Bushwalk Australia

Not quite on a walk but we were abseiling yesterday at Mt Portal lookout, lower Blue Mtns NSW. Waiting my turn I partly saw and partly heard something rapidly descending from a great height. Looked up to see a peregrine falcon diving at full speed straight past the rock platform we were on and down into the valley below. The whooshing sound was incredible as it was so close. I know these things can get up to about 200-300 km/h and I wouldn't be surprised if this one was approaching that. I assume it spotted a potential prey item further down, but then it pulled out of the dive just above the Nepean River and headed elsewhere. I've seen these birds before but never close up in a full dive like that. Absolutely spectacular sight. Wish I'd had a camera handy but would be difficult to photograph as it was totally unexpected.

We saw a quoll at the Blue Mountains down Grose Gorge!

Wow, nice one brennan, I'm thinking that is quite a rare find? (great pic)

Nuts wrote:Wow, nice one brennan, I'm thinking that is quite a rare find? (great pic)

One that poses for a pic midstream is definitely rare. Lovely healthy looking specimen, too.

Your quoll photo is stunning Brennan. Well done! I did see a quoll at Mount Geryon base camp above Pine Valley (Tassie) last December, 2015. Moved far too quickly to grab a pic.

On the same trip I saw this beautiful echidna digging for some lunch at Ducane Hut. I adore echidnas! They are a seriously cool animal. They can afford to be I suppose with those spines! I am forever enthralled by the monotrenes; only the echidna and platypus in that biological order. An egg laying mammal has got some very rich evolution behind it. Also that echidnas share no close biological relationship with the porcupine, and that their similarity in appearance is convergent evolution.

Please keep up your wonderful photos and best wishes to all.
Jeffoir

From Hartz Peak on Sunday....

It's not really a walk, but since beginning work on a Green Army project three weeks ago my group has seen 3 red belly black snakes, two brown snakes, one turtle, one blue tongue lizard and a shingleback lizard. The shingleback was hiding in long grass and was unseen until we brush cut right over the top of him. Luckily he went unscathed and after removing some ticks from his body we let him go on his way.

Great specimen! Last time I saw one of these was on the Heysen trail in S.A.

Genesis wrote:Great specimen! Last time I saw one of these was on the Heysen trail in S.A.

It was beautiful. Looked quite healthy and was large. Probably about 30 to 40cm from head to tail.

Saw some Sambar deer up at Craigs Hut over the long w/end. Never seen live ones before.....

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Deer are not wildlife, they are ferals.

I thought bogans in 4wd's are ferals, guess you never stop learning.

Came across this beautiful snake on the way out from the WoJ. Flattened himself/herself out when I tried to get close. Can the snake people tell me whether it's a tiger or copperhead?

Isn't it great. No snake expert but to me it's a Tiger. Larger scales on the head, and flattened neck. Always amuses me tiger, copperheads, all seem black in Tasssi for the most part.

Very hard to pick maybe a copperhead seeing the horizontal yellow lines on the belly near the head ????????????

Can anyone identify this one? ------ Is it a Nankeen kestrel
I spotted this (these) fellow/s up on Mount Stirling last Monday morning.
There was 5 of them riding the thermals, hovering, catching something on the wing, the whole works. It was a beautiful sight.
Sorry about the photo quality. They are cropped from a well zoomed picture taken with a point and shoot.

Hard to tell Neil. Perhaps a brown falcon?

Square-tailed kite?

Osik wrote:Can the snake people tell me whether it's a tiger or copperhead?

At first glance...looks like a tiger to me.

neilmny wrote:Can anyone identify this one? ------ Is it a Nankeen kestrel

Pretty sure your spot on, neilny.... it's a Nankeen Kestral.

ofuros wrote:

neilmny wrote:Can anyone identify this one? ------ Is it a Nankeen kestrel

Pretty sure your spot on, neilny.... it's a Nankeen Kestral.

Having another look at it and using Google I think you are both right. Found this photo and the coloring of the wings and tail look the same.



http://ibc.lynxeds.com/photo/australian ... ther-appro

Thanks guys, my first thought was Tiger, but then I started leaning towards Copperhead. Probably needed to get a fair bit closer to get better shot of the head scales to confirm (something that given my crappy zoom, I was not particularly keen on attempting).

Beautiful looking bird that too!

Copperhead, very pretty. Not seen on my last walk, just included to show the colors.

flyfisher wrote:Copperhead, very pretty. Not seen on my last walk, just included to show the colors.

That they are Flyfisher, we saw a couple out near Ritchies hut last year.
It was my first encounter with a copperhead in my then 60 years of life.
They are quite beautiful in a snakey sort of way. They even have a less evil
looking face than the tigers and browns.

The Tassie snakes seem to be a lot darker coloured. Hence my guess at Copperhead
this morning, it seems not a good guess.
From memory someone put it that this was due to the lower temperatures down that way with the
darker colour being better at absorbibg heat.
There's no mistaking the local tigers I've encountered here in Vic....... very tigery looking.

Lovely looking serpent, flyfisher... thick too.

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Thick's exactly what I was thinking too ofuros (along with stunning colours). How long would you say s/he was flyfisher?

Bladensburg N.P. Qld

Wallaroo chilling in the shade...


Skip to my loo...


'Happy Jacks' aka Apostle birds having a chin-wag during 'Happy Hour'.

Saw this wombat at the Prom recently waddling into the surf

Prion Beach Eriophora sp.and prey

Osik wrote:Thick's exactly what I was thinking too ofuros (along with stunning colours). How long would you say s/he was flyfisher?

I reckon he was about 1350 mm or 4ft 6 inches long and quite thick and well fed.

FF