local wildlife

Old Jun 7th 2004, 12:57 pm
  #1  
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Hi everyone,

Just wondering, for all you people lucky enough to be over there in Oz, do you get to see much of the local wildlife?

I haven't seen much mentioned about them, surely there must be some cuddly koala/joey lovers out there

One of the things I am looking forward to when we arrive in 6 weeks is to take a trip to the nearest nature reserve/wildlife park. I know in Tasmania the place is full of them (Not the locals)

Or, does the novelty of the local wildlife wear off after living there for a while?

I was just interested

Cheers Christine
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Old Jun 7th 2004, 1:09 pm
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Most of us are living in the city (or suburbs) so dont really see a lot of wildlife - at least not the cuddly type

Actually we HAVE been to a couple of wildlife parks since getting here and have seen all the usual suspects, koalas (yuk not nice) Kangas, wallabies, wombats (my favourite) flying foxes (Chris's favourite), possums, birds by the dozen (actually we see lots of birds where we are living, and even have some parakeets that fly in every sunday from the local zoo to feast on the fruit of one of the trees in our garden and also our neighbours garden)
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Old Jun 7th 2004, 1:13 pm
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I love the wildlife here and hope I never tire of it. On Saturday we went to feed the birds in a local park, we fed white cockatoos, galahs, 28s etc. as well as ducks and saw a kangaroo and fed him bird seed too - magical! We've been here 14 months now & have seen a whale, dolphins, a turtle (dead), numerous fish, birds (I love the pelicans), loads of insects, lizards, a few snakes, kangaroos, sealions and fairy penguins, rabbits, mice................. all in the wild. No koalas as they're not native to this part of Australia but we've seen them in the wildlife parks.
For me it's one of the best things about being here!

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Old Jun 7th 2004, 1:17 pm
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Default Re: local wildlife

Originally posted by Chris Bailey
Hi everyone,

Just wondering, for all you people lucky enough to be over there in Oz, do you get to see much of the local wildlife?

I haven't seen much mentioned about them, surely there must be some cuddly koala/joey lovers out there

One of the things I am looking forward to when we arrive in 6 weeks is to take a trip to the nearest nature reserve/wildlife park. I know in Tasmania the place is full of them (Not the locals)

Or, does the novelty of the local wildlife wear off after living there for a while?

I was just interested

Cheers Christine
Possums in the garden...so cute and fascinating to watch. Many Aussies consider them a pest...I tend to think that they lived there before we did so let them be. I've seen wombats, echidnas, roos, wallabies, dingoes, koalas, snakes, wedge tail eagles, emus, penguins and camels whilst out and about. In the city, only really got possums in Kew but my sister gets kanagaroos in her garden (not to mention brown snakes) - but she lives in the bush.

Does the novelty wear off? Not for me, I love wildlife, I cry in despair at the destruction of habitat (development and 'natural' - e.g. bushfires) and what the wildlife can suffer. I would get as excited about seeing a kangaroo or emu in 2003 as I did on my first trip to Oz in 1997! (I'm a big softy)

If you are a wildlife person, maybe you would be interested in the Wilderness SOciety www.wilderness.org.au - very informative and really about protecting Australia's natural environment. Lots of stuff going on in Tasmania (not all good) but if you are interested in this kind of thing definately worth a read

HP
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Old Jun 7th 2004, 1:21 pm
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Not there yet but moving in October to Blue Mountains.

Have previously spend total of 8 weeks there and saw lots of Kangaroos in the wild plus a wombat.

Possums live in the trees in my in laws front garden and loads of beautiful birds visit the garden.

I can't imagine getting sick of it.

The birds in particular are stunning. king parrots/rosellas/kookaburras etc..................

Was lucky enough to see a Cassowary while visiting the rainforest in Queensland aswell.

Amazing.

T
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Old Jun 7th 2004, 1:22 pm
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Default Re: local wildlife

On a more specific note, are there any other birdwatchers here? I know there's plenty of info on the Web, but personal recommendations are always more reliable. Anything in the Melbourne bay area especially welcome.
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Old Jun 7th 2004, 9:25 pm
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Default Re: local wildlife

Thanks, I'll check it out, god I can't wait we love animals, in fact our daughter either wants to be a Marine BIologist or a Vet.

We are hoping to become involved as volunteers in one of the National Parks or something out there.

In fact at the weekend I had to take my daughter out at 11pm with a torch looking for badgers/hedgehogs etc.... she;s only 11 so I believe the life in Taz will be excellent for her.

We have got so many books on Australian wildlife its unreal, and we never tire of looking through them, getting excited, better calm down or hubby will think hes onto a winner.....



Thanks for sharing all your experiences with me, im sure we wont tire of them either, I dont think anybody could really

Cheers Christine
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Old Jun 7th 2004, 10:26 pm
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Default Re: local wildlife

Originally posted by MarkMyWords
On a more specific note, are there any other birdwatchers here? I know there's plenty of info on the Web, but personal recommendations are always more reliable. Anything in the Melbourne bay area especially welcome.
You must go and see the fairy penguins on Phillip island.
We saw them a couple of years ago.
Nearly froze to death waiting for them though

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Old Jun 7th 2004, 10:46 pm
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A lot of what you see obviously depends on where you are. A few posters have already said that you wont see kangaroos and so on in the cities, but again, some cities you can.

There is nothing more unreal than to come out of a club in Tuggeranong (a suburb of Canberra) and seeing a kangaroo bouncing through the car park!
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Old Jun 7th 2004, 11:53 pm
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WIRES is a NSW branch but might be interesting to check out their links page

http://www.wires.org.au/links/links.htm

Excellent organisation for getting involved with local wildlife and making sure you are helping not hindering!

I live on the edge of a Sydney suburb bording a national park, I have a friendly possum living in a possum box in the garden and he sometimes comes down to be had fed. I have a large lizard that arrives when I am feeding a pair of very friendly Lorikeets - they come and call to me to be fed in the mornings! I tend not to encourage the Sulpher Crested Cockatoos as they can do a fair amount of damage to your woodwork. Kookaburras are wonderful too and so silent in flight. I could live without the bats, but they are still fascinating. We can sometimes see wallabies in the national park and big big lizards basking on the rocks. Unfortunately a lots of the animals I have seen are road kill.

There is a fantastic park for learning about the local wildlife near Gosford - Australian Reptile Park, they even make the spiders and snake interesting, and have a Tassie devil!

I have been here two years and am still very fascinated and excited by the wildlife. Camping last weekend I saw my first Black Cockatoos - stunning.

Cheers Sandra
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Old Jun 8th 2004, 7:44 am
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A blue tong bobtail lizard in our garden in Kalamunda, Perth.

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Old Jun 8th 2004, 9:41 am
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[Hi Sandra,

Gosh it must be so exciting, we are planning to move semi-rural maybe around the Huon valley, so hopefully we will be inundated with local wildlife, my duaghter would be in absolute heaven, god, can't wait

Thanks Christine
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