"Well that felt bloody amazing" and "I need to do that more often". These are things I imagine that people who enjoy exercising must say after they do an 'awesome' workout (whatever that is). You know, that rush of endorphins and that 'hurts so good' feeling?
Well that's exactly how I feel about today. Thank the lord above we finally, finally, FINALLY made it out for some dedicated birding time. And we didn't just go anywhere but actually got up early enough (and hence also moderated our wine intake the night before) to head to Mt Annan - one of my favourite spots ever.
It was windy. Crazy windy. Massive tree branches on the road and roofs off houses windy but as any #birdnerd will tell you, once you've decided to head out, nothing is going to stop you, least of all a 'slight' breeze. And don't believe anyone who tells you that you can't bird on a windy day. Lies I tell you, lies! Birds have gotta bird after all. We drove through the gates and bam! the first thing we saw was a massive bird of prey being mobbed by some ravens. As is customary for me upon seeing a BOP I (safely) slammed on the brakes, threw the car door open, madly grabbed my camera all the while muttering 'bird of prey, bird of prey, bird of prey', generally because I'm pretty awful at IDing raptors.
But just to make the morning even more perfect, we look down into the tall grass, swishing and swaying in the wind and there is a beautiful macropod. And as our eyes adapted, another appeared and another. At first I thought we were looking at Eastern Grey Kangaroos and we decided to head up the ridge to see if we could locate the raptor (we did, and I have some average photos to post later) but we also got to get a little nearer to the kangaroos which turned out to be, on closer inspections, Common Wallaroos - a first sighting for me.
I know macropods are relatively common but I seriously can't get enough of them. They're so, I want to say 'Australian', but that sounds so naff. But there is something lovely and iconic and I guess uncomplicated about seeing them lazing around in or bounding through the tall grasses. I guess I just felt super lucky to wander into their little world for a small part of the morning and let's face it, I'm a total sucker for the common, native creatures, the ones that we walk past at the zoo or ignore at the side of the road, or in the tree near the window. It's their ordinariness that I love and the extraordinariness that you can uncover if you look long enough and hard enough.
Common Wallaroo
Mt Annan Botanic Gardens
#mtannanbotanicgarden #marsupial #wallaroo #australia #australianwildlife #macropod #backyardzoology
