Critters by the River

On Sunday the weather cooled down a bit so Giz, the amazing Staffy and I went for our walk by the river and we enjoyed it so much that we went a bit further than we normally do. Giz was pretty chuffed that we did as we passed the boys hitting cricket balls in the nets, at first she couldn't work out what that noise was, then when she saw what fun the boys seemed to be having she was fascinated. I thought she was going to stand and watch them for hours, it was pretty funny actually, was almost like me when I spot a bird I am particularly interested in and will stand and watch. And that brings us to the other reason we enjoyed our walk so much, I saw a bird that I've never seen before!

So I thought it was time I posted up some pics of some of the critters that Giz and I have come across on our walks. You've already seen pics of the Sulfur Crested Cockatoos (Cocky's) and some Galahs (Cocky's too). We've also spotted a few Eastern Rosellas on our travels.

They're pretty hard to get a good photo of, they tend to take off as soon as you get near them, and these pics were captured on my phone which doesn't have much of a zoom.

Another day I did catch these pics of one who hung around on a fence while Giz and I crept closer to him.

He's on the fence in front of some other critters we spotted once on a walk by the river .. horses. Giz doesn't like horses, I think they are too big and kinda freak her out.










Another day we spotted some more Cockies hanging out on a small side arm of the river that we walk across in our rambles.

Some others birds aren't as shy as the Rosella's and just as brightly colored, Giz and I watched this pair of Green Grass Parrots for ages one day and they were playing in the grass just a couple of meters from us as I snapped a heap of pics of them.

Then there are the lazy guys, although Corella's are usually getting into some kind of mischief. This guy was too sleepy to do anything.

It isn't only birds down by the river, there's other types of critters to be seen too, and Giz and I were pretty chuffed to catch this guy.

I think he was a Water Dragon, and he was there with his wife who was just about invisible in all the leaf litter, he had a few more colors showing than her but he was also doing a pretty good impression of a stick til he spotted something tasty on a tree behind him and ran to catch it.

But the thing we spotted on Sunday was the most exciting so far (tho lizards are always exciting).

This is the best pic I could get of them, this guy hopped across the road in front of Giz and I but none of them would stop moving for long enough for me to get a good shot of them. There were about half a dozen of them hopping round in the leaf litter and grass at the side of the path, and a couple of them were even climbing up the trunk of a tree and checking out what was between the bark. I had to find out what they were and I did, they are Grey-Crowned Babblers.
Now I just need to find more of them to get a better pic of them, next weekend Giz and I are taking to good camera with us :)