoons (through autopsies of roadkill) and they found that their main diet was the hated slugs. The goal of urban wildlife management is to educate the public to get along with the racoons and the coyotes.
The biggest problem I had with raccons was their penchant for eating my ducks. They’d wait till the ducks started to sit their eggs – when they’re very broody and won’t run away – and then, one by one, they’d pick off all my hens.
They eventually got the lone drake as well.
I was left with only geese after that, and even had a racoon try to take one of them. The gander ended up with a sizable gash in his head, but he won the fight.
I’ve heard similar studies about coyotes that show that they mostly eat grasshoppers and mice.
Wonderful Aussie critters. Thanks for sharing. Your doggie buddy is adorable….and such beautiful white teeth. He’s either very young or you take great care of this teeth. Good job.
Thanks again for the delightful pics.
of your critters for the blog?
I’m not really sure how I blend all the edges. 😉
They make software to do that (I’ve got Photostitch).
I’m trying to get puget4 (who is the spouse of Gooserock) to follow up on her interest in doing panoramas because she has such an amazing eye so I thought maybe her dogs would make a good impetus.
If you haven’t visited her photo fair diary yet, you really should go visit it.
Luna is only 16 months old, hence the pearly whites.
But, she also gets regular dental checks. If you get them used to it when they are young, they’ll put up with tooth brushing and placque scraping – without too much fuss.
Cool lizards BTW
Peace
Love it!