Sunday, March 11, 2007

Road Trip Part Five: Wildlife, aka the "Make Mike Jealous" Post

First, I saw a Wedge-tailed Eagle. I stopped and watched for a while, but couldn't get any photos as it was too far away.

Then I nearly run over this big sucker:



This goanna was mighty pissed off that I disturbed his gravel tanning. Stopped his stalking away every now and then to look back at me and hiss.

Coming down the cutting pictured in the last post, actually just after I took that shot, a shadow passed over and I look up to see not one, but two Wedge-tails. They were closer, but my shots were crap.

Unfortunatley where there's roads, there's roadkill. I've never seen a wild wombat before. Even if it's dead.



More eagles not long after. Not one, not two, but five. They were all circling and almost looked like they were chasing each other around. Doing manoeuvres. I did get some clear shots, but they're pretty distant looking, so I'm not going to bother posting them.



Ok. This guy isn't wild. But he was so cool. He had a mouth ful of grass and dropped some on me reaching out to see who I was.

As if there hasn't been enough eagle jealousy for Mike in this post, but I had one one more eagle encounter. Wish you were there, Mike and Kat. I was driving along (as you do on a road trip) with a hill on my right about ten metres away. In my peripheral vision I see movement. Two Wedge-tails, level with my drivers side window and in between the hill and my car. I startled them so they started to take off. They were HUGE. I couldn't believe it! Their legs were so powerful. They weren't too graceful taking off but got away soon enough.

2 comments:

Katherine Buckley said...

Hey Tory

Yep, certainly jealous. Only animals I've come across in the last couple of weeks have been an antagonistic cat and it's totally provoked canine spaniel friend who live with a friend of a friend in Vietnam. Which I think is brave considering "man's best friend" is also a menu feature over here!!

So that's what a wombat looks like ... I know a "combat wombat" ask your sister sometime ...!

Mike

Vic said...

Hey Mike,

A "combat wombat"? Sounds dubious...

Maybe its fear of being menu fodder that is responsible for the attitudes of the animals you friend of friend has!

Vic