Monday, October 13, 2008

A Wonderful Day Out at Cheyne Beach



This morning I was out early (4:45 am to be exact) to seek out some of the rare birds found on the southern sea coast of Western Australia east of Albany. Not only did we have great luck with a couple of these, but I even managed to see a Noisy Scrubbird singing from a song perch. I have seen several of these crossing roads and paths, but this was the first time I actually saw one as it was singing. Quite an impressive sight! On top of that, the nearby bay was full of Southern Right Whales. There must have been at least nine animals, with several young calves swimming close to their mothers. They spend most of their time lazily swimming at the surface looking a lot like exposed rocky shoals that are in some of the bays in this region. As I am a cetacean nut, this was the high point of my day. I took this as some sort of an early birthday gift to myself. Perhaps tomorrow has further adventures in store for me.

Look closely at the second image and you can see four different Southern Right Whales. 

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Wombat Scratch



Today at Wilsons Promontory in Victoria, Australia we saw three separate Wombats. The first was a rather blond colored individual that was out at Darby Beach. It looked remarkably like one that I had seen there many years earlier. We went on to see a couple more near Tidal River. One caught on video stops to scratch its back as it crosses under a wire barrier.